Spaceship1 winning the competition to build a private aircraft that will reach space is another step in the development of a new industry: space tourism.
Spaceship1 winning the competition to build a private aircraft that will reach space is another step in the development of a new industry: space tourism. The Hilton company, for example, is already considering the construction of floating hotels, and there are also those who are planning a gym and a disco among the stars. The price of the future vacation package - at least 100 thousand dollars. The optimistic forecasts state that within about 15 years we will be able to go on our first vacations
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In a few years, special travel agencies that will deal with space tourism will be opened in every major city in the world. In a few years we will be offered combined tours in space with a stay in hotels that will be set up in permanent space stations. In a few years we will be able to observe the earth from an altitude of several hundred km and see non-flickering stars. Should you start saving for the ultimate adventure? The answer, according to all signs, is yes - and a lot.
Bret Rotan and his partners won a prize of 10 million dollars that is offered as part of an international competition to the person who, within two weeks, will fly twice to a height of 100 km with an aircraft he built - and return. The civil aircraft built by Rotan reached a height of more than 100 km above the earth and returned to it safely, despite a series of breathtaking failures. Rotan's prize seems small compared to the potential of the new industry of space tourism.
Rotan's achievement proved that space tourism is within reach. Many entities are preparing for the new business bonanza. People want to go to space - and many will be willing to pay a lot of money to be the first. The entrepreneurs who are already working in the field do not treat space tourism as a curiosity, but as a business field with huge potential, the one who enters it first, and in the right way, will rake in a big jackpot.
Long licensing process
The development was expected and natural. While the launch of space shuttles became commonplace, and while the construction of the International Space Station continued, the businessmen began to work to make space their new business area. They operate on two levels: one idea is to offer a trip of several days in a tourist space shuttle, something like a space plane that will offer the coffee of the Earth for several days, which will allow viewing almost every point on it from an unusual vantage point, from an altitude of about 400 km M.
The second, more sophisticated idea talks about taking off from Earth in a space shuttle that will dock after a few hours at a special dock at a space station, which will include hotels and special viewing areas. The tourist will arrive at the space station after a short flight, and from then on will behave like a tourist in a normal hotel, with one difference - in weightless conditions. "After training for several days, any healthy person will be able to adapt to the weightless conditions," an Israeli expert estimates.
The one who takes the business very seriously is a British architectural firm, which appreciates the business potential and has already planned the first tourist site in space. This is a space station that can accommodate about 100 guests for a stay at an altitude of about 300 km. The passengers will eat food grown in space in special greenhouses. Company officials believe that the space station will be ready to receive guests in 2017.
In the United States, the first travel agency to space is already operating in full swing. The company "Space Adventure" organized the flight of the millionaire Denis Tito to the Russian space station, and it organizes monthly flights in Russian MiG planes that fly to an altitude of about 25 km, to give passengers a taste of flight conditions in space and zero gravity.
The agency also signed an agreement with US Air, according to which its frequent flyers will be able to use the points they accumulate for the planned flights to space. According to the agency, more than a hundred people have already deposited Kadima fees at the expense of space flights.
Richard Branson, the owner of the Virgin Atlantic airline, announced the space tourism project based on Rotan's Spaceship 1 (Spaceship 1). He announced that he would invest 25 million dollars in a project that would allow private space trips for a sum of about 200 thousand dollars.
The space experts estimate that even after the construction of a vehicle for space travel is finished, a rather long process of licensing will be required, so that it can be used for commercial purposes.
Preparation for acceleration
It is estimated that a trip on a space shuttle for several days will cost no less than 100 thousand dollars. According to the entrepreneurs, there is no doubt that there will be those who will pay the price to experience a trip in space conditions. The experts also believe that if the demand is great, the supply will also increase over the years, which will lead to a very significant price reduction, without harming flight safety.
According to all indications, the first civilian spaceport will be established in the Mojave Desert in the United States, from where Bert Rutan launched his spaceship 1. The future spaceport will be different from any airport we know. First, there will be the preparation rooms, to train the passengers for some extreme conditions, mainly the enormous acceleration of the spacecraft and weightlessness conditions.
The tourists will have to be prepared for floating inside a space station or hotel, for water that floats in the air after being poured from a bottle, in fact - for all the simple operations that become problematic in space conditions. The spaceports will, therefore, also be training camps for the new experience.
This, by the way, will also include marginal things, like watching the stars without the usual flickering that we are used to when we watch them from the ground. It is the atmosphere that causes this flickering. From there, from space, the stars will appear closer and brighter, even though we will only approach them a few hundred kilometers.
The tourism companies planning their space business are already looking at models of space hotels. These will be made up of relatively large rooms - in which the guests will be able to float as part of the experience - with large windows that will allow comfortable viewing of the more distant areas. Even the Hilton hotel chain announced not long ago that it is conducting a preliminary examination of a hotel in space.
And gimmicks are also expected, such as a space disco and a space gym. All of these will operate in the condition of the lack of gravity, and will, without a doubt, be a main component of the experience. The space hotels will be built on the basis of the experience gained during the construction of the International Space Station. Everything learned there about people staying in space for periods of days or weeks will be applied in the private projects of entrepreneurs.
Birth in the sky
There are already those who are also talking about ancillary services, such as space diets, plastic surgery in zero gravity, births in space and other ideas. Who knows, maybe the day isn't far off when we hear a socialite bragging: I've returned from breast surgery at the space hotel. Those who have already spent time in prestigious hotels around the world will look for and find the extra satisfaction in space. It will consist of the experience itself and the jealous looks of those who will hear about it.
There is no doubt that initially space tourism will be intended only for the rich who will be willing to invest in the experience no less than 100 thousand dollars for a short space flight. But all the experts estimate that as the industry develops, it will become accessible to more and more people. A few years after the start of operations, a short space flight will cost no more than $10,000.
So you don't have to start packing yet - it will be a few more years before space tourism takes off - but you can start saving. After all, you don't need to be a great expert to realize that this would be the most insane thing ever offered to a tourist.
