"The damage to the space tourism industry will only be in the short term, it is clear to everyone that there is a risk in technological developments"

This is what Dr. Omri Vandel from the Rakah Institute of Physics at the Hebrew University says in an interview with the website Hidan following the crash of Virgin Galactic's Spaceship-2 spacecraft.

The damage to the space tourism industry will only be in the short term, says Dr. Omri Vandel from the Rakah Institute of Physics at the Hebrew University in an interview with the website Hidan following the crash of Virgin Galactic's Spaceship-2 spacecraft last Friday.

"Hope didn't crash, these things happen. The rosy picture presented at the beginning made us forget that this is a significant move with quite a few risks. It's a matter of time until the first ship reaches space, and it's also a matter of time until one of these crashes."

In response to the question of the science site, whether this will affect the ability of Branson and some competitors less famous than him to return to space tourism activities, Wendel says: "I don't think it will have any more impact than it did for much more difficult events such as the Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters. The only fallout is a short-term fallout. It is likely that some of the people who wanted to fly will cancel their reservation, but many will be willing to take the risk despite what happened."

In the same topic on the science website:

• Tourist spaceship Spaceship-2: no second chance for landing * Branson: the project will continue
• Updates from the crash site of the spaceship-2 tourist spacecraft
• Second space accident in a week, one dead and one injured in the crashes of Virgin's Spaceship-2 spacecraft planned to fly space tourists

"Everyone knows that in technological development there are disasters. As soon as it is a flight, and millionaires are involved in it, it could be expected that it is not a smooth process because they develop innovative techniques under time pressure. It should be remembered that Virgin Galactic has postponed the first commercial launch date many times. In light of this, it is certain that there is pressure on the developers at the company to reach the finished product, just as at the time there was pressure to launch the Challenger and they did not wait for suitable weather and this was the direct cause of the accident. This time the cause of the accident is not known. There are speculations, but the reason will become clear and the company will announce that it will take care of the root of the expression and it will not repeat itself, the effect will be small."

Will public opinion be open to such flights after the disaster?

"From a social point of view, there will always be those who will say that it is unethical, and it is not fair for people who have money to invest it in the narrow private interest and not to contribute to higher goals or even to other areas of space exploration. This is the nature of the capitalist economy - those who have money do what they want with it. Flying in a spaceship is no more or less legitimate than maintaining a cruise ship, but this is something new."

The scientist: The flights offered by Virgin are suborbital, that is, takeoff and descent, there are companies that are developing flights to orbit, including hotels in space, how will the accident affect them?

Prof. Wendel: "On flights for a few minutes, the passengers get a taste of space, they can't even see the whole earth from above because the height is not enough. It's quite similar to what the shuttle pilots saw and crew members on the International Space Station see today, except for the duration. Hotels in space are perhaps an issue for the distant future. The technology for a suborbital space plane is within reach, more significant flights - to orbit around the Earth and certainly beyond it, will be much more expensive and therefore only a few people will be able to afford it. But this does not always deter people, it is a fact that there are people who sign up and compete to reach Mars without the possibility of returning from there. There are enough people with different ambitions and there will always be those who will agree to embark on a one-way journey. Even though 99% will not agree to fly into space, and the remaining 99% will not agree to fly on a one-way flight, there are sure to be volunteers.

Indeed, how about the Mars One project offering a one-way flight?

"As a scientist, I think the project is quite unnecessary because everything we know about Mars we can obtain using unmanned spacecraft and we have been doing this for 50 years. The main thing that has not yet been done was the return of a soil sample from Mars to Earth so that it can be analyzed and there is also a plan for the next few years, which has been postponed due to budgetary considerations and is currently intended for 2020 with the existing technology. To do the same operation with humans: a manned flight to Mars and the safe return of the astronauts is a much more expensive matter, around a trillion dollars. They could if they wanted to establish colonies on the moon, which is much easier to establish a supply network to. If someone undertakes such a mission, his motive will be first and foremost political prestige like the race to the moon. Not because of scientific necessity.