Space tourism is a term used to describe public citizens that wish to purchase tickets to travel to space and back. Although people may find the idea futuristic, the reality of people traveling to space simply for pleasure is becoming more plausible and will become an ever-growing business.
The first flights are likely to be sub-orbital flights as these are shorter and easier to get to than higher orbits. The technical knowledge to create passenger launch vehicles and orbiting hotel accommodation is available and there is now a huge demand. Market research has indicated that most people would like to take a trip to space if it were possible. This is especially true in industrialized countries. The biggest obstacle to space tourism is the conservatism that surrounds it. Governments today fund most space activities and can be very territorial.
The governments of the first world nations provide a number of services such as defense, police, and a legal system. Excluding these services, private companies provide most services. It will be the same way in space. These private companies see an opportunity for good business in space for a number of reasons. These include people wanting it, it being a realistic opportunity, it's the quickest way to solve problems on Earth by using the limitless resources in space, and because living in space will include every line of business from construction to interior design, to law.
Although currently space tourism seems to be only for the rich with flights going up from Russia to the International Space Station at $20 million apiece, there will be low-cost passenger launch vehicles developed within the next 2 years. There will of course be a segment that is targeted towards the rich, just as there is on Earth. But, the majority of space tourism will be geared toward the middle class. However, currently access to space is not cheap. Until access becomes more inexpensive, it is very difficult to use the resources in space to solve problems on Earth.
Once space tourism gets started, development will be progressive and happen in phases. The three phases will include the pioneering phase, the mature phase, and the mass phase. The pioneering phase will include a time when passengers are relatively few and prices are high. The number of customers will be anywhere from hundreds per year to thousands per year and the cost of a ticket will likely be $100,000 and up.
The mature phase will see an increase in demand with the number of passengers jumping from hundreds per year to thousands per year. Tickets will cost considerably less and flights will be available from a number of different airports.
The mass phase will have ticket prices falling to a few thousand dollars per ticket and the number of passengers will go from hundreds of thousands to millions per year. At this point, space travel will never stop growing as one million passengers per year is still just a drop in the bucket compared to general and commercial aviation.
Interest in space tourism will continue to grow over the next 2 - 3 years as a handful of companies develop and test their spacecraft for commercialization to low earth orbit. Once these companies start competing for tourists, the $100,000 price tag will come down and the interest will go even further up.
Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved
Tom Major writes about space tourism especially the companies who will be sending passengers into low earth orbit within the next 2 years.
