Space tourism has been in news recently because of two billionaires, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos who went into space as tourists using their personal rockets and aircraft. Space tourism is about humans travelling into space for recreational purposes, paying a hefty price, which is beyond the reach of an average citizen.
Background
Though the concept is not a new one with its history going back to April 2001, when Dennis Tito, an American engineer and entrepreneur, went to space for research purposes on the Russian Soyuz TMA launch vehicle and became the first space tourist. But Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos, in July 2021, opened the door to private companies entering into this business for the first time. Due to economic reasons, this aviation sector is target- oriented as very small segment of consumers can afford to purchase tickets for space experience.
From 2001 to 2009, Russian Soyuz took seven tourists to the International Space Station. The price per tourist ranged from 20 to 25 million US dollar per trip. By 2007, space tourism appeared to be an emerging market for commercial spaceflight. As the demand grew, Russia could not bear the burden of stopping its space programmes for the sake of commercial space tourism. Then in 2019, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) decided to allow private astronauts to go on the International Space Station. Accordingly, laws in USA were changed to encourage private companies to enter into the space tourism sector. The two successful attempts by Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin recently proved the interest shown by private companies for this highly profitable sector. Many other companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Boeing, and Bigelow Aerospace have declared and made preparation to join the race.
Richard Branson Reaches Space On July 11, 2021, the British billionaire and owner of US-based private spaceflight company Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson, along with a five-member crew successfully reached an altitude of about 86 kilometres above the Earth in his own spaceplane VSS Unity. The winged spaceship took off over the New Mexico desert. The crew members included two pilots, Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci. It also included four passengers—Richard Branson himself, Indian-origin vice president of government affairs and research operations Sirisha Bandla, Colin Bennet (lead operations engineer), and Beth Moses (chief astronaut instructor). Branson became the first person to take off in his own spaceship, beating Jeff Bezos by nine days, who had announced a similar space travel plan from Texas on July 20, 2021. Branson also became the second septuagenarian to go into space—the first being John Glenn who flew on the space shuttle mission, STS-95, at age 77 in 1998. The entire space journey, up-and-down flight was completed in one hour, ensuring a safe return of all crew members. The endeavour took seventeen years to be realised.
Richard Branson was working for a long time to take the common man into the space with the idea behind his project to develop a highly profitable business, space tourism. He is not alone in this field. His chief rivals include SpaceX’s Elon Musk and founder and executive chairman of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. Bezo’s Blue Origin company intends to send tourists past the Karman line, hundred kilometres above the Earth, which is considered as the threshold of space. Branson’s Virgin Galactic after the success of the space visit has already been approached by more than 600 tourists for advance reservation. The company at the initial stage has fixed the cost per ticket at 2,50,000 US dollars.
Jeff Bezos Space Flight In Texas, Blue Origin, a privately funded aerospace company, set up by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, developed its New Shepard spacecraft, named for American astronaut Alan Shepard. New Shepard made its first flight on July 20, 2021, with a crew of Bezos; his brother Mark; American pilot Wally Funk, the oldest person in space at the age of 82; and Dutch student Oliver Daemen, the youngest person in space at the age of 18. With its bullet-shaped fuselage, New Shepard took off and landed vertically with utmost ease.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX with its Dragon capsule will be launched by a reusable Falcon rocket. The spacecraft is also equipped with parachutes to stabilise it during re-entry and splashdown. SpaceX has already sent astronauts and cargo payloads to the International Space Station, and the company has plans to launch an all-civilian crew into orbit in September 2021. SpaceX will also fly Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa around the moon with its forthcoming Starship rocket in 2023. SpaceX’s earth orbitary mission promises to take a look at our planet from over 300 km up.
Different Aspects of Space Tourism
As space tourism is in its early experimental stage and involves huge funding, it is almost impossible for a common man to reserve a ticket to enjoy the space travel. Companies assure a fair and just price for the tour in near future as they say the investment in making the flightplane or rocket will be onetime. The rocket carrying the crew could be used time and again thus saving the expense. Currently, only high-altitude jet fighter flights and atmospheric zero-gravity flights are commercially available to tourists in the space tourism sector.
Threats Space tourism could give rise to mad race to exploit valuable resources found in space. A 2010 study published in Geophysical Research Letters raised concerns that the growing commercial spaceflight industry could accelerate global warming. As per the study, 1,000 suborbital launches of hybrid rockets from a single location would release a total of 600 tonnes of black carbon into the stratosphere. The ozone layer would also be affected, with the tropics losing up to 1.7 per cent of ozone cover, and the polar regions gaining 5–6 per cent. The rise of space tourism could affect Earth’s climate in unforeseen ways. Hybrid rocket motors such as those used in Virgin Galactic’s rocket planes emit a lot of soot. As such, the carbon footprint of such ventures is incredibly high, almost 100 times more than a long-haul flight.
There is also the chance that space tourists will be exposed to radiation, though that risk depends on how long you are in space. It is a risk, especially more for the orbital flight than sub-orbital. Going up in an airplane exposes one to a higher amount of radiation than one would get here on the ground. There does not seem to be an age limit on who can travel. Though the price point would keep spaceflight out of reach for most of humanity, there are enough interested rich people for whom space tourism seems to be economically feasible.
India’s Position Currently, India is not in the race of developing space tourism. It all depends on the future perspective of the sector. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is currently working on the most challenging mission it has ever undertaken, the Gaganyaan. It is going to be India’s first manned mission to space. If ISRO executes Gaganyaan perfectly, there would be a paradigm shift in the way world looks at India’s capabilities in terms of space exploration. The success of Gaganyaan can prove India’s ability to develop complex technologies and would establish ISRO as a major space power. It can encourage ISRO to dive into lucrative business of space tourism. The investment in space tourism can generate revenues and employment on a sizeable scale.
Critical Analysis
The rise of commercial space tourism may seem to be a vulgar display of wealth and power. Amid several global crises, including climate change and a pandemic, billionaires are spending their cash on launching themselves into space for fun. Space tourism may seem like an outlandish concept today. But it is to be noted that air travel for leisure was considered equally improbable a little more than a century ago.
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