What will space tourism look like?
Learn the latest news about space tourism and space travel. SPACE.com sees the growing business of space tourism.What will space tourism look like?
On the 12th of April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first ever human to venture into space. On that day, he saw the world in a way that no human had ever seen before.
Since then, just 560 people have been into space, most of them being trained. Astronauts that spent years preparing for their flights.
But when will the rest of us get a chance to visit space?
And what will we do?
When we get there.
In this article.
We're going to look at the future of space tourism.
We're also going to look at the private astronauts who have paid to get into space and how reusable rockets could help to kickstart the space tourism industry.
Since the beginning of spaceflight, only seven people have paid to go to space. In 2001, American entrepreneur Dennis Tito paid $20 million for an 8 day trip to the International Space Station.
At
the time, NASA thought it was inappropriate for tourists to go to space, so they refused to train him.
Instead, he partnered with the Russians and took a ride on Soyuz Mission TM 32, along with two cosmonauts.
He recalls the spectacular moment when he looked out of his window for the first time and saw the curvature of the earth against the darkness.
Of Space, Dennis spent a total of eight days on the ISS, where he performed various experiments and admired the incredible view of Earth.
So far, the amount of paying visitors to space has been very low, but all.
That could change soon.
With multiple private space companies developing reusable spacecraft, the cost of spaceflight is starting to lower dramatically.
Blue origins are developing their New Shepard spacecraft specifically for tourism flights into space.
This capsule has six seats with the largest windows ever seen in a spacecraft.
During these flights, the rocket will accelerate up to 100 kilometers in altitude before cutting off the engine and releasing the capsule at this point.
The capsule is essentially in freefall, but still traveling upwards to its highest point passengers inside the capsule will be able to leave their seats and experience the effect of weightlessness.
A few minutes later, the passengers will return to their seats before the capsule enters the atmosphere and the effects of weightlessness disappear.
Although these flights will be extremely short, the reusability of this rocket could give customers a chance to experience the wonders of space from a price as low as $200,000.
Although this will still only satisfy the Super rich, it's a step in the right direction.
If spaceflight is ever to achieve the price and safety standards.
Of airliners, but as the industry grows and companies compete to develop the cheapest ride into space, these prices could fall even more.
If each space vehicle can be reused multiple times before needing serious refurbishment, the customer will only need to cover the cost of crew and fuel.
An airplane can fly multiple times per day and conduct 10s of thousands of flights over its lifetime.
If a rocket can achieve even a fraction of those numbers, space tourism could be opened up.
To the wider public but developing a cheap ride into space is only half the problem.
The cost of actually living in space is still an incredibly expensive lug.
In order to run the International Space Station
it costs NASA around $4 billion each year. After years of avoiding commercialization, NASA recently opened up the ISS to paying customers, but with the extremely high running costs, the ISS is still just a destination for the wealthy.
In order to.
Have food and air during your stay on the ISS. It will cost you $22,500 per day.
Once everything else like power and Wi-Fi is included, a one night stay aboard the ISS will cost you at least $35,000.
In order for space tourism to become a reality, the cost of building and operating a habitat in space will need to be drastically reduced.
Space technology startup Bigelow Aerospace are developing large inflatable space station modules.
These modules can be packed into a rocket payload Bay and inflated into a much larger.
Size when in space.
The idea is that large expandable modules like these could be the perfect foundation for space hotels. Currently the ISS requires an enormous team of people working 24 hours a day just to keep the station running.
Bigelow Aerospace are hoping to simplify the operation of their modules and reduce the running cost, and since they are.
Easier to manufacture and cheaper to launch than traditional space station modules.
They could reduce the cost of living in space altogether.
So, although the idea of space tourism may seem like a distant fantasy, the incredible advancements in reusable rockets and space modules could soon open the door for a brand-new generation of explorers.
Thanks to brilliant for sponsoring this Article of Primal Space
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