tourism in space in the future

The future of space tourism: op-ed

Dylan Taylor is a global entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist who acts as the Chairman and CEO of Voyager Space Holdings and the founder of Space for Humanity , a nonprofit organization that seeks to democratize space exploration. He has also served as an active advocate and philanthropist in the space manufacturing industry and a strategic advisor for the Archmission and the Human Spaceflight Program while also acting as the co-founding patron of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. He contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Opinions and Insights .

It's true that 2020 spawned a collective feeling of retreat coupled with a FOMO (fear of missing out) that inspires us to escape a chaotic world. For now, we have the silence of nature or an eventual trip abroad, but the future can provide a more adventurous escape: one to the stars.

The NewSpace industry has its sights set on space tourism , a growing market expected to be worth at least $3 billion by 2030 . As companies like SpaceX test reusable rocket technology to make spaceflight more affordable and accessible for humans, other private firms, including Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, are investing in suborbital space tourism to take Earthlings into the very edge of space and back. While only uber-wealthy passengers and private researchers will have access to space tourism in the immediate future, the long term holds promises for ordinary citizens.

The evolution of technology plays a vital role in sending more tourists to space and a few influential trends will determine the future of space tourism, along with the progress we make both on and off our home planet.

Related: Space tourists will face big risks, as private companies gear up for paid suborbital flights

Commercial suborbital trips

Suborbital travel will likely be the space tourism subsector to materialize first, but it may also be the most short-lived. However, Blue Origin , backed by Jeff Bezos, is testing its New Shepard system that will launch customers to the edge of space in a capsule which separates from a small rocket and retreats back to Earth under parachutes. Richard Branson's company Virgin Galactic relies on a space plane, dropped from a carrier aircraft, with a rocket motor that speeds up and takes passengers high into the atmosphere.

Both companies' shuttle systems are designed to fly passengers over 50 miles above Earth's atmosphere, allowing customers to experience the feeling of weightlessness for a few minutes. Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo will launch its next human spaceflight test on Dec. 11 as Blue Origin eyes early 2021.

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These brief spaceflights hold opportunities for tourism and scientific research and present unique experiences for space observation at varying trajectories and regulatory requirements. However, Axios reports concerns over declined public interest in suborbital tourism as a passing interest due to high costs and a short-lived ride. This may deflate the market as passengers await new developments in the field.

But there's some hope. Some experts look to commercial suborbital trips to take the place of long-distance air travel that can eventually cater to everyday citizens. SpaceX plans to use its Starship rocket to fly 100 people around the world in mere minutes. The company stated that a 15-hour flight to Shanghai from New York would be capable of flying in 39 minutes. According to UBS, if even only 5% of the average 150 million passengers that travel on 10 hour or longer flights pay $2,500 per trip, then returns could skyrocket to $20 billion per year in today's value.

A recent UBS report mentions, "Space tourism could be the stepping stone for the development of long-haul travel on earth serviced by space."

Related: Virgin Galactic wants to send people on superfast trips across Earth  

Orbital vacations

Orbital tourism, which entails remaining in space for at least one full orbit, is another major focus of governmental agencies and private space companies, all of which have the long-term goal to inhabit the moon and Mars. Projects from Boeing, SpaceX and Axiom Space plan to start launching tourists to the International Space Station on commercial spacecraft beginning as early as this year. SpaceX is also partnering with Space Adventures to send four tourists to low Earth orbit for a few days in late 2021 or early 2022.

As more companies consider in-space tourism, orbital vacations are set to become a popular trend. Orbital vacationing infrastructure, including orbital and lunar-based hotels, is positioned to become lucrative as space infrastructure companies already hauled in a combined $3.6 billion so far this year . 

Much of this infrastructure remains in preliminary stages, but the first approach may be to establish low-orbit hotels. One hotel design expects to send guests in a hydrogen-filled balloon with a pressurized capsule, utilizing Earth's gravity. Other options include designing or renovating an existing space station to accommodate guests. NASA, for instance, is opening up the International Space Station for commercial tourism . The Aurora Station , a planned luxury hotel that will host six guests for a $9.5 million, 12-day stay in low Earth orbit, will charge $9.5 million for the trip. It's pricey, but experts predict prices will fall like they did in the tech industry for computers and mobile phones.

A proposal for expandable space habitats may also serve as orbital hotels. Made of unique materials and easily stored at home, they are launched to space where they're inflated to true size. Bigelow Space invented the B330 , a space habitat that enlarges to form a hotel or living area for humans in space. As demand increases, they are interconnected to other inflatable habitats to increase their size. Bigelow also plans to develop an attached inflated module to the International Space Station as one of the first hotels in space. In-space vacations will eventually be the gateway for moon and Mars habitation.

Nurturing the space and world economies

Private space companies are devotedly investing across space tourism and firms like UBS consider access to space an enabler to broader opportunities for investment.

More next-generation engineers will enter the space tourism sector for the scope of opportunities and innovation, eventually decreasing the barriers to entry that will increase competition, lower costs, and ultimately democratize space travel for everyday citizens. 

Of course, there are crucial safety, comfort and health factors to consider. Training, medical screenings and liability waivers will need to be examined before tourists head to space. 

Space tourism will be a small subsector of the industry, but it will bolster the entire NewSpace industry. Once space tourism does become mainstream, it will also positively impact many socioeconomic factors on Earth: creating jobs, educating citizens about space and fostering a new solar-based energy infrastructure. The sweet escape to the stars can eventually awaken us to the awe-inspiring potential of space exploration while also giving us a better appreciation of home.

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Want to be a space tourist? Here are 6 things to consider first

The industry of space tourism could exist in the future. Image:  Unsplash/NASA

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• In July 2021, entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos went up into space, accompanied by fellow passengers.
• These trips created vast amounts of media coverage and brand recognition for Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Bezos’ Blue Origin.
• This could indicate that a commercial space tourism industry is on the horizon.
• Before space trips become commercially available, important factors such as environmental and safety laws need to be considered.

It’s been a momentous month for space-faring billionaires. On July 11, British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson’s Unity “rocket-plane” flew him and five fellow passengers about 85 kilometres above Earth. And this week, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ New Shepard capsule reached an altitude of 106km , carrying Bezos, his brother, and the oldest and youngest people ever to reach such a height. Passengers on both flights experienced several minutes of weightlessness and took in breathtaking views of our beautiful and fragile Earth.

Both flights created an avalanche of media coverage and brand recognition for Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Bezos’s Blue Origin. There is renewed anticipation of a lucrative commercial space tourism industry that could eventually see thousands of paying passengers journey into space (or not quite into space, depending on your preferred level of pedantry).

This year marks 60 years since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. Since then, almost 600 trained astronauts have gone into outer space, but very few people have become space tourists.

The first, US engineer Dennis Tito, paid a reported US$20 million to spend six days orbiting Earth in the Russian section of the International Space Station in April 2001, after three months’ training at Russia’s Star City complex. He was followed by a handful of other very wealthy “orbital tourists”, most recently Cirque de Soleil founder Guy Laliberté in 2009, whose ticket reportedly cost US$35 million.

Unlike their predecessors, Branson’s and Bezos’ flights were suborbital – they didn’t reach the velocity needed to orbit Earth. Bezos’s entire flight lasted just over 10 minutes. Suborbital flights are much less technically complex, and in theory cheaper (although one seat on the New Shepard flight was auctioned for US$28 million ).

While they might quibble over billionaire bragging rights, there’s no denying that suborbital “space” flights have the potential to be less eye-wateringly expensive than going into orbital outer space and beyond.

But before you sign up – assuming you’re lucky enough to afford it – here are a few things to consider.

Where does space start, anyway?

Have you read, how many space launches does it take to have a serious climate impact, from space squid to saliva: what's inside nasa's cargo missions and why, the big space clean-up - and why it matters.

Despite assertions to the contrary , there is no legal definition of “outer space”, and thus no official boundary where airspace ends and outer space begins. In the past, the International Aeronautical Federation has looked to the von Karman line , but this does not coincide with the boundary of any of the atmosphere’s scientifically defined layers, and the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space , which deals with such issues, has not yet resolved the question.

Conveniently for Branson, 80km has been proposed by some experts as an appropriate boundary.

Outer space is undeniably influenced by Earthly geopolitics. Essentially, the larger space-faring countries see no need to legally define a boundary that would clearly demarcate the upper limits of their sovereignty.

Will you be an ‘astronaut’?

The 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty designates astronauts as “envoys of (hu)mankind in outer space”. Certainly, that seemed to be the case as the world watched the historic Apollo 11 Moon landing and prayed for a safe return of the stricken Apollo 13 capsule. However, the 1968 UN Rescue Agreement refers to “personnel of a spacecraft”, which may imply not everyone on board should be considered a fully fledged astronaut.

Of course, these legal niceties won’t deter space tourism companies from awarding “astronaut wings” to their passengers.

What laws apply when things go wrong?

The 1986 Challenger and 2003 Columbia shuttle disasters are stark reminders of the dangers of space travel. Human space travel has always involved determining acceptable levels of risk for trained astronauts. But commercial space tourism is different to state-sponsored space programs, and will need the highest possible safety standards.

Commercial space travel will also require a system of responsibility and liability, for cases in which a space tourist suffers injury, loss or damage.

Space tourists (or their families) can’t claim for compensation under the 1972 UN Liability Convention which, in terms of space, applies only to collisions between space objects such as satellites and space debris. While there may be scope to take legal action under national laws, it is likely space tourists will be asked to sign carefully worded waivers of liability.

The same is probably true of international air law , which applies to “aircraft” — a designation space tourism operators will understandably be keen to avoid.

Ultimately, we may need to develop a system of “aerospace law” to govern these suborbital flights as well as “transorbital” transport such as the keenly envisaged flights that might one day take passengers from Sydney to London in just a few hours.

What activities should be allowed in space?

The advent of space tourism will give rise to some interesting ethical questions. Should there be advertising billboards in space? What about casinos, or brothels? On what legal basis should these things be restricted?

How does tourism fit with the underlying philosophy of space law: that the exploration and use of outer space “shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries”?

Will space tourism harm the environment?

Space tourism will inevitably put pressure on Earth’s environment – there are claims that space vehicles may one day become the world’s biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions. We will need to manage space traffic carefully to avoid disastrous collisions and steer clear of space debris .

If tourists go to the Moon, they may cause pollution or damage the heritage of earlier exploration, such as Neil Armstrong’s footprints .

Will tourism workers have to live in space?

If space tourism does become truly widespread, it will need infrastructure and perhaps even staff. People may end up living permanently in space settlements, perhaps having children who will be born as “space citizens”. What legal rights would someone have if they were born at a Moon base? Would they be subject to terrestrial laws, or some version of current international legal rules for outer space?

The World Economic Forum was the first to draw the world’s attention to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the current period of unprecedented change driven by rapid technological advances. Policies, norms and regulations have not been able to keep up with the pace of innovation, creating a growing need to fill this gap.

The Forum established the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network in 2017 to ensure that new and emerging technologies will help—not harm—humanity in the future. Headquartered in San Francisco, the network launched centres in China, India and Japan in 2018 and is rapidly establishing locally-run Affiliate Centres in many countries around the world.

The global network is working closely with partners from government, business, academia and civil society to co-design and pilot agile frameworks for governing new and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) , autonomous vehicles , blockchain , data policy , digital trade , drones , internet of things (IoT) , precision medicine and environmental innovations .

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Want to help us shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution? Contact us to find out how you can become a member or partner.

These are obviously questions for the future. But given the excitement generated by the brief journeys of a couple of wealthy entrepreneurs, we should start contemplating them now. Outer space is the new frontier, but it is not — and must not — be a lawless one.

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Space Tourism: Can A Civilian Go To Space?

2021 has been a busy year for private space tourism: overall, more than 15 civilians took a trip to space during this year. In this article, you will learn more about the space tourism industry, its history, and the companies that are most likely to make you a space tourist.

What is space tourism?

Brief history of space tourism, space tourism companies, orbital and suborbital space flights, how much does it cost for a person to go to space, is space tourism worth it, can i become a space tourist, why is space tourism bad for the environment.

Space tourism is human space travel for recreational or leisure purposes . It’s divided into different types, including orbital, suborbital, and lunar space tourism.

However, there are broader definitions for space tourism. According to the Space Tourism Guide , space tourism is a commercial activity related to space that includes going to space as a tourist, watching a rocket launch, going stargazing, or traveling to a space-focused destination.

The first space tourist was Dennis Tito, an American multimillionaire, who spent nearly eight days onboard the International Space Station in April 2001. This trip cost him $20 million and made Tito the first private citizen who purchased his space ticket. Over the next eight years, six more private citizens followed Tito to the International Space Station to become space tourists.

As space tourism became a real thing, dozens of companies entered this industry hoping to capitalize on renewed public interest in space, including Blue Origin in 2000 and Virgin Galactic in 2004. In the 2000s, space tourists were limited to launches aboard Russian Soyuz aircraft and only could go to the ISS. However, everything changed when the other players started to grow up on the market. There are now a variety of destinations and companies for travels to space.

There are now six major space companies that are arranging or planning to arrange touristic flights to space:

• Virgin Galactic;
• Blue Origin;
• Axiom Space;
• Space Perspective.

While the first two are focused on suborbital flights, Axiom and Boeing are working on orbital missions. SpaceX, in its turn, is prioritizing lunar tourism in the future. For now, Elon Musk’s company has allowed its Crew Dragon spacecraft to be chartered for orbital flights, as it happened with the Inspiration4 3-day mission . Space Perspective is developing a different balloon-based system to carry customers to the stratosphere and is planning to start its commercial flights in 2024.

Orbital and suborbital flights are very different. Taking an orbital flight means staying in orbit; in other words, going around the planet continually at a very high speed to not fall back to the Earth. Such a trip takes several days, even a week or more. A suborbital flight in its turn is more like a space hop — you blast off, make a huge arc, and eventually fall back to the Earth, never making it into orbit. A flight duration, in this case, ranges from 2 to 3 hours.

Here is an example: a spaceflight takes you to an altitude of 100 km above the Earth. To enter into orbit — make an orbital flight — you would have to gain a speed of about 28,000 km per hour (17,400 mph) or more. But to reach the given altitude and fall back to the Earth — make a suborbital flight — you would have to fly at only 6,000 km per hour (3,700 mph). This flight takes less energy, less fuel; therefore, it is less expensive.

• Virgin Galactic: $250,000 for a 2-hour suborbital flight at an altitude of 80 km;
• Blue Origin: approximately $300,000 for 12 minutes suborbital flight at an altitude of 100 km;
• Axiom Space: $55 million for a 10-day orbital flight;
• Space Perspective: $125,000 for a 6-hour flight to the edge of space (32 km above the Earth).

The price depends, but remember that suborbital space flights are always cheaper.

What exactly do you expect from a journey to space? Besides the awesome impressions, here is what you can experience during such a trip:

• Weightlessness . Keep in mind that during a suborbital flight you’ll get only a couple of minutes in weightlessness, but it will be truly fascinating .
• Space sickness . The symptoms include cold sweating, malaise, loss of appetite, nausea, fatigue, and vomiting. Even experienced astronauts are not immune from it!
• G-force . 1G is the acceleration we feel due to the force of gravity; a usual g-force astronauts experience during a rocket launch is around 3gs. To understand how a g-force influences people , watch this video.

For now, the most significant barrier for space tourism is price. But air travel was also once expensive; a one-way ticket cost more than half the price of a new car . Most likely, the price for space travel will reduce overtime as well. For now, you need to be either quite wealthy or win in a competition, as did Sian Proctor, a member of Inspiration4 mission . But before spending thousands of dollars on space travel, here is one more fact you might want to consider.

Rocket launches are harmful to the environment in general. During the burning of rocket fuels, rocket engines release harmful gases and soot particles (also known as black carbon) into the upper atmosphere, resulting in ozone depletion. Think about this: in 2018 black-carbon-producing rockets emitted about the same amount of black carbon as the global aviation industry emits annually.

However, not all space companies use black carbon for fuel. Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket has a liquid hydrogen-fuelled engine: hydrogen doesn’t emit carbon but simply turns into water vapor when burning.

The main reason why space tourism could be harmful to the environment is its potential popularity. With the rising amount of rocket launches the carbon footprint will only increase — Virgin Galactic alone aims to launch 400 of these flights annually. Meanwhile, the soot released by 1,000 space tourism flights could warm Antarctica by nearly 1°C !

Would you want to become a space tourist? Let us know your opinion on social media and share the article with your friends, if you enjoyed it! Also, the Best Mobile App Awards 2021 is going on right now, and we would very much appreciate it if you would vote for our Sky Tonight app . Simply tap "Vote for this app" in the upper part of the screen. No registration is required!

Space tourism – 20 years in the making – is finally ready for launch

Professor of Strategy and Security Studies, Air University

Disclosure statement

Wendy Whitman Cobb is affiliated with the US Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies. Her views are her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Defense or any of its affiliates.

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For most people, getting to the stars is nothing more than a dream. On April 28, 2001, Dennis Tito achieved that lifelong goal – but he wasn’t a typical astronaut. Tito, a wealthy businessman, paid US$20 million for a seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to be the first tourist to visit the International Space Station. Only seven people have followed suit in the 20 years since, but that number is poised to double in the next 12 months alone.

NASA has long been hesitant to play host to space tourists , so Russia – looking for sources of money post-Cold War in the 1990s and 2000s – has been the only option available for those looking for this kind of extreme adventure. However, it seems the rise of private space companies is going to make it easier for regular people to experience space.

From my perspective as a space policy analyst , I see the beginning of an era in which more people can experience space. With companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin hoping to build a future for humanity in space, space tourism is a way to demonstrate both the safety and reliability of space travel to the general public.

The development of space tourism

Flights to space like Dennis Tito’s are expensive for a reason. A rocket must burn a lot of costly fuel to travel high and fast enough to enter Earth’s orbit.

Another cheaper possibility is a suborbital launch, with the rocket going high enough to reach the edge of space and coming right back down. While passengers on a suborbital trip experience weightlessness and incredible views, these launches are more accessible.

The difficulty and expense of either option has meant that, traditionally, only nation-states have been able to explore space. This began to change in the 1990s as a series of entrepreneurs entered the space arena. Three companies led by billionaire CEOs have emerged as the major players: Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and SpaceX. Though none have taken paying, private customers to space, all anticipate doing so in the very near future.

British billionaire Richard Branson has built his brand on not just business but also his love of adventure. In pursuing space tourism, Branson has brought both of those to bear. He established Virgin Galactic after buying SpaceShipOne - a company that won the Ansari X-Prize by building the first reusable spaceship. Since then, Virgin Galactic has sought to design, build and fly a larger SpaceShipTwo that can carry up to six passengers in a suborbital flight.

The going has been harder than anticipated. While Branson predicted opening the business to tourists in 2009, Virgin Galactic has encountered some significant hurdles – including the death of a pilot in a crash in 2014 . After the crash, engineers found significant problems with the design of the vehicle, which required modifications.

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, respective leaders of SpaceX and Blue Origin, began their own ventures in the early 2000s.

Musk, fearing that a catastrophe of some sort could leave Earth uninhabitable, was frustrated at the lack of progress in making humanity a multiplanetary species. He founded SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of first developing reusable launch technology to decrease the cost of getting to space. Since then, SpaceX has found success with its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX’s ultimate goal is human settlement of Mars – sending paying customers to space is an intermediate step. Musk says he hopes to show that space travel can be done easily and that tourism might provide a revenue stream to support development of the larger, Mars-focused Starship system.

Bezos, inspired by the vision of physicist Gerard O’Neill , wants to expand humanity and industry not to Mars, but to space itself. Blue Origin , established in 2004, has proceeded slowly and quietly in also developing reusable rockets. Its New Shepard rocket, first successfully flown in 2015, will eventually offer tourists a suborbital trip to the edge of space, similar to Virgin Galactic’s. For Bezos, these launches represent an effort at making space travel routine, reliable and accessible to people as a first step to enabling further space exploration.

Outlook for the future

Now, SpaceX is the only option for someone looking to go into space and orbit the Earth. It currently has two tourist launches planned. The first is scheduled for as early as September 2021 , funded by billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman. The other trip, planned for 2022, is being organized by Axiom Space . These trips will be costly , at $55 million for the flight and a stay on the International Space Station. The high cost has led some to warn that space tourism – and private access to space more broadly – might reinforce inequality between rich and poor.

Blue Origin’s and Virgin Galactic’s suborbital trips are far more reasonable in cost, with both priced between $200,000 and $250,000 . Blue Origin appears to be the nearest to allowing paying customers on board, saying after a recent launch that crewed missions would be happening “soon.” Virgin Galactic continues to test SpaceShipTwo, but no specific timetable has been announced for tourist flights.

Though these prices are high, it is worth considering that Dennis Tito’s $20 million ticket in 2001 could pay for 100 flights on Blue Origin soon. The experience of viewing the Earth from space, though, may prove to be priceless for a whole new generation of space explorers.

[ Over 104,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world. Sign up today .]

An updated version of this article was published on May 7, 2021. Read it here .

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3 predictions for the future of space exploration — including your own trips

Alejandra Marquez Janse

Mary Louise Kelly

Tinbete Ermyas

Peggy Whitson says more widely available space tourism is realistic. Axiom Space hide caption

Peggy Whitson says more widely available space tourism is realistic.

If you've ever traveled somewhere that left you so enthralled that you wanted to go back over and over, then you get how Peggy Whitson feels about space.

She is a seasoned astronaut who has multiple achievements under her belt: She was the first woman to command the International Space Station, and in 2017 broke the record for most cumulative days in space of any American and female astronaut, with a count of 665.

Whitson retired from NASA nearly five years ago, but last month, at age 63, she packed up the necklace she wore on her wedding day, zipped her spacesuit one more time, and took flight in a SpaceX capsule as commander of the Ax-2 mission. It was sponsored by a private company, Axiom Space, where she now works as the director of human spaceflight. Three paying crew members traveled with her.

After returning to Earth, Whitson spoke with All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly and shared a few thoughts about the future of space exploration.

This interview has been edited slightly for clarity and brevity.

The Ax-2 crew in a training session. The group, composed of Whitson (far left) and three paying costumers, spent nine days in space last month. Axiom Space hide caption

The Ax-2 crew in a training session. The group, composed of Whitson (far left) and three paying costumers, spent nine days in space last month.

1. Space exploration will be a mix of public and private money

If you look at even the NASA missions returning to the moon, lots of different private space companies are involved in that process. And that includes Axiom Space, for instance, who are building the spacesuits that will be used by the NASA astronauts as they step on the moon again. So it's exciting to be part of this changing philosophy of space and the efforts of commercial companies like Axiom Space. We intend to build the first commercial space station initially attached to the International Space Station, but to undock before the space station is decommissioned.

I think it's a worldwide relationship between different companies and peoples, and that's what makes it such a special time to be a part of the [Ax-2] mission, because [space exploration] is changing flavor and it's exciting because there are going to be many more opportunities in the future.

The Ax-2 crew returns to Earth. Could this be you one day? Axiom Space hide caption

2. More people will be able to go to space

Obviously some of it will take time to make it not cost-prohibitive, but the fact that we are taking those initial steps is really important now. If you look back at commercial aviation and how that occurred and the development of that process, you know, it also started off to be only a few people could be involved and then later more and more, and so now it's pretty commonplace. I like to think that we're doing some of the same steps in commercial spaceflight now.

3. The goals depend on the person — and the country — that's traveling

Well, the objective of the mission is slightly different, obviously. My personal roles and responsibilities of taking care of the crew and ensuring their safety obviously are very similar. But our objectives were, we had one private astronaut, John Shoffner, who was trying to develop science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) outreach products for educators in the future, as well as doing research. And then we had two government sponsored astronauts from Saudi Arabia – the first female Saudi Arabian to fly in space and go to the International Space Station – and the second male to arrive.

SpaceX mission returns from space station with ex-NASA astronaut, 3 paying customers

So the objectives of the crew weren't all that much different necessarily than a NASA mission, which is outreach and scientific investigations, but these were with the specific goals of expanding outreach in specific areas for Saudi – which hadn't had a person in space for 40 years – and, you know, to inspire their youth as well as inspiring the youth in the United States.

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Ramin Skibba

Here’s a Sneak Peek at the Far-Out Future of Space Travel

From Star Trek–like medical scanners to concepts for off-planet agriculture like in The Expanse , science fiction has often inspired actual research at NASA and other space agencies. This week, researchers are meeting at a virtual conference for the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program to brainstorm and investigate sci-fi-like ideas, some of which may very well shape the missions of the next 20 years.

A drone helicopter hopping about a Martian crater or a lunar rover that maps moon ice might have seemed far-fetched a decade ago, but the copter actually flew earlier this year, and the rover is in the planning stages. Now the conference organizers have solicited proposals for more exploratory projects, a few of which the agency might eventually fund. “We invest in long-term, far-out technologies, and most of them probably won’t work. The ones that do might change everything. It’s high risk, high payoff, almost like a venture capital investment portfolio,” says Jason Derleth, the NIAC program executive.

The program isn’t focused on incremental developments but instead seeks game-changing technologies, ones that are 10 times better than the state of the art, Derleth says. He likens it to the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which also explores extremely speculative concepts but developed the precursor to the modern internet, among other innovations.

The annual conference , which continues through Thursday, September 23, is publicly viewable on NIAC’s livestream . Some of the proposals discussed so far—such as for new ways to launch foldable space stations or astronaut habitats, or to extract resources from other worlds—revolve around the understanding that, for lengthy space voyages, you have to make the most of every rocket launch.

The next generation of space travelers will need resources for survival, for protective structures, and to fuel the journey further or return home. “This leaves us with two options: Take everything with us, like if you were going on a hiking trip in the desert. Or find new and creative ways to use whatever is already there,” says Amelia Greig, an aerospace engineer at University of Texas at El Paso, who presented at the conference on Tuesday.

To aid creative reuse of lunar resources, Greig and her colleagues propose a technology called ablative arc mining, which would slurp up water ice and the kinds of metals that could be used as building materials. “It’s like using controlled lightning bolts to mine the moon,” she said during her presentation. Her concept describes a van-sized moon crawler—named after the Jawa sandcrawlers of Star Wars —that picks a spot, and then places a ringed device that it carries on its front end parallel to the ground. Electric arcs zap across the ring, which can be made as large as a meter in diameter, ripping particles from the moon’s surface. Those particles, now charged, can then be moved and sorted by the machine’s electromagnetic fields. That way, rather than scoping just one resource, a single piece of equipment could fill one container with water, another with oxygen attached to other elements, and others with silicon, aluminum, or other metal particles.

Dell Cameron

Andy Greenberg

Julian Chokkattu

Reece Rogers

An artistic representation of the ablative arc mining system deployed into a crater near the lunar south pole.

But, like all early concepts, it faces practical challenges that would have to be overcome: In this case, the moon’s dusty environment could cause problems by getting stuck in the machinery, which would have to be made dust-proof. To hunt for water ice, the crawlers also will have to trundle into permanently shadowed craters, which contain water at about 6 percent by mass but are extremely cold and dark. The crawlers’ electronics would have to be designed to operate in those rugged conditions and with a non-solar power source. It also would be tough for any astronaut to oversee them, though they could monitor the mining from the crater’s rim. NASA estimates that permanent lunar settlements will need around 10,000 kilograms of water per year. That would require at least 20 of these kinds of crawlers roving about, gradually collecting those supplies, unless this technology was supplemented with something else. For now, Greig just hopes to test a smaller demonstration version of the crawler in a few years.

Space mining projects have also prompted ethical questions. For example, scientists and others have raised concerns about lunar mining permanently changing the look of the moon in the night sky. But Greig points out that ablative arc mining wouldn’t look like the environmentally harmful pit mines on Earth; the mining region could be spread out, making some craters only slightly deeper. And as for sustainability issues, she says, “there’s enough water to last human settlements hundreds of years.”

Stop-motion representation of the arc mining process on the lunar surface.

As a potential launching point for moon-goers and expeditions to deep space, NASA has proposed a space station orbiting the moon called the Lunar Gateway . But Zachary Manchester, a roboticist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, argues that the limited size of rockets allows few options for launching large structures for a lunar station. “If you want something that’s bigger than a rocket fairing, which is at most a few meters, it has to get launched in multiple rockets and assembled in orbit, like the International Space Station . Or it has to somehow get scrunched up into that rocket and then somehow expand out,” Manchester says.

At a session Wednesday, he and Jeffrey Lipton, a mechanical engineer at the University of Washington, proposed a space station that would fit into that confined space. Then, once deployed, it would unfold autonomously, like origami, into a full-sized structure, some 150 times bigger than its folded size. Preliminary designs involve a many-jointed structure made of titanium, aluminum, or another metal.

Since future astronauts will likely be on-station for a while, it would need to rotate to generate artificial gravity to avoid the deleterious health effects of prolonged periods in zero-G. But humans are sensitive to spinning; no one wants to live on a merry-go-round. “If you try to build a rotating space habitat, the only way to do it without making people motion-sick is to spin at up to two revolutions per minute,” Manchester says. To produce Earth-like gravity, such a space station needs to be a kilometer across, he argues. Yet squishing such a massive structure into a tiny space until it’s deployed poses a significant engineering challenge. In addition, to make their idea a reality, Manchester and Lipton ultimately need to figure out how to make the unfolding process not get jammed, despite the structure’s thousands of links and joints.

An artist's illustration of the Lunar Gateway in orbit around the moon.

Like packing for the biggest road trip ever, NASA will face similar challenges when fitting everything needed for moon or Mars structures onto rockets. To lighten the load, some scientists have suggested using Martian rocks as material for 3D-printing parts of structures. (A simulated lunar regolith is currently being test-printed aboard the International Space Station.) But Lynn Rothschild, an astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, has a completely different idea: making structures out of mushrooms—or “mycotecture,” as she calls it. “The humble mushroom can provide an unbelievable building material. It’s completely natural, compostable, and the ultimate green building,” Rothschild says.

Although fungi could be used to grow the material for actual bricks and mortar that astronauts could use for construction, the best kind of space habitat would be assembled before they even arrive. Her team’s proposal involves launching a lander that would include plastic scaffolding and fungal mycelia, white filaments that make the root structure of fungi. (Like yeasts, mycelia can survive for a while without being fed.) The scaffolding would be a lattice of square hollow plastic cells, stitched into layers to make the shape of the final structure. On Mars, it would inflate to perhaps the size of a garage. Using water and oxygen—at least some of which would likely have been sourced or generated on Mars—the fungi would grow along those stitches and fill the cells, eventually turning a tent-like structure into a full-fledged building.

For strength and protection from space radiation, Rothschild thinks some kind of dark fungi could do the trick. “Black fungi—they make you say ‘Blecch,’ they look kind of disgusting. But the black pigment tends to protect from radiation, protecting the fungi and the people inside the habitat,” Rothschild says. She hopes to send a prototype to the International Space Station in the next few years.

Unlike the moon, Mars was once friendly to life . So Rothschild is designing the scaffolding to prevent any chance of renegade fungi escaping beyond the astronauts’ structures. (The last thing NASA wants is for a search for life on other worlds to turn up something that actually came from Earth .) In her team’s design, the fungi are essentially “double-bagged,” with an extra layer in the plastic lattice to ensure they all stay in.

To address those issues, space agencies have “planetary protection” experts like Moogega Cooper, supervisor of the Biotechnology and Planetary Protection Group at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who spoke at the NIAC conference. “Anywhere you are possibly interacting with liquid water that is inherent to the place, your exploring would definitely catch our attention. Where you find water you may find life,” she says. The United States is one of the original signatories of the Outer Space Treaty, which requires that every space agency or company that wants to send a mission to an alien world make sure the spacecraft and all the equipment aboard are sterilized.

While the NIAC program has a budget of just $8.5 million per year, it supports many exploratory projects. A few of the ideas presented at this week’s conference could go on to the next level, or could get picked up by other agencies or private companies, as in the case of an earlier proposal to propel a smartphone-sized spacecraft to another stellar system with lasers, which inspired Breakthrough Starshot, a privately funded enterprise. Among a few of the topics on the menu for the rest of Wednesday and Thursday: multiple presentations about moon-based radio telescopes , as well as one about personal rovers for astronauts (since Artemis astronauts will be carrying 220-pound packs) and one about planting mushrooms in space regolith to make a more Earth-like growing soil.

“All of the concepts that are awarded are pushing the edge of our understanding, and they really allow us to take science fiction and make it science fact,” Cooper says.

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Space tourism may be taking off, but critics not taken with its aims

Some question if race to put more people in space justified given current problems on earth.

William Shatner’s space flight renews debate over space tourism

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A handful of billionaire-backed ventures are proving that space tourism could be a part of our future, but some critics say those resources would be better directed toward solving the problems we face on Earth today.

"We need some of the world's greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live," as Prince William put it this week , summing up a less-than-laudatory attitude among critics watching the tourism-minded space race of our times unfold.

Since the summer, space tourism companies have taken passengers on brief journeys above the Earth and garnered a lot of attention for doing so — in part because of the people they took with them.

Rivals ride rockets in same month

Billionaire Jeff Bezos went to space in July , along with three other passengers, on a Blue Origin spacecraft. The company sent four more people to space this past Wednesday — including William Shatner , best known for playing Star Trek 's Capt. James Kirk.

"What you have given me is the most profound experience," Shatner told Bezos after his ride to space.

And yet for all the coverage that Bezos has received, he wasn't even the first billionaire to go to space this year — Richard Branson got there first , on a Virgin Galactic flight that carried six passengers, nine days before his Blue Origin competitors.

"The whole thing, it was just magical," Branson said after the flight.

What about the planet?

But not everyone is applauding. Ryan Katz-Rosene, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa's School of Political Studies, said these recent space tourism efforts and the competition to claim achievement from them are "completely tone-deaf to the realities of the sustainability challenges" the planet is facing.

"I don't think we should be spending so much focus and effort and attention and money into private space travel," he said.

Yet Philip Metzger, a planetary physicist at the University of Central Florida, says this kind of space tourism could end up driving support for the problems at home. Astronauts and the like often say the experience of seeing the Earth from above left them with a renewed appreciation for environmentalism.

Metzger predicts that having more people see the Earth from above will drive a greater marshalling of "resources and talents towards protecting the Earth."

WATCH | When Shatner really went to space:  

The science behind William Shatner’s space trip

Possible benefits.

Chris Hadfield, the retired Canadian astronaut, sees what Prince William and like-minded critics are getting at — acknowledging there's some justification for their concerns about the problems on Earth.

But he said the push to explore is what inspires the discovery of new ideas and new technologies — including some of the satellite tools we now use to measure and observe the parts of our planet and the problems it faces.

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"That technology doesn't just instantaneously appear," said Hadfield. "You have to inspire people, they have to develop it."

As for the future of a broader world of space travel, Hadfield said "it opens up so much opportunity and I think that's the part that's worth focusing on."

With files from The Associated Press, Reuters, and the CBC's Andrew Chang and Lauren Pelley

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What Is the Future of Space Tourism?

Space tourism might sound like it belongs in the future, but it’s already here. Leading aerospace companies like SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and Blue Origin plan to send passengers to space within the next couple of years. Thanks to these three space-race leaders, we can expect anything from orbiting hotels around the Earth to tours of the Moon within the next decade or so.

But what exactly will space tourism look like? Keep reading to find out what the future of commercial space travel might hold.

How It All Started

Does space tourism exist now, orbital vs. suborbital space tourism, space hotels, space tourism will become less expensive, better and longer experiences, a booming economy, visiting the moon and planets, more orbital space travel, the future of space tourism is coming.

Many people believe that space tourism is a brand-new concept. But it’s been around for a long time. It all started with the world’s first space tourist, Dennis Tito. The ex-Nasa engineer and astronaut wanted to explore space as a tourist and paid for his orbital space flight. Traveling on the Russian spacecraft, Soyuz TM-32, Tito spent eight days at the International Space Station. The entire trip cost him $20 million.

His self-funded journey to space caught the attention of many aspiring astronauts and ordinary people who always wanted to go to space. This could be why space tourism is currently in the hands of privately owned aerospace companies, but we’ll get to that later.

Following Dennis Tito, six other space tourists ventured to the International Space Station on board Russian Soyuz spacecraft between 2002 and 2009. Again, space Adventurers funded these space trips, with each flight estimated to cost between $20 to $35 million.

The commercial space travel industry stagnated for 10 years because the International Space Station needed more crew members. Thus, there wasn’t any room for space tourists. However, with NASA’s approval, the International Space Station started to welcome visitors again in 2021.

During this stagnant period, various private aerospace companies began showing an interest in suborbital space travel, which led to the rise of space tourism.

Technically speaking, space tourism is already underway. The new-generation space race is led by three companies: Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, and Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. The latter two companies are already selling tickets for the first commercial suborbital spaceflights, which are supposed to take off later this year.

Virgin Galactic’s founder, Sir Richard Branson, was the first space tourist in over ten years. He flew into space with two pilots and three other crew members in 2021, reaching an altitude of 52 miles, and was in space for approximately 90 minutes. Jeff Bezos flew into space on board the New Shepard one week after him. The rocket reached an altitude of 66 miles and was in space for 11 minutes.

Both companies aim to make space travel available to the public by offering suborbital flights. Virgin Galactic offers tickets that cost $450,000 each. The price of one seat on the New Shepard hasn’t been announced yet; however, it’s estimated to cost around $200,000 to $250,000.

Elon Musk has different plans. His ultimate goal for SpaceX is to take passengers to the Moon and Mars and colonize these celestial bodies one day. SpaceX was the first private aerospace company to send a spacecraft into the Earth’s orbit and to land on the International Space Station. SpaceX is already working with NASA to send more people aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon to the International Space Station. One ticket should cost around $35,000 per day for one passenger.

As previously mentioned, space tourism will mainly revolve around suborbital and orbital space travel.

Orbital spacecraft fly at an extremely high speed, orbital velocity, with a minimum speed of 17,400 miles per hour. Doing so allows them to reach an altitude of 1.3 million feet or 400 kilometers. However, orbital space travel requires powerful rockets, which is why it’s more expensive than suborbital travel.

One of the advantages of orbital space travel is the length of the journey. As a result, space tourists who choose orbital space travel with one of SpaceX’s spacecraft will be in space for a more extended period. The exact duration isn’t specified, but it could last days or weeks.

Suborbital travel is much shorter in duration. The reason is that suborbital rockets aren’t powerful enough to be in space for such a long time. The minimal speed of a suborbital rocket ship is 3,700 miles per hour, enough to reach an altitude of 125 miles; suborbital spacecraft travel at a speed that is only 13% of an orbital space flight’s velocity.

Blue Origin’s flight on the New Shepard lasts 11 minutes, with only three minutes of zero gravity. Virgin Galactic offers slightly more extended trips, allowing passengers to be in space for an hour and a half.

The Future of Space Tourism

Space tourism is still in its developmental stages. However, the industry is worth billions, and its GDP is estimated to grow by $20 billion in the next ten years. Northern Sky Research claims there will be over 57,500 space tourists by 2031. Up till now, only about 600 people have been to space, highlighting the extent to which the commercial space travel market will grow.

With the rise of space tourism, we can expect various scientific discoveries, technological advances and innovations, and never-before-seen opportunities.

Space hotels used to feature in sci-fi movies and children’s cartoons. Would you believe us if we told you that the first luxury commercial space hotel is supposed to open for visitors in five years?

We’re talking about the Voyager Station, which is being developed by the Orbital Assembly Corporation. Of course, this space hotel won’t look like your average building, with doors, windows, and a roof. Instead, the Voyager Station will look like a rotating wheel and be located somewhere in the Earth’s orbit. However, the interior will still be luxurious, and passengers will have spectacular views of the Earth. In terms of size, the hotel will accommodate 280 guests and 112 crew members. The prices haven’t been released yet, but it’s believed the cost for one room will be $5 million.

Another space hotel developed by the Orbital Assembly Corporation will be the Pioneer Station. This hotel will also look like a rotating wheel and is set to orbit the Earth as early as 2025. However, the Pioneer Station will not have the same capacity as the Voyager Station, with enough room for only 28 guests.

Jeff Bezos is also interested in space hotels. He plans to open the Orbital Reef in partnership with Sierra Launch by the end of the 2020s.

We already talked about how expensive space tourism is right now, with tickets costing $450,000 per person. The reason tickets are priced so high is because launching a rocket requires a lot of funding and investment.

All the space tourism trips between 2001 and 2009 cost $20 to $35 million, with the International Space Station being the destination. Sending a rocket to space requires resources, cutting-edge technology, and experienced pilots. Today, these prices have almost doubled. For example, when the Crew Dragon Endeavor, SpaceX’s and NASA’s spacecraft, flew to the International Space Station in April 2022, it cost them $55 million.

The price of sending a rocket into space will always be high. But what does this mean for passengers? As space tourism becomes mainstream and more common in the future, it’s believed that prices will go down. Right now, traveling to space as a tourist is a luxury few can afford. But in the future, space tourism won’t only be available for millionaires.

Only Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are selling tickets for suborbital space trips. As mentioned, a ride with Virgin Galactic lasts about 90 minutes, while Blue Origin flights should last 11 minutes in total, with only three minutes of weightlessness. For many, paying $250,000 or $500,000 for such a short time in space is out of the question.

The good news is that space tourism will involve much longer trips to space. We’re talking about orbital space travel, which aims to take passengers to the International Space Station, the Moon, or Mars one day. Orbital space travel lasts longer. Passengers will be able to spend a few weeks in the space hotels that are being built right now.

Another issue with current space tourism spacecraft is limited space. Both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin offer enough room for six passengers. However, since both spacecraft require two pilots, there will only be enough room for four people on board. Elon Musk announced that some SpaceX spacecraft would have enough room for up to 100 passengers.

The commercial space travel market is expected to enjoy exponential growth in the near future. In an industry that is already worth billions, Northern Sky Research suggests that revenues will shoot up by $20.3 billion in the next ten years.

USB, an investment banking company, predicts that the space tourism market will increase by $20 billion annually. According to the same report, experts believe that the broader space industry, which is currently worth $400 billion, will be worth $805 billion in the next decade.

There are roughly 20,000 people employed in each private space exploration agency, which is expected to double in the next couple of years. Therefore, space tourism will build up commercial activity and boost the world economy. In addition, it’s believed thousands of more people will have the opportunity to join the new-generation space race, from engineers and rocket scientists to astronomers and other experts.

SpaceX alone is currently worth $125 billion , which makes it one of the most valuable private companies in the world.

Since Neil Armstrong first stepped on the Moon in 1969, only 24 people have followed in his footsteps. In fact, no one has been on the Moon since 1972, Apollo 17 being the final human-crewed mission. There haven’t been more missions to the Moon because of the prohibitive cost.

Lunar space travel is one of the things we can expect to see in the future of space tourism. There will be three types of tourist flights to the Moon – circular trajectories, lunar orbits, and lunar landings. Elon Musk is especially interested in going to the Moon. He plans to use his Starship spacecraft, which will be fully reusable and capable of taking the crew and passengers to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

What’s more, Elon Musk announced that he plans to take spaceships to Mars by 2050.

A growing number of suborbital space flights will lead to an increase in orbital space flights. However, suborbital spacecraft can only take us a little over the Karman Line, a widely accepted border between the Earth’s surface and outer space. The Karman Line is roughly 62 miles (100 kilometers) above the Earth’s mean sea level.

Developing suborbital spacecraft, like Blue Origin’s New Shepard and Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity, will lead to technological advancements which can help improve orbital spacecraft. Orbital space travel presents even more opportunities, like trips to the International Space Station or even visiting the Moon. Most importantly, it opens new doors to outer space exploration.

Orbital spacecraft will also have enough power and room to take passengers to space hotels, like the Voyager Station, the Pioneer Station, the Orbital Reef, and more that will come in the future.

Space tourism is no longer something that might or might not happen in the future. Government agencies and privately-owned private companies are already in the process of organizing suborbital and orbital space flights. Some companies are even working on the first luxury commercial space hotels that will orbit around the Earth.

We’ll see more private spaceflights, ushering in a new era of space exploration. Even though there are still a few years until space tourism becomes more available and affordable for the wider public, some people have already bought their tickets for trips to space. Who knows? You, too, could send a postcard from space in ten years.

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Space Tourism Is Here: Booking a Trip to the Final Frontier

The next era of space exploration and innovation is here — and we're all invited. A billionaire space race is underway as Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, and others are testing the technology to take us to places previously visited only by highly trained astronauts. Space tourism is officially taking flight, and it might just save the Earth.

In July 2021, we watched as Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos took to the skies in a giant leap for the space tourism industry, but their launches to the edge of space weren't timed particularly well. Against the backdrop of a global pandemic and climate emergency, two billionaires taking joy rides to space may not have been good optics, but don't underestimate what just happened — and how important it could be for the future of humanity.

With the first crewed launches of Virgin Galactic's supersonic space plane and Blue Origin's reusable rocket, a world of commercial space travel is taking its first step. Both companies plan to begin regular, scheduled trips for paying space tourists in the near future, but their visions stretch back many years to the beginning of human spaceflight.

The Space Race: Then and Now

Bezos's Blue Origin chose an auspicious day to send its first crew to space. July 20, 2021 was exactly 52 years after Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon. But that wasn't the only major space travel anniversary celebrated in 2021.

April 12 was the 60th anniversary of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becoming the first human to not only reach space, but also go into orbit around Earth. Meanwhile, May 5 saw the 60th anniversary of NASA's Freedom 7 mission, which launched Alan Shepard on a suborbital flight that lasted 15 minutes. He reached an altitude of 101 miles to become the first American in space before his capsule parachuted to splashdown in the ocean.

The name of Blue Origin's New Shepard launch system is no coincidence. Its mission profile is almost identical to America's inaugural 1961 spaceflight, save for billionaire-grade comfy seats and large windows. From Launch Site One near Van Horn in the West Texas desert, that rocket fires a capsule containing up to six people (but no pilot) into space, which then parachutes down 15 minutes later.

The Virgin Galactic experience is different. Its supersonic rocket-powered spaceplane SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity seats six passengers and two highly trained pilots. It takes off on a runway from Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, while strapped to a mothership. At 52,000 feet, it detaches and burns its rocket engine for one minute to reach Mach 3 speeds and touch the edge of space. After a few minutes of weightlessness (and a chance for passengers to see the curvature of Earth against the blackness of space), it glides back to land on a runway.

The Price for a Ticket to Space

These short trips are anticipated to cost between $250,000 and $500,000, but in January 2022, expect to see a truly out-of-this-world private trip to space with an even more astronomical price tag. It will come from the other, arguably much more important billionaire in the space tourism bubble: Elon Musk. Axiom Mission 1 will see his company, SpaceX, launch four private astronauts on behalf of Houston-based space tourism company Axiom Space. An American real estate investor, a Canadian investor, a former Israeli Air Force pilot, and an ex-Space Shuttle pilot will launch on an incredible orbital mission in its Crew Dragon spacecraft.

At $55 million per ticket, this is ultra-aspirational space tourism of the highest order. "The experience is drastically different because they will be launching on a SpaceX rocket and going to the International Space Station (ISS) for 10 days," says Christina Korp, cofounder of Space for a Better World . "They will be doing what real astronauts do, and I don't think it's an accident that Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin did their flights before Axiom's mission." Axiom Space intends to launch a private space station — the first "space hotel" — as early as 2024 to give space tourists somewhere to visit.

The Future of Space Tourism — and of Our Planet

Musk talks of Mars colonies and humanity spreading out into the cosmos, but since 2012, SpaceX has made a lot of money from NASA contracts to launch supplies to the ISS. In the summer of 2020, it began ferrying NASA astronauts there, too. SpaceX's Starship — currently being tested — will land two NASA astronauts, the first woman and the next man, on the moon in 2024.

You see, space tourism is just a sideshow to a bigger and more worthy goal of saving the planet. Next year, Blue Origin plans to test its reusable New Glenn rocket — named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962 — which will be able to take cargo and astronauts into orbit. Bezos has said he thinks we need to go to space to save Earth, specifically by protecting the planet from pollution by moving heavy industry into space. That can only happen when space travel is safe, scheduled, and affordable. Space tourism will help create a competitive space economy, just as mass tourism has lowered the cost of flying.

Similarly, Branson's aim is to increase access to space. "We are at the vanguard of a new space age…Our mission is to make space more accessible to all," he said after his inaugural flight. A microgravity experiment was on board that first flight on July 11, with similar plans for all subsequent trips. Meanwhile, sister company Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne sends small satellites and science payloads into orbit via a small rocket launch from underneath the wing of a Boeing 747.

The scientific spin-offs for all of us down on Earth are currently unknown, but the space community has an incredible track record when it comes to innovation. "Clean energy as solar power is from the space program," says Korp. "Solar panels were invented to power satellites and refined to power spacecraft." Cue GPS, weather forecasting, telecommunications, and even internet access. There are also fleets of satellites large and small that observe how our planet is behaving and changing. "It's the space industry that's monitoring climate change, tracking hurricanes, and learning how to survive in the extreme environment of space — including experiments to grow food with almost no water, for example," says Korp. Every single space mission, including suborbital and even zero-gravity flights, have environmental experiments on board as default.

"This is not about escaping Earth," said Bezos after the flight. "The whole point is, this is the only good planet in the solar system and we have to take care of it." Bezos wants to scale up into affordable space travel. That will enable long-term, commercial projects that ultimately may help prevent further climate change, or at least help us cope with its consequences.

However, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and SpaceX won't be the only way to reach space. Russian space agency Roscosmos is expected to take "citizen space explorers" to the ISS soon, but the most affordable way to get "black sky time" may be with Space Perspective , which will launch a pressurized capsule propelled by a high-performance space balloon.

The six-hour flight will cost around $125,000 per person and launch from Space Coast Spaceport in Florida in 2024. "Unlike short-lived, adrenaline-fueled moments of weightlessness, Space Perspective flights bring you space calm," says Jane Poynter, founder, co-CEO, and CXO of Space Perspective. The flights on Spaceship Neptune involve a gentle ascent at just 12 miles per hour for a six-hour tour of Earth's biosphere, culminating in a view of our beautiful planet from space.

Space tourism is here at last. Instagram had better get ready for "Earth selfies."

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The Tyranny of the Fairing

Signs of life detectable in single ice grains from ocean worlds, report: moon–to-mars architecture definition document (nasa 2023), the ‘rod of god’: theoretical kinetic energy weaponry from space, the final flight: a retrospective on the storied delta iv rocket.

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Is This What the Future of Space Tourism Looks Like?

Today, space tourism is largely focused on providing the physical experience of a flight into space for the customer. However the COVID-19 Pandemic has shown us that being physically present in many activities, was not as important as we previously thought it was. In fact working remotely for many people quickly became preferred. Is it possible that space tourism is overly focused on the physical experience and completely overlooking the potential value of cyber-tourism travel? Could cyber-tourism completely change the game for Space Tourism businesses and customers?

Cyber-tourism as a general concept is essentially the electronic substitution for a physical experience, which helps overcome the barriers to having the experience in person (e.g. monetary, leisure time available, medical, mobility restricted, hazardous situations, distance). The electronics substitution technology is often referred to as telepresence and is used for such things as medical consultation/procedures, bomb disposal, museum visits, and personal communications.

Today there is widespread use and acceptance of commercial telepresence technology such as FaceTime, Zoom video conferencing, and virtual reality. All of these technologies have increased the acceptance and expectations of being present in rather than being in the experience.

For the purposes of this article, “telepresence” will be used in reference to the technology’s application to space tourism, i.e. Space Cyber-Tourism.

Is telepresence the future of space tourism? In order to understand the potential for telepresence in the space tourism industry, it is necessary to look at space tourism in terms of:

• the product offering,
• customer motivations, and
• what challenges the businesses face.

SPACE TOURISM PRODUCT OFFERING TODAY

Space tourism businesses are currently offering a high end luxury experience that includes:

• Flight in a space vehicle to suborbital space (BlueOrigin, VirginGalactic), or into orbit (SpaceX, RosCosmos via SpaceAdventures).
• A view of the earth from a high altitude that will allow customers to see the curvature of the earth and the blackness of space
• A period of zero gravity inside a very small enclosed space shared with other customers
• The opportunity to refer to themself as an astronaut
• Ground-based activities including: preflight training, exclusive networking events, VIP access for themself and their families, postflight celebrations and presentation of astronaut wings, media events, etc.

The following videos provide some insights into the space tourism experience.

SPACE TOURISM CUSTOMER MOTIVATIONS

Why would someone want to fly into space? Some insights into customer motivations are available from the Space Tourism Market Analysis which identifies the top three motivations for a customer to purchase a flight into space as:

• to see earth from space
• doing something that only a few people have done before (i.e. being a pioneer)
• fulfilling a lifelong dream

It is worth noting that the customer motivation, and opportunity, to be a pioneer will diminish over time.

At what point does a space tourism customer flying into space stop being considered pioneering? We can use Mount Everest as an example. Between 1953 and the end of 1992, 427 people had successfully summited Mount Everest. However things changed in 1993 – summiting Mount Everest stopped being pioneering when commercial guiding businesses came into being. As of 2020, 5,720 people have summited Mount Everest. Today it is possible to summit Mount Everest as part of a commercial expedition for an average cost of US$44,500. It could be argued that space tourism stopped being pioneering after Dennis Tito flew to the ISS in 2001.

CHALLENGES FACED BY SPACE TOURISM BUSINESSES

Space tourism businesses are faced with numerous challenges related to the experience they are selling. The challenges fall into one of two categories, customer adoption and business sustainability as a going concern.

Customer resistance to adoption of new technologies is the major cause of new products failures . Customer adoption challenges directly affect the size of the addressable market and revenue growth velocity. A large addressable market and rapid revenue growth is important because it costs a lot of money for a space tourism business to operate. Note that customer adoption challenges are not urgent concerns for some businesses such as SpaceX, where space tourism is currently a side business and they are generating strong revenue from their core business which is commercial space operations (i.e. launching satellites, delivering and returning cargo and astronauts to ISS). For other businesses where space tourism is their primary focus and source of revenue, the customer adoption challenges are much more urgent. 

Customer adoption challenges currently include the following –

Ticket prices for a flight into space are extremely expensive, starting at $250,000 and rising as high as $55 million US, which limits the addressable market to the very wealthy. 

Customers must commit to several days of personal time (e.g. travel, pre-flight training) in return for 10 to 90 minutes of total flight time for suborbital flights. For orbital flights, customers may need to commit several weeks to months of personal time. The time demands on the customer limits the addressable market based on customers’ available leisure time.

60 to 80% of space travelers experience space motion sickness which is caused by zero gravity.  Space motion sickness has many of the same symptoms as other forms of motion sickness, e.g. cold sweating, nausea, loss of appetite, fatigue, vomiting. Space motion sickness will spoil the experience for the afflicted customer as well as for that of the other customers. It may only take one bad experience making the press to dissuade potential customers. After all, who wants to be dodging floating vomit in zero gravity?

Space flight comes with the real risk of death or personal injury. The in-flight astronaut fatality rate as of March 2021 was one death in 31 boardings or 3.2%. For comparison, the in-flight passenger fatality rate for commercial airlines between 2008 and 2017 was one death in 7.9 million boardings, which is an infinitesimally low percentage fatality rate. Also for comparison, between 2010 and 2018, the death rate for Mount Everest climbers was one death in 111 summit attempts or 0.9%. The FAA requires that all space tourism businesses make customers explicitly aware that they fly into space entirely at their own risk.

Customers can be disqualified (by the space tourism business) from flying due to one or more issues related to their medical fitness (e.g. weight, mobility, vision, height, hearing, ability to tolerate acceleration and microgravity, ability to perform safety procedures) or security risk. The #FAA does not currently impose or recommend any medical certification requirements for passengers.

Business sustainability challenges currently include –

Current businesses have very limited flight capacity because they are constrained by the number of space vehicles available, e.g. both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin only have one working vehicle to service customer demand. Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin have both stated they have a customer backlog. Delays in revenue growth which slow their ability to reach profitability quickly, exposes the businesses to becoming unsustainable from a cash flow perspective. Furthermore, delays in aggressively establishing market leadership leaves the door open for additional competitors to enter and service the unmet needs.  

The lifecycle of space vehicles will have a significant impact on the ability of the business to service customer demand and grow revenue, for example, how much time must be taken between flights for safety checks and refurbishment, how many total flights can a vehicle be used before having to be replaced, and how long does it take to build and bring into service new vehicles. While businesses have engineering estimates, there is limited experience to validate the reality. Elon Musk has stated that he expects to reuse a Falcon rocket over 100 times before needing to be replaced. As of January 2021, a Falcon rocket has been reused 18 times and the fastest turnaround time on a Falcon rocket has been 27 days. Virgin Galactic has no track record, however their stated intention is to launch two flights a day, they have yet to comment on vehicle turnaround time or reusability limits.

Business sustainability is critically dependent upon customer confidence in the safety of the vehicles. In absence of a track record of success for flights, businesses will be dependent upon aggressive #marketing and customer education regarding operations and vehicle safety features. Customer safety is already being used by Blue Origin in their marketing – highlighting that Blue Origin has an escape system while Virgin Galactic does not.

For space tourism businesses based in the United States, government regulation and oversight have been kept intentionally light in order to allow the space tourism industry to develop. Following a learning period, which is scheduled to end in 2023, the government is expected to implement more formal industry regulation and oversight which could make some businesses unsustainable (e.g. mandating additional safety features related to physical customers which require significant rework and recertification of the flight vehicle).

Individual space tourism businesses may have other challenges specific to them, for example see this article on Virgin Galactic.

The space tourism industry in general also faces the existential threat of an accident – any accident, by any space tourism business – that involves death or injury to customers. Such an accident would have a chilling impact on customer demand and would result in lengthy accident inquiries culminating in the implementation of extensive government safety regulations and oversight. 

IS TELEPRESENCE THE FUTURE OF SPACE TOURISM?

So now that we have an overview of the product offering, customer motivations, and business challenges – how does telepresence play a role in this context? 

Telepresence can potentially deliver on the following elements of the space tourism experience:

• a view of earth from space 
• preflight and post flight activities

Telepresence can potentially eliminate, or mitigate, the following challenges of space tourism businesses: 

Customer adoption

• high ticket price 
• risk of death or personal injury 
• experiencing space motion sickness
• medical disqualifications for space flight
• personal time commitment

Business sustainability

• unfulfilled customer demand
• exposure to changes in government regulations and oversight
• exposure to existential threat

Telepresence appears to be a good fit for space tourism, addressing or mitigating significant challenges, and delivering on one of the top three customer motivations – viewing earth from space. However, pictures and videos of the earth from space have been available for decades, for instance Ustream is currently operating a prototype real-time video stream of earth from the ISS space station. 

Telepresence will need to deliver on a unique and compelling space tourism experience where the visual and audio experience must be indistinguishable to being there physically. To satisfy the basic requirement, which is to view earth from space, the customer would need to be provided with a headset delivering immersive high resolution stereoscopic media where the view follows their head motion, and two-way voice with binaural audio. The experience could be extended by incorporating the telepresence capability into a robot packaging with support for manipulators, mobility, and additional functionality such as obstacle avoidance and pre-programmed autonomous operations. The technology to implement such a high fidelity telepresence experience exists today.

HOW WILL TELEPRESENCE AFFECT SPACE TOURISM BUSINESSES?

For existing space tourism businesses, high fidelity telepresence experiences represent both an opportunity and a threat. 

The threat is that competitors could choose to focus exclusively on delivery of high fidelity telepresence experiences. A telepresence-only focus would allow the use of smaller, inexpensive, and fully autonomous space vehicles which would be optimized for telepresence customers. Moreover, rather than focus on the suborbital telepresence experiences, new businesses could develop low earth orbit telepresence stations. 

The opportunity is for existing businesses to expand product offerings to include a telepresence space flight option which provides access to both flight and ground based activities. Telepresence can also open up other business models and revenue streams for space tourism businesses.

SPACE TOURISM AS A MEDIA CONTENT PROVIDER  BUSINESS?

Stepping back and looking at space tourism through the lens of telepresence, it becomes clear that the primary value of space tourism flows from the visual content. This represents an opportunity to monetize that unique content. 

Telepresence itself can be a source, or a production platform, to deliver media content such as reality TV shows, premium pay per view experiences, advertising, documentaries and entertainment films. As a specialized production platform, telepresence enabled robots can eliminate the need to send camera operators along with the actors or products (e.g. for advertising productions) into space.

Telepresence enabled robots also have the potential to facilitate z ero gravity sports leagues. It will not be feasible for many years to put large teams of people into orbit to compete in zero gravity sports events. However it would be feasible to create a space arena (e.g. inside a SpaceX starship), populated with telepresence enabled robot players.

There is ongoing demand for new and innovative content by streaming services such as #Netflix, #PrimeVideo and #Disney. At the end of the day space tourism businesses could end up making more money as a media production business providing content to streaming service providers. 

Telepresence generated content could also be used as a basis for a very realistic space flight experience, where the customer would experience the flight inside a ground based space vehicle replica with multi axis movement.

WHO’S WORKING ON SPACE-CENTRIC TELEPRESENCE TODAY?

It should come as no surprise to learn that #NASA has been working on telepresence focused on space exploration applications for many years. The Mars rovers are good examples of NASA progress. All Mars rovers have been equipped with cameras and functionalities which allow remote operators on Earth to view the Martian landscape in stereoscopic vision and control the rovers.

Looking into the future, NASA is exploring how space exploration can be performed using telepresence enabled robots rather than humans. For example NASA is researching a scenario where astronauts are sent into orbit around an asteroid/moon/planet and telepresence enabled robots are sent to the surface. Those robots are then controlled by astronauts in orbit. This approach has the benefit of significantly reducing mission cost and risk to human life, as well as expanding the scope of research possible on the surface.

NASA has also experimented with a telepresence enabled robotic device called Robonaut. Robonaut is made in a humanoid form in order to allow it to use tools and controls made for use by humans. #Robonaut can be controlled remotely using telepresence and is able to perform certain tasks autonomously without human guidance.

A vatarin was the first commercial business to come out with an explicit plan to deliver on a space telepresence experience. They deployed their first Space Avatar prototype in May 2020 to the Japanese segment of the ISS. Unfortunately, the first prototype did not break any new ground, it is simply a remote control webcam which does not provide a high fidelity telepresence experience, or any mobility or manipulation capabilities.

Avatarin have recently announced the second generation Space Avatar that could be a basis to provide a telepresence space tourism experience. However their initial focus is on commercial applications in space operations and explorations. No timeline has been given on the second generation functionalities or schedule.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?

The space industry in general is very dynamic. Transformative business models are being enabled by new technologies which break down the entry barriers to providing new solutions for space operations, space exploration, and space tourism. New technologies include such things as: microsatellites, commercial satellite launch services, robots, high fidelity telepresence, artificial intelligence, high resolution video, low earth orbit communications networks, AWS ground station services.

While it is hard to predict the future with confidence, there is no doubt that telepresence will play an increasingly significant role in space tourism, space operations and space exploration.

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Leisure travel might be a little more exciting for the world’s wealthiest adventure seekers as space, long the exclusive domain of professional astronauts, is now accessible to tourists. In July 2021, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin each successfully launched suborbital tourism programs from their spaceports in New Mexico and Texas, respectively (with Blue Origin completing its second launch in October 2021). In September 2021, SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission kicked off the company’s orbital tourism program from the Kennedy Space Center’s historic Launch Complex 39A. Each of these companies hope to make space a popular destination by offering regular launch services to private citizens. Aspiring space tourists can expect to pay upwards of $250,000 for a seat on suborbital spacecrafts and an estimated $50 million for a ticket to orbit. Space enthusiasts on a budget can tour Spaceport America, where Virgin Galactic launches to space, for $50 or less.

These historic spaceflights  represent the most recent chapter in a longer history of space tourism. More than 20 years ago, Dennis Tito, the first “space tourist” (also known as “spaceflight participant”), flew to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft for a six-day stay. Tito donated the Sokol pressure suit he wore in space to the Museum in 2003. Since his flight, only six other individuals scored self-funded travel to space (one of these intrepid travelers flew twice). Space Adventures, a US-based travel agency to the stars, facilitated these multi-million dollar, out-of-this-world experiences in partnership with the Russian space agency, Roscosmos.

Dennis Tito wore this suit when he launched to the International Space Station on April 28, 2001. (Smithsonian Institution)

Although space itself remained inaccessible to private citizens until the 21st century, other places where Earth and space meet—such as National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) centers—have long been popular destinations for a different kind of space tourist.

The Space Age dawned in the golden age of the family road trip. Thanks to the proliferation of private automobile ownership, an expanding interstate highway system, and the advent of more generous vacation policies in the workplace, Americans ventured from home in greater numbers in the 1960s than at any earlier time in the nation’s history. Millions of these travelers included on their itineraries NASA centers, particularly those with ties to the human spaceflight program: the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama; the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Brevard County, Florida; and the Manned Spacecraft Center (known since 1973 as the Johnson Space Center) in Houston, Texas.

NASA centers were not prepared for the tourists who appeared en masse outside their gates. In the early 1960s, the centers operated much like—and were often physically adjacent to—secure military installations. For reasons of national security, the centers restricted access to official visitors only. In response to curious onlookers, the centers developed ad hoc visitor programs. At the same time, proactive civic leaders and enterprising business-people responded to the presence of space center tourists by developing their own space-themed attractions, including museums, halls of fame, and amusement parks, and amenities, such as motels, hotels, and restaurants.

At the Kennedy Space Center, for example, public affairs officers facilitated increasing access to NASA’s launch complex between 1964 and 1967. Their efforts began while the spaceport was under construction with a modest roadside trailer featuring wall-mounted exhibitions. They soon expanded visitor programming to include self-guided driving tours on weekends and holidays during breaks in construction activity. In 1966, the space center partnered with Trans World Airlines (TWA) to operate an escorted bus tour program.

Trans World Airlines (TWA) operated the bus tour program at the Kennedy Space Center in the 1960s. (NASA/KSC Spaceport News)

The following year, the Visitor Information Center opened to the public. It featured indoor exhibition and presentation facilities, an outdoor “rocket garden” that became a popular backdrop for family photos, and a depot for the bus tour program. The architect included all the amenities a traveler might need, such as restrooms, food concessions, a gift shop, and a pay phone, which is now on display at our Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Shaped like a Mercury capsule, the pay phone was painted in a playful tropical teal color, which was en vogue at other Florida attractions at the time. Since 1967, the Visitor Information Center has continued to evolve and expand, reflecting developments in spaceflight and the evolving expectations of 21st century vacationers. Some 1.5 million people visit annually.

This phonebooth was installed at the Visitor Information Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center during the 1960s. (Smithsonian Institution)

Whether venturing to space, visiting a spaceport, or engaging in space-related recreation, individuals and families are likely to continue the tradition of incorporating space activities as part of their leisure time. As we enter the next chapter in the history of space tourism, questions about the significance of these experiences endure: What do “space tourists” hope to gain from their encounter with space or space sites? What does their choice of vacation destination say about their individual identities and the cultural significance of space? Who has access to these experiences and who is left out? And how will space tourism reshape communities on Earth as the industry evolves?

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Future of space travel: What will it be like?

More than 60 years have passed since the first human space flight, but the future of space travel is still being written since only about 600 people have been in orbit so far. For most people willing to experience space travel, this wish remains an unattainable dream. But let’s remember that cars, planes, and trains, available to everyone today, seemed a fantasy once. So will space tourism ever be a reality? It already is. More than that, it has been around for 20 years. Orbital Today will shortly remind you of the story and try to look into the future of space travel.

How it all started

A 37-year-old American English and biology teacher Sharon McAuliffe could become the first space tourist, on winning the “Teacher in Space” competition in 1984. By that time, US astronauts had made 55 successful space flights, and their safe return to Earth had become commonplace. to increase public’s interest in the industry and demonstrate space flight reliability, NASA decided to send the first civilian into space. But it all ended in tragedy. On 28th January 1986, 73 seconds after launch, the Challenger’s fuel tank exploded, killing all seven crew members, including McAuliffe. The practice of sending amateurs into space has been abandoned for many years, and the space tourism future was put on hold.

The second attempt took place in April 2001. American businessman Dan Tito paid Space Adventures a whopping $20 million for a seat on a Russian Soyuz rocket to go to the ISS. The journey lasted ten days, eight of which Tito spent at the station in zero gravity at an altitude of 400km from the Earth in the company of professional astronauts. From 2002 to 2009, another 7 millionaires and billionaires followed his example, but after that, no one wanted to part with a significant sum for years.

The tipping point occurred in the summer of 2021 when private aerospace companies Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin sent their first tourists into space, and while these flights were suborbital, they still determined the future of space tourism trends.

Unlike the $20 million eight-day trip to the ISS, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson’s companies offer to spend only three minutes in zero gravity, but the fare is also way lower – $200,000. At the same time, Virgin VSS Unity flight takes 2.5 hours, and Blue Origin New Shepard’s – 11 minutes. This time difference is explained by different launch technologies. Virgin uses an air-launch system (similar to an aeroplane), while Blue Origin uses a classic vertical rocket launch. One thing these two have in common is that both offer to enjoy the view of Earth and starts from space, through panoramic windows from a height of more than 60km.

Virgin has made only one tourist launch so far, while Blue Origin carried out three. The pricing policy has fully justified itself. Seats in the suborbital shuttles of both companies are sold out several years in advance.

As the era of suborbital flights officially began, the interest in orbital flights rekindled. Unwilling to lag behind its main competitors, in September 2021, Space X hastened to launch the first Inspiration 4 orbital mission. The mission implied that four tourists stay on the Crew Dragon ship in orbit for three days. Following in Elon Musk’s footsteps, the Russian Soyuz MS 20 delivered Japanese billionaire Yusaka Maezawa and his assistant to the ISS. This marked an important milestone for space tourism in the future.

What is the future of space tourism?

A study by Northern Sky Research (NSR) analysts suggests that over the next 10 years, about 60,000 passengers will go into space, and the total income from space tourism will be about 20 billion US dollars. What will the future of space travel look like?

Suborbital transportation

Private companies will continue to improve suborbital flight technologies, reducing their cost and improving the quality. However, despite this, interest in suborbital tourism is unlikely to last long due to limited supply. The Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic spacecraft can carry a maximum of six people (including two Virgin pilots) and offer only three minutes in zero gravity. Besides, the ships do not cross the Karman line (100km), beyond which real space begins. However, there is hope.

Experts believe that future space travel technology will be able to replace long air flights. In 2020, SpaceX announced its Starship rocket currently in development will be able to take up to 100 passengers on board and deliver them from one continent to another in less than an hour. More specifically, a 15-hour flight to Shanghai from New York on Starship will take only 40 minutes. If Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic follow the same path, while providing adequate service costs, the demand for suborbital flights will grow steadily.

Orbital vacation

As more companies consider space tourism, orbital vacations will become one of the future space tourism trends. Orbital infrastructure for recreation, including hotels in orbit and on the moon, could become profitable. Interest in the ISS in this regard is already reemerging. In addition, Orion Span and Blue Origin are developing luxury space hotel concepts called Aurora Station and Orbital Reef . Of course, vacations in space are still far away, but many tourists can already visit space themed hotels on Earth. The best of them are located in China, the USA, Canada, and Switzerland.

Will space tourism ever be affordable?

No doubt, only multi millionaires can afford such trips today. Paying 200 thousand dollars for 3 minutes in weightlessness or 20 million for 8 days in space is not something everyone can easily afford. A century ago, ordinary people could hardly pay for a ticket across the Atlantic, and flying on planes was even more expensive. Today, such trips no longer surprise anyone. Once space tourism becomes mainstream, it will also have a positive impact on many socio-economic processes on Earth: job creation, development of new energy infrastructure based on solar energy, etc. This will increase the scale of opportunity and innovation, boost competition, and ultimately make space travel available for ordinary citizens.

Is space tourism a good idea after all?

Every industry has positive and negative aspects, and space travel is no exception. Despite the prospects and benefits, this industry calls for careful risk assessment. Let’s take a look at the main facts about future space travel.

1. High expenses

Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic flights require huge investments in infrastructure and technology that are not paying off at this stage. How much does it cost for space tourism? It is difficult to say, but the costs are in the tens of billions. In fact, these are very expensive toys of billionaires. Of course, they can afford such a luxury at the expense of other, highly profitable businesses, but imagine if this money was spent on more pressing issues, i.e., fighting poverty, hunger, medicine, etc.

2. Passenger health

While astronauts take years to prepare for flights, private individuals will fly with minimal instruction. However, heavy workloads and zero-gravity conditions greatly affect health. According to a recent study involving British astronaut Tim Peake , space travel causes more than a third of astronauts to experience temporary anemia due to the destruction of large numbers of red blood cells. While astronauts remain in a state of weightlessness, this does not cause any problems, but the symptoms appear on Earth, under the influence of gravity. This threatens not only the development of space tourism but also the idea of ​​colonising planets since it creates an increased risk for passengers experiencing conditions exacerbated by anemia. Here, we are, first of all, talking about cardiovascular pathologies, which, according to WHO, top the list of common diseases. In other words, you need to be not only rich but absolutely healthy to fly into space. The combination of these factors significantly reduces the number of potential space tourism customers.

3. Environmental impact

A rocket burns hundreds of tons of fuel to overcome the Earth’s gravity and leave the atmosphere. Of course, humanity is inventing ever-more environmentally friendly fuels, but emissions in the upper atmosphere still destroy the ozone layer and provoke global warming. And although the level of emissions from rockets is less than 1% compared with cars, the development of space tourism will inevitably lead to a significant increase in the number of rocket launches, which means an increase in environmental impact risk.

In addition, emissions are not the only problem with a rocket launch . While technology does not yet allow a full transition to a reusable rocket, there remains a high risk of an uncontrolled fall of the first stages to Earth, spills and fuel leaks during transportation, which inevitably destroys the environment.

And yet, despite all cons, the future of space exploration looks quite promising. Rapid technology development can no longer be stopped. In another 5-10 years, getting from London to Sydney by a rocket in half an hour or spending a vacation in orbit could become as commonplace as ordering a taxi or a hotel room today.

Emma joined the team in 2020 as an Editorial Assistant. She is currently on an internship with us while going through her further education. She is enthusiastic about Science and about Space in particular.

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Space Tourism: Exploring the Future of Cosmic Travel

Space tourism has long been a dream for many, and recent technological advancements have brought this ambitious aspiration closer to reality. Skyrocketing beyond mere science fiction, the emerging market of space tourism has captured the imagination of entrepreneurs and enthusiasts alike.

With the potential for commercial space travel becoming increasingly tangible, the opportunity to explore the cosmos, witnessing Earth from a breathtaking vantage point, will soon be within the reach of ordinary people.

A handful of pioneering companies have ventured into the development of space tourism infrastructure, setting the stage for a new era of exploration and adventure. The industry’s flagship enterprises range from ambitious startups to well-established corporations, all working tirelessly to establish themselves as leaders in an emerging market, fueled by dreams of zero-gravity excursions and lunar vacations.

As we stand at the dawn of a new space age, it’s essential to understand the challenges and opportunities space tourism presents. While the industry is fraught with uncertainties, the promise of making what was once a privilege reserved for astronauts accessible to the general public is driving tremendous innovation. Consequently, space tourism is poised to catalyze an unprecedented era of human achievement and exploration.

Table of Contents

Definition of space tourism.

Space tourism refers to the commercial activity in which private individuals can purchase tickets to travel to space for recreational, leisure, or experiential purposes. Unlike traditional space missions primarily focused on research and development, military operations, or telecommunications, space tourism aims to make space travel accessible to people who are not professional astronauts.

This form of tourism usually involves suborbital, orbital, or lunar trips and may include activities like weightless experiences, Earth observation, and potentially even stays at space hotels or stations.

History of Space Tourism

Space tourism has its roots in the early days of human spaceflight. Alan Shepard, the first American in space, took a brief 15-minute suborbital flight in 1961, but it wasn’t until much later that the concept of space travel for ordinary citizens began to take shape.

In 2001, American businessman Dennis Tito became the first private space tourist when he paid $20 million for a trip to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Tito’s groundbreaking voyage blazed the trail for others to follow. In the following years, a handful of private individuals, including South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth and American businessman Gregory Olsen, followed in Tito’s footsteps, embarking on their space adventures.

The idea of space tourism continued to develop as private companies, such as MirCorp, began making plans for commercial space travel. MirCorp, a now-defunct company, was created to establish a commercial space station called Mir-2, derived from the Russian space station Mir that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001.

The Ansari X-Prize, a competition offering a $10 million prize to the first non-government organization to launch a reusable crewed spacecraft twice within two weeks, played a significant role in the development of the industry. In 2004, SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan and financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, claimed the prize and put space tourism on the map.

Over the years, several high-profile space tourists embarked on their own journeys to space, including Northrop Grumman Corporation researcher Anousheh Ansari, who became the first Iranian and female space tourist in 2006. Microsoft software architect Charles Simonyi visited the ISS twice (in 2007 and 2009), while Richard Garriott, a computer game developer, travelled to space in 2008. Cirque du Soleil Founder Guy Laliberté journeyed there in 2009.

Space tourism continues to evolve today, with private companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic developing reusable spacecraft to make space travel more affordable and accessible to the public. While the industry is still in its infancy, the history of space tourism demonstrates that the dream of space travel is becoming a reality for people from all walks of life.

Major Players in Space Tourism

SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk in 2002, is a leader in the space tourism industry. It focuses on reusable rocket technology, allowing more affordable and accessible space travel. SpaceX has successfully launched and landed the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets multiple times, significantly reducing costs. One of the company’s most ambitious projects is Starship, a fully reusable spacecraft designed for long-duration missions and carrying large crews. SpaceX has plans to take private passengers on lunar trips around the Moon, with the first mission tentatively scheduled for 2023.

Blue Origin

Blue Origin, led by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is another crucial player in the space tourism market. Founded in 2000, the company aims to make space travel more accessible through reusable rocket technology. Its flagship vehicle, the New Shepard, is designed for suborbital flights, offering passengers a few minutes of weightlessness and views of Earth from space. Blue Origin has completed multiple test flights and plans to begin commercial operations shortly.

Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic, founded by Sir Richard Branson in 2004, is focused on creating a world-class space tourism experience. With its unique air-launched spacecraft, SpaceShipTwo, the company aims to offer suborbital flights for passengers, providing several minutes of weightlessness and impressive views of Earth.

Virgin Galactic has completed multiple successful test flights and plans to begin commercial operations soon. More than 600 people have already secured tickets for the first flights, with prices starting at $250,000 per seat.

Although NASA is not explicitly involved in private space tourism, the agency has worked with SpaceX and other companies to support the development of commercial space travel. For example, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program has facilitated the growth of a competitive market for crew transportation to and from low-Earth orbit, serving both government and private-sector customers.

Types of Space Tourism

Suborbital space tourism focuses on taking passengers to the edge of space, providing them with a view of Earth from above and a taste of weightlessness. In these missions, spacecraft reach altitudes between 80 to 100 kilometres before returning to Earth. Suborbital flights last a few minutes and are designed to provide a thrilling and unique experience rather than extended travel to different destinations in space. Several private companies, such as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, are developing spacecraft for suborbital tourism .

• Blue Origin’s New Shepard : This reusable rocket system can carry up to six passengers and reaches altitudes just above the Karman line, providing a few minutes of weightlessness.
• Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo : This air-launched spacecraft also offers passengers a brief experience of weightlessness and a view of Earth from space, with potential for future improvements and modifications.

Orbital space tourism takes passengers to low Earth orbit (LEO) aboard a spacecraft that orbits our planet. These more ambitious missions allow tourists to experience life aboard a space station, observe Earth from a unique perspective, and potentially engage in scientific research. Orbital space tourism has a higher level of complexity when compared to suborbital missions, and there have been fewer orbital tourist flights to date. The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, has previously facilitated orbital space tourism missions.

International Space Station (ISS) visits : Since 2001, a select number of tourists have travelled to the ISS with the assistance of Roscosmos. These orbital missions typically last around ten days, with tourists participating in activities such as spacewalks and observing Earth from the station.

While lunar space tourism , which would involve a journey to the Moon, is not yet available, it represents a potential future development in the industry. Private space companies like SpaceX have announced plans to eventually offer lunar space tourism missions, though specific timelines and details have yet to be confirmed.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Space Tourism

Space tourism is an exciting and evolving field that offers a range of potential benefits and challenges. Here’s a look at some of the advantages and disadvantages:

• Economic Growth : The space tourism industry could become a significant revenue generator, creating jobs and stimulating investment in related sectors like aerospace engineering, hospitality, and training services.
• Technological Advancements : Commercial investment in space tourism can spur technological innovation as companies compete to offer safer, more efficient, and more affordable space travel.
• Public Engagement : The prospect of space tourism can increase public interest and engagement in space exploration and science, potentially inspiring a new generation of scientists, engineers, and ordinary people to look to the stars.
• Global Collaboration : The space tourism industry could foster international cooperation as countries and private enterprises collaborate on regulatory frameworks, safety protocols, and best practices.
• Democratization of Space : Although still expensive, the growth of space tourism could eventually make space more accessible to people other than highly trained astronauts and the military, democratizing the experience of space travel.
• Educational Value : Direct experiences of space travel could offer immense educational value, enhancing our understanding of human physiology in space and giving people a unique perspective on Earth that could promote global unity and stewardship.

Disadvantages

• Cost : Space tourism is extremely expensive, limiting access to a tiny, wealthy fraction of the population. The prices are also resource-intensive, raising questions about sustainability.
• Safety Concerns : Space travel is inherently risky. Even with advanced technology, there is the potential for catastrophic failure, which could result in loss of life.
• Environmental Impact : Rockets used in space travel produce greenhouse gases and black carbon particles that could contribute to climate change. The mining of materials for rocket construction and fuel also has environmental implications.
• Space Debris : Increased activity in space could contribute to the growing problem of space debris, which poses risks to both manned and unmanned missions.
• Regulatory and Ethical Concerns : The space tourism industry will require robust regulation to ensure safety and address a range of ethical considerations, including the potential militarization of space and the treatment of space as a commodity.
• Resource Allocation : Investment in space tourism can be seen as diverting crucial resources from other pressing issues like poverty, healthcare, and education, especially given that the immediate benefits of space tourism are likely to be enjoyed by a select few.
• Exclusivity : Given the high costs and risks involved, space tourism could exacerbate social inequalities by allowing only the wealthy to experience something as unique and transformative as space travel.

The advantages and disadvantages present compelling arguments for and against the development of the space tourism industry. As technology advances and we learn more about the implications of frequent space travel, this balance of pros and cons will likely continue to evolve.

Notable Space Tourists

Dennis Tito was the first space tourist, making history in 2001 when he visited the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The American businessman and former NASA engineer paid a reported $20 million for his trip, opening the door for future space tourists.

Mark Shuttleworth followed Tito as the second space tourist in 2002. Known as the founder of Canonical Ltd., which sponsors the popular Linux-based operating system Ubuntu, the South African entrepreneur spent eight days aboard the ISS after paying about $20 million for his flight.

Gregory Olsen became the third tourist to visit the ISS in 2005. An American entrepreneur and scientist, Olsen paid roughly $20 million for his 10-day stay aboard the ISS. His trip marked another important milestone in the history of space tourism.

Anousheh Ansari was the first female space tourist and the first Iranian in space when she visited the ISS in 2006. A successful entrepreneur and philanthropist, Ansari’s journey as a space tourist garnered global attention, and she has since remained an advocate for space exploration and education .

Charles Simonyi , a Hungarian-American computer programmer who contributed to the development of Microsoft Office, made two trips to the ISS in 2007 and 2009. He is the first and only space tourist to have made multiple visits to the space station.

Richard Garriott , the British-American computer game developer and son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, became the sixth space tourist in 2008. His trip, which lasted 12 days, cost him around $30 million. Garriott is also known for creating the Ultima series of computer games.

Guy Laliberté , the Canadian founder of Cirque du Soleil, travelled to the ISS in 2009. A prominent philanthropist, Laliberté used his trip to raise awareness and funds for his foundation, One Drop, which aims to provide access to clean water worldwide.

Some recent noteworthy space tourists include:

• Jared Isaacman , an American billionaire and founder of Shift4 Payments, led the Inspiration4 mission in 2021, the first all-civilian spaceflight.
• Hayley Arceneaux , a pediatric cancer survivor and physician assistant, joined Isaacman on the Inspiration4 mission and became the youngest American to travel to space at 29.
• Peggy Whitson , a retired NASA astronaut who set records for the most time spent in space by an American astronaut and as the oldest female astronaut, announced in 2021 that she would return to space as a private astronaut.

These remarkable individuals have paved the way for future space tourists as the industry continues to evolve and gain momentum.

Space Tourism Destinations

Space tourism is becoming a reality, with various destinations offering unique experiences for those who want to travel beyond Earth. The first destination to consider is the  International Space Station (ISS) , which offers unparalleled access to microgravity research and breathtaking views of our planet. A select few private citizens have already visited the ISS, paving the way for more opportunities in the near future.

Suborbital space  is another popular destination in space tourism. Companies like Virgin Galactic have successfully launched tourists to the edge of the cosmos. This type of trip provides passengers with a thrilling, albeit brief, experience of weightlessness and allows them to witness the curvature of the Earth during their ascent.

The upper atmosphere presents an ideal option for those looking for a more leisurely destination. This is where passengers can experience the weightless sensation without leaving the Earth’s atmosphere. High-altitude balloons, such as those developed by World View Enterprises, can take passengers up to the edge of the atmosphere, allowing them to experience weightlessness without venturing into outer space.

Finally, one of the most ambitious and anticipated space destinations is the concept of a  space hotel . A space hotel would serve as a luxury accommodation orbiting the Earth, providing guests an unparalleled experience of living in space. Several companies are working on realizing this dream, such as the Orbital Assembly Corporation, which has plans for Voyager Station, a space hotel designed to offer its guests scientific and leisure opportunities.

In conclusion, space tourism is expanding rapidly, offering various destinations and experiences for those eager to explore the cosmos. As technology advances and commercial opportunities grow, there will likely be even more opportunities for adventurous tourists to choose from in the near future.

Space Travel Essentials

Several spacecraft are in development or operation for space tourism, such as SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Starship, Blue Origin’s New Shepard, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (VSS Unity) , and Russia’s Soyuz from Roscosmos. The Crew Dragon and Starship aim to revolutionize space travel by reducing costs and increasing safety. The New Shepard is a reusable suborbital rocket designed for short trips to space, while the VSS Unity operates as a spaceplane targeting suborbital trips as well.

Most of these spacecraft are designed to transport passengers to the International Space Station (ISS) or a short stay in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO). For example, the Crew Dragon spacecraft has already transported astronauts to the ISS. The capsules and spaceplanes typically feature pressurized cabins, comfortable seating, and large windows to allow passengers to enjoy the breathtaking view of Earth below.

Training and Preparation

Space tourists will need to undergo astronaut training before embarking on their journeys to space. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) sets guidelines to ensure space tourist safety. The intensity and duration of training depend on the type of mission and the spacecraft being used. For example, those travelling to the ISS may require more rigorous training than those embarking on suborbital flights.

Training typically includes the following:

• Physical fitness training: To prepare the body for the rigours of space travel and adapt to microgravity environments.
• Environmental training: Familiarization with the spacecraft and its systems, including the pressurized capsule, emergency procedures, and life support systems.
• Simulation and mock-up training: To practice launch, docking, and landing procedures in a safe and controlled environment.

In summary, the essentials of space tourism include selecting an appropriate spacecraft that suits one’s travel goals and undergoing the necessary training and preparation. The future of space tourism shows promise, with advancements being made in reusable rockets, spaceplanes, and astronaut training facilities.

Experiencing Space

Weightlessness and zero-gravity.

Tourists venturing into space will experience a thrilling phenomenon known as weightlessness, also referred to as zero gravity or microgravity. This sensation occurs when the spacecraft reaches an altitude of approximately 100 km, known as the Kármán Line, and begins to enter a free-fall state. As they float through the cabin, passengers will find no discernable up or down, where normal gravity conditions do not apply.

This weightless environment permits tourists to perform actions that would be difficult or impossible on Earth. Some examples include:

• Effortlessly floating through the cabin
• Tossing objects to each other over large distances
• Spinning rapidly in midair

However, weightlessness also presents challenges as the body must adapt to this new environment. It is essential to note that some individuals may experience discomfort or motion sickness when first exposed to microgravity.

Views From Space

One of the most captivating aspects of space tourism is the breathtaking views. Tourists will be gifted with unparalleled sights as the spacecraft ascends beyond the Kármán Line at an altitude of 100 km.

Here are some highlights tourists can expect:

• Earth’s curvature : The vast, curved horizon showcases the planet’s spherical nature.
• Thin atmosphere : A thin blue layer envelops Earth, showcasing the fragility of our atmosphere.
• Landmarks : Iconic geographic features such as coastlines, mountain ranges, and sprawling deserts can be observed from space.
• Night sky : Astronauts have often marvelled at the beauty of the “dark sky”, with more stars visible than ever before due to the absence of atmospheric distortion and light pollution.

These awe-inspiring vistas often evoke a profound connection to our home planet. Space tourism offers adventurous travellers a unique opportunity to experience these phenomena firsthand while gaining a newfound appreciation of Earth’s beauty and fragility.

The Future of Space Tourism

Space tourism is rapidly becoming a reality, with several private companies leading the industry in developing innovative technologies and offering unique experiences for private astronauts. Companies such as Virgin Orbit, Axiom Space, and SpaceX have made significant strides in commercial space travel, laying the foundation for a thriving space tourism industry.

The Inspiration4 mission, a milestone for private space travel, demonstrated the possibilities of what private astronaut missions might look like in the future. With a crew of ordinary civilians, the mission opened doors for both orbital and suborbital tourism. Companies like Virgin Galactic continue to work on suborbital flights, which provide a shorter but exhilarating experience just beyond the edge of space.

Private companies like Axiom Space are also venturing into orbital tourism with initiatives such as Axiom Mission 1. This bold venture aims to send private astronauts to the International Space Station, paving the way for other similar missions. Furthermore, Axiom is developing a space hotel and a private space station for tourists. These ambitious projects can potentially revolutionize human spaceflight and establish a new era of space travel.

As the space tourism industry evolves, addressing concerns surrounding space travel’s environmental impact becomes essential; with climate change increasingly pressing, commercial space travel must prioritize sustainability. Solar power is a promising solution, providing clean energy and reducing the carbon footprint of space tourism. Private companies will need to focus on developing innovative technology to harness solar power efficiently.

As infrastructure develops, spaceports like Spaceport America and Kennedy Space Center will play a crucial role in supporting the space tourism industry. They will provide launch and landing facilities, training, and support for commercial spaceflight, enabling routine space tourism to become achievable. This, in turn, will allow the industry to expand and offer more accessibility to private astronauts.

A variety of space tourism companies are shaping this new frontier. With their efforts, it’s evident that a new age of human spaceflight is on the horizon, and the future of space tourism appears to be a limitless expanse full of possibilities.

Space Tourism Regulations and Challenges

As space tourism gains momentum, it is essential to understand the regulations and challenges surrounding this emerging industry.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) plays a crucial role in regulating space tourism. It is responsible for issuing licenses and permits to private companies for launching and re-entering spaceships. The FAA ensures that every space tourism company adheres to strict safety guidelines and fulfils the necessary requirements before taking tourists on space expeditions.

One major challenge space tourism companies face is managing the expectations and risks associated with space travel. To address this issue, the concept of informed consent has been introduced. Informed consent signifies that passengers must fully comprehend the risks they will be exposed to while travelling in space. Moreover, they must voluntarily agree to undertake these risks and waive their rights to sue the company in case of accidents or mishaps.

The Kármán line, set at 100 kilometres (62 miles) above Earth’s surface, is often considered the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. While the FAA regulates activities below this line, there is a lack of clear, international regulations for space tourism beyond the Kármán line. Developing consensus on the regulations and standards for space tourism will require cooperation from various international space agencies, such as Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.

In summary, the regulation and challenges of space tourism include managing safety protocols, informed consent, and international cooperation on space tourism standards. As the industry grows, understanding the complexities of regulations and addressing the challenges presented will be key to ensuring that space tourism becomes a safe and accessible reality for more and more people.

Impact of Space Tourism on the Economy

Space tourism’s advent can potentially create a significant economic impact. As billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have made headlines with their ventures in this emerging industry, we can observe growing interest among consumers. This section will explore the impact of space tourism on the economy, focusing on the involvement of billionaires, auction-based ticket sales, and the development of spaceports.

Space tourism companies, such as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, pioneered an industry once considered a distant dream. As a result of their ambitious investments, the space economy has witnessed rapid advancements. Tickets for space flights are auctioned, ranging from $200,000 to $300,000 per passenger. These high financial barriers ensure that only the wealthiest will initially be able to participate, though the cost is expected to drop as the industry matures.

Despite the considerable fees, there is significant demand for the unique experience that only space travel can offer. The wealth amassed by participants in the space tourism sector aids in funding research and technology development, contributing to economic growth. As the industry continues to expand, additional job opportunities may arise in sectors such as engineering, manufacturing, and hospitality.

Spaceport America is an example of a dedicated space travel hub that has the potential to invigorate local communities. This facility is located in New Mexico and serves as a launchpad and operations centre for commercial space travel. As space tourism becomes more prominent, regional economies benefit from increased tourism, job creation, and infrastructure investments associated with these spaceports.

Space tourism will undoubtedly impact the economy on multiple levels, from the participation of billionaire investors to the development of innovative spaceports. This new frontier has the potential to create jobs and drive technological advancements while offering a unique travel experience . As the sector grows, we can expect further developments to reshape how we traverse our galaxy.

Passing Thru Travel

Travel Beyond Earth: Exploring the Future of Space Tourism

Posted: March 22, 2024 | Last updated: March 22, 2024

Space tourism, once a mere figment of science fiction, rapidly evolves into a tangible reality, offering the most intrepid travelers an unprecedented opportunity to venture beyond Earth’s confines. This burgeoning industry promises to redefine the boundaries of exploration, providing experiences ranging from suborbital flights to extended stays in space stations. As private companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic spearhead this new era, the dream of gazing upon Earth from the vastness of space is closer than ever. This guide explores the forefront of space tourism, presenting ideas that mark the future of extraterrestrial travel.

1. Suborbital Spaceflights

Image Credit: Shutterstock / Dima Zel

Suborbital spaceflights represent the threshold of human space exploration, offering a brief yet profound journey beyond the confines of Earth’s atmosphere. This experience allows you to witness the curvature of the Earth against the backdrop of the infinite cosmos, a sight that has transformed the perspective of many astronauts.

During the flight, you’ll experience a few minutes of weightlessness, floating freely within the cabin, an exhilarating and serene sensation. Companies leading this venture, such as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, utilize cutting-edge spacecraft designed for safety, comfort, and the optimal viewing experience. The flights are meticulously planned, with each phase — from the rocket’s ascent to the silent glide back to Earth — maximizing the passenger’s experience of space.

Insider’s Tip: Opt for a comprehensive training program offered by these companies to prepare physically and mentally for the rigors and euphoria of space travel.

2. Orbital Spaceflights

Orbital spaceflights are the next frontier for private space tourism, offering an extended stay in low Earth orbit. This experience goes beyond the brief moments of weightlessness, allowing you to live and move in space, witnessing multiple sunrises and sunsets in a single day from the vantage point of a spacecraft. Currently, this level of space travel is offered by companies like SpaceX, which plans to use its Crew Dragon spacecraft to transport private citizens to orbit.

While aboard, you’ll experience life as modern astronauts, from sleeping in zero gravity to observing the Earth from a unique orbital perspective. The journey is about experiencing the day-to-day life of an astronaut, making it a profoundly transformative experience.

Insider’s Tip: Engage in a rigorous pre-flight conditioning regimen to ensure you can fully enjoy and participate in the activities and demands of living in space.

3. Space Hotels

Image Credit: Shutterstock / Alones

The concept of space hotels is set to revolutionize space tourism, offering a luxurious stay in orbit. These hotels, planned by companies like Axiom Space, aim to attach habitable modules to the International Space Station or even construct free-flying space stations designed for commercial use.

Guests can expect accommodations that combine the thrill of space with the comforts of Earth, including rooms with views of the planet below, space-grown food, and recreational activities adapted for microgravity. The development of space hotels highlights the growing accessibility of space travel, promising an extraordinary vacation destination that was once the realm of astronauts.

Insider’s Tip: Keep an eye on the development progress of these stations and plan for a longer training period to acclimate to extended periods in microgravity.

4. Lunar Flybys

Lunar flybys mark an ambitious step in space tourism, offering private citizens the chance to journey around the Moon. This mission, reminiscent of the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s, promises an unparalleled adventure, bringing you up close to the lunar surface before witnessing the Earth rising over the Moon’s horizon.

SpaceX’s Starship is one of the spacecraft intended to make such missions possible, providing a comfortable and safe journey for those aboard. The experience of seeing the Moon up close and the Earth in full view offers an extraordinary sense of our place in the universe and the interconnectedness of all life on our planet.

Insider’s Tip: Such a mission requires physical preparation and a deep commitment, as it represents one of the longer-duration space tourism experiences currently planned.

5. Zero-Gravity Flights

Image Credit: Shutterstock / Frame Stock Footage

Embarking on a zero-gravity flight offers an unparalleled introduction to the sensations of space without leaving Earth’s atmosphere. This experience simulates the weightlessness of outer space through parabolic flight patterns, creating moments where gravity’s pull is momentarily negated.

Inside a specially modified aircraft, you’ll float, flip, and soar as if in space, providing a unique taste of what astronauts experience aboard the International Space Station. The flights are meticulously planned and executed, involving a series of steep climbs and descents, with each parabola offering around 20 to 30 seconds of weightlessness.

For those dreaming of space travel, this adventure is an accessible and exhilarating preview, requiring minimal training compared to orbital missions. It’s a favorite among space enthusiasts, researchers, and educators for its educational value and the sheer joy of experiencing microgravity.

Insider’s Tip: Focus on mastering movements in microgravity during the flight to maximize the experience. Quick acclimation allows for more freedom and enjoyment during the brief periods of weightlessness.

6. Spacewalk Simulations

Image Credit: Shutterstock / vicspacewalker

Spacewalk simulations offer an immersive experience that closely mimics the extravehicular activities (EVAs) performed by astronauts in the vacuum of space. Utilizing advanced virtual reality (VR) technology and neutral buoyancy labs, these simulations give participants a realistic sense of the challenges and exhilaration of conducting a spacewalk.

In neutral buoyancy labs, participants are submerged in large pools equipped with full-scale models of spacecraft and space station modules, allowing them to practice tasks under conditions that simulate microgravity. VR simulations, on the other hand, use cutting-edge graphics and motion-sensing technology to create detailed, interactive environments where participants can explore and work on virtual spacecraft or satellites.

These experiences are designed not only for entertainment but also as educational tools, offering insights into the physics of space, the complexity of astronaut tasks, and the teamwork required to complete a mission outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

Insider’s Tip: Take the time to learn about the intricacies of real space missions to enhance the realism and immersion of the simulation experience.

7. Astronaut Training Experiences

Astronaut training experiences are comprehensive programs designed to simulate the physical and mental preparation required for space travel. These programs cover a wide range of activities, from high-G force centrifuge training to simulate rocket launches to underwater neutral buoyancy sessions that mimic the weightlessness of space.

Participants also engage in classroom sessions where they learn about spacecraft operations, navigation, and the science behind human spaceflight. Additionally, survival training exercises prepare participants for emergency scenarios, including how to safely return to Earth in unforeseen circumstances.

These experiences are offered by various space agencies and private companies, aiming to provide an authentic glimpse into the life of an astronaut and the rigorous training they undergo.

Insider’s Tip: Embrace every aspect of the training for a holistic understanding of the physical and psychological demands of space travel.

8. Visits to Space Launch Facilities

Image Credit: Shutterstock / Northfoto

Visits to space launch facilities offer a unique opportunity to witness the intersection of human ingenuity and cosmos exploration. Facilities like NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and SpaceX’s launch site at Boca Chica, Texas, provide guided tours where visitors can see launch pads, vehicle assembly buildings, and control rooms.

These tours often include exhibits on the history of space exploration, showcasing spacecraft, satellites, and memorabilia from historic missions. For those interested in the future of space travel, some facilities also offer the chance to see the latest aerospace technology and spacecraft being prepared for upcoming missions.

Witnessing a live rocket launch is a highlight of visiting these facilities, offering a tangible sense of the power and potential of space exploration.

Insider’s Tip: Plan your visit to coincide with a live rocket launch for an unforgettable experience, but be prepared for schedule changes due to weather or technical delays.

9. Space Camps for Adults

Image Credit: Shutterstock / Mike_shots

Space camps designed for adults blend the thrill of space exploration with the rigor of astronaut training in an immersive, educational environment. These camps offer a comprehensive overview of space science, including hands-on activities like building and launching model rockets, simulating space missions, and navigating obstacle courses designed to mimic the physical challenges of space travel.

Beyond the physical activities, workshops, and lectures from experts in the field provide insights into the complexities of spaceflight, the history of space exploration, and the future of humanity in space. This experience is about fulfilling childhood dreams and understanding the teamwork, problem-solving, and technical knowledge required for space missions.

Whether you’re a space enthusiast looking to deepen your understanding or simply seeking an adventure out of this world, adult space camps offer an unforgettable journey into the final frontier.

Insider’s Tip: Engage fully in the camp activities and network with fellow space enthusiasts to enrich your experience and foster connections within the space tourism community.

10. Virtual Reality Space Exploration

Image Credit: Shutterstock / Gorodenkoff

Virtual reality (VR) space exploration represents the cutting edge of technology, allowing you to traverse the cosmos from the comfort of your own home. High-definition visuals and immersive audio transport you to other worlds, from the International Space Station to the rugged terrain of Mars. These experiences are crafted with attention to scientific accuracy, offering not just entertainment but an educational journey through space and time.

You can embark on guided tours of extraterrestrial landscapes, participate in simulated space missions, and learn about the cosmos in an engaging, interactive format. VR technology continues to evolve, promising ever more realistic and expansive explorations of the universe. For those fascinated by space but not ready to leave Earth, virtual reality offers a compelling window into what lies beyond our planet.

Insider’s Tip: Invest in a high-quality VR headset and explore the various space exploration programs available to maximize the realism and depth of your virtual space experience.

The Bottom Line

Image Credit: Shutterstock / Skreidzeleu

As space tourism evolves, these journeys become increasingly accessible to those who dream of the stars. Whether through a brief parabolic flight or an ambitious journey around the Moon, the opportunities for adventure beyond Earth’s atmosphere are expanding. Each of these experiences requires financial investment, a commitment to preparation, and a willingness to embrace the unknown.

As you contemplate your place in the cosmos, remember that the essence of space tourism lies in pushing the boundaries of human experience, offering a new perspective on our planet and our place within the universe. The future of travel beyond Earth promises new destinations and a new understanding of what it means to explore.

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The post Travel Beyond Earth: Exploring the Future of Space Tourism republished on Passing Thru with permission from The Green Voyage .

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock / Andrei Armiagov.

For transparency, this content was partly developed with AI assistance and carefully curated by an experienced editor to be informative and ensure accuracy.

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The future of space tourism is now. Well, not quite

Ilida Alvarez has dreamed of traveling to space since she was a child. But Alvarez, a legal-mediation firm owner, is afraid of flying, and she isn’t a billionaire – two facts that she was sure, until just a few weeks ago, would keep her fantasy as out of reach as the stars. She was wrong.

Alvarez, 46, and her husband, Rafael Landestoy, recently booked a flight on a 10-person pressurized capsule that – attached to a massive helium-filled balloon – will gently float to 100,000 feet while passengers sip champagne and recline in ergonomic chairs. The reservation required a $500 deposit; the flight itself will cost $50,000 and last six to 12 hours.

“I feel like it was tailor-made for the chickens like me who don’t want to get on a rocket,” said Alvarez, whose flight, organized by a company called World View, is scheduled to depart from the Grand Canyon in 2024.

Less than a year after Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson kicked off a commercial space race by blasting into the upper atmosphere within weeks of each other last summer, the global space tourism market is skyrocketing, with dozens of companies now offering reservations for everything from zero-pressure balloon trips to astronaut boot camps and simulated zero-gravity flights.

But don’t don your spacesuit just yet. While the financial services company UBS estimates the space travel market will be worth $3 billion by 2030, the Federal Aviation Administration has yet to approve most out-of-this-world trips, and construction has not started on the first space hotel. And while access and options – not to mention launchpads – are burgeoning, space tourism remains astronomically expensive for most.

First, what counts as space travel?

Sixty miles (about 100 kilometers) above our heads lies the Kármán line, the widely accepted aeronautical boundary of the earth’s atmosphere. It’s the boundary used by the Féderátion Aéronautique Internationale, which certifies and controls global astronautical records. But many organizations in the United States, including the FAA and NASA, define everything above 50 miles to be space.

Much of the attention has been focused on a trio of billionaire-led rocket companies: Bezos’ Blue Origin, whose passengers have included William Shatner of “Star Trek” fame; Branson’s Virgin Galactic, where tickets for a suborbital spaceflight start at $450,000; and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which in September launched an all-civilian spaceflight, with no trained astronauts on board. Branson’s inaugural Virgin Galactic flight in 2021 reached about 53 miles, while Blue Origin flies above the 62-mile mark. Both are eclipsed by SpaceX, whose rockets charge far deeper in to the cosmos, reaching more than 120 miles above Earth.

Balloons, like those operated by World View, don’t go nearly as high. But even at their maximum altitude of 18 or 19 miles, operators say they float high enough to show travelers the curvature of the planet, and give them a chance to experience the overview effect – an intense perspective shift that many astronauts say kicks in when you view Earth from above.

Now, how to get there …

Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, which are both licensed for passenger space travel by the FAA, are open for ticket sales. (Blue Origin remains mum on pricing.) Both companies have hundreds or even thousands of earthlings on their wait lists for a whirl to the edge of space. SpaceX charges tens of millions of dollars for its further-reaching flights and is building a new facility in Texas that is under FAA review.

Craig Curran is a major space enthusiast – he’s held a reserved seat on a Virgin Galactic flight since 2011 – and the owner of Deprez Travel in Rochester, New York. The travel agency has a special space travel arm, Galactic Experiences by Deprez, through which Curran sells everything from rocket launch tickets to astronaut training.

Sales in the space tourism space, Curran acknowledges, “are reasonably difficult to make,” and mostly come from peer-to-peer networking. “You can imagine that people who spend $450,000 to go to space probably operate in circles that are not the same as yours and mine,” he said.

Some of Curran’s most popular offerings include flights where you can experience the same stomach-dropping feeling of zero gravity that astronauts feel in space, which he arranges for clients via chartered, specialized Boeing 727s that are flown in parabolic arcs to mimic being in space. Operators including Zero G also offer the service; the cost is around $8,200.

You can almost count the number of completed space tourist launches on one hand – Blue Origin has had four; SpaceX, two. Virgin Galactic, meanwhile, on Thursday announced the launch of its commercial passenger service, previously scheduled for late 2022, was delayed until early 2023. Many of those on waiting lists are biding their time before blastoff by signing up for training. Axiom Space, which contracts with SpaceX, offers NASA-partnered training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center. Virgin Galactic, which already offers a “customized Future Astronaut Readiness program” at its Spaceport America facility in New Mexico, is also partnering with NASA to build a training program for private astronauts.

Would-be space tourists should not expect the rigor that NASA astronauts face. Training for Virgin Galactic’s three-hour trips is included in the cost of a ticket and lasts a handful of days; it includes pilot briefings and being “fitted for your bespoke Under Armour spacesuit and boots,” according to its website.

Not ready for a rocket? Balloon rides offer a less hair-raising celestial experience.

“We go to space at 12 miles an hour, which means that it’s very smooth and very gentle. You’re not rocketing away from Earth,” said Jane Poynter, a co-founder and co-CEO of Space Perspective, which is readying its own touristic balloon spaceship, Spaceship Neptune. If all goes according to plan, voyages are scheduled to begin departing from Florida in 2024, at a cost of $125,000 per person. That’s a fraction of the price tag for Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, but still more than double the average annual salary of an American worker.

Neither Space Perspective nor World View has the required approval yet from the FAA to operate flights.

Unique implications

Whether a capsule or a rocket is your transport, the travel insurance company battleface launched a civilian space insurance plan in late 2021, a direct response, said CEO Sasha Gainullin, to an increase in space tourism interest and infrastructure. Benefits include accidental death and permanent disablement in space and are valid for spaceflights on operators like SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, as well as on stratospheric balloon rides. They’ve had many inquiries, Gainullin said, but no purchases just yet.

“Right now it’s such high-net-worth individuals who are traveling to space, so they probably don’t need insurance,” he said. “But for quote-unquote regular travelers, I think we’ll see some takeups soon.”

And as the industry grows, so perhaps will space travel’s effect on the environment. Not only do rocket launches have immense carbon footprints, even some stratospheric balloon flights have potentially significant implications: World View’s balloons are powered by thousands of cubic meters of helium, which is a limited resource. But Ted Parson, a professor of environmental law at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that space travel’s environmental impact is still dwarfed by civil aviation. And because space travel is ultra-niche, he believes it’s likely to stay that way.

“Despite extensive projections, space tourism is likely to remain a tiny fraction of commercial space exploration,” he said. “It reminds me of tourism on Mt. Everest. It’s the indulgence of very rich people seeking a transcendent, once-in-a-lifetime experience, and the local environmental burden is intense.”

Stay a while?

In the future, space enthusiasts insist, travelers won’t be traveling to space just for the ride. They’ll want to stay a while. Orbital Assembly Corp., a manufacturing company whose goal is to colonize space, is building the world’s first space hotels – two ring-shaped properties that will orbit Earth, called Pioneer Station and Voyager Station. The company, quite optimistically, projects an opening date of 2025 for Pioneer Station, with a capacity of 28 guests. The design for the larger Voyager Station, which they say will open in 2027, promises villas and suites, as well as a gym, restaurant and bar. Both provide the ultimate luxury: simulated gravity. Axiom Space, a space infrastructure company, is building the world’s first private space station; plans include Philippe Starck-designed accommodations for travelers to spend the night.

Joshua Bush, CEO of travel agency Avenue Two Travel, has sold a handful of seats on upcoming Virgin Galactic flights to customers. The market for space travel (and the sky-high prices that come with it), he believes, will evolve much like civilian air travel did.

“In the beginning of the 20th century, only very affluent people could afford to fly,” he said. “Just as we have Spirit and Southwest Airlines today, there will be some sort of equivalent of that in space travel, too. Hopefully within my lifetime.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .

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Cosmic Forecast: Blurry With a Chance of Orbital Chaos

Astronomers have gotten better at tracking the motions of stars just beyond the solar system. But that’s made it harder to predict Earth’s future and reconstruct its past.

By Dennis Overbye

Regardless of what stock market analysts, political pollsters and astrologers might say, we can’t predict the future. In fact, we can’t even predict the past.

So much for the work of Pierre-Simon Laplace, the French mathematician, philosopher and king of determinism. In 1814, Laplace declared that if it were possible to know the velocity and position of every particle in the universe at one particular moment — and all the forces that were acting on them — “for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain, and the future, just like the past, would be the present to it.”

Laplace’s dream remains unfulfilled because we can’t measure things with infinite precision, and so tiny errors propagate and accumulate over time, leading to ever more uncertainty. As a result, in the 1980s astronomers including Jaques Laskar of the Paris Observatory concluded that computer simulations of the motions of the planets could not be trusted when applied more than 100 million years into the past or future. By way of comparison, the universe is 14 billion years old and the solar system is about five billion years old.

“You can’t cast an accurate horoscope for a dinosaur,” Scott Tremaine, an orbital dynamics expert at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., commented recently in an email.

The ancient astrological chart has now become even blurrier. A new set of computer simulations, which take into account the effects of stars moving past our solar system, has effectively reduced the ability of scientists to look back or ahead by another 10 million years. Previous simulations had considered the solar system as an isolated system, a clockwork cosmos in which the main perturbations to planetary orbits were internal, resulting from asteroids.

“The stars do matter,” said Nathan Kaib, a senior scientist with the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz. He and Sean Raymond of the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux in France published their results in Astrophysical Journal Letters in late February.

The researchers discovered that a sunlike star named HD 7977, which currently lurks 247 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia, could have passed close enough to the sun about 2.8 million years ago to rattle the largest planets in their orbits.

That added uncertainty makes it even harder for astronomers to forecast more than 50 million years into the past, to correlate temperature anomalies in the geological record with possible changes in the Earth’s orbit. That knowledge would be useful as we try to understand climatic changes underway today. About 56 million years ago, Dr. Kaib said, the Earth evidently went through the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum, a period lasting more than 100,000 years during which average global temperatures increased as much as 8 degrees Celsius.

Was this warm spell triggered by some change in Earth’s orbit around the sun? We may never know.

“So I’m no expert, but I think that’s the warmest period in, like, the last 100 million years,” Dr. Kaib said. “And it’s almost certainly not caused by the Earth’s orbit itself. But we do know that long-term climate fluctuations are tied to Earth’s orbital fluctuations. And so if you want to figure out climate anomalies, it helps to be confident in what Earth’s orbit is doing.”

Dr. Tremaine noted, “The simulations are carefully done, and I believe the conclusion is correct.” He added, “This is a relatively minor change in our understanding of the history of the Earth’s orbit, but it is a conceptually important one.”

The really interesting story, he said, is how chaos in Earth’s orbit could have left a mark in the paleoclimate record.

The ability to track the movements of stars just beyond the solar system has been dramatically improved by the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft, which has been mapping the locations, motions and other properties of two billion stars since its launch in 2013.

“For the first time we can actually see individual stars,” Dr. Kaib said, “project them back in time or forward, and figure out which stars are close to the sun and which ones haven’t come close, which is really cool.”

According to his calculations, about 20 stars come within one parsec (about 3.26 light-years) of the sun every million years. HD 7977 could have come as close as 400 billion miles from the sun — about the distance to the Oort cloud, a vast reservoir of frozen comets on the edge of the solar system — or remained a thousand times as distant. Gravitational effects from the closer encounter could have rattled the orbits of the outer giant planets, which in turn could have rattled the inner planets like Earth.

“That is potentially powerful enough to alter simulations’ predictions of what Earth’s orbit was like beyond approximately 50 million years ago,” Dr. Kaib said.

As a result, he said, almost anything is statistically possible if you look ahead far enough. “So you find that, for instance, if you go forward billions of years, not all the planets are necessarily stable. There’s actually about a 1 percent chance that Mercury will either hit the sun or Venus over the course of the next five billion years.”

Whatever happens, chances are we won’t be around to see it. Stranded in the present, we don’t know for certain where we came from or where we are going; the future and the past recede into myth and hope. Yet we press forward trying to peer past our horizons in time and space. As F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in “The Great Gatsby”: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

An earlier version of this article misstated the possible distance between HD 7977 and the sun. It was 400 billion miles, not 4 billion. It also misstated Sean Raymond’s affiliation. He is at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux in France, not the University of Oklahoma.

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Dennis Overbye is the cosmic affairs correspondent for The Times, covering physics and astronomy. More about Dennis Overbye

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New 3D cosmic map raises questions over future of universe, scientists say

Researchers say findings from map with three times more galaxies than previous efforts could challenge standard idea of dark energy

The biggest ever 3D map of the universe, featuring more than 6m galaxies, has been revealed by scientists who said it raised questions about the nature of dark energy and the future of the universe.

The map is based on data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (Desi) in Arizona and contains three times as many galaxies as previous efforts, with many having their distances measured for the first time.

Researchers said that by using this map, they have been able measure how fast the universe has been expanding at different times in the past with unprecedented accuracy.

The results confirm that the expansion of the universe is speeding up, they added. However, the findings have also raised the tantalising possibility that dark energy – a mysterious, repulsive force that drives the process – is not constant throughout time as has previously been suggested.

Dr Seshadri Nadathur, a co-author of the work and senior research fellow at the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, said: “What we are seeing are some hints that it has actually been changing over time, which is quite exciting because it is not what the standard model of a cosmological constant dark energy would look like.”

Prof Carlos Frenk, from Durham University and a co-author of the research, said that if dark energy was indeed constant in time, the future of the universe was simple: it would expand on and on, for ever. But if the hints found in the map stood up, that would be called into question.

“Now all of that goes out the window and essentially we have to start from scratch, and that means revising our understanding of basic physics, our understanding of the big bang itself, and our understanding of the long-range forecast for the universe,” he said, adding that the new hints left open the possibility that the universe might undergo a “big crunch”.

The research, which has been published in a series of preprints – meaning it has yet to be peer-reviewed – reveals how the team first created the 3D map, then measured patterns in the distribution of galaxies that relate to sound waves that occurred in the early universe, known as baryon acoustic oscillations.

As the size of these patterns is known to be regular, the team was able to calibrate the distances to different galaxies in the map, allowing them to work out how fast the universe has been growing over the last 11bn years, with a precision better than 0.5% over all times, and better than 1% between 8bn and 11bn years ago.

Frenk said the precision itself of the measurements was notable given that galaxies could be billions of light years away, and billions of years old. “It’s mind-boggling that we can measure anything to a precision of 1%, which is precision you get in the laboratory in physics for high-precision measurements,” he said.

Andrew Pontzen, professor of cosmology at University College London and author of the book The Universe in a Box, who was not involved in the work, said Desi was one of a slew of exciting new astronomical surveys cataloguing the night sky, with one of the primary goals being to measure the rate at which our expanding universe has speeded up.

“Like measuring the acceleration of a car, charting the universe’s expansion tells us about the ‘engine’ powering cosmic acceleration. That engine is known as dark energy,” he said.

However, Pontzen noted that our knowledge of how dark energy operates was limited. “The new data, when combined with existing measurements, would seem to contradict the simplest possible explanations for dark energy,” he said.

“At face value, that’s an exciting step forward. But as the team themselves caution, there is a huge amount still to understand about this data and early results should be taken with a healthy grain of salt.”

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NASA’s NEOWISE Extends Legacy With Decade of Near-Earth Object Data

This artist’s concept depicts the NEOWISE spacecraft in orbit around Earth. Launched in 2009 to survey the entire sky in infrared, the spacecraft took on a more specialized role in 2014 when it was reactivated to study near-Earth asteroids and comets.

As the infrared space telescope continues its long-duration survey of the universe, it is creating a unique resource for future astronomers to make new discoveries.

NASA’s NEOWISE mission has released its 10th year of infrared data – the latest in a unique long-duration (or “time-domain”) survey that captures how celestial objects change over long periods . Time-domain astronomy can help scientists see how distant variable stars change in brightness and observe faraway black holes flaring as they consume matter. But NEOWISE has a special focus on our planet’s local cosmic neighborhood, producing a time-domain infrared survey used for planetary science, with a particular emphasis on asteroids and comets.

Short for Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, NEOWISE is a key component of NASA’s planetary defense strategy, helping the agency refine the orbits of asteroids and comets while also estimating their size. One such example is the potentially hazardous asteroid Apophis , which will make a close approach of our planet in 2029.

This top-down animated view of the solar system shows the positions of all the asteroids and comets detected by NEOWISE in the decade since its reactivation in 2014.

By repeatedly observing the sky from its location in low-Earth orbit, NEOWISE has made 1.45 million infrared measurements of over 44,000 solar system objects. That includes more than 3,000 NEOs, 215 of which the space telescope discovered. Twenty-five of those are comets, including the famous comet NEOWISE .

“The space telescope has been a workhorse for characterizing NEOs that may pose a hazard to Earth in the future,” said Amy Mainzer, NEOWISE’s principal investigator at the University of Arizona and University of California, Los Angeles. “The data that NEOWISE has generated for free use by the scientific community will pay dividends for generations.”

From Data to Discovery

Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the mission sends data three times a day to the U.S. Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System ( TDRSS ) network, which then delivers it to IPAC , an astronomical data research center at Caltech in Pasadena, California. IPAC processes the raw data into fully calibrated images that are accessible online. It also generates NEO detections, sending them to the Minor Planet Center – the internationally recognized clearinghouse for the position measurements of solar system bodies. By searching multiple images of the same patch of sky at different times, scientists capture the motion s of individual asteroids and comets.

Need Some Space?

“The science products we generate identify specific infrared sources in the sky with precisely determined positions and brightnesses that enable discoveries to be made,” said Roc Cutri, lead scientist for the NEOWISE Science Data System at IPAC. “The most fun thing when I look at the data for the first time is knowing that no one has seen this before. It puts you in a unique position of doing real exploration.”

IPAC will also produce data products for NASA’s NEO Surveyor , which is targeting a launch no earlier than 2027. Managed by JPL, with Mainzer serving as principal investigator, the next-generation space survey telescope will seek out some of the hardest-to-find near-Earth objects, such as dark asteroids and comets that don’t reflect much visible light but shine brighter in infrared light.

Two Missions, One Spacecraft

The NEOWISE spacecraft launched in 2009, but as a different mission and with a different name: the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE , which set out to survey the entire sky. As an infrared telescope, WISE studied distant galaxies, comparatively cool red dwarf stars, exploding white dwarfs, and outgassing comets, as well as NEOs.

An infrared telescope requires cryogenic coolant to prevent the spacecraft’s heat from disrupting its observations. After the WISE telescope’s ran out of coolant and was no longer able to observe the universe’s coldest objects, NASA put the spacecraft into hibernation in 2011. But because the telescope could still detect the infrared glow of comets and asteroids as they are heated by the Sun, Mainzer proposed to restart the spacecraft to keep an eye on them. The mission was reactivated in 2014 and renamed NEOWISE, extending the life of a spacecraft that was initially planned for less than a year of operation.

“We are 14 years into a seven-month mission,” said Joseph Masiero, NEOWISE’s deputy principal investigator and a scientist at IPAC. He started at JPL as a postdoctoral researcher working on WISE just two months before the spacecraft launched on Dec. 14, 2009. “This little mission has been with me my entire career – it just kept going, making new discoveries, helping us better understand the universe,” Masiero added. “And if it wasn’t for the tyranny of orbital dynamics, I’m sure the spacecraft would continue to operate for years to come.”

Solar activity is causing NEOWISE to fall out of orbit, and the spacecraft is expected to drop low enough into Earth’s atmosphere that it will eventually become unusable.

“NEOWISE has lasted way past its original spacecraft design lifetime,” said Joseph Hunt, NEOWISE project manager at JPL. “But as we didn’t build it with a way to reach higher orbits, the spacecraft will naturally drop so low in the atmosphere that it will become unusable and entirely burn up in the months following decommissioning. Exactly when depends on the Sun’s activity.”

More About the Mission

NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor support the objectives of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office ( PDCO ) at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The NASA Authorization Act of 2005 directed NASA to discover and characterize at least 90% of the near-Earth objects more than 140 meters (460 feet) across that come within 30 million miles (48 million kilometers) of our planet’s orbit. Objects of this size can cause significant regional damage, or worse, should they impact the Earth.

JPL manages and operates the NEOWISE mission for PDCO within the Science Mission Directorate. The Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, built the spacecraft. Science data processing takes place at IPAC at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

For more information about NEOWISE, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/neowise

http://neowise.ipac.caltech.edu/

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Ian J. O’Neill

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