Space Tourism | Universe Today

Written by Tega Jessa

Think of being able to go to the nearest travel agency or going online to an online traveling website and booking a trip not just to Jamaica or Europe but to Space. This idea is quickly becoming more possible today than at any other time since space exploration began and it has actually begun. But why is space tourism suddenly being seen as a possibility? One of the reasons is that it is being seen as the new source of revenue for space exploration.

One of the biggest challenges to space exploration is money. It cost a lot to do research and apply it into working models. This challenge can be daunting as often the biggest sources of funding right now are governments. This has the downside of politics. For example it took the threat of a seemingly technologically superior Soviet Union to get the United States started in earnest with its own space program. Now, especially as the United States goes through an economic recession, this poses a unique challenge to the future of space exploration. One of the interesting developments has been the idea of commercializing space exploration by using space tourism.

The beginning of space tourism could be found within established government space programs. Russia, in early days of its space program, aggressively recruited and trained cosmonauts for its mission even going to partner nations of the Soviet Union’s for candidates. The United States did something by creating a position called "payload specialist" which allowed for representatives of companies sponsoring the payloads carried to space to take part in mission. Later towards the end of the 1990s the Russian space program was strapped for cash and actually started offering trips to space for tourist who could pay the fare of around $12 to $20 million. Many of these first tourists were multimillionaires, famous entrepreneurs who could easily pay the fare. You might remember that Lance Bass a member of the pop group Nsync was supposed to be a passenger before he dropped out.

The first tourist was an American engineer and entrepreneur, Dennis Tito. While he was a former NASA scientist, Mr. Tito made his fortune in investments with brokerage company Wilshire Company. Another famous tourist was Anouseh Ansari, whose family founded the Ansari X prize the commercial space competition that spawned SpaceShipOne. This along with the success of privately built spacecraft is starting a whole new industry in tourism. Major entrepreneurs like Richard Branson are already investing in companies specializing in private spacecraft. This bodes well for the future of space tourism.

If you enjoyed this article there are many others you can read on Universe Today. There is an excellent article on space hotels and another article about plans to built the world's first spaceport.

There are also some great articles and resources on the web. There is an article about Virgin Galactic getting new investors from Abu Dhabi. There is also a great article on the How Stuff Works website.

You can also check out an episode of Astronomy Cast. Episode 84 "Getting Around the Solar System" is particularly interesting.

Filed under: Astronomy

Tags: Ansari X prize, Richard Branson, Space Flight, Space Tourism, space travel, virgin galactic