Holidays in space

How close are we to mass tourism in orbit?

When Neil Armstrong became the first man to step out onto the Moon’s surface on 21st July 1969, travelling into space became a reality. Now, in 2010, the dreams sparked by that moment are rapidly approaching reality. In less than five years, the ability to travel into orbit for a holiday in the same time it takes to hop on a plane to Florida or drive down to the coast will be possible. There’s a new breed of tourism about to be created – space tourism.

Space tourism isn’t simply a holiday in space. It’s probably more accurate to say is that there are two different types of trip: orbital and sub-orbital.

The first, orbital, is already in operation. It allows passengers to spend up to 12 days in space, during which time they travel at 17,500mph and circle the earth every 90 minutes. Described as the most exhilarating experience known to man, space travellers on an orbital adventure are over 200 miles above the Earth’s surface and undergo the thrill of weightlessness whilst witnessing stunning views of earth.

Space Adventures, based on the east coast of North America, make this dream happen. They have been running these trips now for the past nine years, with an initial cost of £13.5m. The cost of an orbital mission now stands at $24m. The high price tag means that the number of travellers is unsurprisingly small; those that have been up have done so overwhelmingly for research and charity purposes, not just for the thrill.

These first adventures opened the door to full holidays in space. Space Adventures take their customers all the way to the International Space Station, where they stay for several days working with astronauts before returning home. Currently the only way of experiencing this trip is by travelling on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, the workhorse of Soviet space design that’s been in service for 43 years. Their monopoly will soon be broken by a fleet of privately-owned spacecraft designed specifically with tourism in mind – and some new destinations to travel to.

Hotels in orbit

As an alternative to the International Space Station, space hotels are already in orbit – in prototype form, at least. The potential for space hotels has been recognized by US company Bigelow Aerospace, who are leading the way. The Las Vegas technology start-up has been working on an inflatable space habitat since 2005: a cylinder made from flexible materials strong enough to withstand the showers of micrometeorites and debris in orbit, but light enough to launch economically.

In February this year, Bigelow announced that it would be offering 30-day stays in a Bigelow habitat in orbit for £15m. That includes transport, training and consumables in a space hotel that’s twice as big as the International Space Station. It sounds like a pipe dream – but consider that Bigelow have already launched and tested two 4.4m-long Genesis 1 models into orbit, and it’s only a small leap to imagine what will come next.

"We need to make low-Earth orbit work first before we go beyond… but I believe we will," Bigelow Aerospace director Michael Gold told SPACE.com last month. "Once we've established a robust infrastructure in Earth orbit, created the economies of scale necessary to produce facilities in low Earth orbit… at that point, we've really enabled ourselves to look at a variety of options. We want to go to the moon, and the expandable habitats are a good example of an enabling technology that will be leveraged to bring this vision to fruition.”

Second-generation spaceman

Only eight people have traveled into orbit on a tourist ticket. Richard Garriott, a 48-year-old Texan computer games entrepreneur is the seventh. In October 2008 Garriott became the first second-generation American astronaut to go into space: his dad, Owen, had spent 60 days aboard Skylab working for NASA in the '70s. Gariott described his experience orbiting the Earth as “amazing… but if you get distracted, you can miss it, it happens so fast.”

“The views of Earth are, of course, spectacular,” he adds, “But it is a bit different from the way I've heard others describe it. I always heard the only object you can see from space is the Great Wall of China, but that's complete bunk. It's a heck of a lot like looking out of an aeroplane window, when you look down you can see aeroplane contrails; you can the wake of ships coming in and out of harbours; you can see bridges, major roadways and farmer's fields.”

Sub-orbital space trips

Launching into orbit is expensive and exclusive, as you can tell from the short roster of tourists. Sub-orbital space travel is a more commercial option, despite the fact that it is currently still in development. Virgin Galactic is pioneering the move towards the first sub-orbital commercial space flight, with the view to start taking off by as early as 2013. Sub-orbital flight essentially allows travellers to view the Earth from space, experience weightlessness in zero G and participate in the birth of the space travel industry.

Both Virgin and Space Adventures plan to launch sub-orbital trips. The flight profile is already known. Passengers fly 63 miles (100 kilometres) above the Earth where they spend a few glorious minutes admiring the wonders of space before returning. Although passengers are only up in space for just a few minutes, the whole experience lasts for three days, in addition to three days of training. The cost of the experience ranges from £69,000 if you travel with Space Adventures, while Virgin Galactic’s price tag is nearly double at £136,000.

Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn says his company mission is clear: “to provide the catalyst for private sector innovation in the field of manned space exploration”. The company also prides itself on its green credentials, with CO2 emissions per passenger on a spaceflight equal to 60% of a return commercial London/New York flight. That’s thanks to their craft employing lightweight carbon composite materials and a piggyback launch from the air. 

Whitehorn stresses that aside from green credentials, their primary focus was safety. “Nothing like this has ever been done before,” he explains. “We want to make sure that the service is completely safe before we start full commercial operations, so we are in no rush to confirm dates at the moment, however so far testing has been going very well.”

When they launch, the company expects to fly 600 people within its first year of operation, with the view to have flown 50,000 within the first ten years. So far 85,000 people from 125 countries have registered their interest in the flights, while at present they company has sold 340 tickets, holding £31m in deposits.

A rapid development

These massive figures aren’t hard to understand when Whitehorn goes into detail about what passengers will experience. SpaceShipTwo flights, he explains, will have a flight time of two hours, reaching supersonic speeds with 8 seconds on rocket ignition, exceeding mach 3 within 30 seconds. On re-entry, passengers will be taking 6Gs – a massive rush for any astronaut.

Despite the rapid development the company has seen in the last year, Whitehorn was quick to put an end to the recent rumours in the press claiming that Virgin Galactic are to operate out of the UK from a spaceport in Scotland by as early as 2013. Whitehorn described the stories as merely speculative at the moment, asserting that there is currently no legislation or regulatory permission in place for the operation of flights out of the UK.

Whitehorn added: “We have no plans to operate out of the UK at the present time, we are currently solely focusing on our operation out of the US.” That said, he confirmed that Scotland was one the favoured sites in the UK, should the legislation permitting operation be passed, with Lossiemouth, Kinolass and Machrihanish all being considered as potential locations.

Space Tourism isn’t just about the adrenalin junkie, however. It also offers the potential for wider research for the development and progression of science. As Stacey Tearne, Vice President of Communications, Space Adventures told WideWorld: “This new wave of technology is not just about Space Tourism, that’s just one small part of it. Further travels into space like those on offer through our Sub Orbital and Orbital missions have the power to really benefit mankind.

“Many of our space travellers who have visited the International Space Station have conducted scientific research in pharmaceuticals, the atmosphere and precious minerals. It’s not just about the adventure, it’s about experiencing the wider world, inspiring the next generation and looking at ways to benefit the world in which we live”.

Whitehorn was also quick to rubbish claims that the development of space tourism is just another hobby for the super-rich, citing the first transatlantic flight in 1939 as a means of defence. “Everything new when it first launches is expensive. Tickets for the first transatlantic flight cost £60,000. The price will come down over time, I would expect it to be in the vein of £36,000 within seven to eight years.”

A set date for the first commercial space flight has yet to be announced but Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn indicates that it is only a few years away. At the end of March, the company successfully completed its first ‘Captive Carry’ test flight from Mojave Air and Spaceport in California. It was a moment their spaceship designer Burt Rutan described as: “…the start of what we believe will be extremely exciting and successful spaceship flight test program.”

The first flight may be a few years away, and at the moment have a high price tag attached. One thing is for certain: it won’t be long before many of us will be able to follow in the wake of one small step for man.