Space tourism – from lofty dreams to commercial reality

By Dick Pelletier

     Space tourism has come a long way in a short time. The idea was just a dream in the 1990s, but recently, four tourists have shelled out $20 million apiece for an eight-day trip to the International Space Station.

     Though only the rich can afford space travel today, experts predict prices will soon drop with new systems under development. By 2008, Virgin Galactic’s returnable Space-Ship-Two hopes to provide orbital round-trips for $200,000, and one-day, take vacationers to the moon.

     By 2018, the Space Elevator, a revolutionary system based on a nanotech-ribbon extending 62,000 miles from Earth to space could transport passengers into the wild blue yonder for as low as $20,000 initially, then could drop to $2,000 when multiple elevators become available.

     As more people become space travelers, they will need a place to stay. Budget Suites of America owner Robert Bigelow plans to send a human-rated habitat module dubbed Sundancer, to an altitude of 250 nautical miles at an orbital inclination of 40 degrees. Once Sundancer is in position and verified safe, Bigelow will add more components creating a full-scale lodging complex by 2012.

     Satellite Industry Association President Richard Dalbello says, "Once hotel companies start to build and operate orbital accommodations, they will be endlessly improving them and competing to build more and more exotic facilities”. We will see hotels that provide normal gravity for rooms, bars, and restaurants; and gravity-free areas for recreation and sports activities.

     Space projects are already becoming lucrative. According to the Space Foundation, global space activities generated $180 billion in revenues last year, mostly from private satellite launches.

     Futon Corp., an aerospace consulting firm, recently found that human suborbital space tourism could become a $1 billion industry by 2020. The firm said that by then, about 15,000 people a year, mostly vacationers would take trips into space staying at hotels and visiting attractions such as theme parks and the International Space Station.

     At the September 2006 Space conference in San Jose California, entrepreneurs and scientists floated a host of ideas for other space businesses including shuttle services, moon colonization outfits, and asteroid mining.

     Space Foundation CEO Elliot Pulham talked of mining a giant asteroid expected to pass close by in 2019. Scientists believe this space rock known as A-3554 is full of valuable metals like nickel and platinum and could generate $20 trillion in revenues. Enthusiasts predict asteroid mining will become the largest and most profitable industry in space by mid-century.

     Once travel to orbit becomes cheap, more people will visit space. Some for vacations, others to visit relatives in space colonies; and, drawn by astronomical salaries, a few diehards will choose to work in space. Jobs include manufacturing, construction, mining, engineering, and hotel positions.

     Will this ‘magical future’ become reality? When yours truly was in high school in the 1940s, I wished that one day I could fly in an airplane, but wondered if it would ever really happen. Yet within one generation, plane trips became routine; and today, more than one billion people fly every year.

     Where might space development lead civilization? Positive-thinkers believe that by as early as the next century, more humans could live in space than on Earth.

This article appeared in various print publications and on-line blogs. Comments always welcome.