Space Tourism
Closer Than You Might Think
Good evening and thank you for having me back to speak to you at the Sydney Space Association.
I was lucky enough to be asked along here to address you on the subject of the terraforming of Mars last year and it was an experience I very much enjoyed.
I hope those of you that were there that night also got something out of my talk.
Tonight I'll be talking about the wonderful idea of space tourism and the progress we're making towards ordinary people - you and me - leaving behind the bonds of gravity and travelling into space. Imagine being able to buy a ticket to the moon as cheaply as you can now buy a ticket to Europe. Imagine if booking a couple of weeks in an orbiting space hotel was as easy as booking a holiday in Fiji. Or if you could use your frequent flyer points to get on the international space station. Well, buying an afforfable ticket for space travel migbt be closer than you might think.
I'd like to start with an historical perspective, explaining what's happened so far and who the first space tourists have been.
I'd then like to look at what's happening currently and what your options are if you have a bit of money to spend and want to be a space tourist.
Finally I'd like to look ahead to what space tourism promises in the not too distant future.
But first for those of you that I haven't met before, please allow me to introduce myself and tell you a little about my background.
My name, as you've just heard, is Daniel Dasey. My background is in journalism rather than space science.
I've been a journalist now for 15 years and I've worked on The Sun-Herald, The Sydney Morning Herald and for a number of trade, regional and suburban papers.
For the past three years I have written the Discovery science column in The Sun-Herald each week, covering issues ranging from space travel to endangered species from genetic engineering to water conservation.
This year I have also started writing a blog - a web log - that deals with science issues on the internet page of The Sydney Morning Herald. People who visit the site can read my articles and then immediately post a comment, telling me whether they agree with what I've written or whether they think I've totally missed the point.
It's immediate and exciting and quite a change for someone used to working on a weekly newspaper. You get an instant feel for whether an article has connected with people or not.
I've had along time interest in science and space and continue to be a voracious reader of science fiction.
I'm a subscriber to the Australian Skeptics association magazine and a member of Australian Mensa.
Since I spoke to you last a year ago I've had the chance to write about some fantastic space issues.
The column has featured stories on the Japanese Hayabusa mission to the Itokawa asteroid; on the involvment of Australian company EOS in tracking and managing space junk; on the Stardust sample return mission and the stardust craft's 4.5 billion kilometre journey around the solar system.
I've had the chance to write about minibots being developed by NASA to explore planetary surfaces; about plans for floating spheres to be used in space; about the Sydney academic who has designed inflatable habitats for use on Mars.
The column has included stories on the KEO space time capsule; alternative methods of getting satellites into space; and on Wilson da Silva and Alan Finkel, Australia's first two space tourists. More on them later.
I was born in 1969, the year of the first moon landing, and as a child I used to read a book written in 1959 called You Will Go To The Moon.
Maybe some of you read it too.
It was authored by Mae and Ira Freeman, with fantastic illustrations, and told the story of an ordinary family taking a trip to the moon aboard a rocket. Once they arrived they even climbed up an incline to check out the moon house that had been built for them.
''You can see more from the top of this hill,'' the book read.
''Look! Do you see that house? That is the moon house. That is where you will live on the moon.''
To a child it was exciting and inspiring. The book made it sound like space travel for ordinary people was just around the corner and would be no more dangerous than, say, taking a bus between capital cities.
As we know, in the 45 years since the book was written, reality hasn't quite lived up to science fiction.
But we are making progress and space travel for non-astronauts is now a reality.
I should start by saying there's some debate over the exact definition of space travel and who the first space tourist was.
According to some camps it was Toyohiro Akiyama, a Japanese television reporter who the Tokyo Broadcasting System paid $37 million to carried on board the Mir space station in 1990. Akiyama orbited the earth in Mir for a week, doing broadcast and conducting simple experiments. However, he's generally discounted as a space tourist because he was a working journalist whose company paid for the trip.
Other camps suggest the first tourist was British chemist Helen Sharman. She was chosen by a group called Project Juno to become the first Briton in space and also flew on Mir. Her trip followed Akiyama's in 1991. However again she is discounted by most as a space tourist because she was a working cosmonaut with a full training regime.
The consensus opinion is generally that it was American Dennis Tito who paid for his own visit to the international space station on-board a soyuz rocket in 2001.
Tito got his chance to fly in space, in part because post-Perestroika the Russian space program was eager for injections of cash. It didn't hurt that it meant they would beat the Americans to a space first.
Tito was originally scheduled to visit the Mir space station, which at the end of its working life had been sold off to a private company, Mircorp.
Mircorp had a waiting list of wealthy individuals keen to become space tourists, but was unable to produce the funds necessary to keep the space station in good working order. It was deorbited in 2001.
Instead the Russian space program, which has about one tenth NASA's budget and was looking for ways of bolstering its revenue, accepted Tito's business.
In a deal brokered by the American company Space Adventures, the Russians agreed to fly Tito, a Santa Monica investment banker, to the International Space Station on-board a Soyuz rocket for $26 million.
Space officials from other nations, including America, initially objected to the plan, saying the trip would be a major inconvenience and they did not want to accept responsibility for his safety.
However, when Tito signed a deal absolving anyone of the responsibility for his death and agreed to pay for any breakages, they relented.The 60-year-old underwent intensive instrucyion at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre at Star City, about 90 minutes from downtown Moscow.He received flight training, zero-gravity training, ISS systems training, full medical flight screening and physical and survival training.
Fiinally on April 28th 2001, he boarded Soyuz mission TM32 alongside russian cosmonauts Yuri Baturin and Talgat Musabeyev and blasted off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
Not long after the craft docked with the international space station and Tito spent a week in space, assisting the crew when he could, but mainly just enjoying the ride of his life.
When he touched down on Earth again on May 6, he was exuberant and adamant the $26 million was money well spent.
"I've had the time of my life,'' Tito said..
''I've achieved my dream and nothing could have been better,"
Tito's trip showed space tourism was possible and it inspired others to do the same.
Three other missions have followed in the past five years, all booked like Tito's, through Space Adventures.
On April 25, 2002, Mark Shuttleworth a south African entrepreneur forked out $26 million to climb on-board soyuz tm34.
Following a year's training he spent eight days in space, most of it aboard the ISS, conducting experiments related to AIDS and genome research.
He was the first african national in space and returned to earth on may 5.
His reaction? "It was just the most wonderful experience ever. It was fantastic."
Next it was the turn of Gregory Olsen an entrepreneur and scientist from the united states.
He blasted off on October 1, 2005 aboard soyuz tma7 and returned october 10. His comments on landing: ``I was able to achieve my goal of getting into space and the highlight was just floating in air and looking out.''
Of course, the most recent space tourist was Anousheh Ansari who visited the iss after lifting off as part of soyuz tma9 on september 18 this year.
An iranian american, Ansari was the first female space tourist and brought a woman's perspective to space travel. She said the smell of space travel was like a ''burned almond cookie.''
In a blog that endeared her to many people Ansari described washing her hair by opening a water bag to make a huge bubble over her head, rubbing in dry shampoo and then being careful not to make movements that would burst the bubble into small pieces of water floating everywhere.
She confessed she had lost her lip gloss after it floated off in zero gravity.
Up until now the only other form of space ''tourism available'' has been travel by proxy and zero gravity flight within the earth's atmosphere.
A number of companies have been offering consumers the chance to blast belongings into sub- orbital space - about 100km - and then retrieve them. Goods ranging from car keys to photographs and humans ashes travel in a non pressurised compartment aboard a rocket which briefly leaves the atmopshere before crashing back to earth. The service costs about $150 for payloads up to 350 grams.
The other option is a zero gravity flight.
A Fort Lauderdale-based company Zero Gravity Corporation offers weightless flights. After paying out $5000 for a ticket, Passengers board a modified Boeing 727 which then flies parabolic arcs. As the craft rapidly descends towards earth from great height passengers float through the cabin, experiencing similar sensation to floating in space.
While these are both interesting concepts, I'm sure you'll agree no subsistute for real space travel.
But good news is at hand for those who want to experience space but aren't multi-millionaires.
Several private companies are now offering sub-orbital space flights for about $265,000, with operations beginning as soon as 2007.
If they deliver what they promise tens of thousands of people will experience the thrill of spaceflight in the coming decades. That's quite an achievement when you consider up until now less than 500 people have been in space.
The first private, manned space flight took place on June 21, 2004 when a craft dubbed SpaceShipOne left a Californian desert runway and flew into history and sub-orital space. In doing so the craft, designed by respected aeronautics designer Burt Rutan won the Ansari X prize, a privately funded $13 million award aimed at encouraging space tourism. 26 teams had been competing for the prize.
Three months later British entrepreneur Richard Branson announced he would acquire the technology with a view to beginning space flights within three to five years.
Planning is progressing well and we now know much about how the flights will work.
Passengers will be seated in an eight person spacecraft dubbed which will then be attached to a launchcraft, a specially-designed, conventional aeroplane.
The plane will take off and at a height of about 18 km, the spacecraft will be deployed and rocket itself out of the atmosphere to a height of 110 km.
Passengers will enjoy seven minutes of weightlessness before the craft descends to earth and lands like a plane.
The cost of a trip is about $260,000 and Virgin Galactic expects to become fully operational in 2009.
Despite the high price at least three Australians have signed up for tickets, virgin blue chief executive Brett Godfrey and science writers Alan Finkel and Wilson da Silva.
Thousands of others from around the world have also applied to be among the first passengers on the spaceline's flights.
But Virgin is far from alone in its vision for space tourism based around sub-orbital flights and several companies are rushing to join the market.
The American company Rocketplane Limited hopes test fly its sub-orbital space craft the Rocketplane XP in 2007 with a view to beginning commerical services shortly after. As with Virgin Galactic ticket prices are expected to be about US $260,000 with passengers experiencing four minutes of weightlessness after travelling to a height of 100 km.
Another American firm, Blue Origin, owned by by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos is more secretive about their plans, although it's believed the company is developing a vehicle called the New Shepard. Unmanned test flights were expected to begin at the end of 2006 and once passenger flights began, the company expected up to 52 launches a year.
In Europe a consortium of five technology companies called Project Enterprise is working to develop a rocket powered craft that will carry two to five people on a sub-orbital trip to an altitude of 130km. It began work in 2004 and the first commercial flight is planned for 2010.
Canadian company PlanetSpace is developing craft based on the World War II German V2 rocket. British firm Reaction Engines has high hopes for a craft designed to burn air like a jet plane at low altitudes, then burn oxygen at high altitudes. This will enable it to take off from the runway rather than piggyback on a rocket or aircraft, like the shuttle.
Space Adventures is taking bookings for a $140,000 suborbital space flight.
And I could go on, listing the plans of companies including Starchaser, Armadillo Aerospace and XCOR Aerospace. All propose suborbital space flights of between 100 and 160km and all hope to be operational in the next five years and selling tickets for between $140,000 and $260,000.To launch all these flights space ports are planned in locations ranging from Texas to New Mexico to Scotland and the United Arab Emirates and Nova Scotia.
Pundits says over the next decade prices are likely to come down to about $100,000 australian and beyond that to about $25,000. Not too far out of the reach of someone like you or me who is after a once in a lifetime splurge.
And the near future promises still more in terms of space tourism.
Imagine boarding a shuttle in a desert space port and a few hours later docking at a space hotel, orbiting high 360 km above the Earth. You and your partner clamber from a shuttle craft into the hotel, made up of inflatable modules, and settle in for a week's stay. Later that night you enjoy dinner in zero gravity, watching the sun rise over the Earth.
Your only problem? Finding the cash to meet the $1.3 million a night per person tab.
American hotel billionaire Robert Bigelow is leading the charge in developing just such a concept and hopes to have a resort up and operational in six years.
Currently his company Bigelow aerospace is pioneering work on expandable space modules. These are structures that are sent up into orbit in deflated state and then filled with gas once in space. The concept was intially developed by NASA and bigelow argues the structures will be strong and safe.
Earlier this year he successfully deployed Genesis-1, his first module for testing in space. He plans to follow this up with up to half a dozen furth modules in the next couple of years before launching Nautilus, a larger module in 2008.
Bigelow recently told Popular Science magazine he hoped to have his first space hotel, CSS skywalker, up and running by 2012.
For the concept to be viable he needs a re-usable craft, like the American space shuttle, that can ferry customers to and from his orbiting hotel.
With that in mind, he recently established America's Space Prize, a $66 million contest that calls on competitors to design and build a re-usable craft that would hold five people.
To win the money aeronautics companies, who must be based in America, must complete two demonstration missions to a height of at least 400 km by January 2010.
The winner would also be guaranteed first rights on a contract with Bigelow to provide passenger services to the hotel.
One of the companies who may just take out the prize is PlanetSpace who are reportedly developing just such a craft.
The company last year unveiled images of the Silver Dart, an eight person orbital craft which may also be used to provide commerical services to NASA. The ship is designed to glide from hypersonic speeds of Mach 22 down to landing.
Another near future space tourism option is the space walk.
Space adventures, the company which negotiated for Dennis Tito and the three other space tourists to travel into space, is offering future tourists the opportunity to leave the safety of the international space station and float free in a space suit. It's a concept that boggles the mind, experiencing zero gravity outside of a space craft. I can only imagine it would be one of the most exhillerating and yet humbling experiences a human can undergo.
But again, it won't come cheap. Space Adventures will charge you an additional $20 million for the privliedge on top of the $26 million for just getting into space.
Perhaps one of the next two slated space tourists, Charles Simonyi and Daisuke Enomoto will take up the offer.
As we move further into the future the space tourism experience on offer is likely to become more and more extravagant.
Russia's federal space agency Roskosmos has announced it is considering offering in the near future a $130 million trip to the moon.
The fortnight-long trip would include a week at the international space station before blasting off to the moon and completing a full orbit 160 kilometres above its surface.
A single tourist accompanied by one astronaut could go on each trip in a modified Soyuz-TMA capsule to be launched from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Critics have warned a trip to the moon poses far greater technical risks and danger than the relatively short flight to the ISS, experienced by space tourists to date.
The space station is only 360 km from the Earth's surface in low orbit whereas the moon is almost 390,000 km away and would take about three days to reach.
Still, I think it's very likely someone will soon come forward to accept the challenge.
Beyond that, if space tourism continues to prove popular we can look forward to a lunar hotel.
Former Hilton Hotel boss Barron Hilton was among the first to suggest the idea in 1967.
Speaking to the American Astronomical Society in that year he said his company would eventually branch out to a moon branch and he expected it would would be located below the moon's surface and include about 100 guest rooms.
Since then numerous groups have produced detailed plan for such a hotel.
In the late 1990s hilton unveiled plans for a modern five-star Lunar Hilton, with 5000 rooms.
It would have restaurants, a church and even a beach. Food would come from farms on the moon's surface and the ice discovered at the moon's poles could be used for water. Moon buses would transport guests on low-gravity excursions outside the hotel. They would first have to get used to wearing special boots because of the lack of gravity on the Moon. Peter George, the chairman of Hilton International said the company was in talks with NASA about a partnership to ship guests to the complex.
The Japanese company Shimizu Corporation also has plans for an inflatable resort, complete with tennis courts and golf courses.
Another Japanese firm Nishimatu Corporation Corporation produced plans for Escargot City which it hoped would comprise three 10-storey inflatable buildings shaped like snail shells.
In 2001 Hans-Jurgen Rombaut of the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture in the Netherlands designed a lunar hotel that he said could be up and running by 2050.
He said the design exploited the unique conditions on the Moon and the building materials available there.
Beyond the moon the course of space tourism really depends on how space technology develops.
With Mars currently a six month one way trip away it seems less likely as space tourism destination. But with improved space technology over the coming decades who knows what will be possible. I think it's idea, waking up in a hotel on Mars and looking out thwe window to see the rugged Martin landscape.
Who knows perhaps one day we'll see a Contiki package tour of the whole solar system, where you board a big red rocket ship and wake up at a new planet each morning.
Finally, I'd like to give the last words in my speech to Bert Rutan, the legendary aeronautical engineer who designed SpaceShipOne, the first manned commercial craft to fly into space.
When asked on a recent Australian visit about space tourism he said he believed in the next 15 years there would be flights for the public into space from Australia. He Expected orbital hotels not long after.
He said while it was neither safe nor affordable to fly the public into space yet, the time would come soon. "I do think I'll be able to see affordable flights for the public to the moon in my lifetime so, in the next 40 to 45 years, I think you're going to see that," he said. "I think you'll have resort hotels in orbit within 30 years."
As lovers of space, let's hope Mr Rutan is right.
