Space Tourism: A wonderful recreation for rich people
Introduction:
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| Space tourism |
In the 21st century, space has been a new recreational place for human being. Interest of people is rapidly increasing to explore the space. With this space tourism concept, space has been more accessible to non astronauts and those want to travel space other than scientific purposes.
Three private companies are now competing with each other to be the leader in this space tourism business. The name of the Companies are – Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic and Space X.
The progress of the above three companies will decide the fate of the space tourism in the future and whether space travel can become one day as accessible as air travel.
Previous Space Tourists:
The first space tourist was Dennis Tito, who in 2001 visited International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz TM-32 spacecraft by paying USD 20 million and spent eight days there. Only seven other private citizens had travelled to space till 2009 and after that Russian space agency had closed the business of selling tickets to private citizens.
Recent Developments:
Recently, Richard Branson owner of Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos owner of Blue Origin had visited the space. Richard Branson became the first person to travel to space in his own rocket. Richard Branson was accompanied by 5 crew mates including Sirisha Bandla a woman of Indian origin. Sirisha Bandla thus became the third Indian origin woman to travel space after Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.
Types of space tourism:
Human travel to space can be divided into three categories such as orbital, sub-orbital and lunar.
In orbital category, spacecraft must achieve and maintain a velocity by which it will orbit around the planet. The velocity of the spacecraft should be around 28000 Km/hour.
In suborbital type, the spacecraft flies at a lower speed than orbital spacecrafts. In this type, the spacecraft flies at a sped of around 6000 Km/hour. The spacecraft will fly to a certain height and then come back down once its engines are shut off. At the top of their flight arc, passengers in a sub orbital vehicle achieves a feel of weightlessness and free fall for few minutes. The above mentioned three companies provide suborbital type of space tourism.
Virgin Galactic:
Richard Branson, This can carry 6 passengers at a time in its Spaceship Two vehicle.A ticket costs around $ 250000.
Blue Origin:
Owner Jeff Bezos. Blue Origin launches with a domed capsule on top of the about 60 foot tall booster rocket. It ascends straight up, with the capsule separating near the top of the flight from the booster. After it reaches an altitude of more than 330,000 feet, or about 100 kilometers, the capsule floats for a few minutes in microgravity before returning back to Earth. It descents down using a system of parachutes to land.
SpaceX:It uses Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule, has now entered the orbital tourism arena. The SpaceX launch system is similar to Blue Origin's, but with a more powerful rocket and a larger capsule.In it seven passengers can sit on top of a 230 foot tall Falcon 9 rocket booster.
Significance:
Space tourism can involve a huge market and an estimated market of 2.4 million people for such flights.
Concerns:
Climate Change: Black carbon or Soot that results from rocket emissions accumulated in the stratosphere. These cannot be removed by rain or winds, as it is in the lower atmosphere. As a result, black carbon may occupy in the stratosphere for years that can deteriorate the climate.
Health: It can cause health concerns as passengers could also face motion sickness and disorientation, which can affect vision, cognition, balance and motor control.
Future Aspects:
There are several concerns regarding safety, comfort and health factors to be considered. Before tourists travel to space, they should be properly trained, medically examined.
This can help in creating jobs, educating citizens about space.
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