by Saurabh Dubey

If you travel enough places, you will have enough tales to tell. Exploring new places expands one’s social horizon and the traveller gains a wider appreciation of different cultures. Trotting the Terra Firma, depends on how deep is the desire to visit a certain place and even more importantly, how deep the pocket really is to make that trip, now this here is a classic predicament. This is the writer’s personal predicament most of the times as well which brings him back down to earth!

But what if, the money aspect wasn’t an impediment, and the said place wasn’t even actually on this earth, but right at the edge of space! You need not be an astronaut but certainly must have an astounding amount of money and you may very well be able to leap beyond the Karman Line. [Karman Line is named in honor of the Hungarian-American aerospace engineer Theodore von Kármán who came to the conclusion through his calculations which zeroed in on the answer as to at what altitude does the spacefaring aircraft’s speed needs to be, so it can be kept aloft by the aerodynamic force (lift) which is essential to counterbalance the downward pull of gravity. Karman arrived at the calculation for the altitude to be of 100 kms i.e. 62 miles].

The global space tourism market size is expected to reach USD 8.67 billion by 2030. Space tourism can be categorized into suborbital and orbital tourism. Suborbital tourism allows human spaceflight to the edge of space without sending the vehicle into orbit followed by a brief period in low gravity before returning to Earth via descent. During a suborbital flight, the craft never makes it into orbit. A flight duration in suborbital flight ranges from a few minutes to a few hours. In orbital tourism the traveller experiences flight into orbit. In orbital flight the craft stays in orbit, as in continually going around the planet at a very high speed so as to avoid falling back on Earth. Such trips can long for several days or weeks.

The primary distinction between sub-orbital and orbital space travel is the speed of a spacecraft. A suborbital rocket travels at a speed below orbital velocity, whereas an orbital spacecraft must reach orbital velocity. Companies in the domain of space tourism are focusing more on commencing and commercializing suborbital flights in the future as they can reuse the rockets and save on their manufacturing costs. At the moment the suborbital space tourism market is dominated by two companies: Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin. Tickets for Virgin Galactic suborbital space flights are being sold at a cost of $4,50,000 for their 90-minute spaceflight.

Space tourism is but a tiny subset of the larger domain of the space industry and at the moment it is poised to see exponential growth in the coming decades. It’s true that the cost of a ticket to space is ‘sky high’ at the moment but with companies investing in innovations to make spaceflights more efficient the expense for obtaining the ticket for a space sojourn maybe pared down reasonably if not considerably. The process of optimizing the efficacy of the entire gamut of operations ranging from but not limited to; access to expertise in research and development both in house and collaborative, adequate avenues for fund raising when needed, ultimately, ensuring cost efficacy and also mitigating the carbon footprint when it comes to operating spaceflights for tourism in space, all of these aspects need robust guidelines/legislations and support from the government/institutions.

One of the best ways to go about it would be to elicit the support of the National Space organizations of the country. Case in point NASA. NASA recently funded three companies to develop commercial space stations, which totalled to $415M. Blue Origin received $130 million, Nanoracks received $160 million, and Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation received $125.6 million. These developments help support and very well could possibly sustain the growing demand for space tourism, which in turn will provide and enhance the critical infrastructure needed to support it. Due to significant technological innovations coupled with the amplified interest in having access to space, the space tourism market is expanding.

2021 Was A Pioneering Year For Forays Into Space Tourism

"I did tell my kindergarten teacher I would go to space someday, and she said she'd be watching." "Inspiration4 is the realization of a lifelong dream and a step toward a future in which anyone can venture out and explore the stars" - Jared Isaacman

On September 15, 2021, entrepreneur Jared Isaacman organized the Inspiration4 mission, it was the world’s first all-civilian mission, which was a testament to the potential in space tourism. The space tourists lifted off aboard a SpaceX rocket.

The Inspiration4 was Jared Isaacman's privately funded trip to Earth's orbit with a philanthropic aim that raised lots of money for a children's research hospital. “Resilience and its four occupants circled Earth for three days, splashing down off the Florida coast on Sept. 18.” The primary purposes of Inspiration4, were to raise awareness and funds for St. Jude and to begin "a new era for human spaceflight and exploration (According to the mission's official media briefing)." In the same year, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos launched themselves and their few lucky compatriots into space on brief suborbital trips.

And 2023 Could Add Further Momentum To The Above Race For Space Tourism

Virgin Galactic is looking ahead to launch its first flight to the edge of space in nearly two years. Later this month the flight will carry two pilots and a crew of four Virgin Galactic employees. The company expects it will be their final test run before Virgin Galactic can commence flights for paying customers after years of promises and missed deadlines.

If everything goes ahead without any more hitches, Virgin Galactic expects to begin commercial services out of its spaceport in New Mexico starting this June. (The company has sold about 800 tickets total, including 600 at prices ranging from $2,00,000 to $2,50,000 and 200 more at $4,50,000, which is the current ticket price, according to their media statement).

India Is Aiming To Launch Itself In The Same League Of Space Tourism Pioneers

Former ISRO chairman K Sivan back in October, 2018 had said that India needs to explore space tourism. "We are creating capacity for it so that we do not lag behind." ISRO with its immense prowess in launching satellites and orbiters into space is attempting to put an astronaut in space through its ambitious program Gaganyaan - India's maiden human spaceflight programme. Through this colossal endeavour ISRO is summoning all its expertise in the development of various technologies which are essential building blocks for human space missions which could subsequently be adapted to explore space tourism opportunities as well.

2030 is the target for ISRO to thrust itself into the domain of space tourism. ISRO chairman, S Somnath said that the per-ticket cost for a trip to space is likely to be around ₹6 crore, which is at par with other existing global players in the domain of space tourism. “People who take the trip will also be able to call themselves astronauts,” Somnath said.

And if you can’t wait till 2030, then a Mumbai-based start-up, ‘Space Aura’ aims to ferry tourists to the edge of space (30 to 35 kilometre above the sea level for about an hour) in a space capsule attached to a unique high-altitude balloon system by 2025 and the fare has been ascertained to be nearly 50 lakhs for an individual space tourist. Indian ingenuity is indeed leaving its indelible mark on every domain from earth to the ethers and its every facet is immensely gratifying and in this particular case gravity defying!

A Philosophical View

Apart from the technical and commercial aspects of space tourism or space exploration in general, if we look at the inherent desire of us humans to explore the cosmos, it is partly driven by the curiosity of rediscovering our cosmic origins. How prophetic a sojourn to space would be, observing the cosmic cauldron in its constant state of flux, the intensity of its ebbs and flows, observing the magnificent blue marble from the solitude of space? I could go on waxing eloquent, describing the vicarious thrill and peace I am feeling while writing about the out of this world experience, but am sure, if I were to witness this moment even for a few fleeting minutes, I would be left speechless as the profundity of this journey would be truly life altering and exalting. I mean we truly have cosmic origins, the iron in our blood the calcium in our bones, our DNA which is made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus, all of it has been bestowed upon us by the exploding stars.

YATHA PINDE TATHA BRAHMANDE, YATHA BRAHMANDE TATHA PINDE which translates into: “As is the individual, so is the universe, as is the universe, so is the individual" or "As is the human body, so is the Cosmic Body, as is the cosmic body so is the human body". Excerpt from the Yajurveda.

Saurabh Dubey is a defence analyst who tracks military and aerospace issues closely. Views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of IDN