SPACE TOURISM

Space Tourism

General Information

In the wake of the Cold War, it is becoming exceedingly difficult for governments to justify spending billions of dollars to keep the space industry alive. More specifically, the idea that government funds will continue to be spent on the development of new launch vehicles is no longer acceptable as other economic problems seem to grow year by year. There already exists an oversupply of launch vehicles for the small satellite market that exists today. Furthermore, society's view on the use of government resources for space activities with such small visible returns, is deteriorating.

In the absence of a fully re-usable launch system with much lower launch costs, the space industry has almost no chance of developing into a self-sustaining, commercially viable industry. In order to justify the development costs of a vehicle with these capabilities, the current demand for launch rates has to increase substantially. One possible source for this increased launch demand is civilian space tourism, that is, short visits to low earth orbit by fare paying consumers.

Tourism itself, is one of the world's largest industries. The concept of space travel and experiencing weightlessness in zero-gravity has always been a topic of high interest. It is a dream that many people hold for a lifetime. The adventure of experiencing a space flight and the excitement of viewing the earth from space will likely create a large demand for space tourism. The possibility of attracting investors to supply the capital necessary to build a new transport vehicle for space or orbital tourism, is dependent upon two factors:

The engineering aspect of the problem has been assessed by many different individuals and organizations. A growing number of these groups are beginning to realize that a low cost launch system may be viable with current technologies. Many of these systems are now under consideration, for example, the McDonnell Douglas - Delta Clipper. A prototype of this vehicle, the DC-X, has been flight tested and shown to be extremely promising as a cheap re-usable rocket vehicle. The test vehicle, powered by four rocket engines was operated and flown by a team of only three people. Projections of launch costs for some of these new launch systems have been made as low as $100 per kilogram to LEO (low earth orbit).

The business aspect of the problem has to address questions such as:

These questions need to be answered so that investors can be convinced of a project's potential success.

Surprisingly with the large amount of money that has been spent on spacecraft development, little work has been conducted with respect to evaluating the market for space travel. This internet page is the result of a sample project that has been set up for the purpose of collecting preliminary information on society's general interest in space tourism. Whether or not you are interested in the concept of space travel or space tourism, please take a minute to complete the survey that has been provided. I appreciate your help !!

If you have any questions or comments please Space Tourism Survey

This page and survey were put together by Richard Stockmans, an International MBA student at York University in Toronto, Canada. The internet site was setup through the services of Cable Island.
Keep your eyes open for the results of the survey and more information pertaining to Space Tourism.
For further information visit Purdue University's List of Space Related Sites.