I believe the space tourism industry is one that is solidly viable and is only being held up by heavy economic stipulations involved with new spacecraft and attention to the highest level of safety possible. Currently, we are lacking vehicles that are both economical to operate and reliable enough to lend confidence to public tourists (Bekey, 1998).
(1)There are written publications that show the idea of space tourism dates back as far as the second century AD. There are numerous novels written in the 1950's and '60's that explore the ideas of humans occupying and living in space. Furthermore, television shows and movies such as Star Trek and Star Wars have given humans visual interpretations of life aboard space craft and even other planets.
Physical implementations of these ideas peaked with the government space race in the 1960's between the US and the Soviet Union. The lack of re-usable spacecraft lead to the development of the space shuttle, which completed 135 missions over it's 30 year employment period. NASA had to extend the space shuttle operation 15 years past what it was designed to do based on the lack of an affordable better option and the need to maintain the international space station (ISS). Currently, they are working on a multitude of other programs to continue their space flight, but the aerospace community has began to expand to tourism operations and manned commercial cargo operations to the ISS also. These programs, such as Virgin Galactic's, are still in the process of developing a system that is ready to be used publicly on an every day basis. They have run into setbacks with funding, legal support, and even catastrophic disasters like the one Virgin experienced on October 31, 2014. That being said, Virgin has raised over $800 million in deposits from future tourists and they've completed a handful of successful flights prior to their complete mission failure last October.
(2)The current rules regulating commercial space tourism originated from the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984, an act passed by congress giving the Department of Transportation and the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Travel the ability to govern the people and equipment that would partake in space flight. That act was amended by congress in 2004, in an attempt to govern modern emergence of interest in space tourism for profit.
In 2006, the FAA released a notice of proposed rule making that included the regulations that are not CFR, title14, chapter III, parts 400-460 (FAA, 2015). These rules regulate the safety items required on spacecraft and the ports they travel from. The regulations also establish requirements for crew notification, medical qualifications and training, as well as requirements governing environmental control and life support systems (FAA, 2007). The government has, however, been mostly hands off in the process of building and testing equipment, according to Bloomberg business. They believe that is going to have to change drastically before people like Richard Branson begin actual flights with paying members of the public on board these spacecraft. The regulations we currently have are that way in order to allow, even encourage, innovation in the face of some risks that we all know come along with human space travel. I agree with the industry leaders in that further restrictions right now would inhibit that innovation, and I believe it's something we won't just enjoy in the future, but it's something humans are going to need.
(3)The time frame for space travel to become something the public uses is the hardest question to answer. What I believe we can bank on is the fact that there's profitability in the industry, as well as a negative economic impact domestically when we outsource space travel to other countries (FAA, 2010). We lose billions in sectors like manufacturing, information, and professional scientific services when commercial space flight is at a low. These reasons, publicly available via the FAA, will continue to drive public interest in commercial space travel. I believe currently, it's a one-time bucket list activity, or two times if you've made a personal fortune of billions on Microsoft software. This is, I believe, one of the initial steps toward every day space flight for colonizing space in the name of human kind. I do not believe we'll see that until close to the end of our lifetimes, perhaps into the early 2100's, but I really think the science fiction we've seen is going to come to fruition, in some form, around that time.
(4)Qualifications to work as a pilot are relatively strict. Virgin Galactic's pilot teams least experienced member has 8,500 flight hours in 90 different aircraft (Virgin Galactic, 2015). These are pilots that have flown in the military, the space shuttle, and most have degrees or advanced degrees in aerospace engineering. Some of these pilots have had leadership responsibilities in other organizations, and they've been test pilots on classified aircraft as well.
References:
Bekey, I. (1998, October 2). Space Future - Economically Viable Public Space Travel. Retrieved September 29, 2015, from
http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/economically_viable_public_space_travel.shtml
Introducing our Space Pilots - Virgin Galactic. (2015, June 9). Retrieved September 29, 2015, from
http://www.virgingalactic.com/introducing-our-space-pilots/
Levin, A. (2014, November 7). Space Tourists Treated Like Thrill Seekers in Regulation. Retrieved
September 29, 2015, from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-11-07/should-space
travel-be-like-climbing-everest-or-airlines-
New Regulations Govern Private Human Space Flight Requirements for Crew and Space Flight
Participants. (2007, February 7). Retrieved September 29, 2015, from
http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/human_space_flight_reqs/
Office of Commercial Space Transportation. (2015, September 18). Retrieved September 29, 2015,
from https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/regulations/
The Economic Impact of Commercial Space Transportation on the U.S. Economy in 2009. (2010,
September 1). Retrieved September 29, 2015, from
http://www.faa.gov/news/updates/media/Economic Impact Study September
2010_20101026_PS.pdf
So what you’re saying is you don’t see us living like The Jetsons anytime soon? (Yes that is a TV cartoon for the ones not around in the 80’s)
ReplyDeleteIt is a fact that the United States does lose billions in sectors like manufacturing, information, and professional scientific services when commercial space flight is at a low. Americans are innovators, also a fact, and I believe the private sector will advance the technology at wrap speed (some pun intended) and create a solid source of long term high-skilled jobs. I also agree with you that space travel may not just be something we will enjoy in the future, but something we need. Similar to the skeptics who said, “who’s going to buy that iPad thingy when you already have a laptop?” oh…about 200,000,000 people it turns out. And at least for me, that ‘enjoy’ turned into ‘need.’
I think you are right about space tourism being a profitable industry, especially since Virgin Galactic has received nearly 700 deposits from wealthy individuals. However i do believe that space travel is going to be something strictly for the rich, especially since the cost of operation is so expensive. I also believe that researchers will find new ways of building spacecrafts which will allow them to be safer and more importantly much cheaper to build and repair.
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