The
space holiday race is heating up, but don't start packing just yet.
WE SEEM to have been hearing about space
travel for a long time and the stories keep getting better.
Space flights, space "hotels" and
the ability to zoom from one side of the planet to the other in a matter of
hours are all being promised as entrepreneurs fight to be the first to bring
"space tourism" to the people.
Unsurprisingly, there is plenty of hype each
time an announcement is made but how real is all this?
Will space ever become a genuine travel option
for the ordinary person, or will it remain the domain of astronauts along with
the ridiculously rich?
The executive chairman of the CAPA Centre for
Aviation, Peter Harbison, says it's "definitely going to be the latter for
quite some time".
"It is not something that is going to be
commercially viable in the short term," he says.
"Quite probably by 2030 or 2040 we will
be starting to see some [wider] consumer benefits from it but it's highly
unlikely it will be before then."
One of the big talking points of space travel
has been its ability to get travellers from Sydney to London in less than two
hours.
It was this concept that made the headlines
when the formula one racing tycoon, Michiel Mol, recently announced his aim to
launch sub-orbital flights in three years. Mol, who has teamed up with the
Dutch airline KLM, expects the first flights to take off in 2014 with a price
tag of £60,000 ($94,000).
The bigger picture is to be operating
scheduled services in 15 to 20 years.
Harbison says while the concept of being able
to fly from Sydney to London in two hours has great marketing value, the route
is not a likely one.
"It's interesting to note that no one has
ever bothered to produce an aircraft that can fly non-stop to London; that says
there is not a lot of demand for it," he says.
Virgin Galactic, which has turned Sir Richard
Branson into the "face" of space tourism, says it has now taken more
than $US50 million worth of deposits for space flights.
The company says it remains on track to become
the first commercial "spaceline" although it is yet to announce a
date for its first flight. Virgin Galactic maintains it is not in a race and
will only launch when it is safe to do so.
The test flight period is well under way and
Virgin Galactic recently held a flashy dedication ceremony for its spaceport
facility in New Mexico in the US, complete with a space ship fly-past.
Its two-hour space flights are selling for
$US200,000 and more than 370 would-be travellers have put down deposits of at
least $US20,000 each. The company says space-flight patrons will be required to
undertake three days of preparation, which will include medical checks and
G-force acclimatisation, before they take off.
Once in flight, they will be able to leave
their seats and float around the cabin to enjoy the views. The other element of
space tourism is "space hotels", or commercial space stations.
The Russian firms Orbital Technologies and
Rocket and Space Corporation Energia recently announced they would open the
world's first commercial space station in 2016. It will accommodate up to seven
people for periods of anywhere between a few days and several months.
The firms will build, launch and operate the
station, which they believe will be used by tourists as well as researchers and
media crews.
"Some parties are interested in short
duration stays on the station for enjoyment," the chief executive of
Orbital Technologies, Sergey Kostenko, said at the announcement of the project.
However, these future hotel operators have
conceded there will be little for guests to do once there, other than emailing
their friends to get the most out of the unrivalled brag value.
There will be no showers and alcohol will be
banned, while meals will come as dehydrated, packaged food.
This makes it unlikely that anyone would want
to stay long.
Travellers, who will pay rates that are yet to
be determined but are certain to be hefty, will also have to undergo a
considerable amount of training before being able to travel to the space
station.
Ten, nine, eight ...
What would it be like to blast off into space?
Virgin Galactic says its space ships will
accelerate to about 4800 km/h, or about four times the speed of sound.
Travellers will experience "eye-watering
acceleration", pinned back into their seats as "unimagined
power" surges through the spacecraft.
This will be followed by instant silence and
weightlessness when the rocket shuts down and "the gravity which has
dominated every moment since the day you were born is not there any more",
and then powerful G-forces on the return journey.
Jane E. Fraser
Business & Investment Opportunities
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