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Mass Space Travel: Real Possibility or Ridiculous Pipe Dream?

Luxury Travel — on July 20, 2009 12:57 pm

The MoonThe technological advancements that culminated in the first moon landing of 1969 naturally led to great optimism that mass space travel was not far behind.

It wasn’t unreasonable to think that in just a few short years the average suburban American family would own a flying car and would be able to take weekend trips to the moon in their own personal spacecraft.

After all, it was the era of The Jetsons, The Twilight Zone, and innumerable other science-fiction shows that reflected the optimistic, futuristic mindset prevalent in late 1960s America.

But 40 years later mass space travel still hasn’t happened. Except for a few very rich or very lucky individuals, astronauts are the only ones making regular space flights, while the rest of us still drive our pickup trucks and sedans on aging, crowded freeways and take weekend trips to dirty beaches.

Not only has technology has not led to mass “moon tourism,” but it hasn’t even solved some of our most basic urban and environmental problems like traffic and pollution.

Learn more about space tourism with Space Travel Today.

So why has the space tourism phenomenon not “taken off,” as it were?

Virgin Galactic SpaceportWell, there are many reasons. First and most importantly, it’s expensive. Very, very expensive. For example, engineers estimate that it costs three times as much to make a craft go supersonic compared to subsonic.

Which means the potential return on investment that could be derived from a fleet of spacecraft ferrying people into orbit and beyond would be extremely poor unless the price was extremely high, which would exclude the great majority of humanity from participating. Sure the odd billionaire has tagged along with a space mission, and the X-Prize team is trying to stimulate the development of viable lower-cost craft, but the likelihood of each American having a rocket-powered personal spacecraft in their garage is still pretty low.

And the current state of economy has made the cost of space exploration, and by extension space travel, politically incorrect. NASA has been severely criticized over the past two decades for pouring millions into a space shuttle program that most people can’t see the real value of—outside of the “gee whiz” factor. Shuttles orbit the earth, ferry astronauts to the International Space Station, and conduct scientific experiments whose value is hard to connect to real life back on terra firma.

JupiterIn fact, historians remind us that the main factor driving the US to be the first country to land a module on the moon was the Cold War. We were so anxious to beat the “evil Russian empire” to outer space and show both our moral and technological superiority, that we pushed ourselves without thinking of the long-term necessity of the project. Is it right to do something so grand just to say “we did it,” like the hundreds who climb Mt. Everest every year?

Second, it’s dangerous. The doomed Challenger mission of 1986, on which the first civilian was allowed to come along (schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe), was a real wake-up call to Americans who had previously assumed that a space shuttle could never simply fall out of the sky.

The Concorde is a good example of both of the above drawbacks. The plane represented the pinnacle of aerospace technology, packaged for the benefit of mass air travel. But tickets were very pricey and it never really made money—in fact it was heavily subsidized by the British and French governments throughout the 27 years it operated. Then the spectacularly horrifying crash of July 25, 2000 brought safety issues to the forefront and put the nail in its coffin.

Learn more about the Concorde with Peter’s special Black Box Mystery: The Crash of the Concorde.

Earth view from spaceAnd lastly, even if it were possible, moon travel would have limited appeal. Sure you’d have bragging rights and you’d get to have an other-worldly experience few others will ever have, but the fact is, there’s no “there” there.

As far as tourist destinations go, the moon has little to offer: no hotels, no restaurants, no running water, not even any atmosphere. And Mars is just as bad; poisonous gases in the air, wildly swinging temperatures, and it would take months to even get there.

So at the moment space tourism seems to be focused on so-called “sub-orbital” craft which would allow rich folks to orbit the earth for a few hours for a hefty fee. Companies like Virgin Galactic have already begun taking reservations and claim to have hundreds of customers ready to shell out $200,000 or more when an appropriately safe, reliable and cost-effective craft is developed.

But there’s still hope that the average Joe can make it into space, at least on Virgin Galactic: if you’re a member of Virgin’s frequent-flier program, you can take the trip for free – provided that you have 2 million miles in your account.

By Karen Elowitt for PeterGreenberg.com.

Related links: Foresight Institute, The Guardian (UK), PeterGreenberg.com- Space Travel Today

  • Kathie

    Interesting article!

  • http://www.tripbase.com/blog Katie, Tripbase

    Lots of food for thought here.

    Re. space tourism, Branson is nearly there albeit with sub-orbital flights only.

    There’s no doubt that the global recession has been a major impediment for Virgin Galactic and other commercial space travel companies.

  • http://http:/www.gdunge.com Doug Weathers

    No “there” there? Are you nuts?

    The Moon is the Moon, an entirely different world that we have been staring up at for tens of thousands of years. “Magnificent desolation”, Buzz said.

    Sure, the Moon has “little to offer” – just itself. You are entirely missing the point.

    Why would people spend $30 million to go the space station? It certainly doesn’t have restaurants.

    These people are adventure tourists. They go to see things few people have seen, experience things few others have experienced. They are the target market for Virgin Galactic, and the future orbital and moon tourism companies. The people who tour Antarctica or climb Everest or dive to the ocean floor honestly don’t give a rip if there’s a restaurant handy.

    And study after study has shown that they are a very large market – large enough for Sir Branson (and others!) to build a business around.

    Once the early adopters have paid top dollar, their money will enable the construction of an orbital Four Seasons and a lunar Delmonico’s, and the second wave of tourists will go, who will pay for the Hiltons and the Cattle Barons, who will finance the Holiday Inns and the Sizzlers, etc.

    Consider the history of tourism. This pattern has happened before. Ships, rail, airplanes. We’re seeing it happen with spaceships now.

    We’ll get to the things that you claim make a tourist destination eventually. But it will be the people who want adventure – and are willing to pay dearly for it – that will make it happen.

  • Anonymous

    I couldn’t disagree more with this article. We are on the verge of a complete revolution in the space field. I signed up the first space “tourist” Dennis Tito in 1999 and also led a team that took over the Mir Space station for commercial operations in 1998.(Check out OrphansofApollo.com regarding the documentary film on that effort.) I am also a founding Trustee of the XPRize and work with many NewSpace firms.

    Within the next three years at least three firms will be offering sub-orbital spaceflights, and Galactic’s price is the high end. Jeff Bezos of Amazon is building ships, as is John Carmack, creator of the video games Quake and Doom…

    Within five years three new private space facilities (call them hotels if you want, but they will also include labs etc.) will be opening. One firm, “Bigelow Aerospace” (founded by Budget Suites owner Bob Bigelow) already has test modules in orbit.

    The ignorance of this author is understandable as few outside of the field are aware of this change – but a site such as this should look deeper and be ahead of the curve, not reporting on what is already known and old news in the field. She does no service to helping open this market by her naive pessimism.

    Sure the Moon is desolate and barren…hell, I wrote (edited) a book about it (Return to the Moon).

    But so was this little patch of desert in Nevada we now call Las Vegas!

    Rick Tumlinson
    Co-Founder:
    The Space Frontier Foundation
    Editor:
    Return to the Moon
    Co-Founder:
    MirCorp
    Founding Team Member:
    Lunar Orbiter Project (SSI)
    Founder:
    XTreme Space/Orbital Outfitters/Project:SpaceDiver
    Co-Founder:
    INSpace Media
    Founding Trustee:
    The XPrize

  • http://www.HumanSynergyProject.org Nebojsa

    I will just quote Dick Rutan
    “If you can dream it, you can do it.”

    Nebojsa Stanojevic
    Team SYNERGY MOON
    official team for Goolge Lunar X PRIZE

  • http://www.eSpaceTickets.com eSpaceTickets

    For almost 5 years the FAA has been working with the Jacksonville Airport Authority to get approval for Cecil Field (a decommissioned US Navy airbase with a runway of 12,500′ x 200′) to obatin a spaceport launch license.

    For the latest news visit THE PEOPLE’S SPACEPORT aka Cecil Field Spaceport http://www.THEPEOPLESSPACEPORT.COM

  • kerim

    if they dont have space travel when im 30, they r never going to make it.
    im 12

  • http://www.kingcashgold.co.uk sell gold jewelry

    Most people are easily intimidated by the space they have to work with, large or small. It is easier to work with a space once you define what you want to do with it; so if you have a small room, determine how you will use it and then decide what will fit in the space; small spaces can be the most rewarding; they don’t allow you to add much thus keeping your space efficient.

  • Yay

    This wouldn’t bother me if there were a destination.  A flight to the moon, a flight to an orbital space station or resort, etc. MIGHT rationalize someone’s desire to do this.  Still, a flight into the atmosphere for the sole purpose of achieving weightlessness and accruing bragging rights (I’ve been into space!) is probably the most moronic thing I’ve ever heard of.

    And, God forbid, anything were to go wrong and someone were to die, they’d do so while putzing around in the sky to the tune of $200k+.  Not doing anything or going anywhere in particular, mind you…just flying about in the atmosphere.