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01 | NewScientists | 27 January 2004 www.newscientists.com


Recent developments in
the Space Tourism market
could mean that your annual
trip to Skegness might be
put on hiatus. Let the
Leicester University Physics
undergraduates give the
low-down on this most epic
of excursions
The year is 2044. You’re one of the
passengers on the first tourist trip to
Mars. Four decades earlier, President
George W. Bush laid out a national goal to
venture to the Red Planet. This feat had been
accomplished only 11 short years ago, and
already the next step had been taken – Space
Tourism. So now you’re living with ten other
tourists, along with a small crew, in the cabin of
a spacecraft that left Earth orbit 3 months ago.
Your home planet is no more than a tiny
pinpoint of light in Space, millions of miles
behind you, and Mars is still a long 3 months
ahead.
“A recent poll in Japan
showed that 80% of the
population under the age
of 40 would like to take
a trip into space”
The scenario above is one that many believe
can be achieved in the near future – the use of
Space for pleasure, not scientific understanding.
But how would Space Tourism happen? What
dangers would first have to be overcome? And
how would we reach a planet such as Mars?
These are just some of the questions that need
to be answered before Space Tourism can ever
be feasible.
History of Space Travel
The first issue that must be addressed is how
humans have made the leap
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into Space up to the present day. Human
Spaceflight initially started on 12 April 1961
when Vostok 1 sent the Russian Yuri Gagarin in
to orbit for 108 minutes in space.
Project Mercury sent the first American, Alan
Shepard. Jr, into space on the May 5 of the
same year. The President of the USA at the
time, John F Kennedy, made a speech to
congress that captured the Americans and the
world imagination on putting humans onto
space, later that same month.
Just as President Kennedy had envisaged on
21 July 1969 a Lunar Module camera provided
live television coverage to the rest of the world
of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the lunar
surface at 10:56 p.m. EDT. Stepping off the
Lunar Module Armstrong proclaimed, "That's
one small step for man, one giant leap for
mankind" - moving and now landmark words.
Forty-seven pounds of lunar surface material
were collected, to be returned to Earth for
analysis. The surface exploration was
concluded in 2½ hours, when the crew re-
entered the lunar module.
All the successes of the manned spaceflights
people began to forget about dangers involved
in human spaceflight and these dangers where
highlighted with Apollo 13. Originally planed to
land on the lunar surface the mission had to be
abandoned when a Service Module oxygen tank
blew up aboard. The Command Module of
Apollo 13’s lost its normal supply of electricity,
light and water, all this happen when they were
approximately 321,869 kilometres (200,000
miles) from Earth. The crew had to navigate by
using the sun, as after the explosion the
onboard navigation system was rendered
unusable. Having to swing around the moon to
be able to return to earth the crew spent a nerve
racking 4 days before in the module before they
eventually landed in the Pacific Ocean back on
earth. The crew of the Apollo 13 were very lucky
as at times Mission control was convinced that
they would not make it back alive. This was one
of the first highlights of how dangerous manned
spaceflight can be.
There are many cost considerations in all
spaceflights and manned missions especially
are expensive. For example, after the last lunar
landing the total funding for the Apollo program
was about $19,408,134,000. As a result,
NASA’s shuttle was designed and built to try
and reduce the cost of missions. This was
achieved by using a re-useable shuttle as up to
that point the rockets used where only designed
to last for one mission such as the Soyuz rocket,
which is still in operation today. 20 years to the
day after Yuri Gagarin was sent into space by
the Russians the first American shuttle,
Columbia, lifted off from Kennedy Space Centre
in Florida.
Since its first launch, the Space Shuttle
became a viable part of space exploration
history. Standing as one of NASA's foremost
projects, the shuttle made manned space flight
easier and therefore the ability for many
scientific tasks to be accomplished. These tasks
and experiments have in turn enhanced the
quality of life on Earth for the American and
World population. The shuttle play’s a vital
role in most American space missions and joint
missions. For example the International Space
Station, ISS, has been mainly constructed using
the shuttle in a vital role as the main ‘work
horse’ as it is the only way large segments of
the station can be transported into space.
Highlighting again the risks of man space
flight the same space shuttle that took the
historic first shuttle fight in 1981, Columbia,
broke up upon re-entry to the Earths
atmosphere on 1 February 2003 killing instantly
the six crew that where on onboard. This
disaster no only put a stop to the building of the
ISS it raised serious questions about the future
of any manned missions and there safety. This
incident is probably the greatest reason to
cause doubt in the minds of anyone considering
the possibility of commercial spaceflight, due to
the very high risks that are involved that this
disaster highlights. This disaster grounded the
shuttle fleet and stopped most American
manned space fights although other countries
have continued with there manned space
programs.
Lt. Col. Yang Liwei became the first Chinese
Taikonaut on 15 October 2003. He orbited the
Earth 14 times within a 21 hour period before
re-entering the Earths atmosphere and touching
down on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia in
northern China. His spaceflight was the starting
point of a new era in manned spaceflight as the
Chinese government are very serious about
their space program and are considering
manned missions to the Moon and Mars. Due to
this they are widely though of as the most likely
space agency to land the next human on the
surface of the moon.
Trying to rekindle the Americans imagination
in manned spaceflight and reproduce the same
effect that JFK had with his speech to congress
in 1961, the American President George W
Bush announced plans, on 14 January 2004, to
send manned missions back to the Moon and to
Mars. Along with the extra money (over a five
year period) being made available, this
represents a large leap forward for human
spaceflight, which can only be beneficial to
Space Tourism.
A recent poll in Japan showed that 80% of
the population under the age of 40 would like to
take a trip into space and other studies for
western societies have shown that at least 6 out
of ten people would like to have the opportunity
to take a flight into space. This percentage of
western civilianisation accounts for a huge
number of people and therefore a great deal of
money that could be put into the space industry
if the opportunity arises. This money in turn
could be used of the scientific and technical
exploration, which at present is totally
government funded. For example the first space
tourist supplied the Russian space program with
£16 million, 15% of the yearly budget for
Russia’s space program hence having more
tourist could significantly help fund the scientific
space programs.
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27 January 2004 | NewScientists | 02
However, on the current timeline, any thoughts
of commercial space travel will be along time in
the future as development of scientific manned
missions are at the forefront of governments’
manned space missions. It is conceivable that
the future lies with none governmental funded
project like the ones that are being developed to
win the X-Prize.
The X Prize
The X PRIZE is a $10,000,000 prize to
jumpstart the space tourism industry through
competition between the most talented
entrepreneurs and rocket experts in the world.
The $10 Million cash prize will be awarded to
the first team that: Privately finances, builds &
launches a spaceship, able to carry three
people to 100 kilometres (62.5 miles), Returns
safely to Earth and repeats the launch with the
same ship within 2 weeks.
The X Prize Foundation mission is to create a
future in which the general public will personally
participate in space travel, in order to do this
they have 3 aims:
 Organizing and implementing competitions
to accelerate the development of low-cost
spaceships for travel, tourism and
commerce.
 Creating programs that allow the public to
understand the benefits of low-cost space
travel.
 Providing the public with the opportunity to
directly experience the adventure of space
travel.
So far 25 teams from 7 different countries
have entered this 21st century space race, the
well published Starchaser Industries and the not
so well known Bristol Spaceplanes from the UK.
Within the 25 teams entering this competition
there is a large number of different ideas, from
balloon take off to helicopter landing. A
company tipped to take the $ten million price is
Burt Rutan’s Scaled composite, who’s plane
Spaceship One `piggybacked` on the back of
the drop ship White Knight travelled at over the
speed of sound on 17th December 2003 (100
years after the Wright brother’s first flight).
Other companies taking the lead are, UK based
Starchaser Industries (vertical take-off), Pan
Aero (horizontal take-off and landing) and IL
Aerospace Technologies.
Many believe Pan Aero will be the first to
enter Space, as most of the technology already
exists due to the use of a conventional plane
with rockets attached to it. However IL
Aerospace Technologies have recently
announced plans to perform their second
manned test flight and possible their first official
attempt to win the X-Prize. Furthermore the X-
PRIZE Foundation believe there will be a winner
within the next 6-9 months, so could space
tourism really be just a round the corner.
Health & Safety
One of the main difficulties of any Space
mission, not just Space Tourism, is the
environment itself. As humans, we are used to
living under a protective blanket that surrounds
the planet that shields us from the dangers of
Space. However, for any tourism exercise to
take place, a large number of people will have to
be removed from this safety, and left at the
mercy of the cosmos.
The most obvious danger is the radiation in
Space, in particular the Sun which releases
many thousands of hazardous high-energy
particles every second, such as 10 MeV
electrons and protons. Many of these are
trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field in the Van
Allen belts, which would have to be passed
through for any trip to the Moon and beyond.
When particles such as these enter the body,
they act as a tiny bullet that can seriously
damage DNA strands, increasing the long-term
risk of cancer. Heavy ions can also have a more
short-term effect, damaging cells in the brain
and central nervous system, affecting the
performance of tasks. By one estimate, between
13% and 46% of cells in certain areas of a
person’s brain will be penetrated in a possible
trip to Mars.
To counter these effects, antioxidants and
chemical agents could be given to the
passengers, although the most obvious
measure is shielding. Surprisingly, one of the
better ways to stop radiation is with lightweight
materials such as Hydrogen, Boron and Lithium.
As well as having added benefits in spacecraft
design, the nuclei of heavy elements (which
would cause the most damage) can be
shattered by lightweight atoms without
producing additional hazardous recoil products
like neutrons. When combined with a
"I believe this nation should
commit itself to achieving the goal,
before this decade is out, of landing a
man on the Moon and returning him
safely to Earth. No single space
project in this period will be more
impressive to mankind, or more
important in the long-range
exploration of space; and none
will be so difficult or expensive
to accomplish."
John F. Kennedy
Special Joint Session of Congress
May 25, 1961.
conventional spacecraft wall, which would stop
low-energy particles, a formidable barrier for
radiation would be created. Also, Martian or
Lunar soil could be used in conjunction with
conventional materials to create shields ‘in situ’,
which would provide a cheap means of repairing
the spacecraft for the journey back to Earth.
Another solution would be a ‘safe room’,
possibly surrounded by water – an excellent
radiation shield – where the passengers could
go in particularly violent radiation storms, such
as Coronal Mass Ejections on the surface of the
Sun, having be pre-warned by a Earth-orbiting
satellite.
Other types of Space Tourism, such as Low
Earth Orbit flight, would have to be shielded
against space debris, which on account of its
large speed (~ 36000 km/h) could cause a great
deal of damage. One possible way to combat
this is to have a gap between the outer walls of
the spacecraft, which would allow the scattered
particles from the initial impact to be stopped
quite easily.
Another important effect of being in Space for
any length of time is weightlessness. In such an
environment, blood plasma drops by about 20%
and the red blood cell count falls similarly,
causing temporary anaemia. Since it no longer
has to pump against gravity, the heart doesn’t
need to work so hard causing the heartbeat to
slow down and heart tissue to shrink. Indeed,
muscle all around the body starts to decay for
the similar reasons. Exercise programs, which
are the mainstay of every Space Mission around
the world, are unable to reverse the process
although it does help a great deal.
However, the most dangerous effect of zero
gravity is bone loss. The body has no need to
maintain the skeletal structure to Earth
standards, and hence the bone mass can drop
by as much as 1.5% each month. This would
have serious effects on arrival on a body such
as Mars, since many passengers could be too
weak to walk, even under Martian gravity. Also,
spinal columns expand in the absence of
gravity, which can potentially lead to back ache
and nerve problems. Exercise can do little to
combat this, although it could be possible to
rotate a spacecraft in such a way as to induce
gravity.
It would be very likely that there would be a
serious medical emergency during a prolonged
space flight, be it through natural causes, such
a heart attack, or an accident involving some
part of the spacecraft – even in Space, objects
still have mass and inertia so if you slam into
one, you will suffer blunt trauma just as surely
as on Earth. Communication to Earth with be
pointless given the signal time delay, and thus
crew doctors or medical technicians on board
will have to depend on robotic aids and ‘smart’
software programs to guide them.
There is the psychological risk to health,
partially true on long Space trips, where by the
passengers may feel the pressure of
confinement, causing them to become
hypersensitive, nervous and irritable.
Communication with loved ones is often an
important morale booster, although this could
prove impractical on long trips where there
would be a large time delay. One way to combat
this is to encourage family holidays, as well as
large, comfortable spacecraft with plenty to do.
Another possible solution, although the
technology does not yet exist, is to put the
passengers in suspended animation, which
would make the journey feel like it had never
happened.
In spite of the hazards above, however, the
most hazardous part of any Space trip would
not be the journey but the launch. It is a well-
known fact that many more rockets have been
lost on the launch pad than in Space, and with
the additional needs of a tourist as opposed to
an astronaut, the payload, and hence amount of
fuel necessary to lift it, would be much greater.
As a result, the risk would be increased,
although it could be possible to minimise this by
using an orbiting platform to launch a
secondary, but more comfortable spacecraft,
and using a much smaller craft to escape the
Earth’s gravity.
Launch Vehicles
In order to enter orbit around the Earth a
spacecraft has to accelerate from 0 to 8 km per
second using a variety of poisonous, explosive
fuels to do so! This provides a number of
obstacles to overcome, the first of which is
obviously the acceleration required to reach orbit.
Here on Earth we experience a constant one “g”
pulling us towards the earth, while a jumbo jet
taking off provides an acceleration of one-quarter
‘g’. The acceleration of most manned rockets is a
steady 3 to 4 g’s – more then three times the
acceleration due to gravity! Due to this high
acceleration, all people who
travel into space must be both physically and
mentally fit. They must also undergo a rigorous
training programme before their launch to fully
prepare them for the experience. This can
involve runs on centrifuge devices – which
simulate the tremendous stresses of launch,
being left in the arctic wilderness for survival
training, or being thrown into the black sea for
emergency landing techniques. As well as the
large amount of training needed for a spaceflight
the other hurdle at the current time is the cost,
which, according to Space Adventures – a
company specialising in organising space
tourism holidays – is around $15Million. This
price is obviously not reasonable for the
average holiday accessible to most people, but
there are some that are willing to pay this price
for a weeklong mission.
Using current technology it can easily
be seen that it will never be possible to go on a
“space holiday” – after all, no-one wants to
spend months training for a weeklong holiday.
So what are the prospects for the space tourism
industry? Are there any new techniques that
could be used to reduce the amount of training
needed? And, will new launch technologies be
able to reduce the substantial costs of space
tourism?
Luckily the prospects look good. More
and more people are becoming interested in the
idea of taking a holiday in space – the Russian
Energia Corporation which operates all
missions from the Baikonur cosmodrome has
around 100 people who have expressed a
serious interest in a flight to the International
Space Station. In addition to this there are
several new concept vehicles that may, in ten to
fifteen years, be able to propel tourists into
space.
These concepts include the space
elevator – a giant cable stretching from the
Earth’s surface to a point 36000km away known
as a geostationary orbit. This cable can be used
to transport goods and humans into orbit without
having to spend vast amounts on dangerous
rockets. The cost of building such a construction
would be enormous – but the savings in fuel and
engineering once it was completed would be
greater than this initial price tag by a factor of
several hundred. Another advantage of this
elevator is the fact that objects can be moved
up and down it with a minimum of acceleration –
meaning people would no longer have to endure
3g’s while reaching space.
Another future concept is the nuclear
powered spacecraft that would cut the cost of
reaching orbit in half. This spacecraft would
work by pushing the by-products of nuclear
reactions out the back, propelling the spacecraft
forward. Of course the major disadvantage of
this system is the amount of radioactive material
that would be deposited upon the Earth – and
the fact that the g-loads will, while being lower
than those in a conventional rocket, still be fairly
high.
A final cost-reducing concept is the Single
Stage To Orbit (SSTO) design. This utilises
advanced construction techniques to minimise
the weight of the spacecraft while maximising its
power – meaning no complex “multistage”
rockets that shed their weight while travelling
into space will be needed. This decrease in
complexity will bring increases in cost
effectiveness and also in safety – since the less
complex a system the less there is that can go
wrong. However, as with nuclear propulsion the
g-loads placed upon any space tourists who are
aboard will remain fairly high.
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Cost
One of the main downsides of any Space
Mission is the cost. However, growing work on
the possibility of developing a passenger travel
industry shows that it potentially has great
economic value than might be expected. It
would be a very popular service, requires far
less of an investment than space agencies
receive, and vast funding for work on this is
highly desirable, economically, socially and
politically.
An activity, which has the potential to
become the largest commercial activity in
space, is economically more valuable than
space activities that are not expected to ever be
profitable. Surveys taken in Japan, Canada,
USA, Germany and England show most people
are keen to visit space. The scale of potential
demand shows that space tourism could
become available to the general public.
The investment required to start
passenger space travel operations is of the
order of billions of dollars. Since US taxpayers
alone pay $14 billion/year for the government’s
space program, and taxpayers in other
countries $11 billion per year, it would be no
strain to make this investment. The realisation
of passenger space travel services that would
be affordable by the majority of the middle
classes requires the investment of a small
fraction of what space agencies receive from
taxpayers every year.
If 10% of the rich countries population
took a single space flight at $20 000, this would
create a market of $2 trillion. However, more
than 50% say they would like a flight and most
would possibly make several trips. The middle
class population of the world is rapidly
increasing, which makes this a serious under-
estimate of the potential market.
Studies performed by the Japanese
Rocket Society state orbital services could start
within 10 years, with an income that could reach
$100 billion in 2030. They estimated, with an
investment of $12 billion, it would be possible to
carry passengers to orbit for about $25 000 per
passenger. This is compared with the larger and
more complex `Venture-Star` in the USA, with
an estimated $6 billion development cost. It is
notable that even $12 billion is less than 6
months of space agency spending worldwide.
It would be greatly in the economic interest of
taxpayers for governments to restructure their
space activities to follow the model of aviation.
So, given that Space Tourism is affordable, if
only to a select band of people, it is important to
consider what they would get for their money.
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27 January 2004 | NewScientists | 04
 Entertainment In Space
Currently, people go on holiday for a variety
of different reasons; some people go for a long
relaxing trip where they do nothing except read
books and sit in the Sun, others go for a week of
drinking and hectic activities to an 18 to 30’s
resort. You may think that going to space limits
the activities available. What kind of
entertainment has space got to offer to the
tourist and what can make it a really enjoyable
experience? The scenery and being weightless,
provide the main two attractions to being in
space. Recently people have started going on
safaris in Africa, exploring the jungles of South
America, and generally started travelling more
exotic countries. Most satellites orbit the Earth
once every ninety minutes. For here you can
view the great wall of China, appreciate the
polar caps, sight entire oceans, witness
thousands of lights at night time, see forest
fires, observe the aurora, volcanoes and many
more. The views will not just wear off within
minutes. It is not just the Earth that you can look
at too, without the atmosphere distorting any
views, the stars and other planets become
clearer.
Being weightless is an experience
comparable to none other with the potential to
have a lot of fun with. It changes everything,
from sleeping to eating. As we progress into the
future, when space tourism becomes a more
realistic prospect for everyone, this will be the
main feature, as most forms of entertainment
will be based upon weightlessness.
So how do astronauts fill the spare time they
get in space at the moment? Alexander Volkov,
who has spent a total of 13 months in space,
said “We play the guitar and sing songs, make
telephone calls to our families, read books and
watch videos.” These seem like the activities
carried out on a relaxing holiday on the beach or
maybe a cruise ship. Perhaps space tourism
could be seen as an expensive, once in a
lifetime, cruise around Earth. It has certainly got
the amazing views that cruise ships have and
better, however it does not have the luxury
cabins, massive banquet halls, and the rich
entertainers in the evening.
As space tourism progresses, this does not
necessarily have to be the case. For example if
a hotel is made in space, then luxury cabins,
banquet halls, and entertainers could all exist.
There could be games rooms that manipulate
weightlessness. For example, a large room
could be made where the walls are padded with
bouncy castle walls all around. People can
simply bounce around all day. Sports halls could
be created too.
These ideas propose problems. As Newton
showed, each force has an equal and opposite
force. Therefore when someone kicks off a wall,
both the person and the wall move away. This
could change the orbit of the hotel creating
devastating results. If there were 22 people in a
space sports hall, all of 80kg, and they all
pushed off the same wall at the same time; with
an acceleration of 5ms-2 they would create a
force of 8800N. This is at one extreme, however
if this happened repeatedly, then counteracting
forces would be required. This problem could be
minimised by using shock absorbers, but it is
just one of the many problems that need to be
overcome. Swimming pools could be made in
space hotels. If the swimming room were
rotated, then the water would feel a centrifugal
force and move to the outside of the room. In
the centre of the room there would still be no
gravity and so lots of fun could be had. It would
be possible to dive out of the pool and float in
the centre of the room. Unfortunately, a modest
swimming pool contains about 1000 tons of
water, at $100,000 / ton launch costs, it is going
to cost a lot of money
When space tourism moves to the Moon,
there will be unlimited forms of entertainment.
As soon as buildings and accommodation are
created, almost anything that can be done on
Earth will be done on the Moon. Golf could
become a very popular sport, it has already
been demonstrated by Alan Shepard on Apollo
14. Heavier golf balls may be required, to cut
down distances, and perhaps making the golf
balls luminous so they can be seen in the dark.
Even transport on the Moon could be good fun.
Due to the gravity on the Moon being one sixth
that of Earth’s, it means you can jump a lot
higher, and hence further too. One form of
transport could be the pole volt. It requires no
power source other than human energy. A 4m
pole volt on the Moon, travelling at 3ms-1 will get
you 10.6m in 2.7 seconds, and its entertaining;
maybe not so practical though. Also, there is no
reason why pubs and clubs could not be
opened. Basically, while some activities could
be more difficult than others, it is quite clear that
entertainment can be easily incorporated into
any trip to Space.
“We play the guitar and sing
songs, make telephone calls
to our families, read books
and watch videos”
- A. Volkov
Accommodation
Most people still think living in space will
mean keeping residence in grey metal boxes. In
fact living in space will be just as convenient as
living on Earth, or even more. Otherwise only
very few people will be willing to really stay
there. A residence in space will therefore
appear very similar the ones here on Earth.
They will look exactly like the average houses
we're so used to. They will have a garden, and if
desired by the owner, will still be able have to
put in a pond. There will be different plants and
animals, and looking up into the sky you would
see the sun shining through the clouds!
Dr O'Neill, of the University of Texas, sees
the concept of a space habitat is an air-tight
bottle with a length of 30 kilometres and a
radius of 3 kilometres. This bottle will look like a
cylinder with two spherical end caps. The outer
skin of the bottle will be build of alternating
rectangles of land-area and transparent window
rectangles. The last will permit sunlight reflected
by the mirrors to illuminate the opposing land
areas. The bottle will rotate around its cylindrical
axis once every two minutes. This rotation will
generate a centripetal acceleration equivalent to
the gravity at the Earth's surface (just like an
ordinary centrifuge). Air can be pumped in, until
at the surface level an air pressure of one bar is
reached. (However, at the axis in the middle of
the cylinder the air pressure will be considerably
less.) At a height of approximately 500 meters
above the interior, clouds will form automatically
from the excessive water vapour present in the
air (dependent on the temperature and
humidity). This phenomenon has been sighted
in very large buildings on the Earth such as the
Apollo rocket assembly hall at Cape Canaveral,
where clouds are known to form during special
circumstances. The rectangular land areas will
be covered with a layer of dirt. In this a layer of
park-like flora will be planted, as well as
constructing ordinary houses, which look very
similar to the ones on Earth.
The amount of habitable surface area inside
such a space habitat will be approximately 270
km2 (counting only the areas with 1G gravity).
There has been calculated that this surface area
should be sufficient to accommodate six million
people. Note that this area is not including the
surface required for agriculture, industry and
transport facilities. The production of food
(agriculture) will take place in smaller separate
cylinders. The industry will also be placed
outside the living habitat. The gravity generated
in the living habitat can be a disadvantage for
industrial processes. Also high transportation
costs, possible pollution, etc. are reasons not to
place the industry inside the living habitat. The
public service companies and institutes (shops,
town hall, library, etc.) can be placed beneath
ground level, and therefore do not take up any
precious surface area. Also situated beneath
ground level will be several metro lines
(probably using magnetic levitation as means of
propulsion). The train stations will be located to
render the shortest distance from any point in
the living areas less than 500 meters (i.e.
walking distance), therefore only pedestal and
bicycle paths are required for transport of the
residents.
 We have not considered the living area in the
spherical end caps of the cylinder. Here the
effective gravity will decrease from Earth gravity
to 0.5G at a location at a 60 degrees angle. This
decrease in gravity can be a considerable
advantage for the elderly and the handicapped.
Probably this will be an ideal place for elderly
houses and hospitals. Also it could be a fun
place for many of the activities mentioned
previously.
The important issue of food for Space
Tourists could be solved by the placement of
agriculture in separate smaller cylinders. Such a
method has several advantages:
 Plant-life is more resistant to mutations
caused by harmful radiation than humans.
Therefore the agriculture cylinders will
require less shielding against radiation than
the living habitat. They can have a lighter
construction and thus be cheaper.
 For plant-life the gravity will not have to be
1G. This also results in a lighter
construction.
 The appearance and position of the solar
disc is of no concern to plant-life. Therefore
the mirrors required for the reflection of
sunlight can have a less complex thus
cheaper construction.
 Atmospheric constitution (proportion of the
gases oxygen, carbon-dioxide and nitrogen)
can optimized for plant life. The same can
be done for temperature, the amount and
type of sunlight, length of days and
seasons, etc.

Because of the total separation from the living

habitat the probability of contamination by
humans is extremely low. Think of insects,
bacteria and viruses carried along by humans
and animals. In the rare case of contamination
the complete agricultural cylinder can be
decontaminated by increasing the temperature
for an extensive period (to about 200 degrees
Centigrade). Because of the exactly controlled
climate in the agricultural cylinders the yield is
much more reliable and greater than rendered
by the same amount of surface area on Earth.
Using materials produced by conventional
technology, a living habitat with the geometry of
a cylinder and a diameter of 6 kilometres can be
realized (using steal or aluminium). The
feasibility can be easily calculated using the
same methods as are applied today for
designing ships or bridges. It would also be
possible to use Space materials for
construction, such as Martian soil or asteroid
rock. This would have the added benefits of
radiation shielding and the reduction in cost of a
launch. In the future when new materials will
become available with a strength equivalent to
diamond (or even better) it will be possible to
construct much larger and more complex space.
The Future
The future of Space Tourism is a bright and
excitingly realistic one. The technology to
achieve commercial space flights is mostly
already in existence, although in some aspects
advances will have to be made. Essentially, it is
only the initial funding that is hindering the
industry. MirCorp, a company part-owned by
Russia's space corporation Energia, says it has
signed an agreement with the Russian Aviation
and Space Agency to build the new outpost,
called Mini Station 1. Mini Station 1 would host
three cosmonauts for up to 20 days at a time,
says Manber. It would cost around $100 million
to build and would last for 15 years. MirCorp
expects trips to Mini Station 1 to cost less than
$20 million. Meanwhile NASA has done a U-turn
on its space tourism policy and is considering
taking paying passengers into space.
So with things looking promising for Space
Tourism in Earth orbit, what of the possibilities
of going further a field? Can future space
tourists expect more fun and greater freedom?
Russian Cosmonaut Alexander Volkov thinks
this is a real possibility – ‘I think it is a very good
idea, to build bigger ships so that normal people
too can fly, we need to design a better space
craft, very simple construction and easy to put
together. Then we could send them for a week
to the moon, and they could stay there like
tourists. And why the moon? Why not on a
space ship? Because there is gravity on the
moon. The Russian Space Agency is looking at
the possibility of designing a completely
separate module for tourists and we can then
bring people for a week on board the module,
and the module will be able to dock with other
modules, and the space station. I think this
could happen in about ten to fifteen years.’
Hans-Jurgen Rombaut of the Rotterdam
Academy of Architecture in the Netherlands
hopes that millionaire Dennis Tito's recent
tourist flight to the International Space Station
will kick off the era of space tourism. But even
half a century from now, visitors will still need
deep pockets, Rombaut says, as a two-week
stay in his low-gravity leisure centre will
probably cost as much as a mortgage on a
house!
And finally…
In conclusion, looking into the past we can
see that man has achieved many great things in
space – ranging from visiting the moon to people
living in an orbital station for over a year. The
future of manned spaceflight look no less
exciting: members of the public will be able to
take the place of highly trained specialists as
the dangers of living in space are reduced, the
fitness requirements for spaceflight will be
lowered due to our use of new launch
technologies meaning that spaceflight will no
longer be the domain of fighter pilots with
exemplary medical records. In addition to this
the attitude of organisations such as NASA
coupled with the creation of incentives such as
the X-Prize will encourage development of
facilities for “space holidays” such as small
orbital stations, not unlike the ISS. The
increasing level of familiarity with spaceflight
activities coupled with new technologies will
also help lower the cost and risk of reaching
orbit, perhaps to as little as $100000 within the
next decade or so. This will bring spaceflight
into the reach of a much greater audience than
the current millionaire target customer. As more
and more people become able to venture into
space the cost will continue to fall until it is well
within reach of the average man here on Earth,
and by that time we may even be sending the
more adventurous tourists to the moon for week
long vacations. To sum up, then we use the
words of Ken Mattingly, who visited the moon
on Apollo 16: “The time for humans to explore
the heavens once more is when manned
spaceflight turns a profit – and that time is
sooner than you may think”.
This article was produced on behalf of the Leicester
University Physics Department, and as such owes
many of it’s resources to it’s devoted students