Space tourism (aka space travel for the average Joe) is a
concept that our society has been dreaming of, and in recent years working on
it and actually achieving it. It’s been one of my dreams ever since I was a
child and realized that there’s a whole world out there that I still didn’t
discover.
Seeing that I’ve been reminded recently of my childhood
dreams, I’ve decided to go ahead and do some research on the matter (you know,
to see how close we are from making my dream a reality). I went around looking
for ways to accomplish my goal of saying: “look ma, I’m a space man!” Here’s
what I found out:
There are several companies that offer space travel for the
common man. For starters, back in 2012, the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) had offered a large sum of money to Boeing, Space Exploration
Technologies and the Sierra Nevada Corporation in order to develop safe
vehicles for space travel.
Most private companies are building new spaceships to
conquer space. And they are all looking forward to an action-packed year in
2013; planning/conducting new flight-tests, launches, wind tunnel tests and
rocket technology trials.
Not to mention Sir Richard Branson (founder of Virgin
Megastores) who is selling $ 200,000 tickets for spots on his ‘SpaceShipTwo,’
which he (as well as several others) hopes will launch in 2014. Speaking of which, did you know that there
are several of celebrities that are really into the idea of being launched into
space.
Ashton Kutcher, for example, has signed up to head to the
stars aboard Virgin Galactic. And apparently, he’s not the only one. According to Time Magazine:
“Celebrities including Katy Perry, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and
physicist Stephen Hawking have all reportedly signed up for a space flight.”
Space is definitely going to be the next big thing to do,
the next exotic destination. Estimate revenues in the first ten years of
commercial space travel operations range from $600 million to $1.6 billion. So
it’s really only a matter of time before passengers line up at the doctor’s
office to get medical clearance for extraterrestrial travel.
Which brings me to my next question. One that definitely
should be answered before we all get ahead of ourselves here is: How safe would
space travel for the average man be?
Groups such as the FAA and Aerospace Medical Association
Commercial Spaceflight Working Group are now proposing medical recommendations
for space flight. Not only that but they are starting to draft proposals for
regulating commercial travel. However the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space
Transportation has not made specific medical necessities or disqualifications
for space tourists.
“There is definitely a trend toward more work being done in
[space medicine] as the medical field catches up with what’s going on in
commercial space transportation,” says Marlene Grenon (assistant professor of
vascular and endovascular surgery at University of California, San Francisco)
who is researching the effect of microgravity on the heart and on cells that
line blood vessels (Woah... deep)
In conclusion on my research on the availability of space
travel for the common society, I’ve come to realize that there might be a few
things that one should keep in mind…
We are not even close! It’s still so damn expensive! Well
technically it’s doable but clearly not for your average Joe. I mean it costs a
fortune just to make sure that you’re medically clear to travel. And it doesn’t
look like it’s going to get any cheaper any time soon either. So it doesn’t
look like I can take my girl cruising in outer space any time soon. Sorry baby
girl, one day...
“[Space travel] will come, but only when there is a high
enough demand so that you can have a ‘public highway’ system. To support
today's air traffic network, you've got to have a million passengers constantly
on the move. The same will be true in space: It's not really a technology
problem, it's more a sort of chicken-and-egg economic problem.” – Freeman Dyson
(British American theoretical physicist and mathematician)
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