Space travel has become more accessible to the public due to advances in aerospace and engineering technology. Companies like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic have started offering more ways to travel into space by utilizing reusable rockets. Many interested in the astronomy field wonder where the future of space tourism is headed.
Aerospace club advisor and math teacher Christopher Gallick believes space tourism would be a profound and eye-opening experience because it would expand his understanding of the world.
“I think it would be really interesting to go into low Earth orbit and have a new perspective of Earth,” Gallick said. “Astronauts have said they have gained a new appreciation or a renewed appreciation for life on Earth (after visiting space).”
Some question how space tourism will affect aerospace institutions and companies offering tour services. Freshman Shivendra Sharma believes it will increase their value and influence as more people take an interest in tourism
“It (space tourism) would probably increase their (space companies’) profits because they are the only ones who actually know what to do about space,” Shamra said. “It would make their market presence in the space industry higher because they know how to tour space, so they would have the edge in that.”
While some companies may benefit from space tourism, Gallick speculated that it will not affect the current research conducted by aerospace institutions as they have their gaze set on a more scientific goal.
“I don’t think it’ll have much of an impact on space agencies, to be honest, because their mission is to do scientific research, basically the safety and the well-being of people involved with that,” Gallick said. “Whereas space tourism is just something outside of the science realm. It’s just for kicks.”
According to Big Wide World, costs for space tourism range from $40,000 to $60 million. If space tourism was offered to the public and became more normalized, Aerospace club president junior Seraj Sigh Goraya feels that it should be made cheaper.
“If you’re only taking rich people into space, I don’t think that’s a worthwhile investment,” Goraya said. “Companies might be able to make a profit, but you have to question at some point whether it’s really good for humanity in general.”
Areoway One reported that space travel has been almost exclusively reserved for the rich. Gallick anticipates that having only the rich and elite able to engage in space tourism might result in a social divide.
“It is basically only available to the elite, and so the elite are propping up this budding industry,” Gallick said. “If it’s able to be offered to the general public in terms of lowering the cost, then I’m sure that would factor into the competition with other types of recreational spending and the economies within that realm.”
Shamra has a different and specific concern. In his eyes, no matter how space tourism would be funded or used, the government should avoid investing too much in it due to the little impact it will have on the current issues society faces.
“I think the people should be free to do whatever they want to do. But at the same time, should the government (even) fund space tourism? It’s not very useful to the problems that we have in our own country,” Shamra said. “It’s not really useful to the general population, but it is useful for space agencies if they want to increase their profits and then use that profit they get from space tourism and use that in more research.”
Beyond social logistics, Goraya also expressed that space tourism would create concerns for ethical and safe access to space and interstellar research due to the amount of rockets being launched and the debris they leave behind.
“There’s this idea called the Kessler syndrome, and according to the Kessler syndrome, the more spacecraft that are in Earth orbit, the more likely it is that debris starts crashing into each other, making Earth eventually inescapable,” Goraya said. “I know the addition of satellites and spacecraft in Earth orbits are already starting to cause some complications for NASA and the European Space Agency.”
If this problem were minimized or solved, however, freshman Mihir Surya foresees space tourism opening many doors in the industry and even improving life on earth. He believes that space tourism would also lead to more new space oriented industries to form.
“I think companies going to space is the logical next step rather than staying here on Earth because Earth has very limited resources, and we will exhaust them very fast,” Surya said. “We also need to switch to renewable and asteroid mining, which I’ve heard is actually a very good source of minerals, and we need that because resources are being depleted here on Earth.”
In addition to providing a solution to the limited resources, Gallick believes that space tourism can also be worthwhile to people based on their circumstances and how they view the development.
“It depends on the individual because right now it’s a couple million dollars for a seat on Blue Horizon to go up into low Earth orbit or wherever they fly to,” Gallick said. “For myself right now, it’s obvious that it wouldn’t be worth it for me – I couldn’t afford it – but for others who are very well off, maybe it’s not a waste of money for them.”
No matter what twists or turns space tourism will take, Goraya believes that its progression really depends on the ultimate goal of tourism and the audiences it will cater towards.
“It (space tourism) depends on the implications of powering these projects. If you’re able to only enable a certain group of people to go out into space, that’s not very beneficial to the amount of resources that are consumed,” Goraya said. “But if you’re enabling the general public to go out to space orbit, then maybe that’s a worthwhile event.”