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"A day will come when beings who are now latent
in our thoughts...shall stand upon this Earth as
one stands upon a footstool, and shall laugh and
reach out their hands to the stars."
-H. G. Wells
Many people would like
to travel into space, and many would like to go
the moon, but most people will probably just
want to go to space for a little while. To become
an astronaut takes many years of schooling and training.
That's where space tourism comes in! If you
were a space tourist where would you go and how
long would you stay? Click here to check out what
"Your
vacation on the Moon" might be like, brought
to you by the Artemis Society.
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Leaders of some emerging launch vehicles and tourist
companies envision a next generation passenger vehicle
where you would fly into space in a passenger cabin
much like the first class section of an airplane.
Some trips might take you into low earth orbit and
some trips may take you to the moon. Permanent space
hotels will cost more to build and travel to, but
would offer a better quality experience. |
| By building hotels in space
or on the moon, you could take more people, sell more
tickets and then immediately return to Earth to
pick up more people. A hotel would offer more
features and offer longer durations. Hotels would
offer more comfort and privacy, as well as such things
like zero or 1/6th gravity sports. |
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Agricultural areas would
be needed to reduce expensive food imports, water,
oxygen, and a large solar power plant (or other energy
source). As these are all of the same things that
we will need for a permanent lunar base, the producers
of space hotel components may be the creators of the
first factories, homes and communities in space and
on the moon. |
And there will always
be some people who will want to buy a one-way ticket!
How would you feel about moving permanently to the
moon? According to the Space Tourism Initiative,
a survey completed by the National Aerospace Laboratory
(NAL) in 1995, in North America (U.S. and Canada)
of 1020 households concluded that overall, 60% of
those surveyed were interested in traveling to space
for a vacation.
45.6% indicate they would pay three
month's salary for such a trip, 18.2% would pay six
months salary, and 10.65% would pay a year's salary.
Two-thirds of those wishing to visit space said they
would do so several times.
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Billionaire Dennis
Tito paid the Russian Space Agency $20 million
dollars to fly a Russian Soyuz rocket to spend one-week
on the International Space Station.
The PERMANENT
organization currently invites submissions of ideas,
designs and artwork regarding space hotels made from
asteroidal and/or lunar materials.
The Artemis
Society is promoting tourism to the Moon, they propose
building a lunar base and a transport vehicle from
low Earth orbit to the Moon. |
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The Space Transportation
Association (STA) represents the interests of organizations
and people who are engaged in developing, building,
operating, and using space transportation vehicles,
systems, and services to provide reliable, economical,
safe, and routine access to space for private users
and government, civil, and military users.
Kelly
Space & Technology, Inc. has a team designing
a potential tourism vehicle. |
NASA's report
on General Public Space Travel and Tourism can be
read
here. The report's summary states:
"This study
concludes that serious national attention should
now be given to activities that would enable the
expansion of today's terrestrial space tourism businesses,
and the creation of in-space travel and tourism
businesses. Indeed, it concludes that, in time,
it should become a very important part of our Country's
overall commercial and civil space business-program
structure. For it offers new personal and business
opportunities that would capitalize upon our great
and continuing human spaceflight public expenditures
and make additional use of our reservoir of space
professionals, facilities and institutions."
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The X-Prize
The
X-Prize was a competition for a vehicle that
would make access to Earth orbit more affordable.
Some of the companies who competed for the $10 million
dollar prize are seriously considering space tourism.
The X Prize Foundation hoped that their X Prize
would stimulate the development of commercial space
tourism by awarding the $10 million prize to the
first private team to build and fly a reusable spaceship
capable of carrying three individuals on a sub-orbital
flight. On October 4, 2004, SpaceShipOne and
Mojave Aerospace Ventures, LLC. team reached over
360,000 feet to win the $10 million ANSARI X PRICE.
The threshold of space is 328,000 feet.
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The prize is reminiscent of the $25,000
prize that Charles Lindbergh won for being the first
to cross the Atlantic in his plane, The Spirit of
St. Louis. It was devised with the same principal
in mind as an inspiration for exploration. |
| Tour
2 Space's Third Millenium Aerospace, Inc., has design
concepts for the X-Van and the SpaceVan. Their X-Van
is their X-prize entry. |
Space Adventures is now taking reservations
for departures. These are sub-orbital flights, and
the package gives you seven days of astronaut training
plus one sub-orbital 100-kilometer high flight which
will have a short period of weightlessness. Vela Technology
Development, Inc., and Space Adventures will sell
the space experience which includes a trip into space
on the Space
Cruiser, which they are building as their X-prize
entry. This trip will only set you back $98,000
per person. AeroAstro has been selected as prime contractor
under the direction of Vela Technology. AeroAstro
is a company founded in 1988 which has developed sub-orbital
rockets, satellites and components of satellites.
One of their strengths is their PA-X engine, a liquid
oxygen-kerosene low cost engine. The space tourism
vehicle will be called the Vela Cruiser. |
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Much of the development of current
launch vehicles is fuelled by the demand for launch
rockets to place satellites into orbit. Competing
investors are taking advantage of the latest in
technology for next generation, cheaper launch vehicles.
Buzz Aldrin, former Apollo astronaut
has some ideas about lunar tourism as does Budget
Suites of America's millionaire David Bigelow.
Bigelow hopes to build a lunar
cruise ship. Visit the Bigelow
Aerospace Company for more information.
Teleprescence
Trips
Telerobotic virtual experiences on the moon are
another idea whose time may be coming. The LunarCorp
lunar rover would be an amusement park arcade
experience for lunar rover teleoperators. According
to their website, "LunaCorp [will provide a] series
of lunar adventures based on intelligent robots. Unlike
previous robots that only sent narrow-band science
data back to Earth, these robots will deliver live
video and wide-open interactivity to the public. The
excitement of real-time lunar exploration will be
exclusive features of participating Web sites, television
networks and large science centers that offer hands-on
access via remote control." |
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LunaCorp's lunar robots will have a vision system
that sees everything above and around them. Back
on Earth, the image will surround visitors to science
centers and planetariums.
Motion platforms will relay movements of the rover
as it crosses the lunar surface. "Visitors may
think they are in a Star Trek virtual reality "HoloDeck,"
but the experience will be real." |
| Before being selected as a rover driver, the operators
must first prove their skills on computer simulators.
They will learn to compensate for the 3 to 5 second
communications delay between giving a driving command
and seeing the rover respond. Only the most skilled,
and safest drivers, will be selected to drive the lunar
rover. |
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The Robotics
Institute from Carnegie Mellon is designing
the rovers to have their own navigation abilities.
If any driving command is unsafe, the rovers will
have the authority to ignore Earth signals until
a safe directive is given.
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The rovers will be intelligent
and aware of their surroundings so they can protect
themselves from unsafe Earth commands. This also
means they can chat about their situation with people
on the home planet. This access to real-time space
exploration would also occur via the internet. The
rovers will be able to handle dozens of telephone
and e-mail conversations simultaneously providing
Earthlings with a real exploration adventure.
Japanese Space Tourism
According to the Space Policy Institute and the
International Institute of Tourism Studies at The
George Washington University, the first market research
on the demand for space tourism was conducted in
Japan in 1993. This survey of 3030 Japanese of all
ages revealed that 70% of those under age 60 and
more than 80% of those under age 40 stated they
would "like to visit space at least once in their
lifetime". Some 70% of these said they would "pay
up to three months salary for a trip to outer space".
Shimizu Space Systems, a Japanese corporation has been
studying space and lunar tourism. Their plans include
building a lunar base using concrete made from lunar
resources called 'lunarcrete'. They worked with
McDonnell Douglas Aerospace on a reference design
lunar base called the First Lunar Outpost (that has
been rejected by NASA). Shimizu is planning to build
inflatable buildings complete with tennis courts and
golf courses. For an article by CNN click
here. |
| Shimuzu
has also developed a lunar soil simulant made of basaltic
lava from Japan. It is similar to soils returned
from the Apollo 11 and Apollo 14 missions in its properties
and composition. |
They have researched growing plants including
wheat, soybeans, potatoes, peanuts, spinach, komatsuna
and tomatoes. Shimuzu has also completed a 'Lunar
Gravity Test of theFluidized Bed Reactor' for producing
oxygen. The Lunar Oxygen Plant extracts oxygen and
iron from ilmenite.
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Welcome to the Moon Hotel
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The most detailed proposal
so far for a hotel and resort destination on the
Moon has been prepared by Dutch architect Hans-Jurgen
Rombaut. A Japanese company, Nishimatu
Construction Company has plans for a Moon resort
called Escargot City. This refers to the
shape of the ten 10-story inflatable towers shaped
like snails' shells they plan to build.
Another Japanese company, Obayashi, is working
on a project to create a self-sufficient lunar
community of 10,000 people which would be supplied
by vast vegetable farms on the moon. Spacetopia
is a Japanese travel company planning to specialize
in space tourism services as they become available.
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For an article about
whether the moon should or will be used for mining
or tourism (or both!) visit
Space.com.
Engineer Gregory Bennett, founder of the new Houston-based
Lunar Development Corporation envisions walking tours
of Apollo landing sites, with tourists protected by
pressurized clear plastic walkways.
British architect Peter Inston has proposed a lunar
complex for Hilton International, Inc. bigger than
the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The Lunar
Hilton would be a 5,000-room domed structure,
powered by solar energy and supplied with drinking
water from lunar ice. It would have restaurants, a
church and even a beach. Food would come from farms
on the moon's surface and the ice discovered at the
moon's poles could be used for water. Moon buses would
transport guests on low-gravity excursions outside
the hotel. They would first have to get used to wearing
special boots because of the lack of gravity on the
Moon.
The Hilton
has discussed with NASA how to transport passengers
and build materials on the moon. Two major obstacles
are the high cost of space travel and the dangers
involved in it. Space tourist Dennis Tito signed
an agreement with the Russian Space Agency waiving
any claims due to accident that might occur on his
trip to the International Space Station. Would
you go?
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Questions
to think about:
- Do you think the moon should be used
for mining, tourism, or both? Why?
- Would you take a trip around the moon?
What kinds of facilities would you require on
the ship?
- Would you visit a lunar hotel? If so,
what types of services would you require?
In the next chapter of this unit,
you will explore early designs for a lunar base,
current scenarios, habitats, human requirements,
power systems, ecospheres, and domes.
Next... Lunar
Base Design (pg. 8 of 9)
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