What is Space Tourism?: Its Types, Global Initiatives, and Challenges

Context

Entrepreneur and pilot Gopi Thotakura is set to become the first Indian to venture into space as a tourist on the NS-25 mission of Blue Origin Company.

Gopi Thotakura to be the first Indian Space Tourist

• First Indian Selected for Space Tourism: Gopi Thotakura is set to become the first Indian to venture into space as a tourist on the NS-25 mission of Blue Origin — a company founded by Jeff Bezos, who is also the founder of Amazon.
• Second Indian Selected for Space Tourism: Thotakura has been selected as one of the six crew members for the NS-25 mission whose launch date is yet to be announced. 
  • If the mission is successful, Thotakura would be the second Indian to go into space. 
  • The first one was Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, who flew to the Salyut 7 space station on a Soviet spacecraft in 1984.
• Growth of Space Tourism: According to media reports, in 2023, the space tourism market was valued at $848.28 million. It is expected to grow to $27,861.99 million by 2032. 

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What is Space Tourism?

Space tourism is a section of the aviation sector which seeks to provide tourists with the opportunity to become astronauts and experience space travel for recreational, leisure, or business purposes.

• Types of space tourism: 

• • Sub-orbital Spacecraft: It takes passengers just beyond the Kármán line. The passengers get to spend a few minutes in outer space and then come back to Earth. 
    • The NS-25 mission, which Thotakura is a part of, is a sub-orbital mission. 
      • Thotakura and his other crew members will be taken to outer space via New Shepard, a fully reusable sub-orbital launch vehicle developed specifically for space tourism by Blue Origin.
  • Orbital Spacecraft: It takes passengers much further than the Kármán line. Usually, passengers can spend from a couple of days to more than a week at an altitude of nearly 1.3 million feet.
    • In September 2021, Space X’s Falcon 9 took four passengers to an altitude of 160 km where they spent three days orbiting the Earth.

Challenges with Space Tourism

• High Cost: Currently, space tourism is expensive. A passenger generally has to pay at least a million dollars to reach outer space which is out of reach for almost everyone.
• Environmental Concerns: Space tourism may lead to environmental damage as rockets emit gaseous and solid chemicals directly into the upper atmosphere.
  • As per a 2022 study done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),  the soot emissions from rocket launches are far more effective at warming the atmosphere compared to other sources.
• Safety Concerns:  According to a report by Astronomy MagazineDespite high safety standards, a total of 676 people have flown into space and 19 of them have died, as of November 2023.
  • This means that approximately 3% of astronauts died during their space flight which is quite a high fatality rate.

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