SPACE TOURISM

WHAT IS SPACE TOURISM?

> Space tourism is a segment of space travel that allows lay people to travel to space for recreational, leisure, or business purposes.

> From $350 million in 2019, the industry is forecasted to grow to more than $1 trillion by 2040.

> Space Tourism aims to make space more accessible to those people who are not astronauts and want to travel to space for non-scientific reasons.

> Three private companies - Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX — are some of the companies that have entered space tourism.

> It’s divided into different types, including orbital, suborbital, and lunar(moon) tourism.

> Suborbital tourism - The altitude of the Suborbital is about 100 kilometers and the duration in space gives passengers a few minutes.

> Orbital tourism - The altitude of the Orbital is over 400 kilometers and the duration in space is to spend days or even more than a week.

DRIVERS OF SPACE TOURISM

> Emerging start-ups in space tourism - Over the past few years, numerous players have entered the sub-orbital transportation and space tourism market thereby helping with cost and technology benefits.

> Declining cost of space tourism - With more advanced technology, it is expected that cost of space travel will fall within the range from $30,000 to $50,000 from the present range of $200,000 to $500,000.

> Development of space accommodations - In 2019, NASA announced plans to allow private citizens to fly to the ISS with stay for short visits. Private entities are also developing hotels in space for tourists' stay.

INDIA’S INITIATIVES

> Gaganyaan mission is expected to take off between 2024-25.

> Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACE) seeks to promote active participation of the private sector in carrying out end-to-end space activities, and this includes space tourism.