Russian Tourists in Space
Russia is looking into sending more people that are ordinary into space instead of just sending astronauts. In between 2001 and 2009, Russia successfully sent seven visitors to the International Space Station. The program, however, was shut down due to the end of the Space Shuttle Program that was run by the United States.
Since 2009, Russia has made great advances in its space technology in order to resume the dream of having space be a tourist location, and open to anyone who wanted to pay enough to see it. In order to do this, Russia’s RKK Energia, a leading rocket manufacturer, has been working on modifying its rocket ships to allow for safe traveling conditions for guests and expects to be able to start sending visitors in 2018.
On the other side of the world, the United States has had its own struggles with space tourism. The hope is to advance in the testing phases of the newest technology available, and to proceed with Virgin Galactic’s goal of being able to send more people to space. After a serious testing crash in the Mojave Desert with their SpaceShipTwo, however, the future of the company and the mission was in the balance. Luckily for them, they are cleared to start up test flights once more in the summer of 2015.
Russia and the United States are both world leaders when it comes to space technology and advances in space travel. There is also fierce competition between them to be the one to send the most people into space successfully within the shortest time frame. The good news is that they are both taking their time and making sure that all of the technology and modifications made to their spaceships will be appropriate enough to ensure the traveler’s safety.
As part of the new space tourism industry that is now budding, there are many facets to be considered such as price, accommodations that would be available, and the type of spacesuits that would be worn. As far as the price is concerned, it is currently projected to be about $250,000 US per visitor.
When it comes to the accommodations that prospective space tourists could expect to find, one can turn to the International Space Station for answers. They provide food, water, comfortable living quarters, and they also do their best to make sure that everyone on board knows how to handle the zero gravity circumstances. This can have implications, such as no regular showers, because the water would actually go everywhere. Instead, guests would have to use a damp cloth, just as the astronauts do. Of course a lot of this is simply theoretical as there have not yet been concrete decisions made.
The spacesuits that the space visitors would need to use would not be as clunky or as large as the ones used by professional astronauts, as they would be intra-vehicular activity (IVA suits). The reasoning behind this is that they would not need to have their own air supply tanks attached and would be strictly used for indoor situations, thus they would be much lighter. Tourist spacesuits could also very well become a fashion icon in our near future.
Between all of the different technologies and advancements made, whether it’s Russia or the USA that will be able to send tourists into space sooner, our world will gain a great opportunity to see more of space and to allow more people to experience its full majesty.
