Space tourism

Space tourism is the most atypical form of tourism ever. After half a century from the first man in space we have entered the era of commercial space transportation. This era will not only change the technological scenario and our way of seeing space, but it will also bring greater popularity and participation towards the new space race. In fact, it will create a new sector in which to build businesses, but above all it will bring a new vision of the way people will travel in space. It is from the 50s that it has been spoken about space tourism. Robert A. Heinlein in one of his books in 1957, advanced for the first time the hypothesis of a future where the space voyage would be used as a form of tourism (Wainwright, n.d.). In 1985, the travel agency Society Expedition launched the "Space voyage " project, to sell short trips into the Earth orbit at a really high price (Wainwright, n.d.). Unfortunately, the project failed. In the mid-90s, the idea of space tourism become the object of researches by various organizations, private companies and industry associations, such as the Japanese Rocket Society (Wainwright, n.d.). In 1996, Ansari X-Prize competition emerged to encourage the rise of a low-cost space flying. X Price Foundation, in this competition, was going to offer a sum of money that was of $10,000,000 for the first non-government organization that would had been able to launch twice within a week, in to space, a reusable manned spacecraft. Tier one project won the price (Wainwright, n.d.). ISAS engineers, in 1999, demonstrated the flight of the first VTOL reusable rocket. In 2001 an American multimillionaire engineer, Dennis Tito, became the first paying private space tourist in history (Wainwright, n.d.). Through a private agency specialized in space tourism, Space Adventures Ltd., managed to organize and bought for about 20 million dollars an eight-day stay aboard the International Space Station as a guest of the crew of astronauts on a mission (Wainwright, n.d.). After him, between 2002 and 2009, other six lucky people have managed to finance a stay on board the ISS and new aspiring space tourists are already preparing for future trips.

In 1981 there was the passage of the National Space Policy Act (H.R. 3712 (97th): National Space Policy Act, 1981). This act “declares the policy of the United States to be the exploration and use of outer space: for the benefit of mankind; for the National well-being; for the increase of knowledge; in cooperation with other nations; and for the dissemination of information” (H.R. 3712 (97th): National Space Policy Act, 1981). The Department of Transportation was appointed to be the leading agency for the launches of the commercial space vehicles, by President Reagan in 1984 (Wainwright, n.d.). The DOT was appointed to have such responsibility only after having promised it would not had placed the FAA as the rule maker. For this reason, in 1984 the Office of Commercial Space Transportation was established. The first years after the establishment of the OCST there were a lot of issues correlated to regulations and polices, but with time they came more and more addressed. The Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984, was developed with the intent to facilitate the private companies involved in the development of commercial space technology (H.R. 3942 (98th): Commercial Space Launch Act, n.d.). The act also prohibited the launching of space vehicles within the USA from entities that did not have the appropriate license from the DOT (H.R. 3942 (98th): Commercial Space Launch Act, n.d.). The passage of the Spurring Aerospace Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship (SPACE) Act of 2015 encouraged private sectors in investing their resources in the development of spacecrafts for commercial uses and it pushed for the creation of more stable regulations regarding the space industry topic (H.R. 2262 (114th): U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, n.d.). Still today there are no clear regulations concerning the commercial orbital activities, the only few ones that are published deal with the safety and protection of the people and properties on the ground. I personally think that for now, since the commercial space tourism is relatively new and still in the startup phase, there should not be too restrictively regulations concerning the topic. In a future, however, I personally think that there should be more restrictive regulations. Currently regulations concerning with commercial space transportation are located in under Chapter III, Parts 400 to 460, of Title 14 CFR (Office of Commercial Space Transportation, 2017)

For now, the thought of space tourism for many people can be seen only as a dream. However, in a few years what had been a dream or the plot of a movie, could become a reality. Therefore, patience is required for the common mortals of this planet. I think, that in not that far of a future we will be able to see space hotels and spacecrafts going back and forth from the earth. The only problem is that for now the tickets of this spectacular adventure cost tens of thousands of dollars and only particularly wealthy individuals can actually afford them. But, in my opinion, people that are interest in this form of tourism should not despair, because as for cars, mobile phones, air flights, at the beginning only wealthy individuals could had afford them due to their high prices, but nowadays they are accessible to the majority of the population.

The FAA set the minimum requirements for pilots of Human Space Flights under chapter 3 of the Human Space Flight Requirements for Crew and Space Flight Participants final rule Human Space Flight Requirements for Crew and Space Flight Participants, 2006). Those requirements are:

·  Pilot must possess and carry an FAA pilot certificate with an instrument rating. The instrument rating since the vehicle will pass through Class A at least twice.

·  Requires aeronautical experience and skills necessary to pilot and control the vehicle

·   Possess FAA 1^st Class Medical

·   Possess aeronautical experience and skills necessary to pilot and control the vehicle for any launch or reentry vehicle that will operate in the NAS

·   Training for emergency procedures

·   Desirable would be to practice operations with pressure suits on

Virgin Galactic began recruiting their spaceship pilots from the airlines. The only requirements that Virgin has for the pilots along with the ones prescribed in the regulations are to have a minimum of 3000 flight hours and have multiple aircraft type ratings (Belfiore, 2009).

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References:

Belfiore, M. (2009, March 01). License to Thrill. Retrieved from

https://www.airspacemag.com/space/license-to-thrill

46607056/#qMD1ixHmB6E571VE.99

H.R. 2262 (114th): U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act. (n.d.). Retrieved

            from https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/hr2262/summary

H.R. 3712 (97^th): National Space Policy Act (1981). Retrieved from

https://www.congress.gov/bill/97th-congress/house-bill/3712

H.R. 3942 (98th): Commercial Space Launch Act. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/98/hr3942/summary

Human Space Flight Requirements for Crew and Space Flight Participants. (2006, D

            ecember 15). Retrieved from http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=22786

Newsline, L. (2017, May 30). Commercial Spaceflight Industry Faces Uncertain Legal,

            Regulatory Environment. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/

            legalnewsline/2017/05/30/commercial-spaceflight-industry-faces-uncertain-legal-

            regulatory-environment/#462603fe1be0

Office of Commercial Space Transportation. (2017, September 27). Retrieved from

https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/regulations/

Wainwright, P. (n.d.). Space Tourism - The Story So Far. Retrieved from

http://www.spacefuture.com/tourism/timeline.shtml