Space: future for tourism?

[Plazus]

A new hotel is being built. Will expected to be operational in earth orbit sometime in 2012. Costing a $4.4 million for a three night stay, it also includes an 8 week pretraining on a small island. Check out the article!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33579859/ns/technology_and_science-space/?GT1=43001

[MORAY37]

Honestly, No.

Even though I personally would love to go up....I don't think I'd want to stay in a plastic balloon in the most inhospitable place we know of.

This idea is half-baked in its best possible inception.  At its' worst- it's a deathtrap.  

Commercial space travel is at least 50 years away..... and that is just for suborbital "planes" carrying passengers from place to place on earth.

  I am kind of wondering why someone stupidly rich doesn't just offer to buy the ISS when it is scheduled for de-orbit in 2016 I believe.   If that were to happen, then I might say it would be possible to have a small civilian population rotated in and out.  Of course, NASA is probably just pushing for a bit of an increase in dollars when they announced that....

[MrRiplEy[H]]

  I am kind of wondering why someone stupidly rich doesn't just offer to buy the ISS when it is scheduled for de-orbit in 2016 I believe.

They say it smells kinda bad already let alone in a few years..

Space travel is only for people who have too much money and they can't think of a better way to get rid of it.

[batch]

Im not an expert on the subject by any means....... but hasnt it been studied in the past that astronauts such as those who traveled to the moon etc had internal movement of their organs etc due to no gravity ........ after just a short time in space


since nobody has stayed in space long enough yet and been back on earth long enough yet to do any significant testing or studies

have we really even established that its safe for us to be in space? at least until we get that whole artificial gravity........ and spaceboots lol thing worked out........

wouldnt it just be simpler to teleport to other planets?

[Lusche]

Isince nobody has stayed in space long enough yet and been back on earth long enough yet to do any significant testing or studies

Well, depends on how do you define "long enough":
Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov spent 366 days in space from December 21, 1987, to December 21, 1988. Longest cumulative total time: Sergei K. Krikalev, with over 2 years total space time. Many, many more astronauts have many weeks or even moths of space time.

To me it seems like short-termed tourism should not pose too much health risks.

[batch]

I would agree that 1 week visits to space shouldnt pose a problem..... weve had astronauts make multiple trips for several days at a time in the past without issue......... like I said....... Im no expert or even a novice on the subject...........

was just curious as I remember that being a concern in the past .......... didnt know if they ever figured out a way to keep the colon below the lungs during space flight

[OOZ662]

Alright, get that thing up there, built, and ready to go. Now, what's going to be a cheap enough way to get passengers safely into space and still be profitable? Not to mention the immense amount of resources required for something to be considered "luxurious."

[Curlew]

public space travel is unrealistic until we find an easier method of entering the atmosphere, like a space elevator

[CAP1]

public space travel is unrealistic until we find an easier method of entering the atmosphere, like a space elevator

never seen spaceshipone?


no sound on this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29uQ6fjEozI&feature=related

another with no sound.....but looks good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G68_dmC4BYI&feature=related

note how they re-enter the atmosphere with absolutley no heat problems.

leave it to rutan. the dude's a friggin genius. 

[Die Hard]

never seen spaceshipone?


no sound on this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29uQ6fjEozI&feature=related

another with no sound.....but looks good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G68_dmC4BYI&feature=related

note how they re-enter the atmosphere with absolutley no heat problems.

leave it to rutan. the dude's a friggin genius.  

And you're friggin not. Space Ship One does not achieve orbit and is not capable of doing so. Space Ship One only hops straight up into space and drops down again at nowhere near the velocities needed for achieving low orbit.

[Die Hard]

Space Ship One top speed: Mach 3.09 or roughly 2,000 mph. Max altitude: 112 kilometers. The International Space Station is orbiting Earth at a speed of 17,000 mph, travelling around the world once every 92 minutes at an altitude of 380 kilometers.

[CAP1]

Space Ship One top speed: Mach 3.09 or roughly 2,000 mph. Max altitude: 112 kilometers. The International Space Station is orbiting Earth at a speed of 17,000 mph, travelling around the world once every 92 minutes at an altitude of 380 kilometers.

my point wasn't what spaceship one has accomplished so far.....or actually it IS my point.

 they went and found a completely different and safe way to re-enter the atmosphere. and yes, they were considered out of the atmosphere at 367,000 feet.

 it;s a step. where nasa is floundering, using technology from the 70's to launch our men and women into space, repeating their same thing over and over again.....and now they're trying to go to the moon? again? i'll betcha someone competing for the x-prize beats em to it.

[Die Hard]

You're still not getting it. Hitting the atmosphere at low Mach speeds as Space Ship One simply drops back down from a vertical climb is nothing. Hitting the atmosphere at 17,000 miles per hour like the shuttle does is an entirely different thing. The shuttle has to fly that fast to stay in orbit. Space Ship One does not.

[Die Hard]

Space Ship One is so insignificant compared to what NASA does that its like comparing a man on a trampoline with the Wright brothers' first flight.

[MORAY37]

CAP, you just don't understand what people are saying.  It's impossible to not heat something up on the way back into the atmosphere, if that object has at any point actually reached orbit.  

All spaceship one does is go straight up, stop (stall), and fall back down.  It never comes remotely close to breaking the gravitational pull of the earth, no more that a nose high P-38 does.  This allows for it not to ever need to deal with heating issues associated with de-orbit and re-entry.

Spaceship one is never remotely in the same vicinity as achieving orbit around the planet.  The gravity of the earth is pretty close to the same at sea level as it is 388 kilometers up.  In order to achieve orbit, you must speed up, so that the rate of travel forward equals the gravity pulling you down, and the earth "falls" out of the way.

 Astronauts are not in a gravity absent environment anymore than you are now at your computer.  The are just in a constant state of free fall.