Space Activities
Future Space Tourism
In the future there could be many chances for space tourism. There are many ideas of what could happen in the future; rides, experiments, and tourism. This would be a great chance for passengers who are not astronauts to go into space. Here are some ideas about what could become reality.
Zero-Gravity Flight
This flight takes place in a special jet aircraft that is used to train astronauts for space. You start in Earth’s atmosphere and tilt up to a 45 degree angle. The journey upward causes passengers experience two times their body weight. The flight down wards is the start of weightlessness. For 30 seconds passengers can flip, roll, or any thing like that in the temporary zero gravity. After a time passengers land on the floor of the jet’s cabin and experience 5 to 10 more minutes of zero gravity. Then the jet lands back on Earth.
Edge of Space Flight
For this flight passengers spend time training in a space training center for 2-3 days. Part of their training occurs in the craft the Foxbat. This craft can create a force almost 30 Gs (thirty times the weight of something). Passengers of course will only train up to about 7 Gs seeing as humans can only stand up to 10 Gs. The actual flight takes place in the Earth’s fastest jet, which can go up to 2.5 times the speed of sound. In the flight the craft rockets straight up, and at one point passengers go past the speed of sound. The pilot then performs army maneuvers and passengers themselves might get a chance to steer (under the close eye of the pilot). Finally the craft is steered safely back to Earth.
Sub-Orbital Flight
In this flight passengers spend 4 days training. Passengers who go on this flight will be officially astronauts, and receive a space suit. Sub orbital flights do not enter orbit with Earth, however they still do enter space. While training you will learn in-flight acceleration, in-flight safety, and equipment. The craft taken on this journey will rather be like SpaceShipOne. After the craft launches 62 miles in the air there will be 5-15 minutes of weightlessness. In this time people can view Earth, and name stars using a star map. After a while the craft will land back on Earth.
Soyuz Taxi Missions
The goal of this mission is to replace the Soyuz capsule on the ISS with a new one. Every six months the capsule must be changed so there is a good one in case the ISS crew needs to evacuate. On this trip, passengers on it must experience 4-6 whole months of intensive training. While training, members of this flight will learn classroom training which consists of communications, navigations, and electronics training. After being launched on a rocket, it will take 15 minutes to reach orbit. Small tasks like pulling levers may be given to passengers and there will be plenty of picture time. The mission will dock on the ISS for several days in which you can explore, experiment, prepare meals, and enjoy the view. When the replacing of the Soyuz capsule is finished, a rocket will launch you back to Earth.
Trans-Lunar Cruises
For many years people have thought of building a hotel on the moon. Progress of a hotel has started in Spain. A space hotel called the Galactic Suite is being prepared. According to a scientist, the hotel should be ready by 2012 and cost 4 million dollars to stay in. Passengers would move around their rooms with Velcro suits, take part in experiments, and watch Earth. In Bigelow Aerospace, Robert Bigelow has given $500 million dollars for a hotel to become reality. Bigelow thinks the hotel could be made with 2 billion dollars. This hotel would be large in compare to the ISS, with 50 staterooms, and a bathroom for each room. Many scientists and astronauts imagine space hotels designed like a humongous, rotating, wheel shaped structure. An ideal place for the hotel would be about 10 miles above the moon, giving anyone in it a perfect view of Earth. Bigelow reckons that it would take about 48 shuttles to carry the aluminum, iron, plastic, and glass needed to make the hotel, into space. Tourists would go through training before going to the hotel, and the estimated price would be $500,000. Bigelow Aerospace has also the idea of inflatable hotels. These mini hotels would be made of strong material and be a bout 10 feet in diameter. The cost for stays on these hotels would be 7.9 million dollars. In the third experiment of an inflatable hotel, people could send items with the hotel when it launched. Imagine buying an inflatable space hotel. Sometime these hotels could be built.