Out-of-this-world tours!
By Shirish Joshi

AMERICA hopes to open up space for the rich common man very soon. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the USA and a private company have conducted a study and concluded that space tourism business is feasible, potentially lucrative and not far in the future.

Space tourism, likely to be operational in 2000, would rope in passengers who want to visit our moon or international space stations. It is estimated that about I million people would like to embark on space shuttles or special aircraft and would be willing to pay a hefty sum of $ 10,000 at least. However, the date of booking passengers for the first flight to space would depend on how soon significant problems get solved.

But if NASA sold tickets on the space shuttle today, and squeezed 50 passengers aboard, it would have to charge $ 10 million per ticket just to break even.

A number of space tourism companies have sprung up in the USA. They offer shorter flights to space compared to the seven or 10 days in a space shuttle and at a much lower price. Zegrahm Space Voyages is carrying out advance booking for flights that would go 100 km above earth in space. The ticket is $ 98,000; deposit $ 5,000. The first flight will leave earth on December, 1, 2001.

Another company Space Adventurers offers 10 minutes of weightlessness aboard a modified jet aircraft just for $ 5,500 and is taking deposits for such flights. The date of their first flight is not fixed. It may be sometime after three to five years.

A third company formed by old students of Stanford University, based in Palo Alto,USA, has announced a flight for two-and-a-half minutes, at a height of 15 km above earth for nearly $ 100,000. The company had inserted advertisements in newspapers published in Europe, the USA, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. They are getting a very good response.

A mothership aircraft would fly like the currently flown craft and attain an altitude of 15 km. At this height, a small eight-seater aircraft with window seats for all space tourists would be ejected out from the belly of the mothership and take off. The passengers can then experience weightlessness. They can see earth and other planets and stars in the sky and even make a video recording of their thrilling experience.

Another company has begun collecting $ 9,000 deposits for people ready to go into space by 2001. They are manufacturing small jet-like vehicles, fitted with rockets. They are on the lookout for people willing to pay $ 98,000 for the out-of-this world space tour. The weightlessness will last for about two minutes.

Hilton Inter-national, owners of many of the world’s best hotels, has proposed to build the first hotel on moon for the space tourists. Called Lunar Hilton, the huge complex would have 5,000 rooms. It would be powered by two huge generators making electricity from sunlight and would have its own beach and sea as well as a farm.

Water would come from the sources discovered a few months ago. The hotel would be a 325-metre-high complex, bigger than their biggest hotel on earth. There would be restaurants, a medical room, a church and even a school. High-speed lifts would whisk tourists between floors. Lunar buses would take guests on excursions outside the hotel.

The interior would be pressurised and guests will have the choice of wearing magnetic shoes or weighted shoes to cope with the weaker gravity. There would be many back-up life support systems and landing pads for space shuttles to land and dock.

Three Japanese companies are also working on similar ideas. Shimizu is planning to build inflatable buildings complete with tennis courts and golf courses, while Nishimatu is planning a resort called Escargot city, consisting of three 10-storeyed inflatable towers shaped like snail shells. Another company, Obayashi, is working on a project to create a self-contained lunar city of 10,000 population.

However, passengers will need some training to live in a weightless world even for a short time or for a longer period in a world with reduced gravity like that on the moon. One of the immediate effects of weightlessness is a sudden rush of blood to the head. This makes the face puff out and causes stuffiness in the nose.

At the same time muscles, freed from the need to work against the pull of gravity, become very weak.

Bones also react to release from gravity or reduction in gravity. The bones could become dangerously brittle and painful. Kidney stones could be formed from released calcium from the bones.