
Space Tourism
Includes four themes Space Tourism, Space X, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic.
Space Tourism
A space tourist is a person who participates in a space flight aboard a spacecraft not to carry out a mission (e.g. conducting experiments or work). Space tourism currently encompasses several different types: orbital space tourism, suborbital space tourism, and lunar space tourism. Space travel is based on the idea of people traveling into space, travelling into space offers an experience like no other, the most novel and exciting being the ability to view the stunning scenery of space, while also enjoying the taste of weightlessness. Both of these experiences can only be enjoyed in space, and it can be said that this view is only available in the sky. The project began on 30 April 2001, with the first space tourist being an American businessman, the second a wealthy South African, and the third an American, and in the eight years since, six more space tourists have boarded the International Space Station, at a cost ranging from $20 million to $35 million. In the future, space tourism will become more popular and more competitive. In other words, mass tourism will gradually become commonplace. This is also based on the idea of people traveling in space to travel in space.
Space tourism consists of four main forms: weightless planes, high-altitude balloons, and suborbital and orbital flights. The aforementioned space tourism, which can cost tens of millions of dollars, is orbital, and today ticket prices for this option have risen to over $50 million. In contrast, suborbital flights are far less expensive than the former, making them a popular track for commercial spaceflight in recent years. Where orbital flight is seen as space travel in the true sense of the word, orbital flight is currently aimed primarily at the International Space Station for tourists to make round-trip transports, by the Russian Soyuz series of spacecraft and the US manned Dragon spacecraft, and the biggest of this method. The disadvantage is that it can cost thousands of dollars, so research into reusable rockets is crucial in reducing costs.
Meanwhile, another technology and requirement, suborbital travel, which is much less costly, is rapidly exploding in the context of commercial spaceflight. For suborbital travel, generally suborbital is the airspace between 20 km and 100 km above the ground, not exceeding the 100 km altitude of the Vonka literature, the latter being the boundary between the atmosphere and space as defined by the International Aeronautical Federation. Suborbital travel is the use of a suborbital manned vehicle to transport tourists to the edge of space at an altitude of approximately 100 km and then immediately return to the ground, which is equivalent to passengers traveling in a vehicle on a straight up and down parabolic flight through space. The advantage of this approach is that passengers can experience weightlessness that is difficult to simulate from the ground, while at the same time being able to look down on the thousands of kilometers long curved surface of the Earth from above. After years of research, three major players in global space tourism – Blue Origin (USA), Virgin Galactic (UK), and Space X (USA) – are all conducting their first tourist-oriented space tourism trips in 2021 at a significant price, with the first two being suborbital flights. On 11 July 2021, Richard Bryson, founder of the British company Virgin Galactic, lifted off in his spacecraft, Spaceship Two, reaching the edge of space at over 80 kilometers, accompanied by five other people. Nine days later, Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and three others took off vertically from Texas Launch Complex 1 in the United States on Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket. This flight lasted around 10 minutes. The capsule aboard the rocket reached an altitude of up to 106 kilometers before the rocket and spacecraft were recovered separately. To achieve a boom in space tourism, two issues need to be addressed: cost reduction and safety. Blue Origin’s first suborbital flight cost $20 million, but today the price has dropped from $200,000 to $300,000 per flight, mainly due to its reusable launch vehicle.
However, in addition to trying to reduce costs and ensure safety, they are also trying to provide a more mind-blowing and comfortable experience as well as services for tourists. 2018 saw the announcement of an American technology company’s orbital travel program around the Moon, with plans to send tourists into lunar sightseeing orbit in 2023 for a week-long visit around the Moon. This could likewise be done with the help of space warfare, but it cannot be entirely dependent on the existing space stations now in place. In addition to this, several countries, such as the USA, Japan, and Russia, have already started. Research and development projects for space lifts. If space lifts can be developed, the cost of space travel will be greatly reduced so that most people can realize the desire for space tourism and most humans traveling around space will not be a dream. There’s another new way to space hotelsThe idea of a space hotel sounds tempting, and plans are set to be agreed upon by 2025. A company specializing in the design and construction of space stations is planning to open luxury accommodations in space. Not only will it be available to travellers it will also be available and commercially manufactured and so on for research. Firstly, they use artificial gravity to make. The lodgers feel comfortable as well as being able to respond very flexibly to the needs of the various tenants of the station. Finally, although this space hotel has not commented on the room rates, it is evident that this will be very expensive.
With connections to the International Space Station and many more, we can guarantee that in the future most people will be able to experience space travel, and a small number of people are already experiencing this new form of tourism. Through the continued exploration of space and the global efforts of mankind, a new type of travel will flourish and develop in the future.
Space X company
SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies, is an American space transportation company founded by Elon Musk in June 2002. It develops the partially reusable Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launch vehicles. SpaceX also develops the Dragon family of spacecraft for launch into orbit via the Falcon 9. spaceX primarily designs, tests, and manufactures in-house components such as the Merlin, Kestrel, and Draco rocket engines.
Space X has launched 40% of the world’s successful launches, 85% of the world’s satellites, and 130 tonnes of the rest of the world combined. And Space X will also have a mystery payload in the third launch in the new launch. So the overall launch volume is the world’s number one. Space X as a whole is dependent on rocket recovery and is very low-cost. However, the extremely high thrust-to-weight ratio and reusability lead to a high launch capacity. Take for example the classic Falcon IX B5 and near-Earth orbit. As well as the ability to rework quickly. Repairs can be completed in just over 2 months. All in all, we can say that it is a good launch company at a good price. So on overall launch capability alone. SpaceX is changing its thinking and saving fuel to recover the rocket. A rocket is used many times, and each time it costs money for fuel and maintenance. Currently, the most has been reused 13 times. Evenly spread out, it competes with rivals for 1/13th of the cost of building a rocket.
Based on this idea of saving fuel for rocket recovery, SpaceX is targeting transport to small satellites. However, because the international satellite market has only so many orders to meet SpaceX’s transport capacity, it has launched its own Starlink program of 30,000 satellites. starlink allows the full use of the transport capacity of the reused rocket, i.e. reflecting Starlink satellites when there are no other commercial satellite launch missions, with launches scheduled almost every week. Relying on a fixed launch plan, and opening a ride service, that is, by reducing the number of carried Starlink satellites way to give space to other commercial small satellites, to ensure that capacity is not wasted while increasing revenue, but also to ensure the rapid launch of commercial small satellites. The flight-based operation of space launches has been achieved, and launching satellites is as easy as delivering cargo by air.
Of course, the rise of Space X could not have been achieved without the support of NASA. It is also the result of combining the world’s best technology to accomplish an unprecedented feat. It is a risky and costly affair though. But. If successful, it is something that could create a great deal of profit value. International value. Space X has now taken on. communication satellites worldwide as well as the space industry.
Blue Origin Company
Blue Origin, a commercial space company owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, was founded in 2000 and already employs nearly 600 people.
The company focuses on developing systems and vehicles to safely send ordinary tourists into near-Earth space for space travel, with the hope of repeatedly using a self-developed low-cost space vehicle to eventually commercialize and normalize human space tourism. The company is a smaller, privately owned company with a strong technological presence, a small international reputation, an up-and-coming technology company that has worked with Virgin and has received financial support from NASA, has not had an actual launch mission, and is ramping up development to test the be-3 liquid hydrogen rocket. In contrast, another company in this field, SpaceX, has more influence and strength. Recently, SpaceX’s Dragon v2 has been released, becoming the first reusable civilian manned spacecraft in human history to fly into space, and there has been a great international response.
The company’s first vehicle is called the Blue Origin Charon Test Vehicle for engineering validation. The second, called Goddard Experimental Fee Trajectory Vertical Takeoff and Landing, first flew in 2006. The third called the New Shepard, was able to teach astronauts to send them into space about 120 kilometres from Earth. And Blue Origin got a phase grant for this vehicle. Finally, the fourth and current capsule and accompanying rocket experiment is called Orbital Space Systems, which is being developed to carry people. However, this has not yet had an actual operational launch and is still in the development phase.
But although he is not in competition, Blue Origin and Boeing among others have joined together to build a commercial space station. Results to come. At the same time, NASA has joined forces with large space and aviation companies such as Space X and Blue Origin to execute the US spaceflight space program.
Although Blue Origin has faced some problems recently, such as the departure of a large number of people in core positions at short notice, and the rapid growth of competitors. But Blue Origin also has its advantages. For example, the president is the CEO of Amazon, so there will be no problems in terms of funding, it is very abundant. Secondly, it has been around for a long time and has a fixed commissioning and deployment space. Blue Origin also has numerous collaborative projects, such as the joint launch of the ULA engine rocket. as well as a series of rockets and design contracts signed and developed with various US companies. And now they are also collaborating on many fronts and exploring new possibilities.
Virgin Galactic
Founded by British billionaire Richard Branson and CEO George Whitesides, the Virgin Galactic spacecraft was the world’s first commercial spacecraft.
On 19 February 2016, Virgin Galactic officially unveiled a new version of its future spacecraft for space travel in California, U.S.A. 16 February 2022 – Virgin Galactic announced on Tuesday that tickets for space flights will go on sale on 16 February, starting at $450,000 each, with an upfront deposit of a deposit of $150,000, of which $25,000 is non-refundable. On May 5, 2022, local time, Virgin Galactic announced that the first commercial flight would be delayed until 2023 due to a supply chain crisis and labor constraints. This is the closest one will ever get to the time of a commercial small-scale trip.
The main advantage of Virgin Galactic’s commercial magic is launching their spacecraft in the air from an attitude perpendicular to the Earth’s surface. This reduces fuel costs, meaning they can have the lowest fuel costs to take people into suborbital space, or what we commonly call space travel. This gives them a very significant cost advantage. Like what was said above. Virgin Galactic over Space X. The advantage is this. Surrounding Galaxy can exceed the highest point Space X can reach and also provide a longer experience for private astronauts. But we need to consider whether customers are willing to pay more to experience this additional program.
The advantage of Virgin Galactic is that it is the first manned spaceflight company in the world to be traded on the open market, which means. Space tourism has gone from private to public. Secondly. Virgin, Galaxy. Spacecraft vs Utility is the first and only launch vehicle built for regular commercial service to send humans into space. And the downside is that he doesn’t have sufficient cash flow to sustain it. The high investment in R&D and the consumption. It’s a company that burns money in the long term that can’t be forestalled in the short term, and the lack of financing and space tourism customers is very fatal. But this was mitigated when it went public.
And they and will also enter into a partnership with a Boeing subsidiary. Two additional delivery aircraft will be set up. It also means that the company is starting to look for a new way out. To bring its industry full circle, and not just in terms of putting in space tourism services. This came 2 days after the announcement of the plan for the share price. Taking a hit, TCM closed for the camp and plunged over 17%. But they were able to increase ticket prices significantly. And then were able to keep the demand at a very high level. This is also a very positive indicator of Virgin’s business model.
There are benefits to this business model that are reflected. Although it is a high investment, there is a greater profit return. In the future, space tourism is also an emerging industry.
“751309 Macro Economic 2”
supervised by Asst. Prof. Napon Hongsakulvasu
Faculty of Economics, Chiang Mai University
This article was written by
Qingyu Zhao 641615515