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How practical is space tourism as India too explores to venture in this area

US billionaires have already taken up leisure space travel to the low-earth orbit that is being targeted by India for space travel. However, it remains to be seen as to how practical space tourism is for being a sustainable business model? And how sustainable is it for our home planet? Why is space travel important?

Anurakti Sharma

Updated Jul 27, 2022, 20:44 IST

Representative Image (Courtesy: PIB)

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New Delhi: Indians taking up leisure space travel to the low-earth orbit might soon be a reality if Indian Minister of State for Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh is to be believed.

Minister Singh while talking about Gaganyaan in the parliament said that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has taken up the mission to send humans to space indigenously and was being taken up to explore space tourism opportunities.

“ISRO is in the process of developing indigenous capabilities towards space tourism through the demonstration of human space flight capability to Low Earth Orbit (LEO),” Minister Singh said.

Overview Effect

The biggest reason for companies across the world, including India’s ISRO to explore space travel is certainly the awe-inspiring experience it can provide to tourists. The experience of seeing earth from space is a view like no other and comes with an epiphany dubbed the Overview Effect. It means that those who travel to space and witness the Earth from there change their perspective about the Earth.

Astronauts have experienced the Overview Effect in almost 100 percent of cases where they return with a new sense of obligation and responsibility to do more for their home planet, to protect it. Experts say in this way, space tourism can be beneficial.

Scientific Research

The recent space tourism flights were not long enough or with a big enough sample size of travellers, to determine the impact of space on humans, their physiology, as well as psychology. However, with more people going to space and potentially longer spaceflights, we will learn more about this important aspect if space tourism can indeed become a regularity like taking a flight and touring Europe.

Virgin Galactic flight also took a plant to study and understand how it would react to microgravity. Such small experiments can piggyback on tourist spaceflights.

Space tourism will also lay the basic groundwork for understanding if it would be possible to colonise the moon and other planets and if yes then under what conditions?

Problems with sustainable space tourism

The biggest problem is of course the cost of the process. Currently, space tourism tickets cost anywhere between $200,000-250,000 at Virgin Galactic. Blue Origin has not revealed the prices yet but they are expected to be in the same area.

Another very concerning issue on space travel remains on the lawful regulation of the ventures. Who is in charge? Will it be the selected few billionaires who will be regulating space travel? Would the policies be made as per them? What would then be the laws regarding space pollution, exploration, experimentation, etc?

Currently, it is only three companies who are offering space tourism commercially and space travel being at the mercy of these three billionaires is certainly an unsettling thought.

ISRO, is a government-regulated space agency, providing a little relief here. However, according to minister Jitendra Singh’s announcement, ISRO will be involved in developing the indigenous technology for space tourism and it is unclear whether it will indeed be taking up the mantle itself or will it be outsourced.

Having considered all the possibilities, safety remains one of the top but uncomfortable concerns regarding space travel. Even though enhanced safety parameters are not employed across the world, the risks will always be there. But it should not be a real concern for the actual enthusiasts as the risk factor is as good as when you drive a car.

Environmental cost

While space exploration is inarguably one of the most important aspects of human evolution. Learning about the universe is what gives humanity a purpose. Beyond that, such explorations can also teach us on how to save our home planet. Having said that, the environmental cost for leisure space tourism might not be the one we are willing to pay. Carbon footprint will increase many times and it can also contribute to depleting the ozone layer.

Is it worth it?

In short – Yes! Space travel is certainly worth it, there are no two ways about that. However, there are many situations that need to be dealt with currently as well as pre-emptively to ensure that space tourism works towards providing survival of the human race beyond this planet and a future for our existence. However, regular leisure trips do not seem like a good idea in the interest of our planet, home to eight billion people.

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