Start Planning Your Trip to SPACE!

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Start packing your bags, because we are in the middle of a space tourism revolution! Companies like Virgin Galactic, Space Adventures, and XCOR Aerospace are creating tours for both orbital and suborbital spaceflights - but at what cost? Jonathan explores the future of space tourism and possible solutions to increase efficiency and lower ticket prices.
If you went into space, but could only bring five pounds (lbs) of stuff with you, what would you pack? Let us know in the comments below!
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[TRANSCRIPT]:
Why float in a hotel pool when you can float in your room?
Being a private astronaut sounds like a dream, but it's 100% real. As of 2013, seven private space tourists have slipped the bonds of Earth to go out into space, at least for a short while. We are in the middle of a space tourism revolution, and you can actually start planning your trip today!
Maybe you want to take advantage of a package from Space Adventures, where you go on a twelve-day trip into Earth orbit. You'll be traveling at 17,000 miles-per-hour which is fast enough for you to see the entire surface of the Earth rotate underneath you in ninety minutes. So what's the downside? Well...it costs about 50 million dollars.
But hey, maybe that's not right for you. Maybe you would prefer a sub-orbital flight. Now this would be cheaper and shorter, but it would also mean that you would go high enough so that you could see the actual curvature of Earth, you would experience weightlessness, and you'd be about sixty miles over the surface of the planet. So Virgin Galactic estimates that the first 1,000 passengers of its service will spend about $250,000 for this privilege. But a company called XCOR estimates that a shorter flight would cost only about $95,000.
One company called Bigelow Aerospace wants to be the leader in space lodgings. They have these space stations they called expandable habitats. Just imagine an orbital rental cabin made out of inflatable fabric.
But as long as we're going into space, we might as well go whole hog right? I mean, more than 500 people have been up in space. But only twelve human beings have ever been to the moon! An organization called The Golden Spike Company estimates that they could take a person from Earth to the moon for the measly sum of $750,000,000 per person
If we can create an efficient non-rocket launch system like a space elevator or a launch loop concept driven by electro-magnets, that could radically reduce the price. But each of those methods have their own drawbacks.
Another way to drop prices might be to have the space tourists do science when they go up into orbit on behalf of a professional or nonprofit organization. Just imagine, you could reduce costs, you'd go into space, and you'd do science. Everybody wins!
This is a chance to be a part of a human movement that's a new era in our history. And we might be able to answer some important questions that professional scientific journeys have yet to address. Things like what sort of party games are best in zero gravity? Or what's it like to jam out with your garage band when you're in space? Or even what baby is going to have the honor of being the first human conceived outside of Earth?