Could tourism become an economic engine of the space colonisation? For example, Moon has 6 times lower gravity and this allows new types of sport. Older people can jump again there!
The important question isn’t the desirability of going, but the costs of getting there. Space tourism at it currently stands means paying at least $20 million, going through a condensed astronaut training program (and passing), and then spending around ten days in low Earth orbit. Unsurprisingly, only a handful of extremely rich individuals have paid that much.
Lunar surface tourism would be considerably more expensive. Building a small space station in low Earth orbit where tourists can experience weightlessness for an extended period would probably pay off better. Right now, we’re stillwaiting for suborbital hops.
There’s another cost, as well: the same age that makes low gravity attractive also makes a rocket launches precarious. (Sure, if we had a space elevator, that wouldn’t matter, but if we had the technology and funding to build a space elevator I wouldn’t have written this post.) Not coincidentally, a lot of astronauts retire in their 50s or early 60s. I don’t know how much this would depress the demand, but it would certainly depress it some, and also raise the legal and operational costs to prevent liability.
Tourism might be a big market once the infrastructure is there, but I’m not sure how well it will serve to fund the infrastructure and technology development itself. As with the other potential markets I mentioned, whether we would like to do it has relatively little bearing on whether there’s sufficient willingness-to-pay such that we actually can do it.
If Musk’s Starship will work, it will lower price of Moon tourism. If a launch will cost 1.5 mln USD and there will be 100 people on board, it means 15k a person for a ticket.
There are more than 1 million households in US which have 10 mln usd capitalisation, and they could afford such travel without damaging their wealth. No all will go, but may be a 10 thousand a year will. This gives 1 billion a year for tickets and they will spend at least the same amount on the Moon. So it is 2 billion dollar a year tourist economy. Not much.
Could tourism become an economic engine of the space colonisation? For example, Moon has 6 times lower gravity and this allows new types of sport. Older people can jump again there!
The important question isn’t the desirability of going, but the costs of getting there. Space tourism at it currently stands means paying at least $20 million, going through a condensed astronaut training program (and passing), and then spending around ten days in low Earth orbit. Unsurprisingly, only a handful of extremely rich individuals have paid that much.
Lunar surface tourism would be considerably more expensive. Building a small space station in low Earth orbit where tourists can experience weightlessness for an extended period would probably pay off better. Right now, we’re still waiting for suborbital hops.
There’s another cost, as well: the same age that makes low gravity attractive also makes a rocket launches precarious. (Sure, if we had a space elevator, that wouldn’t matter, but if we had the technology and funding to build a space elevator I wouldn’t have written this post.) Not coincidentally, a lot of astronauts retire in their 50s or early 60s. I don’t know how much this would depress the demand, but it would certainly depress it some, and also raise the legal and operational costs to prevent liability.
Tourism might be a big market once the infrastructure is there, but I’m not sure how well it will serve to fund the infrastructure and technology development itself. As with the other potential markets I mentioned, whether we would like to do it has relatively little bearing on whether there’s sufficient willingness-to-pay such that we actually can do it.
If Musk’s Starship will work, it will lower price of Moon tourism. If a launch will cost 1.5 mln USD and there will be 100 people on board, it means 15k a person for a ticket.
You need more then one launch to get to the moon with Starship as it’s designed. It needs refulling in between.
Even when it costs 15k to low-earth orbit you might pay 100k to the moon.
There are more than 1 million households in US which have 10 mln usd capitalisation, and they could afford such travel without damaging their wealth. No all will go, but may be a 10 thousand a year will. This gives 1 billion a year for tickets and they will spend at least the same amount on the Moon. So it is 2 billion dollar a year tourist economy. Not much.
OP addresses space tourism in the post.