INDIA-ORIGIN GOPI THOTAKURA HEADS TO SPACE: WHAT IS SPACE TOURISM?

GOPI THOTAKURA, an entrepreneur and a pilot, is set to become the first person of Indian origin to go to space as a tourist on the NS-25 mission of Blue Origin — a company founded by Jeff Bezos, who is also the founder of Amazon. Thotakura has been selected as one of the six crew members for the mission. The launch date of the mission is yet to be announced.

In recent years, space tourism has grown in popularity. In 2023, the space tourism market was estimated to be worth $848.28 million. It is expected to grow to $27,861.99 million by 2032. However, there are several challenges that may limit the industry’s growth.

What is space tourism?

Space tourism is a form of space travel, which is done for recreational or business purposes. There are two main types of space tourism, sub-orbital and orbital.

The sub-orbital spacecraft takes passengers just beyond the Kármán line — it lies nearly 100 kilometres above our heads and is considered to be the boundary betweenearth’satmosphereandouterspace. Thepassengersgettospendafewminutes inouterspaceandthencomebacktoearth. The NS-25 mission, which Thotakura is a part of, is a sub-orbital mission.

Orbital spacecraft take passengers much farther than the Kármán line. Usually, passengers can spend from a couple of days to more than a week at an altitude of up to 400 km.

In 2021, Space X’s Falcon 9 took four passengers to an altitude of 160 km, where they spent three days orbiting the Earth.

What are the challenges?

Currently, space tourism is expensive. A passenger generally has to pay at least a million dollars to reach outer space. This is mainly because of high manufacturing costs and the cost of fuel.

Studies have found that space tourism may cause environmental damage as rockets emit gaseous and solid chemicals directly into the upper atmosphere.

A 2022 study published in the journal Earth’s Future found that soot emissions from rocket launches are far more effective at warming the atmosphere compared to other sources.

Safety is also a concern. A total of 676 people have flown into space and 19 of them have died as of November 2023, according to a report by Astronomy Magazine. This means that approximately 3% of astronauts died during their space flight which is a high fatality rate.

Gopi Thotakura.