Commerce in Space: Aspects of Space Tourism

Abstract

Space tourism is the term broadly applied to the concept of paying customers traveling beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Operating reusable launch vehicles might be a first step to realize mass space tourism. Thus, the aim of this chapter is to investigate the potential hurdles along with other important aspects of space tourism flights utilizing reusable launch vehicles. The primary elements are social issues, e.g. “Is space tourism acceptable concerning ethical aspects?”, institutional issues, e.g. “Is environmental pollution caused by space tourism harmful compared to other emission sources?” and financial issues, e.g. “Are there any potential investors interested in space tourism?”. Fig. 1 shows a selection of key aspects of space tourism, which includes hurdles and opposing forces. Hurdles and opposing forces could be harmful for a successful establishment and enhancement of space tourism activities. These potential hurdles in commercial space travel need to be considered thoroughly, preferably before actual activation of the first regular space tourist services (Goehlich, 2003). Those aspects are discussed in this chapter after giving some brief information on space tourism in the background section.