Questions tagged [tourism]

Within the context of space exploration: recreational, privately funded space- and suborbital flights (usually of short duration). Space tourists may perform scientific experiments during flights as a secondary activity.

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How bright would Earthlight be from the surface of the Moon? Can you read under the light of the Earth?

In the lunar sky, the Earth would certainly outshine the Moon from its place in the sky of Earth. However, I can find very little about what it would actually be like. I am wondering about the size of ...
GoingFTL's user avatar
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Will the passengers aboard Spaceship Neptune get rewarded?

The tourists who flew on New Shepard from Blue Origin got their astronaut wings once they returned. Spaceship Neptune will not pass the Karman line unlike New Shepard did, however it will pass the ...
The Rocket fan's user avatar
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What are the innovative aspects of New Shepard's "retro-thrust system on the bottom of the capsule"?

Background: The final velocity of the capsule after the main parachutes are deployed is a balance; it should always be slow enough that the crew is not injured and for reusable capsules and for space ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Shortest stay at the ISS once continuous operations and regular crew rotations began? How does Maezawa (planned) 12 days compare?

Confused about Yusaku Maezawa's first "standing on the shoulders of giants" PR photo on the shoulders of Elon Musk in 2018 then launching to the ISS aboard Soyuz, I found that the article ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Cats and dogs in microgravity; how much information is there on their locomotive ability or adaptability in space? Is there anything at all?

Cats and dogs are both known to be very popular pets for humans around the world and have been bred for thousands of years for this purpose. Destin Sandlin's Slow Motion Flipping Cat Physics | Smarter ...
uhoh's user avatar
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What animals would be best suited as pets or comfort animals for extended periods of spaceflight in microgravity?

Various scenarios that put more or less every folks in space for extended periods of time in microgravity in the future have been proposed, mostly based on space tourism but there could be ...
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Does the US government plan to issue "Astronaut Wings" for anyone passing 80 km forever?

Related and potentially helpful here: What kind of badge will tourists who performed a sub-orbital spaceflight receive? but here I'm asking specifically about the US government's future plans. The BBC'...
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What are Virgin Galactic Space Suits for? What do they do? What don't they do?

In the CNN video linked below the reporter mentions to Unity 22's Astronaut 004 Sirisha Bandla: When people think of Virgin Galactic, they’re thinking of giving people new astronaut wings like the ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Why is the Space industry expected to flourish and grow in the near future?

I've been seeing a lot of videos talking about how the "space industry" is "exploding" and soon to be a trillion dollar industry. Obviously I know better than to just buy into the ...
Sidharth Ghoshal's user avatar
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Why must passengers in Blue Origin flights be able to climb seven flights of stairs at the launch tower in less than 90 seconds?

https://amp.theguardian.com/science/2021/jun/12/jeff-bezos-space-auction-28m-spare-seat-blue-origin states: Passengers, the company has said, must be between 5ft and 6ft 4in tall, weighing 110-223lb. ...
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Would Jupiter look big?

This question keeps coming to me as I daydream about space. Suppose, hypothetically, I traveled to Jupiter (or any other relatively large object compared to earth) but had no knowledge of its size or ...
CommonerG's user avatar
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Challenges to constructing a "building" in Earth orbit (something like a hotel) 100% robotically?

Today my younger brother and I, while discussing the idea of building any commercial building (something like a hotel) in the Earth orbit, got into some debate with the assembling of the building in ...
Perfect Lord's user avatar
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Could folks in space see giant projections of art on mountains like this one? Was this one seen or recorded?

Could folks in space, either space station astronauts in LEO or even future space tourists in suborbital arcs be able to see large projections like this on the sides of mountains? Did ISS astronauts ...
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How can I calculate the weight a aero-spacecraft occupant experiences during sub-orbital but non-ballistic trajectories?

Once in orbit, astronauts experience "weightlessness" relative to their capsule or space station because they are moving at the same orbital velocity as the surrounding spacecraft. I have ...
Wesley Adams's user avatar
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Do the passengers in Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity spacecraft have a parachute or some other way to escape the spacecraft if needs be?

Do the passengers in Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity spacecraft have a parachute or some other way to escape the spacecraft if needs be? In the VSS Enterprise crash that occurred on October 31, 2014, the ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
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Why isn't the engine's Case-Throat-Nozzle reusable in Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo?

I raed on https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/engine-powering-future-civilian-spaceflight-enters-collections-180971493/ (mirror): RocketMotorTwo is a hybrid rocket motor that ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
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Which components are non-reusable after a sub-orbital spaceflight with Virgin Galactic?

I wonder which components are non-reusable after a sub-orbital spaceflight with Virgin Galactic. What I have found so far: https://www.virgingalactic.com/learn/ (mirror): With the exception of the ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
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What kind of badge will tourists who performed a sub-orbital spaceflight receive?

I have read that tourists who performed a sub-orbital spaceflight with Virgin Galactic will receive some kind of astronaut badge. However, on the Wikipedia page on the United States Astronaut Badge, ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
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Could the SpaceShipOne fly again?

A similar question to that one, but this one is concerning the suborbital SpaceShipOne spaceplane. Could it be reactivated for space tourism or other purposes? I remember in 2011 some sources stated ...
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How long will Blue Origin's New Shepard space tourist flights last?

I tried searching for this, but everything I found says the New Shepard flights will last only a few minutes. Does Blue Origin have stated (or show evidence of likely future) plans for the ...
ariel's user avatar
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Is the night sky on Earth different from the night sky on the moon or Mars?

If colonists or space-tourists spend time on the Moon or on Mars long enough to have a chance to take a good look at the nighttime sky, will they be able to see stars and the Milky Way? Will they ...
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Does Mars have badlands?

This excellent answer addresses the amazing 3D structures shown in the image below: The terrain examples show some striking similarities to what is referred to in the United States as "Badlands" - ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Resources for planning and schedule a launch-watching day-trip in Florida?

I know some busy people in Florida who I'd like to encourage to take a break and go watch a launch. They aren't "space people" and won't be keeping up on technical blogs or NASA or industry websites. ...
uhoh's user avatar
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What are the options of a space enthusiast regarding visiting Plesetsk?

Last year I was in Murmansk and fell in love with the far north of Russia. I'm planning another trip somewhere towards Karelia, northern Ural or such... and being a space enthusiast I'm quite tempted ...
SF.'s user avatar
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Why did Virgin Galactic choose N2O / HTPB as its fuel?

It seems very exotic compared to something like RP1 or Methane, especially for a vehicle which should be flying a lot and around civilians. Why was this choice made?
David's user avatar
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What is the case for human presence on the Moon?

The Moon landings in the 1960s happened largely, if not entirely, because of Kennedy's mandate. Although Apollo started before his famous speech, it was an expensive endeavour which could have been ...
Anthony X's user avatar
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What expenses and risks might the state of California incur that might partially justify a new "rocket tax"?

I see several mentions in recent news of a proposed tax on launches in the state of California, and that it would be 'by the mile'. The nature of the currently proposed tax is described in this ...
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California's rocket tax "by the mile", how would that work exactly?

I see several mentions in recent news of a proposed tax on launches in the state of California, and that it would be 'by the mile'. If someone is familliar with the issue, could they outline how this ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Could you enter this building when it was over New York City?

The Forbes article New York Architects Plan Enormous Skyscraper Hanging From An Asteroid In Space describes a sky scraper suspended from an asteroid in a geosynchronous (but not geostationary) orbit ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Has every passenger been an astronaut? Will they be in the future?

There have been a number of paying passengers on orbital missions in the past, and it is likely there will be many, many more in the future, and not only on orbital missions. I'm thinking that ...
uhoh's user avatar
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23 votes
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Does SpaceX have any significant additional legal hurdles for flying private citizens around the moon?

SpaceX recently announced they are planning to fly two private citizens around the moon. I'm sure a normal space flight has all sorts of legal complications, but does the addition of 2 private ...
David says Reinstate Monica's user avatar
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Are there other companies than Bigelow Aerospace planning to offer a space hotel?

After reading up on the matter I noticed that there currently are only two options to remain in space for longer than a few hours: International Space Station (US and Russia) assembled in orbit: ...
a.t.'s user avatar
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3 votes
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What was the first space tourism company?

What was the first company that came up with the business plan of taking tourists to space? In which year was the company launched or the outline of the business plan known to public? What was the ...
nk379's user avatar
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22 votes
1 answer
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How far did Pan Am go with its plans to have passenger trips to the Moon?

It is well known that Pan American World Airways took more than 90,000 reservations for future passenger flights to the Moon from 1968 until its fall into bankruptcy. How far beyond that did Pan Am go?...
Bruce James's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
288 views

Indian Manned Flight to 'Near Space' by ISRO?

I recently read about Google exec Alan Eustace's record skydiving jump from a 'near space' altitude of 135,890 feet and was surprised to learn that the balloon which lofted him up to that height was ...
San Man's user avatar
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4 votes
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Baikonur trip cancelled at the 11th hour (29 May 2014)

A friend and I travelled to Kazakhstan in May and booked a trip to see the 29 May launch. Everything was fine, we had permits for everything except the launch itself (all the museums, Gagarin's ...
andrea's user avatar
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2 answers
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Near-future consumer space travel

Is there any evidence to support the likelihood of widespread consumer space travel in, say, the next 20 years? I attempted to do some research on commercial space travel, and came across Virgin ...
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24 votes
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Does space flight have any positive effects on the human body?

It is well known that there are a number of negative health issues (loss of bone density, muscle mass, (eyesight degeneration1, etc.) that can impair astronauts who spend long periods of time in space....
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How could I travel to space as an ordinary citizen?

I have heard about people paying lots of money to become Russian cosmonauts, essentially space tourists. Is it still possible to 'buy your way' into space? What sort of training would be required ...
James Jenkins's user avatar