prof. Dr. Muharrem Tuna, Prof. Dr. The “Space Tourism Report”, written by Güney Çetin Gürkan, Research Assistant Başak Özyurt, Bayram Yıldız, İlker Bayram, Gurur İrem Bıyıkoğlu, was published by the Tourism Academicians Association (TUADER).
In TURSAM’s report, space tourism is defined as “an experience that aims to provide accessibility to space for adventure and entertainment experience”, and a space tourist is defined as “a person who travels for space-specific recreational activities and experiences space”, unlike astronauts who travel to space for professional activities.
According to the report, space tourism, which provides direct and indirect services related to space travel to space tourists, provides basic infrastructure maintenance to the states in the formation of space sports and new aviation industry, and allows the commercialization of space, also includes world-based simulations, tours and experiences whose main purpose is to develop space technology for recreational purposes. covers.
Space tourism, which is a luxury type of tourism and appeals to individuals with a very high income level, also requires certain obligations. Those who want to experience this type of tourism first pass certain training and suitability tests.
Space tourism, which emerged in the late 1990s and officially started in the 2000s, takes place in two ways. The first of these are flights to low earth orbit, called space flights; the second is suborbital, that is, daily flights to the earth’s atmosphere.
Russia allows 2 space tourists a year
There are many different types of these flights, from long stays at stations in orbit, to short-term orbital flights or suborbital flights, and flights that allow passengers to stay in a short-term zero-gravity environment.
Orbital spaceflights are currently only possible with the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Russia launches the Soyuz into space twice a year to supply the International Space Station. The Soyuz has optional seating for two cosmonauts as well as a potential space tourist. Russia creates an important opportunity for those who want to be space tourists twice a year.
200 people paid in advance for a flight of 200 thousand dollars
Currently, there are no spacecraft that can serve the suborbital tourism market, but companies continue to work on this issue.
These include SpaceShipTwo, which is designed to take 6 passengers into space in one flight, and vehicles developed by the XCOR team that will carry a potential space tourist who is planned to sit next to the pilot on each flight.
The cost of traveling to space with SpaceShipTwo is 200 thousand dollars per flight. More than 200 people have paid upfront to fly this spaceship so far.
The revenue size of space tourism will reach 4 billion dollars in 7 years
The space tourism market is expected to grow by 26 percent by 2029. Total estimated revenue size from 2023 to 2030 is expected to reach $4 billion.
Estimates that the revenue in the market will increase up to $ 605 million in 2029 are also considered to be an indicator of the development of space tourism.
Private entrepreneurs who make spacecraft reusable provide significant reductions in million-dollar mission budgets, which makes space tourism possible.
Space X, founded by Elon Musk, which received NASA contracts and made spaceships less costly, launched about 200 rockets from 2008 to 2022.
It is seen that the company, which has determined the number of rockets to be launched this year as 88, has launched approximately 3.5 times more rockets in the last 5 years.
Accommodation per person $9.5 million
Blue Origin company, founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000, carried out a test flight in 2011 that brought 3 space humans to and from the suborbital space. Although the starting point for a ticket is set at $28 million, the company, which aims to reduce the cost of space flights, aims to gradually decrease the ticket price depending on time and demand.
Orion Span plans to build the first luxury space hotel in orbit 200 miles above the earth’s surface. The cost of staying in the first space hotel, with luxury accommodation for 6 people, including two for the crew and 4 for the guests, will start at $9.5 million per person.
All these enterprises were established not only for space tourism, but also for the purpose of exploring space, making it available for use, and carrying out scientific research. Since it is very costly to develop the existing technology, they plan to make money from the technology they have developed through tourism.
Studies on space tourism in Turkey
In the report of TURSAM, studies on space tourism in Turkey were also included.
According to this, there are no orbital and suborbital space tourism activities in Turkey yet, but mostly activities are carried out within the scope of space camps and training centers.
