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From Spirit of St. Louis to SpaceShipTwo: A Study on the Challenge of Future Space Tourism Development

2013; Volume: 45; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.6125/12-1120-715

1990-7710

Yi‐Wei Chang, Jeng-Shing Chern,

Spacecraft Design and Technology

In 1927, the trans-Atlantic aviator Charles Lindbergh won the US$ 25,000 Orteig Prize with a nonstop solo flight of the experimental airplane Spirit of St. Louis from New York to Paris. It has been considered to be a transcendental major event in the aeronautical history since people were still very wondering about ”airplane” and had no any idea about ”aviation” in the years of 1920s. Both aviation industry and aviation tourism were promoted tremendously after Lindberg's flight. Modeled after the Orteig prize, the Ansari X Prize of US$ 10,000,000 was won by the private experimental spacecraft SpaceShipOne (SS1) on October 4, 2004. This is the second transcendental aeronautical event after 77 years. Both events made distinguished accomplishments in the aerospace history which represent the major milestones of aviation tourism and space tourism, respectively. Designed by the famed aerospace expert Burt Rutan and built by Mojave-based Scaled Composites, the private program is financially backed by the software millionaire Paul Allen. At its highest point, the rocket plane SS1 reached an altitude of 367,442 ft or 111.996 km, much higher than the internationally recognized suborbital ”space regime” of 100 km altitude required to wining the X Prize. It was after this historical moment the spaceflight was no longer the exclusive realm of government. A new private industry for space tourism was born. SS1 retired immediately after winning the prize. Scaled Composites continued to develop the White Knight Two (WK2) and SpaceShipTwo (SS2) for space tourism purpose. The Virgin Galactic Spacelines Company plans to purchase two WK2s and five SS2s to establish a fleet, and starts commercial suborbital travel operations in 2014. Preliminary price estimation is USD 250,000 (about NTD 7,500,000) per person and is expected to be cheaper in the future. This paper studies the challenge of future space tourism development from the two major aeronautical events. A look back of Lindberg and St. Louis' flight and its effects on the aviation industry and tourism are studied at first. Then the current developments of Earth orbital and suborbital tourism are investigated, including the potential capacity for tourists, aviation regulations, and the thresholds in price, physical screening and training. Other investigations consist of current academic study status, theoretical bases for space tourism flight such as Newton's laws of motion and flight mechanics, and possible contents of space tourism. Due to the facts that the initial commercial operation has been postponed from 2011 to 2014, the price has been raised from the original USD 200,000 to 250,000, and the first powered flight test of SS2 was just started in April 2013, it could be concluded that there are still challenges in the future development of space tourism. However, it is also concluded that the future prosperous development of space tourism is expectable. As a consequence, education to the tourism and hospitality students as well as the public is considered to be mandatory, including space practices, services and market. Also, it is necessary to promote domestic development in the space tourism industry.