- The space flight Inspiration 4 launched in 2021.
And it was a landmark all civilian tourist flight
with no official government astronauts.
The passengers definitely took time
to just appreciate being in space, but the four person crew
also performed scientific research to understand more
about the effects of space travel on the human body.
A year later, Axiom Mission 1 was so packed with experiments
that passengers barely had time to look out the window.
But the reality is that most space tourism
hasn't been science focused.
Recent flights by companies like Blue Origin
and Virgin Galactic have shown us that it's people
with high personal wealth who get to make the trip.
This brings up some important questions.
Will space tourism always be just for the extremely wealthy?
What about the environmental consequences?
And can space tourism actually advance
our scientific understanding of space?
I'm Swapna Krishna, let's go on a ride to space.
[upbeat music and vocalizing]
The current status quo of space tourism
is just rich people going to space.
Most times people just stare out the window.
Understandable, given the price of the ticket,
which right now is about $450,000
for a 90 minute flight to the edge of space,
just over 55 miles up on Virgin Galactic.
But it's not exactly furthering
our understanding of space or humanity.
- I think of it much more as this is
a billionaire playground and that they are preying
on the public's love for the cosmos
and the public's interest in the cosmos
to make people think that this is somehow democratization
of space when it's really, in my view, the opposite.
- But it turns out that even
on the brief tourist flights happening now
there is space for science, even if that's not
the primary purpose of the mission.
- For example, last year on Virgin Galactic,
we had the very first human conducted
suborbital science research done.
It was a plant biology experiment that was conducted
by a Virgin Galactic employee, but the idea is that
in the future, paying customers will be able to go up.
- And that's gonna continue on these flights.
One way to look at it is that in essence,
every single one is in the pursuit of science.
Because we have so little data on how humans adapt to space.
- Humans were not meant to be in a microgravity situation.
We were evolved to be in 1G environment
and so all of us have this opportunity to contribute,
especially women because so few women have been up there.
Also, people with disabilities or other health conditions.
So few opportunities to study what happens in states.
And so we are all part of the collective body
of figuring out how do human beings live and work in space?
- Okay, so there are two things to keep in mind here.
First, not everyone wants to be
a science experiment and that's okay.
- It actually does a lot of things to your body
and someone might say to themselves, "Well, I'm willing
"to sacrifice that in exchange for having
"this experience in space," but I have to say
as a disabled person that my guess is that the people
who think that that sacrifice will be
an easy one are people who have
not yet experienced disability in their lives.
As somebody who's lived with chronic pain,
I'm like a lot less excited about potentially more of it.
- Space travel is hard on the human body.
Extended space flights can cause
a whole host of issues from deterioration
of muscle mass to vision problems to bone loss.
Second, if you look at the makeup
of any regular space tourist flight
it's overwhelmingly male because these are the people
who hold the wealth in our world.
So then if we want to ensure space tourism
highlights science and exploration
is the key to make access to space more equitable?
That would mean reducing the cost
of tickets to space, which is on the horizon.
Part of how it will happen is reduce tech
and engineering costs, but the real key
is competition between the major players.
- It's gonna be much more accessible in the future
which then opens up the opportunities
for lots of different types of applications.
So whether that's pure pleasure,
or the breaking edge science or, you know, manufacturing,
or whatever it is that we choose to do in space.
- It might surprise people to learn
that many government astronauts are not trained scientists
yet, they perform countless science experiments on flights
and aboard the International Space Station.
Learning how to be a scientist
is an integral part of astronaut training.
Space tourists also have the potential to
and often do undergo some sort of basic training.
- But there are projects up there
that require very little training.
For example, virtual reality was one
that was most recently tested by a private astronaut
on space station trying to figure out
how you can do augmented reality.
Another one would be like biology experiments
that you can do one yourself so that's attaching devices
and reading your vitals, or doing some kind of exercise
and seeing what happens afterwards.
- But there's more than just science to keep in mind.
Space tourists can provide a unique view of space
and the necessity of protecting it.
Antarctica is a really good analogy for this.
The National Science Foundation normally runs
an artist and writers program to send people
with different skills to the white continent.
The entire point is for these participants
to communicate the wonder and awe
of Antarctica to the general public
and inspire them to protect it, and a result our own planet.
Michael Lopez-Alegria is a former NASA astronaut
and he notes that on a space shuttle mission
he flew with space tourist Anousheh Ansari.
He was initially skeptical, but was quickly impressed
by the new audience she brought to space flight.
- Well, she was reaching through something back
then, brand new called blogging.
Millions of people were paying attention
to what was going on in lower [indistinct]
who otherwise would not have.
- It's hard to quantify the contribution
of someone who brings an entirely new perspective
and is able to reach a nontraditional audience
and inspire them to protect our planet
as a result of a space tourism flight.
What can this kind of work inspire?
- The parts of the overview effect are sort
of a concern for the planet, kind of a feeling
of brotherhood that we're all on this spaceship together,
the spaceship Earth, and that is a very positive thing.
And the more people that can experience it, I don't think
that all of them have to necessarily fly
in space but, certainly, that helps.
- Okay so, even though space tourism
will likely always be steeped in privilege
there is potential here for it to be
more than just a pleasure cruise for billionaires.
But we have to talk about one of the major pitfalls.
Regular flights to space aren't great for the environment.
Rocket launches require propellant
to escape the Earth's gravity, which leach chemicals
into the Earth's atmosphere.
SpaceX uses rocket grade kerosene
for the Merlin engines that power its Falcon 9 rocket.
That's the main rocket it uses right now.
It has advantages, they're efficient.
But the company is looking to move away
from kerosene for its Raptor engines
for its Mars missions on its next rocket.
Instead, they'll be methane and liquid oxygen based.
For clean engines the byproducts
can be as innocuous as water,
but that still can contribute to climate change
when it's injected into the upper atmosphere
because it takes years to dissipate.
Right now, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal
because rocket launches are still a rarity.
But they're increasing in frequency.
And the goal seems to be bringing that number up.
If the goal we're trying to achieve
is a rocket launch, or more per day
what will the environmental cost be back here on Earth?
- When I hear a a launch a day,
I'm not even thinking about the pollution
that is gonna go into the atmosphere, right?
But I'm thinking about the immediate impact on the land
and the people of the land in those communities.
- It's not just climate, entire populations
have been displaced and environments disrupted
to build launchpads.
- I'm thinking about, for example,
the Quilombo in Brazil who are fighting dispossession,
who have been displaced already once for a launchpad
and are now facing more displacement for a launchpad.
I'm thinking about the people in Michigan
who are fighting the building
of a launchpad in a natural environment.
I'm thinking about the extensive environmental damage
that SpaceX has done in its launch area in Texas.
There's a bird whose breeding environment
has been significantly impacted, and I'm also thinking
about there is an Indigenous community
in Southeast Asia that's also fighting the building
of a rocket launchpad in their community.
I know that this is also a concern for Indigenous people,
for the Sami people in Northern Europe.
- Space tourism brings enormous possibilities.
But those are tempered by the huge negative impacts
it could have and is having right now.
- Coming back to that question
of what should we be using space for?
I think the question that we should be asking
ourselves is what should our relationship
as a species and as a part of Earth's ecosystems,
what should our relationship to space be?
What should our relationship to the universe
beyond Earth's atmosphere be?
- It all comes down to the question
of who is space tourism for now and who should it be for?
Me, it should be for me, just put me
on top of rocket and shoot me up there.
Thanks for watching, we'd love to hear your thoughts
on space tourism in the comments.
Would you go to space if offered the chance?
Clearly, I would.
What do you wanna see space tourist flights become?
[gentle music]