PmWiki.OrbitalSpaceTourism History
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Orbital space tourism may soon become more competitive. Other companies are investing in the orbital tourism market. One company, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excalibur_Almaz | Excalibur Almaz]], has a plan to turn formerly secret Russian military space station hardware[^http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Almprog/almprog.htm^] to commercial use.[^http://www.iomtoday.co.im/isle-of-man-business/Manx-company-buys-Soviet-spacecraft.5576775.jp^],[^http://www.parabolicarc.com/2008/03/22/leroy-chiao-talks-about-nasa-commercialization-and-excalibur-almaz/^]
to:
Orbital space tourism may soon become more competitive. Other companies are investing in it. One company, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excalibur_Almaz | Excalibur Almaz]], is turning a formerly secret Russian military space station[^http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Almprog/almprog.htm^] to commercial use.[^http://www.iomtoday.co.im/isle-of-man-business/Manx-company-buys-Soviet-spacecraft.5576775.jp^],[^http://www.parabolicarc.com/2008/03/22/leroy-chiao-talks-about-nasa-commercialization-and-excalibur-almaz/^]
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[[Project Persephone]] aims to provide [[exovivaria]] users with an experience that might be considered "virtual" orbital recreation, but the quality of this experience is not directly tied to the fortunes of orbital space tourism. In fact, even though the Project's likelihood of success would be greatly improved by growth in orbital tourism, the popularity of exovivaria is not predicated on it.
In the longer run, however, direct and indirect commercial links are likely to be made between orbital tourism and exovivaria, with [[orbital tourism synergy | growing synergy value between them]].
In the longer run, however, direct and indirect commercial
to:
[[Project Persephone]] aims to provide [[exovivaria]] users with a kind of [[telepresence]] in orbit. For those who pay to do it for fun, this could be called "virtual" orbital tourism. The Project's likelihood of success might be improved by growth in real orbital tourism, although the popularity of exovivaria won't depend on it. In the longer run, however, links are likely to be made between orbital tourism and exovivaria, with [[orbital tourism synergy | growing synergy value between them]].
Changed lines 13-14 from:
Orbital space tourism may soon become more competitive. Other companies are investing in the orbital tourism market. One company, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excalibur_Almaz | Excalibur Almaz]], has a plan to turn formerly secret Russian military space station hardware[^http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Almprog/almprog.htm^], to commercial use.[^http://www.iomtoday.co.im/isle-of-man-business/Manx-company-buys-Soviet-spacecraft.5576775.jp^],[^http://www.parabolicarc.com/2008/03/22/leroy-chiao-talks-about-nasa-commercialization-and-excalibur-almaz/^]
to:
Orbital space tourism may soon become more competitive. Other companies are investing in the orbital tourism market. One company, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excalibur_Almaz | Excalibur Almaz]], has a plan to turn formerly secret Russian military space station hardware[^http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Almprog/almprog.htm^] to commercial use.[^http://www.iomtoday.co.im/isle-of-man-business/Manx-company-buys-Soviet-spacecraft.5576775.jp^],[^http://www.parabolicarc.com/2008/03/22/leroy-chiao-talks-about-nasa-commercialization-and-excalibur-almaz/^]
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As of 2009, Space Adventures is the only company that has arranged actual orbital space tourism. It currently hosts customers on [[ISS]] as a kind of "[[space hotel]]". It relies on Russian expertise and facilities for training its customers to be adequate astronauts, and for transporting customers to and from ISS.
Orbital space tourism may soonsee real competition. Other companies are looking at the orbital tourism market. One company, Excalibur Almaz, has a plan to turn formerly secret Russian military space station hardware[^http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Almprog/almprog.htm^], to commercial use.[^http://www.iomtoday.co.im/isle-of-man-business/Manx-company-buys-Soviet-spacecraft.5576775.jp^],[^http://www.parabolicarc.com/2008/03/22/leroy-chiao-talks-about-nasa-commercialization-and-excalibur-almaz/^]
Orbital space tourism may soon
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!!!History
As of 2009, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Adventures | Space Adventures]] is the only company that has arranged actual orbital space tourism. It currently hosts customers on [[ISS]] as a kind of "[[space hotel]]". It relies on Russian expertise and facilities for training its customers to be adequate astronauts, and for transporting customers to and from ISS.
!!!Prospects
Orbital space tourism may soon become more competitive. Other companies are investing in the orbital tourism market. One company, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excalibur_Almaz | Excalibur Almaz]], has a plan to turn formerly secret Russian military space station hardware[^http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Almprog/almprog.htm^], to commercial use.[^http://www.iomtoday.co.im/isle-of-man-business/Manx-company-buys-Soviet-spacecraft.5576775.jp^],[^http://www.parabolicarc.com/2008/03/22/leroy-chiao-talks-about-nasa-commercialization-and-excalibur-almaz/^]
!!!Persephone: independent but synergistic
As of 2009, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Adventures | Space Adventures]] is the only company that has arranged actual orbital space tourism. It currently hosts customers on [[ISS]] as a kind of "[[space hotel]]". It relies on Russian expertise and facilities for training its customers to be adequate astronauts, and for transporting customers to and from ISS.
!!!Prospects
Orbital space tourism may soon become more competitive. Other companies are investing in the orbital tourism market. One company, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excalibur_Almaz | Excalibur Almaz]], has a plan to turn formerly secret Russian military space station hardware[^http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Almprog/almprog.htm^], to commercial use.[^http://www.iomtoday.co.im/isle-of-man-business/Manx-company-buys-Soviet-spacecraft.5576775.jp^],[^http://www.parabolicarc.com/2008/03/22/leroy-chiao-talks-about-nasa-commercialization-and-excalibur-almaz/^]
!!!Persephone: independent but synergistic
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* '''Enhancing economies of scale in transport''' - If exovivaria prove popular, and can provide a market that grows at least as fast as the global economy, the higher space launch rates and alternative launch technologies fostered by exovivaria popularity should help make space tourism cheaper, by making space transportation generally cheaper. There might be a "virtuous cycle" whereby launches for exovivaria construction and resupply contribute to greater economies of scale for space launch in general, with scale benefits that spill over into complementary markets like orbital tourism, further increasing launch rates, and further spurring innovation in launch efficiencies.
* '''Logistics and secondary life support''' - an exovivarium would be like a space hotel in that both would be life-support systems in orbit. The commonalities should be exploited early and often.
** Exovivaria could export fresh food to be eaten by space tourism customers and crew, but perhaps also by crewmembers of governmental space programs. Astronauts currently complain that the food on offer at ISS is not exactly one of the main attractions of life on orbit. Some of the effects of weightlessness lead to suppression of appetite; the availability of fresh herbs and spices would be welcome.
** Biological imports to exovivaria from space hotels should also be possible, providing a basis for real trade. Currently, in the cramped conditions aboard ISS, biomass of potential value to exovivaria is packed into disposable cargo craft and incinerated in atmospheric re-entry. This is an unfortunate waste. [[Exopolitans]] could buy space hotel food scraps as livestock feed and for composting, and hotel sewage for its fertilizer value. Using exovivaria for biomass recycling would keep the overall mass exchange between exovivaria and space hotels at equilibrium, thus reducing the amount of supplies that must to be lifted to space hotels (and to exovivaria) from Earth, at great cost.
** Exovivaria might export biological products of other kinds besides food, such as fiber for use in fabrics (e.g., silk), and botanicals for decoration (e.g., flowers), with some value added telebotically.
* '''Emergency supplies and shelter''' - At larger scales, exovivaria might also provide short-term emergency refuge in the event of failure of life-support systems in space hotels and in manned governmental space missions in proximate orbits. Even relatively small exovivaria might prove useful in extreme circumstances - for example, [[exopoliticans]] might plan and exercise the cannibalization entire exovivaria for their atmosphere and edible biomass, as part of certain rescue scenarios. Practical, credible, well-exercised plans for using exovivaria for emergency relief and rescure operations could significantly reduce space tourism insurance premia, reducing the industry's (and hence their customers') costs.
* '''Augmenting space tourism experience value''' - If exovivaria overhead costs turn out to be significantly lower (per user) for larger exovivaria, sheer economics might drive successive generations of exovivaria to "naturally" grow to the point where they are large enough to be interesting places to visit, perhaps even large enough for space tourists to "camp" in, at least for a day or two of a multi-week stay. At such scales, new trade opportunities and new synergies open up:
** Exovivaria environments in orbit might provide provide an additional attraction for orbital space tourism.
** The users of the exovivaria could innovate and create their own (telebotically performed) paying attractions for visitors.
** Visitors might engage in "eco-tourism", adding value to exovivarium environment more efficiently, or with greater physical strength, than would be possible with telerobotics alone -- they could be Gullivers among the telepresent Lilliputians.
** Visits by space tourists might be celebrated events that draw more customers to exovivaria, especially if the visitors are celebrities; [[exopolitans]] might even cover the costs of some visits if the advertising value was expected to be greater.
* '''R&D support''' - Some exovivaria could become space tourism industry R&D labs for establishing new categories in space tourism.
** If, for example, lunar tourism is projected to be more sustainable and economical with the hotel's food grown on the Moon itself, exovivaria could provide excellent low-cost labs to experiment with lunar-style agriculture, particularly for investigating the effects of lunar gravity on growing vegetables and raising small livestock.
** Should lunar gravity prove too weak for healthy plant or animal growth, exovivaria could provide a useful model for how to grow food on the moon with supplementary artificial gravity.
** Apart from food supply issues, certain on-orbit services for space tourists might be better supplied with small telerobotics, and in this, exovivaria might excel as proving grounds for hotel-guest customer-service innovations, perhaps for services that can't even be predicted at this point, but that could be invented, refined and brought nearly to maturity before space hotels even offer enough paying customers to justify their deployment.
* '''Convergence''' - at some point, both orbital "space hotel" operations and exovivaria operations might become so intertwined and synergistic that there is no longer any business case for separating the two markets. Space hotels could:
** grow most of their own food;
** recycle CO2 and purify most of their air through the local ecosystem;
** offer a range of services to guests via telerobotics provided by staff on Earth;
** provide health/comfort-maintaining artificial gravity for both staff and the ecosystem in whatever manner is determined to be optimal by experimentation with exovivaria, while still providing spaces for low-G/microgravity experience.
** offer much the same recreational value for Earth-bound users as free-standing exovivaria did, even at a facility whose main purpose is hosting human visitors.
to:
In the longer run, however, direct and indirect commercial links are likely to be made between orbital tourism and exovivaria, with [[orbital tourism synergy | growing synergy value between them]].
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In the longer run, however, direct and indirect commercial links are likely to be made between orbital tourism and exovivaria, with growing synergy value between them. Among the more likely and predictable of the combined benefits:
to:
In the longer run, however, direct and indirect commercial links are likely to be made between orbital tourism and exovivaria, with [[orbital tourism synergy | growing synergy value between them]]. Among the more likely and predictable of the combined benefits:
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As of 2009, Space Adventures is the only company that has arranged actual orbital space tourism. It currently hosts customers on [[ISS]] as a kind of "[[space hotel]]". It uses the Russian space program's facilities for training their customers to be adequate astronauts, and for transporting customers to and from ISS.
Orbital space tourism may soon see realistic competition. Other companies are looking at the orbital tourism market. One, Excalibur Almaz, has a plan to turn formerly secret Russian military space station hardware[^http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Almprog/almprog.htm^], to commercial use.[^http://www.iomtoday.co.im/isle-of-man-business/Manx-company-buys-Soviet-spacecraft.5576775.jp^],[^http://www.parabolicarc.com/2008/03/22/leroy-chiao-talks-about-nasa-commercialization-and-excalibur-almaz/^]
[[Project Persephone]] aims to provide [[exovivaria]] users and workers with an experience that might be considered a "virtual" orbital recreation, but one that's not directly related to orbital space tourism. In fact, even its likelihood of success would be greatly enhanced by continued and growing space tourism, exovivaria success is not strictly predicated on any successful orbital tourism industry. In the longer term, however, direct and indirect commercial links might be made between the two activities, with growing synergy value for both orbital space tourism and exovivaria. Among these are:
* '''Logistics and secondary life support''' - Exovivaria could export fresh food to be eaten by space tourism customers and crew, and could buy food scraps and sewage from "space hotels" for their fertilizer value, keeping the overall mass exchange at equilibrium and reducing the amount of supplies that must to be lifted at great cost from Earth. Exovivaria might export biomass of other kinds, for use in fabric and small-scale structural materials, with value added or not, and might import non-food biodegradables as well.
* '''Emergency supplies and shelter''' - At larger scales, exovivaria might also provide temporary emergency refuge in the event of failure of life-support systems in space hotels. Even small exovivaria might prove useful in extreme circumstances - for example, one might plan the cannibalization an entire exovivarium for its atmosphere and edible biomass as part of certain rescue scenarios. Practical, well-exercised plans for using exovivaria for emergency operations could significantly reduce space tourism insurance premia, reducing its costs at another point.
* '''Enhancing economies of scale in transport''' - If exovivaria prove popular, and can provide a market that grows at least as fast as the global economy, the higher space launch rates and alternative launch technologies fostered by their popularity should help make space tourism cheaper, by making space transportation generally cheaper. There might be a "virtuous cycle" whereby one market provides some economies of scale, and the benefits spill over into complementary markets, generally increasing launch demand and lowering launch cost.
* '''Augmenting experience value''' - If exovivaria overhead operations turn out to be significantly cheaper (per user) for larger exovivaria, successive generations of them might "naturally" grow to where they are large enough to be interesting places to visit in orbit, perhaps even large enough for space tourists to "camp" in, at least for a day or two of a multi-week stay. In this way, the natural exovivaria environments in orbit would provide an additional attraction for orbital space tourism, while also providing additional revenue sources for exovivaria economies. As well, the users of the exovivaria might innovate and create their own paying attractions.
* '''R&D support''' - Some exovivaria could become space tourism industry R&D labs for the project of establishing new experience categories. If, for example, lunar tourism is projected to be more sustainable and economical with food grown on the Moon, exovivaria could provide excellent places to experiment with food production closer to Earth, particularly for investigating the effects of lunar gravity for growing vegetables and raising small livestock. Should lunar gravity prove too weak for healthy agriculture, exovivaria could provide a useful model for how to grow food on the moon with supplementary artifical gravity. Certain on-orbit services for space tourists might be best supplied with small telerobotics, and in this, exovivaria might excel as a proving ground for innovations that can't even be predicted at this point.
* '''Convergence''' - at some point, both orbital "space hotel" operations and exovivaria operations might become so intertwined and synergistic that there is no longer any business case for separating the two markets. Space hotels could grow most of their own food, recycle most of their air through the local ecosystem, offer a range of services to guests via telerobotic staff on Earth, and provide health/comfort-maintaining artificial gravity for both staff and the ecosystem in whatever manner is determined to be optimal by experimentation with exovivaria, while still providing spaces for low-G/microgravity experience. Earth-bound users might still find much of recreational value to be had, even teleoperatively in a facility whose main purpose is hosting human visitors.
to:
Most who have paid to go to orbit do not call themselves "space tourists", preferring other terms with more respectful connotations. However, the term is now in common use, and it's been argued that usage is unlikely to change.[^http://www.thespacereview.com/article/736/1^]
As of 2009, Space Adventures is the only company that has arranged actual orbital space tourism. It currently hosts customers on [[ISS]] as a kind of "[[space hotel]]". It relies on Russian expertise and facilities for training its customers to be adequate astronauts, and for transporting customers to and from ISS.
Orbital space tourism may soon see real competition. Other companies are looking at the orbital tourism market. One company, Excalibur Almaz, has a plan to turn formerly secret Russian military space station hardware[^http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Almprog/almprog.htm^], to commercial use.[^http://www.iomtoday.co.im/isle-of-man-business/Manx-company-buys-Soviet-spacecraft.5576775.jp^],[^http://www.parabolicarc.com/2008/03/22/leroy-chiao-talks-about-nasa-commercialization-and-excalibur-almaz/^]
[[Project Persephone]] aims to provide [[exovivaria]] users with an experience that might be considered "virtual" orbital recreation, but the quality of this experience is not directly tied to the fortunes of orbital space tourism. In fact, even though the Project's likelihood of success would be greatly improved by growth in orbital tourism, the popularity of exovivaria is not predicated on it.
In the longer run, however, direct and indirect commercial links are likely to be made between orbital tourism and exovivaria, with growing synergy value between them. Among the more likely and predictable of the combined benefits:
* '''Enhancing economies of scale in transport''' - If exovivaria prove popular, and can provide a market that grows at least as fast as the global economy, the higher space launch rates and alternative launch technologies fostered by exovivaria popularity should help make space tourism cheaper, by making space transportation generally cheaper. There might be a "virtuous cycle" whereby launches for exovivaria construction and resupply contribute to greater economies of scale for space launch in general, with scale benefits that spill over into complementary markets like orbital tourism, further increasing launch rates, and further spurring innovation in launch efficiencies.
* '''Logistics and secondary life support''' - an exovivarium would be like a space hotel in that both would be life-support systems in orbit. The commonalities should be exploited early and often.
** Exovivaria could export fresh food to be eaten by space tourism customers and crew, but perhaps also by crewmembers of governmental space programs. Astronauts currently complain that the food on offer at ISS is not exactly one of the main attractions of life on orbit. Some of the effects of weightlessness lead to suppression of appetite; the availability of fresh herbs and spices would be welcome.
** Biological imports to exovivaria from space hotels should also be possible, providing a basis for real trade. Currently, in the cramped conditions aboard ISS, biomass of potential value to exovivaria is packed into disposable cargo craft and incinerated in atmospheric re-entry. This is an unfortunate waste. [[Exopolitans]] could buy space hotel food scraps as livestock feed and for composting, and hotel sewage for its fertilizer value. Using exovivaria for biomass recycling would keep the overall mass exchange between exovivaria and space hotels at equilibrium, thus reducing the amount of supplies that must to be lifted to space hotels (and to exovivaria) from Earth, at great cost.
** Exovivaria might export biological products of other kinds besides food, such as fiber for use in fabrics (e.g., silk), and botanicals for decoration (e.g., flowers), with some value added telebotically.
* '''Emergency supplies and shelter''' - At larger scales, exovivaria might also provide short-term emergency refuge in the event of failure of life-support systems in space hotels and in manned governmental space missions in proximate orbits. Even relatively small exovivaria might prove useful in extreme circumstances - for example, [[exopoliticans]] might plan and exercise the cannibalization entire exovivaria for their atmosphere and edible biomass, as part of certain rescue scenarios. Practical, credible, well-exercised plans for using exovivaria for emergency relief and rescure operations could significantly reduce space tourism insurance premia, reducing the industry's (and hence their customers') costs.
* '''Augmenting space tourism experience value''' - If exovivaria overhead costs turn out to be significantly lower (per user) for larger exovivaria, sheer economics might drive successive generations of exovivaria to "naturally" grow to the point where they are large enough to be interesting places to visit, perhaps even large enough for space tourists to "camp" in, at least for a day or two of a multi-week stay. At such scales, new trade opportunities and new synergies open up:
** Exovivaria environments in orbit might provide provide an additional attraction for orbital space tourism.
** The users of the exovivaria could innovate and create their own (telebotically performed) paying attractions for visitors.
** Visitors might engage in "eco-tourism", adding value to exovivarium environment more efficiently, or with greater physical strength, than would be possible with telerobotics alone -- they could be Gullivers among the telepresent Lilliputians.
** Visits by space tourists might be celebrated events that draw more customers to exovivaria, especially if the visitors are celebrities; [[exopolitans]] might even cover the costs of some visits if the advertising value was expected to be greater.
* '''R&D support''' - Some exovivaria could become space tourism industry R&D labs for establishing new categories in space tourism.
** If, for example, lunar tourism is projected to be more sustainable and economical with the hotel's food grown on the Moon itself, exovivaria could provide excellent low-cost labs to experiment with lunar-style agriculture, particularly for investigating the effects of lunar gravity on growing vegetables and raising small livestock.
** Should lunar gravity prove too weak for healthy plant or animal growth, exovivaria could provide a useful model for how to grow food on the moon with supplementary artificial gravity.
** Apart from food supply issues, certain on-orbit services for space tourists might be better supplied with small telerobotics, and in this, exovivaria might excel as proving grounds for hotel-guest customer-service innovations, perhaps for services that can't even be predicted at this point, but that could be invented, refined and brought nearly to maturity before space hotels even offer enough paying customers to justify their deployment.
* '''Convergence''' - at some point, both orbital "space hotel" operations and exovivaria operations might become so intertwined and synergistic that there is no longer any business case for separating the two markets. Space hotels could:
** grow most of their own food;
** recycle CO2 and purify most of their air through the local ecosystem;
** offer a range of services to guests via telerobotics provided by staff on Earth;
** provide health/comfort-maintaining artificial gravity for both staff and the ecosystem in whatever manner is determined to be optimal by experimentation with exovivaria, while still providing spaces for low-G/microgravity experience.
** offer much the same recreational value for Earth-bound users as free-standing exovivaria did, even at a facility whose main purpose is hosting human visitors.
As of 2009, Space Adventures is the only company that has arranged actual orbital space tourism. It currently hosts customers on [[ISS]] as a kind of "[[space hotel]]". It relies on Russian expertise and facilities for training its customers to be adequate astronauts, and for transporting customers to and from ISS.
Orbital space tourism may soon see real competition. Other companies are looking at the orbital tourism market. One company, Excalibur Almaz, has a plan to turn formerly secret Russian military space station hardware[^http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Almprog/almprog.htm^], to commercial use.[^http://www.iomtoday.co.im/isle-of-man-business/Manx-company-buys-Soviet-spacecraft.5576775.jp^],[^http://www.parabolicarc.com/2008/03/22/leroy-chiao-talks-about-nasa-commercialization-and-excalibur-almaz/^]
[[Project Persephone]] aims to provide [[exovivaria]] users with an experience that might be considered "virtual" orbital recreation, but the quality of this experience is not directly tied to the fortunes of orbital space tourism. In fact, even though the Project's likelihood of success would be greatly improved by growth in orbital tourism, the popularity of exovivaria is not predicated on it.
In the longer run, however, direct and indirect commercial links are likely to be made between orbital tourism and exovivaria, with growing synergy value between them. Among the more likely and predictable of the combined benefits:
* '''Enhancing economies of scale in transport''' - If exovivaria prove popular, and can provide a market that grows at least as fast as the global economy, the higher space launch rates and alternative launch technologies fostered by exovivaria popularity should help make space tourism cheaper, by making space transportation generally cheaper. There might be a "virtuous cycle" whereby launches for exovivaria construction and resupply contribute to greater economies of scale for space launch in general, with scale benefits that spill over into complementary markets like orbital tourism, further increasing launch rates, and further spurring innovation in launch efficiencies.
* '''Logistics and secondary life support''' - an exovivarium would be like a space hotel in that both would be life-support systems in orbit. The commonalities should be exploited early and often.
** Exovivaria could export fresh food to be eaten by space tourism customers and crew, but perhaps also by crewmembers of governmental space programs. Astronauts currently complain that the food on offer at ISS is not exactly one of the main attractions of life on orbit. Some of the effects of weightlessness lead to suppression of appetite; the availability of fresh herbs and spices would be welcome.
** Biological imports to exovivaria from space hotels should also be possible, providing a basis for real trade. Currently, in the cramped conditions aboard ISS, biomass of potential value to exovivaria is packed into disposable cargo craft and incinerated in atmospheric re-entry. This is an unfortunate waste. [[Exopolitans]] could buy space hotel food scraps as livestock feed and for composting, and hotel sewage for its fertilizer value. Using exovivaria for biomass recycling would keep the overall mass exchange between exovivaria and space hotels at equilibrium, thus reducing the amount of supplies that must to be lifted to space hotels (and to exovivaria) from Earth, at great cost.
** Exovivaria might export biological products of other kinds besides food, such as fiber for use in fabrics (e.g., silk), and botanicals for decoration (e.g., flowers), with some value added telebotically.
* '''Emergency supplies and shelter''' - At larger scales, exovivaria might also provide short-term emergency refuge in the event of failure of life-support systems in space hotels and in manned governmental space missions in proximate orbits. Even relatively small exovivaria might prove useful in extreme circumstances - for example, [[exopoliticans]] might plan and exercise the cannibalization entire exovivaria for their atmosphere and edible biomass, as part of certain rescue scenarios. Practical, credible, well-exercised plans for using exovivaria for emergency relief and rescure operations could significantly reduce space tourism insurance premia, reducing the industry's (and hence their customers') costs.
* '''Augmenting space tourism experience value''' - If exovivaria overhead costs turn out to be significantly lower (per user) for larger exovivaria, sheer economics might drive successive generations of exovivaria to "naturally" grow to the point where they are large enough to be interesting places to visit, perhaps even large enough for space tourists to "camp" in, at least for a day or two of a multi-week stay. At such scales, new trade opportunities and new synergies open up:
** Exovivaria environments in orbit might provide provide an additional attraction for orbital space tourism.
** The users of the exovivaria could innovate and create their own (telebotically performed) paying attractions for visitors.
** Visitors might engage in "eco-tourism", adding value to exovivarium environment more efficiently, or with greater physical strength, than would be possible with telerobotics alone -- they could be Gullivers among the telepresent Lilliputians.
** Visits by space tourists might be celebrated events that draw more customers to exovivaria, especially if the visitors are celebrities; [[exopolitans]] might even cover the costs of some visits if the advertising value was expected to be greater.
* '''R&D support''' - Some exovivaria could become space tourism industry R&D labs for establishing new categories in space tourism.
** If, for example, lunar tourism is projected to be more sustainable and economical with the hotel's food grown on the Moon itself, exovivaria could provide excellent low-cost labs to experiment with lunar-style agriculture, particularly for investigating the effects of lunar gravity on growing vegetables and raising small livestock.
** Should lunar gravity prove too weak for healthy plant or animal growth, exovivaria could provide a useful model for how to grow food on the moon with supplementary artificial gravity.
** Apart from food supply issues, certain on-orbit services for space tourists might be better supplied with small telerobotics, and in this, exovivaria might excel as proving grounds for hotel-guest customer-service innovations, perhaps for services that can't even be predicted at this point, but that could be invented, refined and brought nearly to maturity before space hotels even offer enough paying customers to justify their deployment.
* '''Convergence''' - at some point, both orbital "space hotel" operations and exovivaria operations might become so intertwined and synergistic that there is no longer any business case for separating the two markets. Space hotels could:
** grow most of their own food;
** recycle CO2 and purify most of their air through the local ecosystem;
** offer a range of services to guests via telerobotics provided by staff on Earth;
** provide health/comfort-maintaining artificial gravity for both staff and the ecosystem in whatever manner is determined to be optimal by experimentation with exovivaria, while still providing spaces for low-G/microgravity experience.
** offer much the same recreational value for Earth-bound users as free-standing exovivaria did, even at a facility whose main purpose is hosting human visitors.
Changed lines 9-16 from:
[[Project Persephone]] aims to provide [[exovivaria]] users and workers with an experience that might be considered a "virtual" orbital recreation, but one that's not directly related to orbital space tourism. In the longer term, however, direct and indirect commercial links might be made, with growing synergy value for both orbital space tourism and exovivaria. Among these are:
* '''Logistics and secondary life support''' - Exovivaria could export fresh food to be eaten by space tourism customers and crew, and could buy food scraps and sewage from "space hotels" for their fertilizer value, keeping the overall mass exchange at equilibrium and reducing the amount of supplies that must to be lifted at great cost from Earth.
* '''Emergency suppliesand shelter''' - At larger scales, exovivaria might also provide temporary emergency refuge in the event of failure of life-support systems in space hotels. Even some smaller exovivaria might prove useful in extreme circumstances - for example, cannibalizing an entire exovivarium for its atmosphere and edible biomass might be planned as part of certain rescue scenarios. Practical, well-exercised plans for using exovivaria for emergency operations could significantly reduce space tourism insurance premia, reducing its costs at another point.
* '''Amplifying economies of scale in transport''' - If exovivaria prove popular, and can provide a market that grows at least as fast as the global economy, the higher space launch rates and alternative launch technologies fostered by their popularity should help make space tourism cheaper, by making space transportation generally cheaper. There might be a "virtuous cycle" whereby one market provides some economies of scale, and the benefits spill over into complementary markets, generally increasing launch demand and lowering launch cost.
* '''Logistics and secondary life support''' - Exovivaria could export fresh food to
* '''Emergency supplies
* '''Amplifying
to:
[[Project Persephone]] aims to provide [[exovivaria]] users and workers with an experience that might be considered a "virtual" orbital recreation, but one that's not directly related to orbital space tourism. In fact, even its likelihood of success would be greatly enhanced by continued and growing space tourism, exovivaria success is not strictly predicated on any successful orbital tourism industry. In the longer term, however, direct and indirect commercial links might be made between the two activities, with growing synergy value for both orbital space tourism and exovivaria. Among these are:
* '''Logistics and secondary life support''' - Exovivaria could export fresh food to be eaten by space tourism customers and crew, and could buy food scraps and sewage from "space hotels" for their fertilizer value, keeping the overall mass exchange at equilibrium and reducing the amount of supplies that must to be lifted at great cost from Earth. Exovivaria might export biomass of other kinds, for use in fabric and small-scale structural materials, with value added or not, and might import non-food biodegradables as well.
* '''Emergency supplies and shelter''' - At larger scales, exovivaria might also provide temporary emergency refuge in the event of failure of life-support systems in space hotels. Even small exovivaria might prove useful in extreme circumstances - for example, one might plan the cannibalization an entire exovivarium for its atmosphere and edible biomass as part of certain rescue scenarios. Practical, well-exercised plans for using exovivaria for emergency operations could significantly reduce space tourism insurance premia, reducing its costs at another point.
* '''Enhancing economies of scale in transport''' - If exovivaria prove popular, and can provide a market that grows at least as fast as the global economy, the higher space launch rates and alternative launch technologies fostered by their popularity should help make space tourism cheaper, by making space transportation generally cheaper. There might be a "virtuous cycle" whereby one market provides some economies of scale, and the benefits spill over into complementary markets, generally increasing launch demand and lowering launch cost.
* '''Logistics and secondary life support''' - Exovivaria could export fresh food to be eaten by space tourism customers and crew, and could buy food scraps and sewage from "space hotels" for their fertilizer value, keeping the overall mass exchange at equilibrium and reducing the amount of supplies that must to be lifted at great cost from Earth. Exovivaria might export biomass of other kinds, for use in fabric and small-scale structural materials, with value added or not, and might import non-food biodegradables as well.
* '''Emergency supplies and shelter''' - At larger scales, exovivaria might also provide temporary emergency refuge in the event of failure of life-support systems in space hotels. Even small exovivaria might prove useful in extreme circumstances - for example, one might plan the cannibalization an entire exovivarium for its atmosphere and edible biomass as part of certain rescue scenarios. Practical, well-exercised plans for using exovivaria for emergency operations could significantly reduce space tourism insurance premia, reducing its costs at another point.
* '''Enhancing economies of scale in transport''' - If exovivaria prove popular, and can provide a market that grows at least as fast as the global economy, the higher space launch rates and alternative launch technologies fostered by their popularity should help make space tourism cheaper, by making space transportation generally cheaper. There might be a "virtuous cycle" whereby one market provides some economies of scale, and the benefits spill over into complementary markets, generally increasing launch demand and lowering launch cost.
Changed lines 11-20 from:
* Exovivaria could export fresh food to be eaten by space tourism customers and crew, and could buy food scraps and sewage from "space hotels" for their fertilizer value, keeping the overall mass exchange at equilibrium and reducing the amount of supplies that have to be lifted at great cost from Earth.
* At larger scales, exovivaria might also provide temporary emergency refuge in the event of failure of life-support systems in space hotels. Even smaller exovivaria might prove useful in extreme circumstances - cannibalizing an entire exovivarium for its atmosphere and edible biomass might be planned as part of certain rescue scenarios. Practical, well-exercised plans for using exovivaria for emergency operations could significantly reduce space tourism insurance premia, reducing its costs at another point.
* If exovivaria prove popular, and can provide a market that grows at least as fast as the global economy, the higher space launch rates and alternative launch technologies fostered by their popularity should help make space tourism cheaper, by making space transportation generally cheaper. There might be a "virtuous cycle" whereby one market provides some economies of scale, and the other benefits from those economies by enough to spill over into complementary markets.
* If exovivaria overhead operations turn out to be significantly cheaper (per user) for larger exovivaria, successive generations of them might "naturally" grow to the point of becoming large enough to become interesting places to visit in orbit, perhaps even large enough for space tourists to "camp" in, at least for a few days out of a multi-week stay. A more natural environment in orbit would provide an additional attraction for orbital space tourism, while providing additional revenue sources for exovivaria economies.
* Some exovivaria could become space tourism industry R&D labs for the project of establishing new experience categories. If, for example, lunar tourism is more sustainable and economical with food grown on the Moon, exovivaria could provide excellent places to experiment with food production closer to Earth, particularly for investigating the effects of lunar gravity for growing vegetables and raising small livestock. Should lunar gravity prove too weak for healthy agriculture, exovivaria could provide a useful model for how to grow food on the moon with supplementary artifical gravity.
* At larger scales, exovivaria might also provide temporary emergency refuge in the event of failure of life-support systems in space hotels. Even smaller exovivaria might prove useful in extreme circumstances - cannibalizing an entire exovivarium for its atmosphere and edible biomass might be planned as part of certain rescue scenarios. Practical, well-exercised plans for using exovivaria for emergency operations could significantly reduce space tourism insurance premia, reducing its costs at another point.
* If exovivaria prove popular, and can provide a market that grows at least as fast as the global economy, the higher space launch rates and alternative launch technologies fostered by their popularity should help make space tourism cheaper, by making space transportation generally cheaper. There might be a "virtuous cycle" whereby one market provides some economies of scale, and the other benefits from those economies by enough to spill over into complementary markets.
* If exovivaria overhead operations turn out to be significantly cheaper (per user) for larger exovivaria, successive generations of them might "naturally" grow to the point of becoming large enough to become interesting places
* Some exovivaria could become space tourism industry R&D labs for
to:
* '''Logistics and secondary life support''' - Exovivaria could export fresh food to be eaten by space tourism customers and crew, and could buy food scraps and sewage from "space hotels" for their fertilizer value, keeping the overall mass exchange at equilibrium and reducing the amount of supplies that must to be lifted at great cost from Earth.
* '''Emergency supplies and shelter''' - At larger scales, exovivaria might also provide temporary emergency refuge in the event of failure of life-support systems in space hotels. Even some smaller exovivaria might prove useful in extreme circumstances - for example, cannibalizing an entire exovivarium for its atmosphere and edible biomass might be planned as part of certain rescue scenarios. Practical, well-exercised plans for using exovivaria for emergency operations could significantly reduce space tourism insurance premia, reducing its costs at another point.
* '''Amplifying economies of scale in transport''' - If exovivaria prove popular, and can provide a market that grows at least as fast as the global economy, the higher space launch rates and alternative launch technologies fostered by their popularity should help make space tourism cheaper, by making space transportation generally cheaper. There might be a "virtuous cycle" whereby one market provides some economies of scale, and the benefits spill over into complementary markets, generally increasing launch demand and lowering launch cost.
* '''Augmenting experience value''' - If exovivaria overhead operations turn out to be significantly cheaper (per user) for larger exovivaria, successive generations of them might "naturally" grow to where they are large enough to be interesting places to visit in orbit, perhaps even large enough for space tourists to "camp" in, at least for a day or two of a multi-week stay. In this way, the natural exovivaria environments in orbit would provide an additional attraction for orbital space tourism, while also providing additional revenue sources for exovivaria economies. As well, the users of the exovivaria might innovate and create their own paying attractions.
* '''R&D support''' - Some exovivaria could become space tourism industry R&D labs for the project of establishing new experience categories. If, for example, lunar tourism is projected to be more sustainable and economical with food grown on the Moon, exovivaria could provide excellent places to experiment with food production closer to Earth, particularly for investigating the effects of lunar gravity for growing vegetables and raising small livestock. Should lunar gravity prove too weak for healthy agriculture, exovivaria could provide a useful model for how to grow food on the moon with supplementary artifical gravity. Certain on-orbit services for space tourists might be best supplied with small telerobotics, and in this, exovivaria might excel as a proving ground for innovations that can't even be predicted at this point.
* '''Convergence''' - at some point, both orbital "space hotel" operations and exovivaria operations might become so intertwined and synergistic that there is no longer any business case for separating the two markets. Space hotels could grow most of their own food, recycle most of their air through the local ecosystem, offer a range of services to guests via telerobotic staff on Earth, and provide health/comfort-maintaining artificial gravity for both staff and the ecosystem in whatever manner is determined to be optimal by experimentation with exovivaria, while still providing spaces for low-G/microgravity experience. Earth-bound users might still find much of recreational value to be had, even teleoperatively in a facility whose main purpose is hosting human visitors.
* '''Emergency supplies and shelter''' - At larger scales, exovivaria might also provide temporary emergency refuge in the event of failure of life-support systems in space hotels. Even some smaller exovivaria might prove useful in extreme circumstances - for example, cannibalizing an entire exovivarium for its atmosphere and edible biomass might be planned as part of certain rescue scenarios. Practical, well-exercised plans for using exovivaria for emergency operations could significantly reduce space tourism insurance premia, reducing its costs at another point.
* '''Amplifying economies of scale in transport''' - If exovivaria prove popular, and can provide a market that grows at least as fast as the global economy, the higher space launch rates and alternative launch technologies fostered by their popularity should help make space tourism cheaper, by making space transportation generally cheaper. There might be a "virtuous cycle" whereby one market provides some economies of scale, and the benefits spill over into complementary markets, generally increasing launch demand and lowering launch cost.
* '''Augmenting experience value''' - If exovivaria overhead operations turn out to be significantly cheaper (per user) for larger exovivaria, successive generations of them might "naturally" grow to where they are large enough to be interesting places to visit in orbit, perhaps even large enough for space tourists to "camp" in, at least for a day or two of a multi-week stay. In this way, the natural exovivaria environments in orbit would provide an additional attraction for orbital space tourism, while also providing additional revenue sources for exovivaria economies. As well, the users of the exovivaria might innovate and create their own paying attractions.
* '''R&D support''' - Some exovivaria could become space tourism industry R&D labs for the project of establishing new experience categories. If, for example, lunar tourism is projected to be more sustainable and economical with food grown on the Moon, exovivaria could provide excellent places to experiment with food production closer to Earth, particularly for investigating the effects of lunar gravity for growing vegetables and raising small livestock. Should lunar gravity prove too weak for healthy agriculture, exovivaria could provide a useful model for how to grow food on the moon with supplementary artifical gravity. Certain on-orbit services for space tourists might be best supplied with small telerobotics, and in this, exovivaria might excel as a proving ground for innovations that can't even be predicted at this point.
* '''Convergence''' - at some point, both orbital "space hotel" operations and exovivaria operations might become so intertwined and synergistic that there is no longer any business case for separating the two markets. Space hotels could grow most of their own food, recycle most of their air through the local ecosystem, offer a range of services to guests via telerobotic staff on Earth, and provide health/comfort-maintaining artificial gravity for both staff and the ecosystem in whatever manner is determined to be optimal by experimentation with exovivaria, while still providing spaces for low-G/microgravity experience. Earth-bound users might still find much of recreational value to be had, even teleoperatively in a facility whose main purpose is hosting human visitors.
Changed lines 9-10 from:
[[Project Persephone]] aims to provide [[exovivaria]] users and workers with an experience that might be considered a recreation that's not directly related to orbital space tourism. In the longer term, however, direct and indirect commercial links might be made, with growing synergy value for both orbital space tourism and exovivaria. Among these are:
to:
[[Project Persephone]] aims to provide [[exovivaria]] users and workers with an experience that might be considered a "virtual" orbital recreation, but one that's not directly related to orbital space tourism. In the longer term, however, direct and indirect commercial links might be made, with growing synergy value for both orbital space tourism and exovivaria. Among these are:
Changed lines 7-8 from:
Orbital space tourism may soon see realistic competition. Other companies are looking at the orbital tourism market. One, Excalibur Almaz, has a plan to turn formerly secret Russian military space station hardware[^http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Almprog/almprog.htm^] to commercial use.[^http://www.iomtoday.co.im/isle-of-man-business/Manx-company-buys-Soviet-spacecraft.5576775.jp^][^http://www.parabolicarc.com/2008/03/22/leroy-chiao-talks-about-nasa-commercialization-and-excalibur-almaz/^]
to:
Orbital space tourism may soon see realistic competition. Other companies are looking at the orbital tourism market. One, Excalibur Almaz, has a plan to turn formerly secret Russian military space station hardware[^http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Almprog/almprog.htm^], to commercial use.[^http://www.iomtoday.co.im/isle-of-man-business/Manx-company-buys-Soviet-spacecraft.5576775.jp^],[^http://www.parabolicarc.com/2008/03/22/leroy-chiao-talks-about-nasa-commercialization-and-excalibur-almaz/^]
Added lines 1-21:
Orbital Space Tourism is a kind of [[Space Tourism]] where the customers are put into orbit -- thus staying in space for several hours at least, rather than mere minutes, as with [[suborbital flight]].
Most of those who have paid to go to orbit do not call themselves "space tourists", preferring a variety of other terms with more respectful connotations. However, the term is in common use, and it's been argued that the term is unlikely to change.[^http://www.thespacereview.com/article/736/1^]
As of 2009, Space Adventures is the only company that has arranged actual orbital space tourism. It currently hosts customers on [[ISS]] as a kind of "[[space hotel]]". It uses the Russian space program's facilities for training their customers to be adequate astronauts, and for transporting customers to and from ISS.
Orbital space tourism may soon see realistic competition. Other companies are looking at the orbital tourism market. One, Excalibur Almaz, has a plan to turn formerly secret Russian military space station hardware[^http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Almprog/almprog.htm^] to commercial use.[^http://www.iomtoday.co.im/isle-of-man-business/Manx-company-buys-Soviet-spacecraft.5576775.jp^][^http://www.parabolicarc.com/2008/03/22/leroy-chiao-talks-about-nasa-commercialization-and-excalibur-almaz/^]
[[Project Persephone]] aims to provide [[exovivaria]] users and workers with an experience that might be considered a recreation that's not directly related to orbital space tourism. In the longer term, however, direct and indirect commercial links might be made, with growing synergy value for both orbital space tourism and exovivaria. Among these are:
* Exovivaria could export fresh food to be eaten by space tourism customers and crew, and could buy food scraps and sewage from "space hotels" for their fertilizer value, keeping the overall mass exchange at equilibrium and reducing the amount of supplies that have to be lifted at great cost from Earth.
* At larger scales, exovivaria might also provide temporary emergency refuge in the event of failure of life-support systems in space hotels. Even smaller exovivaria might prove useful in extreme circumstances - cannibalizing an entire exovivarium for its atmosphere and edible biomass might be planned as part of certain rescue scenarios. Practical, well-exercised plans for using exovivaria for emergency operations could significantly reduce space tourism insurance premia, reducing its costs at another point.
* If exovivaria prove popular, and can provide a market that grows at least as fast as the global economy, the higher space launch rates and alternative launch technologies fostered by their popularity should help make space tourism cheaper, by making space transportation generally cheaper. There might be a "virtuous cycle" whereby one market provides some economies of scale, and the other benefits from those economies by enough to spill over into complementary markets.
* If exovivaria overhead operations turn out to be significantly cheaper (per user) for larger exovivaria, successive generations of them might "naturally" grow to the point of becoming large enough to become interesting places to visit in orbit, perhaps even large enough for space tourists to "camp" in, at least for a few days out of a multi-week stay. A more natural environment in orbit would provide an additional attraction for orbital space tourism, while providing additional revenue sources for exovivaria economies.
* Some exovivaria could become space tourism industry R&D labs for the project of establishing new experience categories. If, for example, lunar tourism is more sustainable and economical with food grown on the Moon, exovivaria could provide excellent places to experiment with food production closer to Earth, particularly for investigating the effects of lunar gravity for growing vegetables and raising small livestock. Should lunar gravity prove too weak for healthy agriculture, exovivaria could provide a useful model for how to grow food on the moon with supplementary artifical gravity.
[^#^]
Most of those who have paid to go to orbit do not call themselves "space tourists", preferring a variety of other terms with more respectful connotations. However, the term is in common use, and it's been argued that the term is unlikely to change.[^http://www.thespacereview.com/article/736/1^]
As of 2009, Space Adventures is the only company that has arranged actual orbital space tourism. It currently hosts customers on [[ISS]] as a kind of "[[space hotel]]". It uses the Russian space program's facilities for training their customers to be adequate astronauts, and for transporting customers to and from ISS.
Orbital space tourism may soon see realistic competition. Other companies are looking at the orbital tourism market. One, Excalibur Almaz, has a plan to turn formerly secret Russian military space station hardware[^http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Almprog/almprog.htm^] to commercial use.[^http://www.iomtoday.co.im/isle-of-man-business/Manx-company-buys-Soviet-spacecraft.5576775.jp^][^http://www.parabolicarc.com/2008/03/22/leroy-chiao-talks-about-nasa-commercialization-and-excalibur-almaz/^]
[[Project Persephone]] aims to provide [[exovivaria]] users and workers with an experience that might be considered a recreation that's not directly related to orbital space tourism. In the longer term, however, direct and indirect commercial links might be made, with growing synergy value for both orbital space tourism and exovivaria. Among these are:
* Exovivaria could export fresh food to be eaten by space tourism customers and crew, and could buy food scraps and sewage from "space hotels" for their fertilizer value, keeping the overall mass exchange at equilibrium and reducing the amount of supplies that have to be lifted at great cost from Earth.
* At larger scales, exovivaria might also provide temporary emergency refuge in the event of failure of life-support systems in space hotels. Even smaller exovivaria might prove useful in extreme circumstances - cannibalizing an entire exovivarium for its atmosphere and edible biomass might be planned as part of certain rescue scenarios. Practical, well-exercised plans for using exovivaria for emergency operations could significantly reduce space tourism insurance premia, reducing its costs at another point.
* If exovivaria prove popular, and can provide a market that grows at least as fast as the global economy, the higher space launch rates and alternative launch technologies fostered by their popularity should help make space tourism cheaper, by making space transportation generally cheaper. There might be a "virtuous cycle" whereby one market provides some economies of scale, and the other benefits from those economies by enough to spill over into complementary markets.
* If exovivaria overhead operations turn out to be significantly cheaper (per user) for larger exovivaria, successive generations of them might "naturally" grow to the point of becoming large enough to become interesting places to visit in orbit, perhaps even large enough for space tourists to "camp" in, at least for a few days out of a multi-week stay. A more natural environment in orbit would provide an additional attraction for orbital space tourism, while providing additional revenue sources for exovivaria economies.
* Some exovivaria could become space tourism industry R&D labs for the project of establishing new experience categories. If, for example, lunar tourism is more sustainable and economical with food grown on the Moon, exovivaria could provide excellent places to experiment with food production closer to Earth, particularly for investigating the effects of lunar gravity for growing vegetables and raising small livestock. Should lunar gravity prove too weak for healthy agriculture, exovivaria could provide a useful model for how to grow food on the moon with supplementary artifical gravity.
[^#^]