GOLDEN, Colo.
- Private spacewalks, customer stopovers at commercial Earth orb outposts, and
public flights to the Moon are all part of Space Adventures Chief Executive
Eric Anderson's vision for the growing space travel market.
Over the
last decade, Space
Adventures, headquartered in Vienna, Va., has offered an array of
spaceflight experiences to astronaut wannabes, including: parabolic aircraft
flights that provide customers short stints in a microgravity environment,
simulated Soyuz launch and landing profiles via centrifuge, neutral buoyancy
tank training to simulate spacewalking conditions, as well as eight-days of
cosmonaut overview training that is primarily held at the Gagarin Cosmonaut
Training Center in Star City, Russia.
But the
big-ticket offering, and the activity that brings in big cash to the company,
are private space trips to the international space station (ISS).
To date,
Space Adventures has handled five customer treks to the ISS, like that of
Charles Simonyi, formerly of Microsoft Corp., in April of this year; Anousheh
Ansari, a high-tech telecom businesswoman in September 2006; technology
entrepreneur Greg Olsen in October 2005; Mark Shuttleworth, an internet
entrepreneur and the first South African to fly to space in April 2002; and Dennis
Tito, a California investment guru who earned the title of the world's first
paying space traveler back in April 2001.
Each person
spent roughly $20 million to $25 million for their multi-day stay at the ISS,
flown to the orbital outpost and returned to Earth by a three-seat Russian
Soyuz spacecraft.
But the
days of prices that low are over, Anderson said in a July 15 telephone
interview with Space News.
"Actually,
it's $30 million now. For the next couple of seats, that's the price," Anderson said. That cost hike, among several factors, is due to the falling dollar - the
ruble has appreciated some 50 percent against the dollar, he said. Another
factor is simply the overall cost of inflation, he said.
"It is
still the most economical and reliable, safest way to get to orbit," Anderson said of the venerable
Soyuz.
Anderson announced July 18 that Space
Adventures has signed two additional customers, one to be launched in fall 2008
and the other in spring 2009, though he declined to identify them.
"A spacewalk
in one of those flights is a possibility, and we have people who are interested
in that," Anderson said, adding that their identities likely will be
unveiled later this year.
The fee for
a spacewalk is $15 million on top of the $30 million base price. "One of
the consequences of the spacewalk is that you get a little bit more time up
there, instead of a week to 10 days, you'll probably get close to three weeks."
That
private spacewalker would exit the ISS out of a Russian airlock, outfitted in an
Orlan space suit, Anderson noted. "The client who does this would be doing
this through the Russian Space Agency."
More
seats
Looking
into the near future, Anderson said Space Adventures is talking to a number of
interested parties to partake in orbital journeys. "We certainly think the
market is growing and can support many flights per year over the next few
years. We hope to grow from just one flight per year to two to four and beyond."
Discussions
also are under way, he added, between the company and the Federal Space Agency,
Roscosmos, to open up more Soyuz seats for clients. "If they want to
increase capacity ... if there's a commercial reason for that, I think they
certainly can," Anderson said. "We'd certainly like to see more seats
become available, if possible."
Public
space sojourns into Earth orbit are sure to remain a unique experience for many
years to come. "There are plenty of people on Earth who haven't been out
of their own country, let alone gone into space," Anderson noted. "It'll
be a long time before spaceflight is boring."
Destination
Moon
Also on
Space Adventures travel manifest is the availability of a commercial
spaceflight to the far side of the Moon. That mission concept was publicly
announced by the firm back in August 2005, under the banner of a Deep Space
Expeditions program. That mission would make use of a modified Soyuz
spacecraft, piloted by a Russian cosmonaut with two commercial seats available
priced at $100 million each. "It remains the project about which I am the
most personally excited," Anderson said.
The pilot
and passengers would depart Earth in a Soyuz spacecraft, linking up in orbit
with an unpiloted kick stage for a boost outward to the lunar destination. The
Soyuz would fly a free-return trajectory - a boomerang course - around the
Moon.
There would
be upgrades to the Soyuz communications systems, along with larger windows and
a beefed up re-entry shield for the Earth return, Anderson pointed out, with
those hardware add-ons making it likely the circumlunar craft would be test
flown in unpiloted mode prior to commercial operations.
"It's
an incredible bargain at $100 million a seat," Anderson continued. "I've
had discussions over the past couple of years with a number of billionaires ...
all of whom have the money ... all of whom have a very deep interest in this. I
believe there's a bigger market than people might imagine," he said.
Future Deep
Space Expedition missions - lunar-orbit and lunar-surface flights - are
feasible too, Anderson said.
Space
Adventures is having "serious talks" with Bigelow Aerospace, Anderson said, about using that entrepreneurial space firm's orbital habitats
in the future. Two Genesis-class modules are now in Earth orbit with the
company planning to evolve in coming years to larger expandable modules that
can be occupied.
"It's
possible we could buy an extra Soyuz and fly it to a Bigelow station. We're
certainly interested in what they are doing," Anderson said.
Strictly in
the black Space Adventures as a company is 10 years old. "It's not an easy
business ... but it's a very important one," Anderson explained, as an
avenue to foster public interest in personal space travel.
Anderson said that Space Adventures is now
strictly in the black. The company was formed in 1997, growing over the years
from an initial private investment of $2 million. "Now we're approaching
revenues that have exceeded our investment by almost 100 times," he said.
The global
travel and tourism industry is a trillion-dollar industry, about five times
larger than the aerospace industry, Anderson said. The largest and fastest
growing component of tourism, he said, is adventure travel. Moreover, he said,
there are 20 million millionaires at present - all prospective clientele for
off-Earth travel destinations.
Harnessing
that wealth to seed public space travel is analogous to those well-heeled
individuals that bought the first automobiles, computers, airplanes and other
high-priced items, Anderson said. The people who really benefit are the ones
down the road. They get to piggyback on all the developments and improvements
in technology and markets made by early adopters, he said.
Thomas
Jones, a former shuttle astronaut and Space Adventures advisor, said the space
tourism industry should spur less-expensive approaches to space travel overall.
"Coupled
with the physical thrill is the sense that you are in some way pioneering ... you
are committing yourself to a frontier, a commercial one, where your journey can
make a difference and make more ambitious trips possible for future passengers.
Out of such an industry should come more economical ways of getting cargo and
astronauts to orbit for serious exploring, out beyond low Earth orbit. Even
with the risks, it is win-win," Jones told Space News via e-mail.
Tariq
Malik
contributed to this article from New York.
