Going to space for a vacation sounds fun, right? But is space tourism a good idea? Have you ever thought about what it takes to do? Although technological developments are easing our life and widening our horizons, they can cause some problems. Let’s have a brief look at the pros and cons of space tourism in this context.
Advantages of Space Tourism
Of course, developments of this almost new field of the industry have economic benefits for countries. It seems like the ones who did not encourage establishing space tourism companies on time will regret it because space tourism may appear to be a small-scale activity of the very wealthy, but it seems unlikely that it will stay that way. On the contrary, it is much more likely to evolve into a huge new industry employing millions of people in high-quality employment in the near future. After all, much of this industry is outside of Earth’s ecosystem. (1)
But is that has to be all about money? We don’t think so… Space tourism is a growing body of academic literature. (2) As the competition between space-tourism companies continues, we will see more and more new technological development, researches and projects for more sustainable space travels like re-usable rockets that SpaceX is working on. Also, we can say that like how we use a bunch of stuff that NASA has developed as space technology and started to use it every day, this space race most likely will lead to lots of innovations. So, the advantages of space tourism are incontrovertible.
Disadvantages of Space Tourism
As a space tourist, you will not be as equipped as an astronaut in a space mission but this is not the only disadvantage of space tourism. At this stage, companies cannot promise complete safety to their passengers for space travel. Companies must provide a list of the risks involved in this journey, but this list is likely to appear as just one page that most travelers can sign without reading, such as the terms we accept without reading when signing up for a website. In addition, if companies start to make more spaceflights, airlines will have to re-arrange their flights accordingly to prevent accidents. (3)
Although the legal regulations for space tourism are not enough yet, as it becomes more affordable and reachable for the common public, we will see more laws and regulations about space tourism. (4)
Besides all pros and cons of space tourism, it is going to relate to climate change because the companies are indicating that there might be two spaceflights every day; it can be predicted that this will affect the atmospheric composition and can damage the ozone layer. (5)
References
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Collins, P. (2007). Economic Benefits of Space Tourism to Europe. Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, 60, 395–400.
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Cohen Eriḳ, & Spector, S. (2019). Space tourism: The elusive dream. Emerald Publishing.
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Dillon, B. (2020, December 12). Profitable Risk: The Dangers of Consumer Spaceflight and Space Tourism. Viterbi Conversations in Ethics. Retrieved September 21, 2021, from https://vce.usc.edu/volume-4-issue-2/profitable-risk-the-dangers-of-consumer-spaceflight-and-space-tourism/
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Rуzhenko, Irina, and Olena Halahan (2020) International Legal Regulation of Space Tourism. Advanced Space Law, Volume 5, 83-90. https://doi.org/10.29202/asl/2020/5/8
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Mann, A. (2010). Space tourism to accelerate climate change. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/news.2010.558
