NASA to allow space tourists on ISS

In further progress toward space tourism becoming a reality, NASA announced this month that it will soon allow tourists to fly to the International Space Station (ISS). This could happen as soon as 2020. Up to two private astronaut trips per year are planned initially.

You’ll need to start saving pretty swiftly though. The cost of a ticket is going to be astronomical (no pun intended). The ISS may well be functioning as a hotel, but your accommodation is going to be pretty expensive, and don’t expect room service or a mini-bar. The tariff is anticipated to be around £30,000 per night. And remember that this fee does not include flights.

A one night stay is out too – the return journey may be difficult to arrange, so you could be staying for up to thirty days. It is unlikely you will get any discount for any extended period, so the total cost for your stay could be close to £1m. Plus you’ll have to ensure that you meet the health and training requirements, so you’d better add on medical expenses, fitness training and technical education fees.

The current rate for getting there is unclear. SpaceX and Boeing are planning to charge NASA around $60m per astronaut when they begin crewed missions to the ISS, so there is not much chance of them charging you less.

So as a rough estimate, it looks like the minimum cost for a ticket to the ISS is around £50m. This doesn’t seem unreasonable when you consider US businessman Dennis Tito paid around $20m to Russia to become the very first space tourist back in 2001.

NASA’s announcement can be seen as an attempt to make up for President Trump’s proposal to end federal funding of the ISS by 2025. Revenue from private space travellers could help to make up the shortfall.

Meanwhile, Bigelow Space Operations have also reserved four launches from SpaceX. Each of these will have at least four seats, offering an additional sixteen places over the next few years. Ticket prices have yet to be set for these proposed launches, and the company is not even seeking potential passengers until firmer launch dates can be planned.

So although things really are moving, it’s unlikely that anyone but the super-rich will be able to afford a ticket to the ISS any time soon. But remember that these are proper space flights, with extended stays in orbit.

The kind flights proposed by the likes of Virgin Galactic, SpaceX and Blue Origin will last an hour or several hours at most. These will guarantee a period of weightlessness, the experience of the blackness of space and sight of the curvature of the Earth, but not a stay on the International Space Station. These will be far more affordable, especially in the longer term. So it’s still a good idea to start saving as soon as possible…

The UK continues to expand its space programmes

The UK government has made a trio of announcements this month which reinforce its aim to become a major player in the worldwide space industry. The most eye-catching of these is the proposal to boost state investment in Virgin Orbit’s Cornwall Spaceport project.

This is Virgin’s plan to launch satellites from what is currently Newquay airport. Eager Cornish residents will not be seeing Cape Canaveral style rockets launch from the scenic south west coast of England though. Instead, this is a “horizontal launch” programme, which would see Virgin use its LauncherOne rockets to put satellites into orbit from under the wing of an already airborne Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet. British space watchers hoping to see a conventional vertical rocket launch will need to travel to the UK’s other proposed spaceport in Sutherland in the north of Scotland.

Nevertheless, the government offer to invest up to £20m into setting up the new spaceport is a major boost for the UK space industry. If everything was to go to plan, Sir Richard Branson’s company could be launching satellites into space from the renowned Cornish tourist hotspot as soon as 2021. Virgin is already committed to pumping £2.5m into the project, as well as its commitment to developing the rocket technology and converting one of its 747 jets into a rocket launching “Cosmic Girl”.

In further news, the UK Government also pledged another £7m towards a project to design a “plasma analyser” to keep track of space weather. Solar flares, magnetic storms and other bursts of energy can be very damaging to satellites and even Earth based electrical equipment. Considerable disruption has been caused in the past by these solar bursts, including a massive power outage in Quebec in 1989.

Our reliance on electronic equipment and satellites since then has increased exponentially- GPS satellites were in the early stages of development back then and the internet was “invented” that year. The United States’ NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are co-operating on the development of a new deep space satellite which would be placed far from Earth in order to give us warning of any impending solar storm. The UK’s proposed plasma analysis equipment is intended to form part of this.

Finally, the government has also announced the creation of a UK National Space Council. This new body is intended to direct future UK space policy. It will be run by leading government politicians and advisors, together with senior civil servants, assisted by industry experts and leading academics.

ESA 2028 Comet Mission

The European Space Agency is investing €150m into a new project to send a probe to reach and analyse a future comet. Named Comet Interceptor, it will be led by the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, based near Dorking in Surrey and run by University College London (UCL).

The initial concept is a three part probe: a mothership and two smaller craft will separate once the spacecraft reaches the comet. These will then carry out different but complementary surveys. The actual comet to be studied has yet to be decided. Because these icy bodies tend to arrive with little warning and on virtually random paths, the plan is to piggy back on another launch and effectively “park” in space until a suitable candidate comet arrives.

Launch is pencilled in for 2018 and a variety of Earth based and space telescopes will be tasked with finding a suitable candidate for the probe to explore.

SpaceX Explosion

It appears that the April failure of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon engine test (reported last month) will cause delays to the proposed launch schedule. A full report on the incident is not expected for a while as the full investigation is expected to take several months. The cause remains a mystery. It is unclear whether there is an actual design issue, or whether perhaps the capsule had suffered some unseen damage from a previous launch.

Either way, delays can be expected. The first crewed launch was anticipated in July, but this is now extremely unlikely to take place. This means that it’s bad news for everyone. Both SpaceX and Boeing have suffered recent setbacks in their plans to transport NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Meanwhile NASA are running close to the end of their contract with Russia’s Soyuz, which expires in April 2020.

NASA to launch new Dragonfly drone to Saturn’s moon Titan

NASA announced this month that it’s next major mission is to send a new flyable drone to Titan in order to study the moon more closely. It will follow in the footsteps of the massively successful Cassini-Huygens mission which came to an end in September 2017 when it was deliberately crashed into Saturn in order to eliminate the possibility of contaminating any of its many moons.

ESA’s Huygens space probe piggy backed on NASA’s Cassini mission and was a tremendous success. It landed on the surface of Titan, sending back stunning pictures of its descent and from the surface itself. The probe discovered mountains, lakes of methane and an atmosphere. Titan has a weather cycle much like Earth’s, only consisting of methane rather than water.

The new Dragonfly drone will use the moon’s thick atmosphere and low gravity to fly across the surface and make further observations and discoveries. It is anticipated that it will be able operate for around two years, flying for around 100 miles before running out of power. It will be able to land on land and on the methane lakes using its on board skis.

Mission launch is planned for 2026, and it should arrive at Saturn and Titan in 2034.