15Space travel· Journalists Team

Welcome to the Spacecation

DisruptionProbability 90/100

// A story from 2051

Since her holiday began, Lula hasn’t missed a single sunrise. Each of them has been successively more beautiful than the one before. The tenth one takes her breath away – the sun’s rays break over the horizon just as the Aurora Borealis spills its last green and purple ripples across the frozen wastes of Northern Finland. The light is blinding. She blinks against the glare and drifts away from the window, steadying herself with her right hand on its sturdy, grabbable frame. Her left hand is comfortably at eye level and so is her gyrowatch. Could it really be 01.30? Time for bed. She glances upwards as she makes her way towards the exit. Friends Wes and Kai are leaving too. Wes uses the highest handles to propel himself down into a back flip, while Kai follows more slowly, crossing the ceiling at a steady pace and then walking down the wall to the floor. It’s the first time she’s seen either of them since they all first checked in together at the docking station this morning. What a day. She feels her heart rate fluttering just a little. Could it just be the low-g? Or maybe Wes is actually not bad looking.

A minute later – and a couple of graceful glides down the hotel banisters – Lula is back in her room. There’s much more gravity in here than in the viewing pods – the science of which she fully understands, but still can’t quite grasp in reality. The space hotel she’s on – the HelixXX777 – was only recently completed, its components having been built entirely in space. She wishes the new building currently going up next door to her apartment block back down on Earth could be similarly constructed. It’s only 250 floors but the noise levels have been through the roof for months now. At least up here, it’s nice and quiet.

She bounces briefly on at the sumptuous hotel bed and smiles. In the early 2020s, after the first Covid outbreak, back when the world had been in a thing called Lockdown and online schooling was new and very boring, she’d watched endless videos about the day-to-day lives of astronauts at the ISS. It had been a great distraction. She’s happy to see that, unlike them, she doesn’t have to zip herself into a sleeping bag attached to the wall and sleep upright. Instead, there’s a duvet on the bed. It’s goose-down, like the ones her mother used to sleep under. Now that technological advances in farming have made it possible to harvest feathers painlessly from the birds, animal fibres are finding their way back – even if initially in only the most exclusive establishments. And with temperatures up here being markedly chillier than down on Earth, Lula is grateful.

Lula voice-commands the blinds to close and the lights to dim, as she makes her preparations for bed. As beautiful as they might be, she doesn’t want to be woken by the next five sunrises as she tries to cram in her eight hours of sleep before breakfast. The blinds have been programmed to lift just before the sixth sunrise, so she will be able to watch it from her bed. According to the chatty little InfoBot she’d encountered in the gravi-elevator earlier, the sunrise she has in mind should incorporate gorgeous views of the Amazon Basin. It’s expanded by a third over the past five years. She doesn’t want to miss this satellite’s eye view.

Walking into the en-suite bathroom in her memory-wrap robe, she sees the 360-degree rainforest shower. On entry, she is automatically doused from all angles with very fine jets of water. Every drop will be retained and reused on the space hotel. Soap (to use the traditional term) is pre-programmed to target just the right areas. No more nicking sample size hotel toiletries. Beyond that, she also knows this shower is a source of vital data collection via monitors on the shower walls. Her bone density will be scanned and measured every day of her spacecation. So too will the water levels in her body. The pH levels on her skin will be sampled and analysed. As well as, of course, body weight fluctuations, muscle mass and lung capacity. It’s become the quid pro quo of space travel. A significantly discounted holiday in return for personal info. Of course, there are those who say it’s a violation of personal privacy. Just like those who, back in the days when Covid passports were first introduced, had maintained that governments and corporates had no business regulating travel with a vaccine score card.

But whatever qualms she had about submitting herself to these rigorous – some would say slightly invasive – tests, she feels it’s worth it. All the data collected from her short visit to space will be used to accurately inform future, long-haul space travel. The first long-term mission to Mars is departing from the Moon in three months’ time. After a decade of short trips to the Red Planet, this will be the first attempt at a twelve-month stint. And now that her brother Abe has just been selected to be a part of that mission, it just became closer to home. So, she’s happy to do her bit for science – even if it involves standing naked in a shower on a Low Earth Orbit journey.

The next morning finds Lula in the breakfast room, watching the sun setting over the Pacific. A nervous looking WaiterBot serves her up a legume and argo-nut waffle with a molecular blueberry foam and some super-hydroponic strawberries – the first ones to be cultivated in space. They’re small but taste delicious. She snaps a quick pic on her gyrowatch to send to her mother. Even though it’s 2051, Mum still nags them all about eating their five-a-day. She can hear some muffled sounds coming from the kitchen. She laughs to herself. Hiring the classic GordonRamseyBot as head chef was an inspired move on the part of hotel management, but it doesn’t come without its challenges. No wonder the poor WaiterBot’s screen is glitching slightly.

She puts on her AR glasses to check the schedule for the day. Low-g basketball. Tick. Freeze-dried macaroon making classes. Pass. An afternoon spacewalk. Double tick. The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Space Travel Dinner with Dancing? Not missing that for the solar system. Good thing she thought to pack a party dress with a specially weighted hem. She secretly hopes Wes and his wingman will be there. What was that song Grandpa used to sing again? Something about Dancing on the Ceiling. She smiles. Only another twelve sunsets before it’s party time…

// The science behind it

The (billionaire) Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

For most of us, travel during 2020 and 2021 was a simple affair. A well-worn route between the kitchen and the sofa. At least there was no visa required. So perhaps it wasn’t surprising that the news of Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos’s respective trips to space was greeted with such fanfare. However, it’s easy to forget that they weren’t the first billionaires in space. Whilst Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic have been lauded for their recent achievements, Washington-based Space Adventures have, for the past twenty years, been organising space trips for privateers with a private equity sized fund to burn in jet fuel. Notable examples include Mark Shuttleworth, who became the first African in space in 2002, Dennis Tito, first privateer (2001) and Anousheh Ansari, first Muslim woman (2006). Working in tandem with Russian-based Roscosmos, these lucky few have had the opportunity to hitch a ride on a government-owned rocket and orbit Earth.

So, what’s changed? Unlike earlier space tourists, Bezos and Branson – along with Elon Musk – have made no secret of their mutual ambition to commercialise space travel. But who of us has the means to make that possible? And why does it matter? It’s tempting to dismiss these latest trips into space as mere flights of billionaire fantasy. But these disruptors – and the rivalry their efforts have created – have opened up a new frontier for space travel by developing their own spacecraft. And competition is always good. According to NASA, it’s resulted in the cost of reaching low-Earth orbit being reduced by a factor of twenty, when compared to the conventional, government-funded model. Cost reduction has extended to other areas, too. Cheaper launch costs, reusable rockets and an increase in the number of satellites, all make for an exciting, and hopefully increasingly more affordable, space race of the future. Behold the era of NewSpace.

But does it all add up? It’s hard to forecast, but back in 2017, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch predicted exponential growth for the space industry in the coming decades, reaching a market value of $1.1 trillion by 2040 and almost $3 trillion by 2050. With the increase in investment, and plummeting costs continuing, space will become increasingly more accessible.

Fly me to the Moon

What will the spacecraft of the future look like for future galactic tourists? The best indication of this may just be found in NASA’s Artemis Programme – the successor to the Apollo missions of the 1960s. Artemis has committed to sending the next man – and woman – to the moon by 2024. For this latest voyage, NASA has enlisted the help of private companies – including SpaceX and Blue Origin – to develop a suitably out-of-this-world spacecraft which they’ve called Orion. Designed as a space capsule, Orion will be able to accommodate a four-person crew. This signals a move away from the shuttle, which over the years has had some tragic failures. Also, unlike the shuttle, the capsule can fly beyond Earth’s orbit, its design is better suited for a lunar landing, and its launch-abort capabilities offer better protection against rocket malfunction. The capsule is also lightweight enough for long-haul journeys – possibly to Mars. Blue Origin is currently developing its own lunar lander, known as Blue Moon, capable of sending crew on a Moon mission. And if it’s good enough for the next moonwalk or a mission to Mars, it should be good enough for well-heeled Gen Beta travellers.

Virgin Galactic has already revealed the latest design for its next generation Spaceship III prototype. With a mirror-finish cladding, the VSS Imagine’s sleek shape and super-reflective surface is a powerful symbol of the transformative power of galactic travel. Like Unity, the Imagine will be launched from a mothership, called WhiteKnightTwo, where its rocket engine will propel it into suborbital space. Could this be enough to take a craft further, and possibly out of Earth’s orbit? Who knows. But already, the company is now preparing to fly 400 sub-orbital missions a year from each of its spaceports. This, after almost twenty years in the making. (Spacecrafts, it seems, are a bit like London buses. You wait ages for one, and then all of a sudden, several appear).

Whatever the future may hold for spacecraft design, space tourism companies will be held to the highest levels of safety scrutiny. According to the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs director, Simonetta di Poppo, issues such as these have already been given consideration at a recent UN Committee meeting on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). All operators will be obliged to obtain a licence from their authorities. And in accordance with the “Outer Space Treaty of 1967”, no single entity or body operating in space will be able to lay claim to land on the Moon or anywhere in space. The “Moon Agreement”, ratified in 1984, provides that the Moon and its natural resources “are the common heritage of mankind”. The Agreement also states that an international regime should be established to govern the exploitation of the Moon’s natural resources, should that become feasible. All of which means that, with a bit of luck, and some new statute books, we can rest assured that the final frontier won’t become the new Wild West.

Postcards from the edge of the solar system

If the first port of call is to be the Moon, the next stop will be Mars. It’s predicted that between the 2030s and 2060s, astronauts from no fewer than three major space agencies will be making the six to nine month journey to the Red Planet, with NASA’s Mars to Moon programme expected to be at the forefront of this exploration. More nations will become members of the official ‘space club’. Earth’s orbital lanes will become busier, with the commercialisation of the Low Earth Orbit and an increasing number of satellites entering space. And with the ISS due to retire in 2024, successive space stations will surely fill this gap.

In the coming decades, these will make way for more advanced stations, developed under the banner of the Gateway Foundation. Among these will be the Lunar Gateway – a small space station situated within the lunar orbit, serving as a halfway house to deep space. The role of the Lunar Gateway – and likely other space stations - will be that of providing testing centres for advanced technologies that could support life in space. These galactic outposts will be designed and constructed along the lines of a rotating pinwheel, using 3D printers and autonomous robotic arms. The construction of these new stations will be overseen by the Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC) – the first large-scale orbital construction company in the world – or should we say, solar system. Their flagship project is the Voyager-class space station. Built to be a giant, spinning ring, it will be capable of simulating gravity. The OAC’s stated mission is that of providing “the comfort of low gravity within the luxurious accommodations of a luxury hotel space for tourists who want to experience an extended visit to space”.

Of course, simulating gravity will be the potential game changer for the future of space missions and, consequently, of space travel. Should this become a reality, we’d be one step closer to sustainable life in space, certainly for an initial period of up to 24 months. For now, the focus looks set to be on the establishment of low-orbit hotels. One possible design is that of a hydrogen-filled balloon with a pressurised capsule, which utilises earth’s gravity. Fellow space operator Bigelow has developed a design for an inflatable habitat, which it plans to attach to the ISS as one of the first hotels in space.

Another audacious plan is that of the Aurora Station, developed by Orion Span, which can accommodate six guests for a $9.5m, twelve-day luxury vacation in low Earth orbit. Flying 200 miles high, the Aurora will orbit Earth every 90 minutes, offering sixteen sunrises and sunsets over a 24 hour period. Luxury sleeping pods, gourmet cuisine, low-gravity ping pong and the experience of growing food onboard, will all be included in the hefty price tag.

It is overwhelmingly likely that, by 2050, space tourism will have been firmly established as a small but significant subsector of the NewSpace industry. Low Earth Orbit long weekends, lunar holidays, perhaps even long-term Mars-batticals – all these could become a reality, with the strengthened and mutual resolve of governments and privateers. Job creation – be it in the sector of space aviation, orbital construction, or solar-electric propulsion – all these will vastly alter our prospects for development well into the 21^st century.

Above all, surely witnessing the awe-inspiring beauty of our planet from space, even if only for the initial fortunate few, should be the lightning rod that alerts humanity as a whole to the urgent task of forging a sustainable future within our solar system – and beyond.

// Sources & further reading