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Published:17 July 2003
Author:
Origin:Invited speech to the AIAA/ICAS Symposium 'The Next 100 Years' in honour of the Wright Brothers' first flight
Abstract:During its first century, aviation has grown from the Wright brothers' tiny "Flyer" to become a globe-spanning activity which has changed the world we live in. However, after more than 40 years, space travel remains very different from aviation: whereas air travel is a huge, privately operated activity as it started, thanks to the Wright brothers space travel remains a government monopoly activity as it started, in the USSR back in 1961. The paper reviews the research to date concerning the feasi-bility of commercial passenger space travel services. Based on market research showing enormous potential demand, engineers have prepared conceptual designs of passenger vehicles, and have reached consensus that a passenger vehicle capable of regular flights to and from low Earth orbit could be developed for less than the amount that G7 governments' space agencies spend every year. With such a development, tourism could grow to become the largest activity in space, leading to a genuine "aerospace" industry and a renaissance of space activities. However, this requires civilian space activities to change to follow the economically successful model of aviation centred on com-mercially operated passenger travel services.
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Keywords:Tourism
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