A study and discussion on the cost issue of suborbital and orbital space tourism

Abstract

The major purposes of this paper are to study the current costs, or say the ticket prices, for suborbital and orbital space tourisms and to discuss the rationality. On 27 February 2017, SpaceX has announced it plans to launch two paying passengers on a tourist trip around the moon next year (2018). Two private citizens who were not named have paid significant deposit to be sent around the moon to mark the furthest humans have ever travelled to deep space. It could be believed that the cost is tens of million USDs per person. Between 2001 and 2009, 7 millionaires paid and travelled 8 times to the International Space Station by taking the Russian Soyuz spacecraft and launch vehicle systems. Recently, Blue Origin successfully tested the full-envelope escape system of its New Shepard’s crew capsule with the first crewed test flights planned for early 2018. Also, the Virgin Galactic’s second SpaceShipTwo took to the skies for the first test flight of the revamped atmospheric re-entry system, and expected commercial passenger service to be underway before the end of 2018. Through the background review, this paper concluded that the current prices announced are too high, and the ticket price for suborbital space tourism should be no more than one tenth for that of orbital, Strategies for reducing price were discussed. For the sustainable and prosperous development of space tourism, the cost must be affordable by many tourists, not simply by a few very rich persons.