A DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY FOR SPACE TOURISM
- Paper ID
IAF-95-IAA-1.2.10
- author
- company
Bristo SpacePlanes Limited
- country
United Kingdom
- year
1995
- abstract
This paper presents a top level business plan for the development of a space tourism industry. Market surveys indicate that well over one million people per year would pay $10,000 for a brief visit to a space station equipped for leisure, entertainment and education, and that such tourism is likely to become the largest commercial use of space. Analysis presented in the paper indicates that costs that low (one thousand times lower than present costs) can be achieved by mature spaceplanes operating like airliners, and that from a technical point of view these could be in service within about fifteen years. The question is then how to find the development funding for a mature spaceplane. The paper presents an outline business plan showing how the development cost for the prototype of a suitable spaceplane and revenues from its operations can be phased to give an acceptable commercial return on investment, provided that government agencies guarantee markets for launches which they would require anyway. Low cost operations are achieved by maturity resulting from in-service experience and continuous product improvement, rather than by quantum leaps in technology.