When will space tourism be affordable? You might not know the answer to this question, but Elon Musk might, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla. He wants to make space accessible for everyone and has a plan to do it. It’s called “SpaceX BFR.”
The idea of traveling into outer space is now within the realm of possibility for most people. And with more than 200,000 people already paying $250,000 for a ticket on Virgin Galactic Space Ship 2 in 2018 alone, we can tell that there is a growing demand for this type of tourism. But how long until we see a significant change in price? Will it be 10 years? 20 years? Or will it never happen because we are solely dependent on government funding for space exploration? Even Elon Musk himself says that he can’t predict when space tourism will be affordable.
Space Tourism is Still a Luxury
One of the frustrating things about space tourism is that it’s still a luxury.
When we think about affordability, we typically think about being able to buy something without having to save for months or years to make it happen. But with space tourism, this isn’t the case. If you’re looking at high-level seats on Virgin Galactic Space Ship 2 that cost $250,000, you are still paying a hefty price tag for a one-way ticket into outer space. No matter how much Elon Musk wants to make space accessible for everyone, it won’t be cheap anytime soon.
So when will space tourism be affordable? It’s hard to say. We know that there is growing demand and an increasing number of people who want to take their dream vacation in outer space. It might take 10 years or 20 years, but eventually, we’ll see more opportunities at lower prices than what we see now.
Only billionaires can now provide commercial space travel. Spaceflight tickets often cost six digits. It won’t be possible to purchase a single space ticket with 4 numbers any time soon. It may not be feasible to state a precise timeframe for the availability of inexpensive air travel for space travel. But most analysts concur that it will be at least another ten years before space travel is both inexpensive and widely available.
Elon Musk intends to Make Space Travel Affordable
SpaceX is one of the most valuable private companies in the world and their CEO, Elon Musk, is intended to make space travel in an affordable price. His plan is called SpaceX BFR.
SpaceX BFR is a rocket and spacecraft system capable of carrying up to 100 people between Earth Mars.
To provide affordable price and make space tourism more feasible, Musk has his sights set on building a reusable rocket for SpaceX BFR. This would drastically cut down on the price of a single launch into orbit. But despite this, it’s hard to predict when space tourism will be affordable because we are solely dependent on government funding for space exploration.
{mp4}When will space tourism be affordable{/mp4}
Why Space Tourism Is Still Too Expensive?
Space tourism has yet to become widely available for the average person. For example, Virgin Galactic is one of the only companies to offer space tourism flights to the public, and a ticket costs $250,000. Furthermore, space tourism is not as accessible as other types of tourist activities because it is so expensive.
The high cost of space travel is not just a matter of ticket price; it’s also the price that goes into training and preparation for the trip that prevents many people from even considering it.
SpaceX BFR will be able to carry around 100 people at a time and should cost around $300 per ticket. Hopefully, this will make traveling into outer space more affordable for everyone in the future.
What is the role of SpaceX BFR?
SpaceX BFR is going to be a big part of making space tourism available with an affordable price for more people. For starters, it will reduce the cost by 44% and make getting into outer space more accessible for everyone.
SpaceX also plans to sell flights to orbit Earth and take customers all the way to the moon. In fact, SpaceX wants “to create a sustainable civilization on Mars.”
These are exciting prospects that could happen in the near future with SpaceX BFR! But if you’re interested in space activities that are available now, you can already buy tickets for Virgin Galactic Space Ship 2 for $200,000 and fly at 60 miles above Earth’s surface.
When can we get a significant change in price?
It is difficult to predict when will space tourism be affordable. The cost of space tourism has been steadily declining as the desire for it has increased. It is possible that we’ll see a significant change in price in the next 10-20 years. But it’s also possible that we’ll never see a significant change in price. Governments have been funding our space exploration for the last 50 years and they may not want to relinquish those funds.
What’s the cost of a space tour??
In order to answer that question, we need to look at the history of space exploration and what the current price points are for those journeys.
Yuri Gagarin, a Russian astronaut was the first man to go for space travel. He traveled into space aboard Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. That trip cost about $2 billion in today’s dollars. Adjusted for inflation, that would be about $14 billion today.
In 1968, NASA launched Apollo 8 with a budget of $6 billion adjusted for inflation ($41 billion today). And in 1971 NASA launched Apollo 18 with a budget of $3 billion adjusted for inflation ($26 billion today).
So, how much does it cost to send someone into outer space? The answer is hard to pinpoint with different factors impacting the cost. But based on these two examples, we can see that it costs somewhere between $100-$200 million per person.
Profits will result from the industry’s growth in space tourism. Additionally, it generates employment prospects because the design of spaceflight requires a large number of engineers and other trained specialists. Regular people’s unattainable goal of travelling to space will gradually come true as they become more accessible and inexpensive in the near future.
