Trip to space? Get your ticket now

BANGALORE: Planning a holiday? Howabout vacationing in space? Make your reservations now. The ticketis going for $20 million for a 10-day trip.This is no longer agiggle area, to quote the Commission on the future of USAerospace.More so after US millionaire Gregory Olsen signed a$20-million contract with the Russian Space Agency for a 10-day trip to theInternational Space Station (ISS). In fact, it is now almost common,with American Dennis Tito having done it in 2001 and South African MarkShuttleworth in 2002.Intrigued by this trend, Futron Corporation,US-based consultant firm specialising in space-related forecasts, undertook astudy on demand for space travel and came up with some startlingresults.Accordingly, space tourism is estimated to become a $1billion market worldwide by 2021, with 15,000 potential tourists for sub-orbital(short vertical flights to a height of over 100 km) flights generating $700million annually and 60 potential tourists for orbital (longer trips around theEarth) flights generating $300 million.It also suggests building morelocations like ISS to enable space tourism-related activity, as well asspacecraft for sub-orbital flights which are relatively easier, since orbitalflights require 31 times the energy of sub-orbital flights. Wheredoes India figure in this? Quite prominently. However, a piece ofthe billion-dollar pie is to be had not in scouting for space tourists but inbuilding the craft for such flights.The biggest champion isPresident Abdul Kalam, who has been inspiring the space community to build whathe calls ���space planes��� or hypersonic reusable vehicles which willoffer cost-effective transportation ��� a feat possible with India���svast talent pool and infrastructure.Agrees space scientist andformer ISRO chairman UR Rao: "We���ve the capacity; if we can developspacecraft with a turnaround time of about a fortnight, it will boost missions.After all, today���s science fiction is tomorrow���s scienceand day after tomorrow���s technology."