Space Tourism Safety
Published on May 30, 2007 at 11:48 pm.
4 Comments.
Filed under conference blogging, space businesses.
Outer space is a dangerous place. Humans are not designed to live in space. When in space, you are subjected to radiation exposure far greater than you get on Earth, the lack of gravity causes bloating and loss of bone mass, and many people become disoriented. There is no air in space, so you need to take air with you. But, that means that you also are in danger from leaks in your spacecraft, leaks caused by impacts, etc. And, if something goes wrong with your air handling system, you can suffocate. Then, there are dangers involved in even getting to space. Space is a long way up, so you need high accelerations to get there in any reasonable time, and the human body is not designed for such forces. And, the only way to get into space with current technology is through rockets. However, rockets are not safe. They tend to blow up, or to quit working, or not even light. Rocket failure can kill you. And, if the rocket doesn’t perform properly, it might not put you where you want to go, and that can be hazardous. Oh, and then there is coming back from space. That is also a problem. Again, there are strong forces on your body resulting from the interaction of Earth’s atmosphere on the spacecraft. If the spacecraft is in orbit, then it is moving so fast that atmospheric heating upon reentry can be enough to damage or destroy the spacecraft unless some heat shield is used, and nothing goes wrong. Even if you don’t burn up upon reentry, atmospheric forces at such speeds want to tear your craft apart. We have lost two Space Shuttles, the Challenger being destroyed on launch, and the Columbia destroyed upon reentry. The Challenger was torn apart by atmospheric forces when it was shocked by the explosion of its external fuel tank after hot gasses leaked from one of its external fuel tanks. The Columbia was lost when atmospheric forces ripped it apart after structural failure due to burn through resulting from damage to its heat protecting tiles. The Soviet Union also lost cosmonauts in space reentry and landing failures.
But, despite the risks, plenty of people would love to fly into space. A number of commercial companies are counting on that. They are already selling tickets. Spacecraft are already under construction. And, this leads to some questions about safety for space tourists. That was the theme of several of the talks during this past weekend’s conference.
Some of the companies involved in space tourism are really concerned about safety of their passengers. Some seem less concerned about passenger safety and more concerned about making money. But, the top companies seem to have passenger safety at the forefront of their thoughts. After all, if you are only sending a few people per year into space, you don’t want anything bad to happen to them. The tickets are expensive, so it will primarily be executives and wealthy people going into space at first, and these people would not risk going if a company had a reputation for their passengers being injured or even dying.
There are several things to think about in terms of passenger safety. One is simply safetly of the vehicle. The spacecraft must remain intact. If it springs a leak, then there must be some procedure to deal with such an eventuality. I was impressed early in the conference with Virgin Galactic’s safety considerations. They pointed out that their way of launching, being dropped from a mother ship and then flying into space, is inherently safer than launching directly from the ground, since a rocket failure at altitude would simply mean an aborted mission and gliding back to a landing; whereas, a rocket failure at or shortly after launch from the ground could result in loss of the spacecraft and its occupants. Suborbital flights also are easier on the craft during reentry. They are also thinking of ways to minimize the effects of acceleration forces on the passengers. They are even considering having a flight attendant on board to assist passengers during weightlessness and during any emergency situation.
But, there are plenty of other health issues. The acceleration into space and upon returning is rough on the human body. Such forces can exacerbate any pre-existing health problems. Also, weightlessness seems to change the way that some drugs work in the body. That becomes less of an issue with suborbital flights, of course. But, still such flights will put a strain on the body. The problem is that commercial space interests want to fly as many people as possible if they can pay for a ticket. Up until now, astronauts were selected from a large pool of applicants by carefully going through the applicant pool and excluding applicants for all sorts of reasons until a select few remain. Commercial space companies want to include as many people as possible so that there is a larger pool of potential customers. That means letting people fly who would not qualify under NASA guidelines. And, nobody knows just what is really a safe medical condition to fly with, since most anyone with any serious problem has been excluded until now. And, that is something that people are now looking into. On top of that, you also have to deal with passengers who panic. After all, hightly qualified and experienced test pilots are not so likely to freak out on a space mission, but that may not be the same for someone from the general public who has only received a minimal amount of training. And, panicked passengers become a danger to themselves and others on board the spacecraft.
So, there is a lot to think about. And, I am glad to see that some people are taking this seriously. Losing a passenger on a spaceflight would have a major negative impact on the entire industry. So, commercial space companies, in their own interest, need to make sure that both they and others take safety seriously.
-Astroprof
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Astrolink [Global Edition] » Astrosphere for May 31, 2007 | Latest astronomy news in 11 languages on May 31, 2007 at 3:11 pm: 1
[…] Astroprof has an analysis of space tourism safety. […]
Tourism Guide on June 16, 2008 at 2:07 pm: 2
Well, I think that the human of the futur will be adopted to leave in space. This is like evolution. The only we need is some time to adopt.
steven on August 16, 2009 at 8:12 pm: 3
yer its an ok site but there is no way we will live there its just wasting our time and stuff think about it …wat will of happond if we never on invaded space u know wat i mean???
mehdi on September 9, 2009 at 4:36 pm: 4
its going to happen sooner or later