The Possibility of Space Tourism in India: Issues and Concerns

Abstract

Dennis Tito opened the eyes of world to the idea of orbital space tourism when he became the first private space traveler in 2001. Three years later, the Burt Rutan and Paul Allen led team of Mojave Aerospace Ventures won Ansari X-Prize by successfully completing two piloted sub-orbital flights of a reusable vehicle to 100 kilometers in altitude within a span of two weeks. This accomplishment demonstrated to the public and government managers the potential for entrepreneurial commercial activities to change the landscape of the space industry. And now we can see renowned organization like Virgin Galactic, Space X, Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, Bigelow Aerospace and Xcor Aerospace has already not only joined the race of space tourism project but they are also making a remarkable progress. However we see Indian venture has not yet joined for space tourism project. Meanwhile it is believed that India can play a vital role in developing a very cost effective solution for space travel technologies, thus it imperative to investigate the possibility of space tourism in India. In this paper the potential and possibility of space tourism industry in India has been explored. It examines the potential market and cost structure for both suborbital and orbital space travel. Apart from this major issues with the development of the fledgling space tourism industry in India has been identified which need to be addressed in order to promote the growth of this industry. Keywords LEO: Low Earth Orbit, ISS: International Space Station, IRR: Internal Rate of Return, NPV: Net Present Value