We are closer to space tourism than we think, with several companies in the race to build the next spacecraft to put the paying public in space. Orbiting the earth, buying land on the moon and living on Mars is hardly a distant dream, finds Kasmin Fernandes

British billionaire Sir Richard Branson's new private suborbital spaceship built for Virgin Galactic has made its first flight with crew on board over California's Mojave Desert on July 15. The spaceship -- VSS Enterprise -- is a commercial spaceliner designed to provide flights into space to the paying public. The company envisions launching paying passengers like you on suborbital thrill rides for about $200,000 (Rs 93,94,571 approx.) per seat.

"The VSS Enterprise test flight programme will continue through 2010 and 2011, progressing from captive carry to independent glide and then powered flight, prior to the start of commercial operations," a Virgin Galactic spokesperson said in an email interview to Sunday Mid Day.u00a0

Already, over 360 individuals have paid in total more than $48 million to reserve places on the first few flights. "From the enormous acceleration to the freedom of zero gravity and the astounding views of the Earth, it really will be a trip of sensory overload from start to finish," promises Stephen Attenborough, Commercial director, Virgin Galactic.

Space travel in style
While future passengers can look forward to cushioned reclining seats and lots of windows, they need not worry about looking frumpy either. Private spacesuit designers are already pitching spacesuit designs, hoping that space tourism companies like Virgin Galactic will get interested. Just last week, two designers unveiled their first steps toward serious attire for future space travellers in front of a young, hip crowd of artists and tech geeks in Manhattan.

A spacesuit model arched his back experimentally, flashed the thumbs up and struck poses that drew chuckles from the crowd gathered inside the Eyebeam Art and Technology Centre. He showed off a bright yellow pressure suit topped by the dome of a roomy space helmet, with a blue glove on his right hand and a black glove on the left.

And the suit's flexibility is not its only plus point. It also tolerates extreme pressure.

The blue glove was designed by Moscow-based spacesuit engineer Nikolay Moiseev. The black glove represented a single-layer design made from urethane by Brooklyn-based inventor and artist Ted Southern, which reduced the torque required to move the fingers to practically nothing. "Our whole angle is super-easy manufacture and very affordable," Southern explained in an email.

Travel in a capsule
Meanwhile, aerospace heavyweight Boeing is advancing plans for its new capsule-based spaceship, designed to ferry people to and from the International Space Station and future private space stations. Boeing's capsule design is one of several efforts by different US companies to develop the first private spaceship capable of flying humans to space.u00a0

The push fits in with President Barack Obama's new plan for NASA, which calls for commercial spacecrafts to take over the role vacated by the space shuttles of transporting astronauts to the space station.u00a0

New artist's renderings of Boeing's CST-100 capsule were unveiled on July 19 at the Farnborough International Airshow in Farnborough, England. The '100' in the name stands for 100 km -- the distance from the ground to low-Earth orbit that it will travel.u00a0

Smaller space co's
While giants like Lockheed Martin and Boeing duke it out, some smaller -- but equally ambitious -- companies have joined SpaceX in the race to build the next spacecraft to put humans in space.

Blue Origin has remained extremely secretive about its plans, but has tested a prototype of its New Shepard spacecraft in Texas. New Shepard is expected to be a vertical launch and landing vehicle capable of reaching an altitude of about 120 km.

California-based SpaceDev is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sierra Nevada Corp. and has been developing the reusable Dream Chaser space plane to launch crew and cargo into space at an Atlas 5 rocket. In February, Sierra Nevada won $20 million in NASA funds to continue the Dream Chaser's development. The spacecraft's design is based on the HL-20 lifting body tested by NASA and aims to launch on a rocket and land on a conventional runway, for quick turnaround and reuse.

Mars on earth
Newly-appointed chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Dr K Radhakrishnan recently announced in an online interview that the space agency is exploring new strategies and technologies for human space flight programmes, low-cost access to space tourism and the colonisation of Mars and the Moon.

Figuring out how to make life more livable for space exploration is a passion for Mumbai-based aerospace engineer Susmita Mohanty. As an experiment in habitat design, she even lived for two weeks in a 'Mars habitat' in the deserts of Utah. "If I'm going to Mars, to live out there for 500 days and take six months going back and forth, as a crew member, I would want to change something."

She feels that living standards onboard our current space habitats are unacceptable. One of her main themes is to make spaceships and robotic habitats more intelligent. After setting up her second company, LIQUIFER, in 2003, which works on advanced concepts for space transportation and habitation, she moved from San Francisco to India in 2008 "because moon mania is catching on in India", and opened Earth2Orbit, the country's first space company.

Trains on the moon
If you want to get to the moon, however, Deepak Kapadia is your best bet. The once Mumbai-based photographer is now vice president and director, LEDA (Lunar Economic Development Authority) and USS (United Societies in Space), Colorado, USA. LEDA's target is to get 1,000 people to a lunar settlement. Micro-biologists, geologists, doctors, teachers, industrialists and astronomers -- anyone who can ensure that mankind benefits from this trip. This time, it is about profit. They have to be able to get there, live and work there, and return safely.

According to Kapadia, the initial step towards habitation on the moon is to research the construction of houses and materials required, the technology and science behind it.

"To do this, an exhaustive study is already in progress on the methods that need to be employed for mining on the moon. For this purpose, a railway network is being planned that will be remote-controlled from here on earth," he said.

Kapadia recently made a presentation on the Heinlein model for lunar habitats at the conference held by International Astronautical Federation. The paper was co-authored by USS president Declan Donnel, and the second man on the moon Buzz Aldrin, president of Starcraft Enterprise, Laguna Beach, California.u00a0

A report that took LEDA 10 years to complete, recommends using the moon to orchestrate human
development on Mars. "The report suggests conducting a project on the moon for the construction, launch, and maintenance of a large Mars cycler orbiter city ship," said Kapadia. It would house space governance headquarters as managed by ISDAC (International Space Development Authority Corporation), a space
governance trust comprising all countries for the benefit of humanity on earth and in space.

"Such a public purpose project would permeate all activity on the moon. It would also influence how municipal services are provided for resident workers, engineers, life support technicians, consultants, and visitors."

Kapadia's plans don't end here. "When the Mars cycler orbiter is built and launched successfully, LEDA recommends that a political convention be held on the Moon, in order to establish an independent regime for space governance," he says.

The moon can be yours
Several websites on the Internet, like LunarLandOwner.com and LunarRegistry.com allow you to buy land on the moon. Property ownership is permanently registered by the International Lunar Lands Registry in its annual publication, which is copyrighted and deposited in the United States Library of Congress.

Looking for the most sought-after lunar address? That would be Sea of Tranquility according to online lunar real estate agency Lunar Registry. A 4,047 sq m plot of land (1 acre) costs US $37.50. An "ownership package" includes a beautifully engraved parchment deed, a satellite photograph of the property and an information sheet detailing the geography of one's region.

You are allowed to buy up to 161, 874.2 sq m (40 acres) per transaction. Proceeds from the purchase of the plots on the moon, go toward the Lunar Republic Society's programme for privatised human-based exploration, settlement and development of the moon. How about a spot on the dark side of the moon?

You can fly to space as easily as you fly to the US
On: VSS Enterprise
For: Rs 93,94,571
Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson with VSS Enterprise designer Burt Rutan. The VSS Enterprise is the flight into space that you can take, of course, at a price.u00a0

What a moon habitat, powered by solar energy, will look like
Mirrors: A dozen mirrors, each 100 ft wide, sit on top of the crater's rim, an area that's nearly constantly bathed in sunlight. These direct light on to another set of mirrors that focus the beam on a water supply, creating steam that drives a turbine and generates electricity for the base.

Algae tanks: Human urine runs first through an ion-exchange filter that removes some contaminants, and flows through the algae tanks, where the algae drink it and release water vapour that a condenser later liquifies. This water either runs back to the crew quarters for washing or is further purified to make it potable.

Luna Gaia: A group of scientists designed a self-sustaining habitat inside a moon crater, which harvests solar energy and reuses all of its waste, while attending the summer-long Space Studies Programme at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France. Now, with interest in the moon accelerating, Luna Gaia is proving to be more than just an academic exercise. In the past year, the team has presented the plan to several space programmes, including NASA, which may incorporate ideas from Luna Gaia into its own lunar outpost, planned for sometime after 2020. Graphic/Jishu dev Malakar

Fish tanks: Several different strains of bacteria break down human faeces into water, minerals and ammonium. These are converted into nutrient-rich fertiliser and pumped into the plant and fish chambers.

Greenhouse: The greenhouses will be transparent, but living quarters covered with a layer of regolith (lunar soil) to provide added protection from radiation.

Astronauts and slumdwellers are alike
The challenges that "hyper-dense" cities like Mumbai and Tokyo face, have inspired Susmita Mohanty, co-founder of India's first private space startup Earth2Orbit, to transform our city into a spaceship. Mohanty believes that the problems people face here, especially in the slums, like building a home for four in a 25 sq m plot, aren't that different from the ones she faces in designing, for instance, a mid-deck of a crew transporter.
"Astronauts live in cramped messy spaces, and have to deal with the same issues -- privacy, odour and noise -- that people in Mumbai living in chawls and nano-houses do," she said in an online interview.

As an experiment in habitat design, Mumbai-based aerospace engineer Susmita Mohanty lived for two weeks in a 'Mars habitat' in the deserts of Utah. "If I'm going to Mars, to live out there for 500 days and take six months going back and forth, as a crew member, I would want to change something."

The handbook
How to become a spaceman (or woman) even if you are not an astronaut

Train like an astronaut
Get trained like a professional astronaut at the National Aerospace Training and Research (NASTAR) Centre outside Philadelphia in the US. Space.com lists Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson among NASTAR's professional clients. For $5,800 (approx. Rs 2,72,385), you can go through a rigorous two-day space training programme aimed at preparing future space tourists for flights on Branson's firm's SpaceShipTwo suborbital spacecraft. https://www.nastarcenter.com/

See our planet from orbit
Book seats on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft and fly alongside professional astronauts to the International Space Station. These orbital tourist trips are brokered with the Russian Federal Space Agency through Space Adventures (https://www.spaceadventures.com/) in Virginia. Recent flights have gone for about $35 million.

Visit American space centres
The final two space shuttle launches, set for November 1, 2010 and February 26, 2011, can be viewed from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, which is home to a visitor's centre that offers regular tours of the spaceport and programmes on US spaceflight history.

Unmanned rocket launches can be seen blasting off from the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force station and from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, and occasional launches also lift off from Wallops Island in Virginia.

Experience weightless flight
The Zero Gravity Corporation (brokered through Space Adventures) offers weightless experiences aboard an airplane flying parabolic curves, though these flights typically go for about $4,950 (approx. Rs 232,674) a person. The service commercialises a type of flight used by NASA on its famed "vomit comet" aircraft to train astronauts for flying in space.

Take a suborbital joyride
These trips would fly above 62 miles (100 km) in altitude where space begins but would stop shy of entering Earth's orbit. Passengers will experience up to five minutes of continuous weightlessness and get the chance to gaze out at 360-degree views of space and the Earth's horizon below.

Competing with Virgin Galactic is Mesquite, Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace. Prices start at $102,000 for a ride on the in-development suborbital rocket ships, which can also be booked through Space Adventures.

Go to the moon and back
For $100 million, avid space tourists can book a seat aboard a dedicated Soyuz flight that would take them to orbit around the moon, offering up-close views of the lunar surface.

Space contest

You can win $20million
The Google Lunar X PRIZE (https://www.googlelunarxprize.org/) is a $30 million international competition to safely land a robot on the surface of the Moon, travel 500 metres over the lunar surface, and send images and data back to the Earth. Teams must be at least 90 per cent privately funded and must be registered to compete by December 31, 2010. The first team to land on the Moon and complete the mission objectives will be awarded $20 million; the full first prize is available until December 31, 2012. After that date, the first prize will drop to $15 million. The second team to do so will be awarded $5 million. Another $5 million will awarded in bonus prizes. The final deadline for winning the prize is December 31, 2014.

Aussie fan buys SRK a piece of the moon
A crazy Australian fan "buys" actor Shah Rukh Khan a piece of the moon every year on his birthday. The Lunar Republic Society sends the actor a certificate every year as proof. The Bollywood star, who celebrates his birthday on November 2, has reportedly met his female fan and is in touch with her through email.u00a0

Trend forecast

1. Inflatable space habitats
After launching two prototype space stations into orbit, space entrepreneur and pioneer Robert Bigelow is now setting his sights a bit higher. His latest vision: A quick-deploy moon base capable of housing up to 18 astronauts in inflatable modules on the lunar surface.

2. Spacecraft fuelled by the sun's energy
"With rockets and other spacecraft consuming tonnes of fuel, the prospect of using solar sails, which employ only the pressure of sunlight as propulsion, is becoming key," said City Tech physics department chair Roman Kezerashvili, head of the recent global science symposium's committee in Brooklyn.