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| PPP model mooted for cheaper space travel |
| Praveen Bose / Chennai/ Bangalore Dec 02, 2008, 00:27 IST |
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Space exploration, which is mostly research and development, needs a very small number of vehicles. As a result, when it comes in space exploration, the cost per head is very high. Hence, you have space tourists now shelling out some $200,000 for travelling into space. On the other hand, more vehicles would be required for space tourism and hence, costs would be driven down.
For sustainable space exploration, there should be minimum of tax funding and maximum of private funding. Hence, scientists and those keen on space exploration and those mooting space tourism are mooting public-private partnership model to make space travel and space exploration more inclusive.
In future, with experts speaking of some five launches every day, the cost of travel could be down to just around $10,000 per head for one trip to space and back.
Outer space should not be a monopoly of the state, to ensure we are able to bring down the cost of space travel, said Susmita Mohanty, managing partner, Earth2Orbit (E2O), which operates in this supply-demand environment by allocating launch demand to launch supply. E2O is in nascent stage of working on a space tourism programme. Through its partnership with Antrix, the marketing arm of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), E2O offers access to frequent orbital launches.
With the need to innovate gaining in importance to cut costs, innovative technologies are being explored for space travel. The spacecrafts are over-engineered and under-designed, for better psychological, physiological and sociological health it becomes necessary to innovate and design the crafts to make them more suitable for space tourists.
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