Anicet Mbida 7:02 am, November 04, 2021
Every morning, Anicet Mbida gives us the very best in terms of innovation.
The innovation of the day is good news for those who dream of traveling in space like Thomas Pesquet. "Low cost" companies want to make space tourism a little more affordable.
You have to be a billionaire to play the tourist in space: 22 million euros for SpaceX, 28 million for Blue Origin.
There's a lot of talk about the free passengers, the cancer survivor girl, or the actor who played Captain Kirk in Star Strek.
But we forget the billionaires who accompany them and who have paid for their tickets.
A new company wants to cut prices with space trips billed at 43,000 €.
It remains expensive, the price of a high-end car.
But nothing to do with the millions requested by SpaceX or Blue Origin.
But if it's low cost, there must be a difference?
The first is that we will never be weightless.
At this price, we do not travel in a rocket, but in a kind of giant balloon with a cabin of ten seats.
It rises to the stratosphere.
This makes it possible to see the curvature of the earth, the deep darkness of space, the blue border of the atmosphere… so to bring back photos almost as impressive as those of Thomas Pesquet.
But we will never go high enough to find ourselves in zero gravity.
It is the concession of low cost.
These first space flights will be offered by the company World View from 2024. It will not be the only one.
Space Perspective should also position itself with slightly more expensive trips, but still without the experience of weightlessness.
Could space, like the airplane, end up becoming affordable?
This is what many are hoping for.
But it remains difficult to imagine.
This would require creating "charter rockets" capable of carrying 200 people into orbit.
However, 200 people is far too heavy for current technology.
We will therefore have to be content with balloons and forget about weightlessness.