Up to now, only some 400 lucky astronauts and cosmonauts have had the privilege of voyaging past our atmosphere into the pitch black of the cosmos. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is dead set against such flights of fancy, although in 1977, it carried out a survey which found that one third of the US population wanted to visit outer space. Last year, the marketing firm Yankelovich determined that 55 million people would be willing to go on a two-week space cruise aboard a space shuttle. Patrick Collins, a researcher for the Japanese space agency, recently said that 70 percent of all Japanese and US citizens under 50 years of age would be interested in taking a trip into space. The company also organizes flights giving the sense of weightlessness for a few seconds.
Space Island has more ambitious plans.
By 2007 it hopes to build its own space station and a shuttle fleet to serve it. Robert Bigelow, president of Bigelow Aerospace, is thinking of building a hotel on the Moon for 100 top-paying customers and a staff of 50. The US Congress recently held a hearing on space tourism attended by, among others, Buzz Aldrin, the second human being to set foot on the Moon, who currently heads the ShareSpace Foundation promoting commercial space flight. Space tourism is a big market that, once it takes off, will grow astronomically. And when that happens it will reduce the cost tremendously.