Beyond trips aboard space craft of Virgin Galactic and
perhaps some of its competitors, what does the future hold for space tourism?
The next stage will be orbital trips on more sophisticated space craft than
those envisioned by Virgin Galactic. In anticipation of this, Robert Bigelow, a
Los Vegas Hotel magnate, has founded Bigelow Aerospace. Bigelow Aerospace envisions a kind of orbiting
space hotel, made up of inflatable modules, where tourists and other space
travelers can stay for extended periods.
Beyond that, will we see vacation resorts on the Moon and
perhaps other worlds? In time, most certainly. Sir Arthur C. Clarke has said
that even the most outlandish predictions after a while turn out to be
laughably conservative. So, Club Med Luna may well be in our future.