Space the final tourism frontier
The National
Humanity must explore space not only to capitalise on huge economic opportunities, said Eric Anderson, the chief executive of Space Adventures. Our innate desire to explore means we should do it anyway.
“Decades from now, we will need to bring the resources of the solar system into our economic sphere of influence,” he told delegates to the Global Space Technology Forum being held in Abu Dhabi this week. “We need to colonise other planets.”
And Earth’s history, marked by catastrophic events that have reshaped the path of life itself, makes space exploration an even more pressing necessity. “These events will happen again,” Mr Anderson said, “and it is a prime reason why we as humans need to become a multi-planet species. To ensure our long-term survival, humans need to have more than one home.”
Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson and space tourist spaceflight participant astronaut millionaut Anousheh Ansari will be among those promoting civilian spaceflight during the Global Space Technology Forum in Abu Dhabi from November 16-18.
Zawya.com quotes Anderson as being bullish on space tourism. “The momentum is building for space tourism, we’ve turned a corner and proven that a market exists for space tourism. Space was previously controlled by a small number of governments, and it’s now opening up to the private sector. There’s been a paradigm shift and we’re moving into an era of personal space flight.”
Continue reading ‘Anderson, Ansari to Promote Space Tourism in Abu Dhabi’
Todayonline.com reports that Virgin Galactic may be looking at Singapore as a possible base for its suborbital tourism business within the next five years.
This move could pose a challenge for Space Adventures, which announced plans to build a spaceport in Singapore back two years ago. However, the Virginia-based company has only raised about half the funding for the facility, according to CEO Eric Anderson. He said the company hopes to raise the remainder of the funding by year’s end.
