Space tourism is close to being reality. Tickets to go into outer-space are reportedly going on sale soon, but there are a few problems that need to be resolved first. The first issue is the fact that there is no destination for tourists to travel to. NASA’s lunar base is far from production, and traveling past the moon would require warp drive, which is far from a reality. This barrier would mean that any tourism in the near future would consist of an orbital trip of Earth. One would think this is an easy solution, yet there is still a problem that arises: radiation from the Sun can cause health concerns to any potential space tourists. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has purchased a high-performance micro-modular data center from Elliptical Mobile Solutions (EMS) and Nor-Tech, in hopes that this will be a solution. This miniature data center will be able to detect how much radiation a potential customer would absorb during a journey outside the Earth’s protective ozone layer. Ideally, this technology will help the FAA decide how much protection is required for tourists, and to make space tourism that much closer to becoming a reality.
The idea of space travel is exciting to many potential travelers. If the issue of radiation exposure is resolved, then the market for space tourism is close to being a reality. With a price tag of $1 million per ticket, there won’t be many initial customers, but this is an important step in making the market really open up. The data center developed by EMS is also an important advancement, as this technology can be implemented in other industries where radiation poses a risk to human health.
