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13 Things Tourists Should Know Before Traveling to Space, According to Astronauts

We asked the pros for their best tips on handling a first trip to space.

For most of human spaceflight history, those lucky enough to reach the stars were professional astronauts hired and trained by government agencies around the world. But since the early 2000s, when seven intrepid travelers paid millions to spend a few days aboard the International Space Station (ISS), space tourism has begun to take off. We're now on the cusp of a new era of space exploration, with commercial companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin launching spacecraft capable of taking paying travelers beyond the Earth's surface.

We spoke with former NASA astronauts Leroy Chiao and Scott Parazynski to get their tips for first-time spaceflight participants. During his 15 years with NASA, Chiao participated in four missions — three aboard the space shuttle and one to the ISS, in which he served as commander. Parazynski worked at NASA for 17 years, flying five shuttle missions throughout his career. Read on to discover what they think aspiring space tourists need to know.

Your only job on the flight will be to kick back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

If you're taking a suborbital flight, which is what companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin have offered, your ride will be a quick up-and-down to reach space, rather than a full orbit of the Earth. The short journey is relatively easy compared to what professional astronauts experience. For starters, you won't need to worry about flying your spacecraft. That's all up to the spaceflight provider. "You won't have any responsibility other than to enjoy the experience — and not kick anyone else in the head," says Parazynski. "Their obligations on the flight are pretty straightforward."

As such, the training programs for suborbital space tourist experiences are relatively minimal, perhaps only a few days in length at most. "The downside of not having a lot of training is that you don't have the confidence that comes from lots of training," says Parazynski. "Contrast that with the training I had on the space shuttle, where we trained for hundreds and hundreds of hours for launching in space. If something were to go awry, we would know exactly what to do and our hearts wouldn't skip a beat."

So, other than learning to place your complete trust in your spaceflight provider, Parazynski recommends talking to people who have flown before in order to ease any nervousness. Chiao agrees: "The best advice I can give on launch — and it's easy to say, harder to do — is to try to relax and enjoy the whole process," he says. "Pay attention during your training, talk to other people who've been there if you can. And actually, you might be surprised — it's quite calm!"

Make sure you’re physically and mentally fit.

"I think people should treat this as their Olympics or Super Bowl. This is a really big life experience, and though you don't need to be an Olympic athlete or a Super Bowl champion to fly in space, it helps to be fit," says Parazynski. After all, your body will be experiencing quite a range of new sensations during your spaceflight."

But it's not just about physical fitness — mental fitness is key, too. "I think through fitness comes mental acuity as well," says Parazynski. "The more you can be engaged in the experience, the more you'll remember of it — it'll be more impactful to you."

The G-forces experienced on launch and reentry are not as intense as you might expect.

If you've ever watched a livestream of an astronaut launch, caught any Hollywood flick about space travel, or ridden Mission: Space at Walt Disney World's Epcot theme park, you know that during launch, astronauts get crushed back into their seats. (And, actually, during reentry, too!) They're experiencing strong G-forces, or a sensation of weight felt during acceleration. It's the same feeling you get when you speed up quickly in a car or zoom through a loop or a sharp curve on a roller coaster, but during a rocket launch, those forces are stronger and more sustained. While the experience might seem a little terrifying, the pros say it's quite manageable.

"The G-forces aren't nearly as bad as they show in the movies," says Chiao. "If you're good enough to be given medical approval to go on a trip like this, you're not going to have any problems handling the G-forces." He also notes that you'll likely go through centrifugal runs during your training to prep for the sensation — you'll be strapped into a spinning machine that lets you experience strong G-forces, just like that spinning amusement park ride where you're pressed against the wall and the floor drops.

But to make launch and reentry as comfortable on your body as possible, you'll want to physically relax your muscles so you don't fight against the G-forces. "If you relax and let your body sink into the launch couch, you're going to tolerate it much better," says Chiao. "If you're rigid, that's where you might hurt yourself. And make sure your limbs and arms are inside of the couch."

To prep for weightlessness, you should book a zero-gravity flight.

While it takes quite a bit of effort (and time and money) to get into space to experience weightlessness, you can actually experience the sensation right here on Earth — or rather, just slightly above it. All you need to do is book a zero-gravity flight , where a plane flies in a series of parabolas (or arch-like shapes) during which passengers experience simulated weightlessness through free fall.

It's physically the same as skydiving or even riding a roller coaster, but in those two instances, your senses tell you you're actually falling. "When you're in a zero-G airplane, the airplane is falling at the same rate you are, so you're floating inside the airplane," says Chiao. "That's what it's like in a spacecraft when you get up into space and the engines cut off."

Through commercial companies like the Zero Gravity Corporation , anyone who can spare the cost of a ticket can experience weightlessness — and anyone who's planning on making a trip to space should definitely give it a go. "If they have the means, they should get on a zero-G flight before they go on a suborbital flight," says Parazynski. "It would take some of the mystery out of 'what am I going to feel like?' and 'how do I move?'"

Learning how to scuba dive is good weightlessness training, too.

While being underwater isn't exactly like floating in space, it's a pretty good way to practice moving around in a weightless environment. In fact, NASA even has a life-sized replica of the ISS set inside a giant pool, so astronauts can train for spacewalks underwater.

"Moving in weightlessness comes to you very quickly when you spend some time underwater," says Parazynski. "Get neutrally buoyant underwater and very gently try and move yourself along the ocean floor or bottom of your pool. It doesn't take a lot of force, but it does take a lot of thought."

Come up with a game plan for your few minutes in space.

On suborbital flights, you're only going to have a few minutes in weightlessness, so you should plan exactly how you want to spend your time up there. Figure out if you'd like to bring a memento like a family photo or college pennant for a fun picture. (U.S. Naval Academy graduates and former astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford famously put a "Beat Army" sign in the window of their Gemini VI spacecraft, so there's a long tradition of this.) Decide in advance if you want to attempt what spaceflight veterans call "stupid astronaut tricks," like flips or spins. But most importantly, budget time to look out the window.

"The most important thing I would tell future astronauts is to savor the view out the window," says Parazynski. "It's, for lack of a better term, a God's-eye view, and so few people have ever had a chance to see it. It's really a beautiful thing to be hovering in space and looking down at your planet."

Don’t worry about taking your own photos.

"As far as taking photographs, I don't know that I would recommend it," says Chiao. "You're not going to be very good at it, first of all, because it takes a little bit of practice to get used to zero-G. Don't waste that time taking photos. Get your memories, look out those windows, and enjoy the whole experience of being weightless." Plus, given the price tag of these spaceflights, we're pretty sure that your operator will provide you with photos and videos of your journey anyway.

When you get into zero gravity, you might feel a little dizzy.

The body functions a bit differently when you remove gravity from the equation for a sustained period of time, and side effects may include dizziness and nausea. "You're going to feel full-headed because there's no longer gravity pulling fluid down into your legs," says Chiao. "And so all that fluid comes up into your torso, and you can feel it right away. It feels kind of like you're standing on your head."

But the good news is, on suborbital flights you might be able to avoid the worst of it. "The adrenaline and excitement are going to make you do OK at first, and by the time you might start feeling bad, it's time to strap back in and come back down," says Chiao.

If you’re spending a few days in space, be prepared for some bumps and bruises.

On a suborbital flight, you won't have a ton of time in space, so you won't really have to worry about acclimating to zero gravity. However, some private spaceflight companies are looking to send their clients up into orbit for longer stays and there are even talks of a space hotel within Voyager Station . If you're going to spend a few days or even a few weeks up in space, you're probably going to bump your head more than once, no matter how much you've trained for the experience.

"It's really funny watching rookie astronauts the first day or two up on a mission," says Parazynski. "We called them the bull in a china shop. They push off with full force and they crack their skull or bang their knee."

You’re also going to make a mess.

Doing routine tasks like brushing your teeth (you can't just spit your toothpaste into a sink), clipping your fingernails (you don't want them floating off into your space station), and going to the bathroom (have you ever thought about how to use a toilet without gravity?) are all very different experiences in weightlessness. Inevitably, you might have a few mishaps early on in your trip.

"Just sitting down for a meal, you put your fork down, and it's gone in 30 seconds," says Parazynski. "You may find it two days later in the cabin air cleaner because that's where the air currents have taken it." Luckily, a lost fork is an easy mess to clean up — and the situation can be prevented by tethering it down. Other messes are a different story.

"As far as using the restroom, that's what you need to pay attention to during your training. The toilet is not particularly simple and you have to be careful," says Chiao. (In case you were wondering, space toilets use airflow to guide things where they're supposed to go.) "But be prepared to make some messes," says Chiao. "And everybody has to clean up their own mess."

If you’re going to do a spacewalk, the stakes are much higher for you and your crew.

If you want to zip around space with a jetpack like George Clooney in "Gravity," sorry, but chances are that's not going to happen any time soon. Most private astronauts will be safely tucked inside their craft for the duration of their flight.

Unlike suborbital flights, future orbital flights with a spacewalk will require extensive training, given that spacewalks are inherently more dangerous than simply riding in a vessel. "If you're careless with your tethers and you float off into the void, there's not a whole lot anyone can come do for you," says Parazynski. It's possible that a crewmate may be able to head out to rescue you, but then you're endangering their life as well. "It's paramount for a spacewalker to think not just about their own health and well-being and their experience, but also that of their crewmates," he says.

If you’re in a capsule, be prepared for a bumpy landing.

While the only way up to space is by rocket, there are two ways to come back down: via a winged vehicle, like the space shuttle or Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, or a capsule, like Apollo, Soyuz, and Blue Origin's New Shepard. The experiences are quite different, as winged vehicles land like an airplane on a runway, whereas capsules descend beneath parachutes onto land or water. While both experience a range of G-forces during reentry, capsules have a bit of a rougher ride, particularly at the very end.

"When the parachute comes out, you can expect to get jostled around a fair amount, so that can be disorienting," says Chiao. "Then, whether you're hitting the water or the ground, you're gonna get a good bump. There are shock-absorbing mechanisms, of course, that make it not too big a deal. But on Soyuz, you smack the ground pretty darn hard. It was kind of surprising!"

It’ll be worth every penny.

Sure, it's going to cost a small fortune to go into space as a tourist — for now, that's somewhere in the ballpark of several hundred thousand dollars for a suborbital flight and millions of dollars for longer-duration orbital stays. But ask any astronaut, and they're sure to tell you it'll be worth the investment.

"What I would tell prospective astronauts is that it's going to change their lives forever," says Parazynski. "It's a perspective that can't be captured in emotion on film. Even in 3D IMAX, there's no way to capture the way it's going to make you feel, the connectedness you feel to planet Earth, and the awe you have when you look out into the universe."

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Future of space travel: What will it be like?

More than 60 years have passed since the first human space flight, but the future of space travel is still being written since only about 600 people have been in orbit so far. For most people willing to experience space travel, this wish remains an unattainable dream. But let’s remember that cars, planes, and trains, available to everyone today, seemed a fantasy once. So will space tourism ever be a reality? It already is. More than that, it has been around for 20 years. Orbital Today will shortly remind you of the story and try to look into the future of space travel.

How it all started

A 37-year-old American English and biology teacher Sharon McAuliffe could become the first space tourist, on winning the “Teacher in Space” competition in 1984. By that time, US astronauts had made 55 successful space flights, and their safe return to Earth had become commonplace. to increase public’s interest in the industry and demonstrate space flight reliability, NASA decided to send the first civilian into space. But it all ended in tragedy. On 28th January 1986, 73 seconds after launch, the Challenger’s fuel tank exploded, killing all seven crew members, including McAuliffe. The practice of sending amateurs into space has been abandoned for many years, and the space tourism future was put on hold.

The second attempt took place in April 2001. American businessman Dan Tito paid Space Adventures a whopping $20 million for a seat on a Russian Soyuz rocket to go to the ISS. The journey lasted ten days, eight of which Tito spent at the station in zero gravity at an altitude of 400km from the Earth in the company of professional astronauts. From 2002 to 2009, another 7 millionaires and billionaires followed his example, but after that, no one wanted to part with a significant sum for years.

The tipping point occurred in the summer of 2021 when private aerospace companies Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin sent their first tourists into space, and while these flights were suborbital, they still determined the future of space tourism trends.

Unlike the $20 million eight-day trip to the ISS, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson’s companies offer to spend only three minutes in zero gravity, but the fare is also way lower – $200,000. At the same time, Virgin VSS Unity flight takes 2.5 hours, and Blue Origin New Shepard’s – 11 minutes. This time difference is explained by different launch technologies. Virgin uses an air-launch system (similar to an aeroplane), while Blue Origin uses a classic vertical rocket launch. One thing these two have in common is that both offer to enjoy the view of Earth and starts from space, through panoramic windows from a height of more than 60km.

Virgin has made only one tourist launch so far, while Blue Origin carried out three. The pricing policy has fully justified itself. Seats in the suborbital shuttles of both companies are sold out several years in advance.

As the era of suborbital flights officially began, the interest in orbital flights rekindled. Unwilling to lag behind its main competitors, in September 2021, Space X hastened to launch the first Inspiration 4 orbital mission. The mission implied that four tourists stay on the Crew Dragon ship in orbit for three days. Following in Elon Musk’s footsteps, the Russian Soyuz MS 20 delivered Japanese billionaire Yusaka Maezawa and his assistant to the ISS. This marked an important milestone for space tourism in the future.

What is the future of space tourism?

A study by Northern Sky Research (NSR) analysts suggests that over the next 10 years, about 60,000 passengers will go into space, and the total income from space tourism will be about 20 billion US dollars. What will the future of space travel look like?

Suborbital transportation

Private companies will continue to improve suborbital flight technologies, reducing their cost and improving the quality. However, despite this, interest in suborbital tourism is unlikely to last long due to limited supply. The Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic spacecraft can carry a maximum of six people (including two Virgin pilots) and offer only three minutes in zero gravity. Besides, the ships do not cross the Karman line (100km), beyond which real space begins. However, there is hope.

Experts believe that future space travel technology will be able to replace long air flights. In 2020, SpaceX announced its Starship rocket currently in development will be able to take up to 100 passengers on board and deliver them from one continent to another in less than an hour. More specifically, a 15-hour flight to Shanghai from New York on Starship will take only 40 minutes. If Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic follow the same path, while providing adequate service costs, the demand for suborbital flights will grow steadily.

Orbital vacation

As more companies consider space tourism, orbital vacations will become one of the future space tourism trends. Orbital infrastructure for recreation, including hotels in orbit and on the moon, could become profitable. Interest in the ISS in this regard is already reemerging. In addition, Orion Span and Blue Origin are developing luxury space hotel concepts called Aurora Station and Orbital Reef . Of course, vacations in space are still far away, but many tourists can already visit space themed hotels on Earth. The best of them are located in China, the USA, Canada, and Switzerland.

Will space tourism ever be affordable?

No doubt, only multi millionaires can afford such trips today. Paying 200 thousand dollars for 3 minutes in weightlessness or 20 million for 8 days in space is not something everyone can easily afford. A century ago, ordinary people could hardly pay for a ticket across the Atlantic, and flying on planes was even more expensive. Today, such trips no longer surprise anyone. Once space tourism becomes mainstream, it will also have a positive impact on many socio-economic processes on Earth: job creation, development of new energy infrastructure based on solar energy, etc. This will increase the scale of opportunity and innovation, boost competition, and ultimately make space travel available for ordinary citizens.

Is space tourism a good idea after all?

Every industry has positive and negative aspects, and space travel is no exception. Despite the prospects and benefits, this industry calls for careful risk assessment. Let’s take a look at the main facts about future space travel.

1. High expenses

Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic flights require huge investments in infrastructure and technology that are not paying off at this stage. How much does it cost for space tourism? It is difficult to say, but the costs are in the tens of billions. In fact, these are very expensive toys of billionaires. Of course, they can afford such a luxury at the expense of other, highly profitable businesses, but imagine if this money was spent on more pressing issues, i.e., fighting poverty, hunger, medicine, etc.

2. Passenger health

While astronauts take years to prepare for flights, private individuals will fly with minimal instruction. However, heavy workloads and zero-gravity conditions greatly affect health. According to a recent study involving British astronaut Tim Peake , space travel causes more than a third of astronauts to experience temporary anemia due to the destruction of large numbers of red blood cells. While astronauts remain in a state of weightlessness, this does not cause any problems, but the symptoms appear on Earth, under the influence of gravity. This threatens not only the development of space tourism but also the idea of ​​colonising planets since it creates an increased risk for passengers experiencing conditions exacerbated by anemia. Here, we are, first of all, talking about cardiovascular pathologies, which, according to WHO, top the list of common diseases. In other words, you need to be not only rich but absolutely healthy to fly into space. The combination of these factors significantly reduces the number of potential space tourism customers.

3. Environmental impact

A rocket burns hundreds of tons of fuel to overcome the Earth’s gravity and leave the atmosphere. Of course, humanity is inventing ever-more environmentally friendly fuels, but emissions in the upper atmosphere still destroy the ozone layer and provoke global warming. And although the level of emissions from rockets is less than 1% compared with cars, the development of space tourism will inevitably lead to a significant increase in the number of rocket launches, which means an increase in environmental impact risk.

In addition, emissions are not the only problem with a rocket launch . While technology does not yet allow a full transition to a reusable rocket, there remains a high risk of an uncontrolled fall of the first stages to Earth, spills and fuel leaks during transportation, which inevitably destroys the environment.

And yet, despite all cons, the future of space exploration looks quite promising. Rapid technology development can no longer be stopped. In another 5-10 years, getting from London to Sydney by a rocket in half an hour or spending a vacation in orbit could become as commonplace as ordering a taxi or a hotel room today.

Emma joined the team in 2020 as an Editorial Assistant. She is currently on an internship with us while going through her further education. She is enthusiastic about Science and about Space in particular.

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Would you really age more slowly on a spaceship at close to light speed?

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Every week, the readers of our space newsletter, The Airlock , send in their questions for space reporter Neel V. Patel to answer. This week: time dilation during space travel. 

I heard that time dilation affects high-speed space travel and I am wondering the magnitude of that affect. If we were to launch a round-trip flight to a nearby exoplanet—let's say 10 or 50 light-years away––how would that affect time for humans on the spaceship versus humans on Earth? When the space travelers came back, will they be much younger or older relative to people who stayed on Earth? —Serge

Time dilation is a concept that pops up in lots of sci-fi, including Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game , where one character ages only eight years in space while 50 years pass on Earth. This is precisely the scenario outlined in the famous thought experiment the Twin Paradox : an astronaut with an identical twin at mission control makes a journey into space on a high-speed rocket and returns home to find that the twin has aged faster.

Time dilation goes back to Einstein’s theory of special relativity, which teaches us that motion through space actually creates alterations in the flow of time. The faster you move through the three dimensions that define physical space, the more slowly you’re moving through the fourth dimension, time––at least relative to another object. Time is measured differently for the twin who moved through space and the twin who stayed on Earth. The clock in motion will tick more slowly than the clocks we’re watching on Earth. If you’re able to travel near the speed of light, the effects are much more pronounced. 

Unlike the Twin Paradox, time dilation isn’t a thought experiment or a hypothetical concept––it’s real. The 1971 Hafele-Keating experiments proved as much, when two atomic clocks were flown on planes traveling in opposite directions. The relative motion actually had a measurable impact and created a time difference between the two clocks. This has also been confirmed in other physics experiments (e.g., fast-moving muon particles take longer to decay ). 

So in your question, an astronaut returning from a space journey at “relativistic speeds” (where the effects of relativity start to manifest—generally at least one-tenth the speed of light ) would, upon return, be younger than same-age friends and family who stayed on Earth. Exactly how much younger depends on exactly how fast the spacecraft had been moving and accelerating, so it’s not something we can readily answer. But if you’re trying to reach an exoplanet 10 to 50 light-years away and still make it home before you yourself die of old age, you’d have to be moving at close to light speed. 

There’s another wrinkle here worth mentioning: time dilation as a result of gravitational effects. You might have seen Christopher Nolan’s movie Interstellar , where the close proximity of a black hole causes time on another planet to slow down tremendously (one hour on that planet is seven Earth years).

This form of time dilation is also real, and it’s because in Einstein’s theory of general relativity, gravity can bend spacetime, and therefore time itself. The closer the clock is to the source of gravitation, the slower time passes; the farther away the clock is from gravity, the faster time will pass. (We can save the details of that explanation for a future Airlock.)

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Everything you need to know about space travel (almost)

We're a long way from home...

Paul Parsons

When did we first start exploring space?

The first human-made object to go into space was a German V2 missile , launched on a test flight in 1942. Although uncrewed, it reached an altitude of 189km (117 miles).

Former Nazi rocket scientists were later recruited by both America and Russia (often at gunpoint in the latter case), where they were instrumental in developing Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) – rockets capable of carrying nuclear weapons from one side of the planet to the other.

It was these super-missiles that formed the basis for the space programmes of both post-war superpowers. As it happened, Russia was the first to reach Earth orbit, when it launched the uncrewed Sputnik 1 in October 1957, followed a month later by Sputnik 2, carrying the dog Laika – the first live animal in space.

The USA sent its first uncrewed satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit soon after, in January 1958. A slew of robotic spaceflights followed, from both sides of the Atlantic, before Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin piloted Vostok 1 into orbit on 12 April 1961, to become the first human being in space . And from there the space race proper began, culminating in Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin becoming the first people to walk on the Moon as part of NASA's Apollo programme .

Why is space travel important?

Space exploration is the future. It satisfies the human urge to explore and to travel, and in the years and decades to come it could even provide our species with new places to call home – especially relevant now, as Earth becomes increasingly crowded .

Extending our reach into space is also necessary for the advancement of science. Space telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope and probes to the distant worlds of the Solar System are continually updating, and occasionally revolutionising, our understanding of astronomy and physics.

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But there are also some very practical reasons, such as mining asteroids for materials that are extremely rare here on Earth.

One example is the huge reserve of the chemical isotope helium-3 thought to be locked away in the soil on the surface of the Moon . This isotope is a potential fuel for future nuclear fusion reactors – power stations that tap into the same source of energy as the Sun. Unlike other fusion fuels, helium-3 gives off no hard-to-contain and deadly neutron radiation.

However, for this to happen the first challenge to overcome is how to build a base on the Moon. In 2019, China's Chang’e 4 mission marked the beginning of a new space race to conquer the Moon, signalling their intent to build a permanent lunar base , while the NASA Artemis mission plans to build a space station, called Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway , providing a platform to ferry astronauts to the Moon's surface.

Could humans travel into interstellar space and how would we get there?

It’s entirely feasible that human explorers will visit the furthest reaches of our Solar System. The stars, however, are another matter. Interstellar space is so vast that it takes light – the fastest thing we know of in the Universe – years, centuries and millennia to traverse it. Faster-than-light travel may be possible one day, but is unlikely to become a reality in our lifetimes.

It’s not impossible that humans might one day cross this cosmic gulf, though it won’t be easy. The combustion-powered rocket engines of today certainly aren’t up to the job – they just don’t use fuel efficiently enough. Instead, interstellar spacecraft may create a rocket-like propulsion jet using electric and magnetic fields. This so-called ‘ ion drive ’ technology has already been tested aboard uncrewed Solar System probes.

Another possibility is to push spacecraft off towards the stars using the light from a high-powered laser . A consortium of scientists calling themselves Breakthrough Starshot is already planning to send a flotilla of tiny robotic probes to our nearest star, Proxima Centauri, using just this method.

Though whether human astronauts could survive such punishing acceleration, or the decades-long journey through deep space, remains to be seen.

How do we benefit from space exploration?

Pushing forward the frontiers of science is the stated goal of many space missions . But even the development of space travel technology itself can lead to unintended yet beneficial ‘spin-off’ technologies with some very down-to-earth applications.

Notable spin-offs from the US space programme, NASA, include memory foam mattresses, artificial hearts, and the lubricant spray WD-40. Doubtless, there are many more to come.

Read more about space exploration:

• The next giant leaps: The UK missions getting us to the Moon
• Move over, Mars: why we should look further afield for future human colonies
• Everything you need to know about the Voyager mission
• 6 out-of-this-world experiments recreating space on Earth

Space exploration also instils a sense of wonder, it reminds us that there are issues beyond our humdrum planet and its petty squabbles, and without doubt it helps to inspire each new generation of young scientists. It’s also an insurance policy. We’re now all too aware that global calamities can and do happen – for instance, climate change and the giant asteroid that smashed into the Earth 65 million years ago, leading to the total extinction of the dinosaurs .

The lesson for the human species is that we keep all our eggs in one basket at our peril. On the other hand, a healthy space programme, and the means to travel to other worlds, gives us an out.

Is space travel dangerous?

In short, yes – very. Reaching orbit means accelerating up to around 28,000kph (17,000mph, or 22 times the speed of sound ). If anything goes wrong at that speed, it’s seldom good news.

Then there’s the growing cloud of space junk to contend with in Earth's orbit – defunct satellites, discarded rocket stages and other detritus – all moving just as fast. A five-gram bolt hitting at orbital speed packs as much energy as a 200kg weight dropped from the top of an 18-storey building.

And getting to space is just the start of the danger. The principal hazard once there is cancer-producing radiation – the typical dose from one day in space is equivalent to what you’d receive over an entire year back on Earth, thanks to the planet’s atmosphere and protective magnetic field.

Add to that the icy cold airless vacuum , the need to bring all your own food and water, plus the effects of long-duration weightlessness on bone density, the brain and muscular condition – including that of the heart – and it soon becomes clear that venturing into space really isn’t for the faint-hearted.

When will space travel be available to everyone?

It’s already happening – that is, assuming your pockets are deep enough. The first self-funded ‘space tourist’ was US businessman Dennis Tito, who in 2001 spent a week aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for the cool sum of $20m (£15m).

Virgin Galactic has long been promising to take customers on short sub-orbital hops into space – where passengers get to experience rocket propulsion and several minutes of weightlessness, before gliding back to a runway landing on Earth, all for $250k (£190k). In late July 2020, the company unveiled the finished cabin in its SpaceShipTwo vehicle, suggesting that commercial spaceflights may begin shortly.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s SpaceX , which in May 2020 became the first private company to launch a human crew to Earth orbit aboard the Crew Dragon , plans to offer stays on the ISS for $35k (£27k) per night. SpaceX is now prototyping its huge Starship vehicle , which is designed to take 100 passengers from Earth to as far afield as Mars for around $20k (£15k) per head. Musk stated in January that he hoped to be operating 1,000 Starships by 2050.

10 Short Lessons in Space Travel by Paul Parsons is out now (£9.99, Michael O'Mara)

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Take an interstellar tour: what would you see if you could travel around our galaxy?

An imaginary starship trip beyond the solar system to the edge of the Milky Way offers new perspectives on the wonders of space

A stronomy and cosmology can feel detached from everyday reality. But what if we could take a 23rd-century starship tour through the Milky Way and experience the cosmos like an Earth-bound tourist visiting exotic destinations? What would we see from our window?

Although physicists enjoy speculating about warp drives, or using wormholes to jump between locations, there is no way to travel faster than light at present. So we’re assuming a fictional ability to do this – but beyond that, everything we will encounter on our voyage is based on best current theories.

Passing other probes

As we exit the solar system and enter interstellar space, we will stop initially alongside Pioneer 11 , one of the first probes to leave our planetary neighbourhood. There is no “you are leaving the solar system” sign – but the border is the limit of a solar phenomenon. The sun sprays out energetic particles that sweep away the gas and dust found between the stars. This no longer happens about 90 times the Earth’s distance from the sun.

Several probes have made it out of the solar system. To the sightseer they look similar: a large radio dish bolted to a collection of metal boxes. But their most interesting aspect lies in attempts to communicate with passing alien rubbish collectors. We could look at the gold discs on Voyagers 1 and 2, launched in 1977 to study the outer planets. Or we could unpack the interstellar version of a high-school time capsule on the 2006 New Horizons mission to Pluto and beyond… But we’ve arrived alongside Pioneer 11, which along with its twin, Pioneer 10, carries an enigmatic gold-plated plaque.

Parts of the image are straightforward: it shows two naked humans, with the probe to the same scale, and a solar system map. But what do you make of three small vertical lines over one horizontal line to the right of the female figure? Or a starburst effect filling half the plaque?

The concept behind this is to convey messages through a scientific symbolism that it was hoped could be understood by aliens. The collection of lines (representing binary) give the woman’s height, thanks to information deduced from the pair of linked circles (representing a process undergone by hydrogen atoms) at the top of the plaque.

And as for that starburst, it pinpoints Earth’s location. Each line represents the distance and direction to a series of pulsars – collapsed stars that flash out regular blasts of electromagnetic energy. The timing, shown by binary numbers on each line, indicates the pulsar’s frequency, based on timing implied by the hydrogen diagram. Some have worried that this map opens us up to alien invasion. Luckily, part of the pulsar data is slightly off. Even if it were precise, though, this is a message in a bottle on a galactic scale, and we are unlikely to be found.

Stellar nursery

Leaving Pioneer behind, we travel on to the Orion nebula. From Earth, this forms part of the familiar constellation of Orion, the hunter . We need to remember, though, that the apparent connection between a constellation’s stars is illusory: they are not actually linked. For example, Alnilam, the middle star of Orion’s belt, is about 1,342 light years from Earth, whereas Bellatrix, the top right of Orion’s main stars, is just 245 light years distant. A light year is the distance light travels in one year – around 5.9tn miles (9.5tn km).

From Earth, the nebula looks like a small fuzzy patch in Orion’s sword, about 1,500 light years away. This is where new stars are born out of the dust and gas, and it’s the closest-known nursery to us. It’s about 20 light years across and contains approximately 1,000 new stars forming. It’s a slow process , as the particles that make up the cloud – mostly hydrogen atoms – are slowly pulled together by gravity. As they squash ever closer, the atoms warm up, and with enough matter, the pressure and heat become so intense that nuclear fusion begins.

The young star begins to convert hydrogen into helium, releasing energy as it does. Stars need to be huge for this to happen. Our sun, for example, a middling star, contains 99.8% of the matter in the solar system and fuses about 600m tonnes of hydrogen every second.

Other worlds

Our next stop is a protoplanetary disc: a rotating disc of dense gas surrounding a young star. On the whole, matter in the universe spins around. Because the clouds of gas and dust giving rise to stars are not evenly distributed, the material starts to rotate as gravity pulls it inward. Just as a skater’s spin speeds up when they pull in their limbs, thanks to the conservation of angular momentum (the oomph with which something rotates), so the spin of the star accelerates as matter piles in.

The central star has so much gravitational attraction that it remains spherical, but matter further out from the centre flattens into a rotating disc, just as a ball of pizza dough does as it is spun. In both cases, there is attraction towards the centre, but not at 90 degrees to the direction of rotation, producing the flattening. Material in the disc eventually coalesces because of gravity, producing planets.

On our tour, we can now visit an extrasolar planet – more than 5,000 of these had been discovered by the 2020s. Trappist-1e is one of the most likely sites for life from the early 21st century discoveries. It’s rocky and similar to Earth in size. Though not certain in the 2020s, it appears to have liquid water and an Earth-like atmosphere. Admittedly, its relationship with its star is nothing like Earth: it completes its orbit in six days, being located about 15 times closer to its star than Mercury is to the sun. However, this is a very low-energy star, making Trappist-1e a viable potential home for life.

The neighbourhood of our next destination will definitely not be habitable for long: Betelgeuse, the bright red star at the top left of Orion. In the 2020s, it was known that this red supergiant would go supernova during the following 100,000 years. We’re lucky – our fictional starship has arrived just as Betelgeuse undergoes this catastrophic change.

A supernova is a massive stellar explosion. From the Earth, this means some previously invisible stars flare into brightness – hence the term “nova”, from the Latin for “new”. Betelgeuse has always been visible – but it’s about to get much brighter. Its fusible material is running out. As heavier elements form, there comes a point when fusion takes more energy than the star can provide and it switches off. No atoms heavier than iron can be produced this way.

Up to now, the energy of nuclear reaction has fluffed up the star. Now, its inner parts collapse to form a neutron star – so dense that one teaspoon has a mass of around 100m tonnes. When that core collapses, it bounces back, blasting away the outer layers of the star, providing so much energy that heavier elements form. Over centuries, those outer layers will form a different type of nebula – a glowing remnant, such as the Crab nebula.

Our final stop before heading home enables us to see our galaxy, the Milky Way. This is partially visible from Earth, but is hard to see in built-up areas thanks to light pollution. In a dark sky it appears as an arch of fuzzy light. What we see from home is the view from within. But here, from the outside, we see it in all its glory.

Back in the 2020s we had never seen the Milky Way from the outside, but it was known to be a vast spiral about 100,000 light years across, with a central bar of densely packed stars. Despite being just one of approximately 200bn galaxies within the limits of the observable universe, the Milky Way is home to about 100bn stars.

Though we can’t see something as small as the sun from here, we can place it roughly near the edge of one of the outer spiral arms.

With a final jump, we return to Earth. It’s tiny in the perspective of the galaxy, let alone the universe. Yet this is a special place. Planets like ours, with so many things right for life, are rare. A whole host of features have come together.

Earth sits in the “Goldilocks zone” – not too hot nor too cold for liquid water, seemingly essential for life. Our unusually large moon stabilises the Earth’s orbit, and the Earth’s active surface, a result of the moon’s formation, helps keep our environment in balance. We have a stable star, plus a strong magnetic field and ozone layer protecting Earth from deadly solar radiation. Some say that Earth isn’t anything special. But it truly is, and we need to keep it that way.

Brian Clegg is the author of Interstellar Tours : A Guide to the Universe from Your Starship Window , published by Icon Books (£18.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply

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Ramin Skibba

Here’s a Sneak Peek at the Far-Out Future of Space Travel

From Star Trek–like medical scanners to concepts for off-planet agriculture like in The Expanse , science fiction has often inspired actual research at NASA and other space agencies. This week, researchers are meeting at a virtual conference for the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program to brainstorm and investigate sci-fi-like ideas, some of which may very well shape the missions of the next 20 years.

A drone helicopter hopping about a Martian crater or a lunar rover that maps moon ice might have seemed far-fetched a decade ago, but the copter actually flew earlier this year, and the rover is in the planning stages. Now the conference organizers have solicited proposals for more exploratory projects, a few of which the agency might eventually fund. “We invest in long-term, far-out technologies, and most of them probably won’t work. The ones that do might change everything. It’s high risk, high payoff, almost like a venture capital investment portfolio,” says Jason Derleth, the NIAC program executive.

The program isn’t focused on incremental developments but instead seeks game-changing technologies, ones that are 10 times better than the state of the art, Derleth says. He likens it to the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which also explores extremely speculative concepts but developed the precursor to the modern internet, among other innovations.

The annual conference , which continues through Thursday, September 23, is publicly viewable on NIAC’s livestream . Some of the proposals discussed so far—such as for new ways to launch foldable space stations or astronaut habitats, or to extract resources from other worlds—revolve around the understanding that, for lengthy space voyages, you have to make the most of every rocket launch.

The next generation of space travelers will need resources for survival, for protective structures, and to fuel the journey further or return home. “This leaves us with two options: Take everything with us, like if you were going on a hiking trip in the desert. Or find new and creative ways to use whatever is already there,” says Amelia Greig, an aerospace engineer at University of Texas at El Paso, who presented at the conference on Tuesday.

To aid creative reuse of lunar resources, Greig and her colleagues propose a technology called ablative arc mining, which would slurp up water ice and the kinds of metals that could be used as building materials. “It’s like using controlled lightning bolts to mine the moon,” she said during her presentation. Her concept describes a van-sized moon crawler—named after the Jawa sandcrawlers of Star Wars —that picks a spot, and then places a ringed device that it carries on its front end parallel to the ground. Electric arcs zap across the ring, which can be made as large as a meter in diameter, ripping particles from the moon’s surface. Those particles, now charged, can then be moved and sorted by the machine’s electromagnetic fields. That way, rather than scoping just one resource, a single piece of equipment could fill one container with water, another with oxygen attached to other elements, and others with silicon, aluminum, or other metal particles.

An artistic representation of the ablative arc mining system deployed into a crater near the lunar south pole.

But, like all early concepts, it faces practical challenges that would have to be overcome: In this case, the moon’s dusty environment could cause problems by getting stuck in the machinery, which would have to be made dust-proof. To hunt for water ice, the crawlers also will have to trundle into permanently shadowed craters, which contain water at about 6 percent by mass but are extremely cold and dark. The crawlers’ electronics would have to be designed to operate in those rugged conditions and with a non-solar power source. It also would be tough for any astronaut to oversee them, though they could monitor the mining from the crater’s rim. NASA estimates that permanent lunar settlements will need around 10,000 kilograms of water per year. That would require at least 20 of these kinds of crawlers roving about, gradually collecting those supplies, unless this technology was supplemented with something else. For now, Greig just hopes to test a smaller demonstration version of the crawler in a few years.

Space mining projects have also prompted ethical questions. For example, scientists and others have raised concerns about lunar mining permanently changing the look of the moon in the night sky. But Greig points out that ablative arc mining wouldn’t look like the environmentally harmful pit mines on Earth; the mining region could be spread out, making some craters only slightly deeper. And as for sustainability issues, she says, “there’s enough water to last human settlements hundreds of years.”

Stop-motion representation of the arc mining process on the lunar surface.

As a potential launching point for moon-goers and expeditions to deep space, NASA has proposed a space station orbiting the moon called the Lunar Gateway . But Zachary Manchester, a roboticist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, argues that the limited size of rockets allows few options for launching large structures for a lunar station. “If you want something that’s bigger than a rocket fairing, which is at most a few meters, it has to get launched in multiple rockets and assembled in orbit, like the International Space Station . Or it has to somehow get scrunched up into that rocket and then somehow expand out,” Manchester says.

At a session Wednesday, he and Jeffrey Lipton, a mechanical engineer at the University of Washington, proposed a space station that would fit into that confined space. Then, once deployed, it would unfold autonomously, like origami, into a full-sized structure, some 150 times bigger than its folded size. Preliminary designs involve a many-jointed structure made of titanium, aluminum, or another metal.

Since future astronauts will likely be on-station for a while, it would need to rotate to generate artificial gravity to avoid the deleterious health effects of prolonged periods in zero-G. But humans are sensitive to spinning; no one wants to live on a merry-go-round. “If you try to build a rotating space habitat, the only way to do it without making people motion-sick is to spin at up to two revolutions per minute,” Manchester says. To produce Earth-like gravity, such a space station needs to be a kilometer across, he argues. Yet squishing such a massive structure into a tiny space until it’s deployed poses a significant engineering challenge. In addition, to make their idea a reality, Manchester and Lipton ultimately need to figure out how to make the unfolding process not get jammed, despite the structure’s thousands of links and joints.

An artist's illustration of the Lunar Gateway in orbit around the moon.

Like packing for the biggest road trip ever, NASA will face similar challenges when fitting everything needed for moon or Mars structures onto rockets. To lighten the load, some scientists have suggested using Martian rocks as material for 3D-printing parts of structures. (A simulated lunar regolith is currently being test-printed aboard the International Space Station.) But Lynn Rothschild, an astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, has a completely different idea: making structures out of mushrooms—or “mycotecture,” as she calls it. “The humble mushroom can provide an unbelievable building material. It’s completely natural, compostable, and the ultimate green building,” Rothschild says.

Although fungi could be used to grow the material for actual bricks and mortar that astronauts could use for construction, the best kind of space habitat would be assembled before they even arrive. Her team’s proposal involves launching a lander that would include plastic scaffolding and fungal mycelia, white filaments that make the root structure of fungi. (Like yeasts, mycelia can survive for a while without being fed.) The scaffolding would be a lattice of square hollow plastic cells, stitched into layers to make the shape of the final structure. On Mars, it would inflate to perhaps the size of a garage. Using water and oxygen—at least some of which would likely have been sourced or generated on Mars—the fungi would grow along those stitches and fill the cells, eventually turning a tent-like structure into a full-fledged building.

For strength and protection from space radiation, Rothschild thinks some kind of dark fungi could do the trick. “Black fungi—they make you say ‘Blecch,’ they look kind of disgusting. But the black pigment tends to protect from radiation, protecting the fungi and the people inside the habitat,” Rothschild says. She hopes to send a prototype to the International Space Station in the next few years.

Unlike the moon, Mars was once friendly to life . So Rothschild is designing the scaffolding to prevent any chance of renegade fungi escaping beyond the astronauts’ structures. (The last thing NASA wants is for a search for life on other worlds to turn up something that actually came from Earth .) In her team’s design, the fungi are essentially “double-bagged,” with an extra layer in the plastic lattice to ensure they all stay in.

To address those issues, space agencies have “planetary protection” experts like Moogega Cooper, supervisor of the Biotechnology and Planetary Protection Group at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who spoke at the NIAC conference. “Anywhere you are possibly interacting with liquid water that is inherent to the place, your exploring would definitely catch our attention. Where you find water you may find life,” she says. The United States is one of the original signatories of the Outer Space Treaty, which requires that every space agency or company that wants to send a mission to an alien world make sure the spacecraft and all the equipment aboard are sterilized.

While the NIAC program has a budget of just $8.5 million per year, it supports many exploratory projects. A few of the ideas presented at this week’s conference could go on to the next level, or could get picked up by other agencies or private companies, as in the case of an earlier proposal to propel a smartphone-sized spacecraft to another stellar system with lasers, which inspired Breakthrough Starshot, a privately funded enterprise. Among a few of the topics on the menu for the rest of Wednesday and Thursday: multiple presentations about moon-based radio telescopes , as well as one about personal rovers for astronauts (since Artemis astronauts will be carrying 220-pound packs) and one about planting mushrooms in space regolith to make a more Earth-like growing soil.

“All of the concepts that are awarded are pushing the edge of our understanding, and they really allow us to take science fiction and make it science fact,” Cooper says.

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Spacecraft design expert discusses the viability of interstellar travel

by Missouri University of Science and Technology

Researchers at NASA recently announced the discovery of another planet about 95% the size of Earth that is 100 light-years away and could potentially sustain life.

Could this new discovery lead to humans one day traveling to planet TOI 700 e and enjoying its resources, such as the potential for liquid water ? This is a question people may naturally ask, but they may not like the current answer.

"That is not going to happen in our lifetimes, but it is fascinating to discuss," says Dr. Hank Pernicka, Curators' Distinguished Teaching Professor of aerospace engineering at Missouri S&T. "This planet is 100 light-years away. That means if we developed a spacecraft to go the speed of light, it would still take 100 years to reach this destination."

The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. Pernicka, who is an expert in spacecraft design , says the first issue to consider would be getting a vehicle to reach the speeds necessary for interstellar travel .

"There would be lots of showstoppers with this, the first of which is even getting that fast," he says. "The concept of a light-year and the distance involved in this travel is mind blowing."

Pernicka says another area to consider would be the number of uncertainties with the spacecraft itself.

"When traveling at these speeds, there would be a large amount of variables to consider," he says. "For example, even a little piece of debris in the path of the spacecraft could do a large amount of damage."

The way in which the spacecraft is fueled would also have to be considered. Currently, any long-distance missions sponsored by NASA use nuclear power, and that fuel source would eventually be depleted.

For example, NASA's Voyager 1, which was launched in 1977 and is the only spacecraft to travel to interstellar space , will likely run out of fuel in the next few years. This space probe , which travels at speeds of around 38,000 mph, is now over 14.8 billion miles from Earth.

"Voyager 1 has been on an amazing journey and has blown all of NASA's expectations out of the water," Pernicka says, "but this is still nowhere near the distance of even one light-year."

Pernicka says the key to one day reaching the necessary speeds may lie in the concept of solar sailing, which would propel spacecraft by using the pressure of the sun's radiation. Another option may be using a wormhole, he says, but neither option would be a possibility anytime soon.

"With a wormhole, that would almost be a form of cheating," he says. "However, it could theoretically work. In that situation, we would need to develop the spacecraft so it could survive the journey, which could be very violent."

Even though interstellar tourists or even space probes may not travel to planet TOI 700 e soon, Pernicka still has hopes for the future of space travel and the contributions made by Missouri S&T.

Pernicka says the university has professors in multiple disciplines researching the cosmos in various ways. He says that his current projects include developing satellites with thruster technology that will be launched in the coming years in collaboration with NASA, as well as inspector satellites for the United States military.

"The research we are doing is out of this world," Pernicka says. "I am excited to see how our efforts continue to affect space travel in the future."

Provided by Missouri University of Science and Technology

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Astronauts that hibernate on long spaceflights are not just for sci-fi. We could test it in 10 years.

"We need to fine tune everything before we can apply it to humans. But I would say that 10 years is a realistic timeline."

The first hibernation studies with human subjects could be feasible within a decade, a European Space Agency (ESA) researcher thinks. 

Such experiments would pave the way for a science-fiction-like approach to long-duration space missions that would see crew members placed into protective slumber for weeks or months on their way to distant destinations. 

Hibernating on a year-long trip to Mars would not just prevent boredom in a tiny space capsule; it would also save mission cost, as the hibernating crew members wouldn't need to eat or drink and would even require far less oxygen than those awake. There are other, rather odd benefits of hibernation, as well. Research in animals suggests that bodies of hibernating astronauts might waste away much less than the bodies of those awake in microgravity . Upon arrival, these hibernators would thus be fit and ready to commence challenging exploration almost straight away after regaining consciousness.

Related: NASA astronauts could hibernate on deep space missions thanks to arctic squirrels

For all these reasons, hibernation, also known as torpor, has long been a staple of sci-fi space movies. From " Alien " to " 2001: A Space Odyssey ," fictional space travelers have crossed vast distances cocooned unconscious inside high-tech pods while AI machines and android robots keep their spacecraft on a steady course. 

Despite being a sci-fi trope, putting humans into long-term induced torpor may not be a far-fetched idea after all. Jennifer Ngo-Anh, a research and payload coordinator of Human and Robotic Exploration at ESA and a co-author of a recent paper outlining the space agency's approach to hibernation research, told Space.com that depending on funding availability, the first human torpor trials could take place as early as the mid-2030s. 

"Of course, we need to finetune everything before we can apply it to humans. But I would say that 10 years is a realistic timeline," Ngo-Anh said. 

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This fine-tuning is already underway. First studies have shown that it's possible to induce torpor in otherwise non-hibernating animals, such as rats, and bring them safely back to life a few days later. The process of triggering hibernation is rather intricate and involves reduced exposure to daylight and a period of intense feeding followed by a strict fast. 

"The rats receive a drug, a neurotransmitter substance, and are brought into a dark space with reduced temperature," Jürgen Bereiter-Hahn, professor emeritus in neuroscience and cell biology at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, and member of ESA's hibernation research group, told Space.com in an interview. "It works very nicely, but the problem is that you have to apply the signaling molecule repeatedly to maintain the state. You need to maintain very high levels of the neurotransmitter and that could have deleterious effects over the longer term."

Why do we want to make people hibernate?

The question is whether induced torpor could ever be safe enough to be administered to space travelers in tiny spacecraft with minimal medical supervision and equipment. Ngo-Anh sees the problem from a different perspective. Torpor, she said, could, in fact, be the only way forward for long-duration space missions.

Loss of bone and muscle mass is a big issue for spacefarers. Even at the International Space Station , where high-tech fitness machines are available and strict exercise protocols are followed, astronauts lose up to 20% of their muscle mass in a month. Their bones get gradually weaker too. Footage of crews returning to Earth frequently shows fragile beings transported by medical personnel in wheelchairs and stretchers. But there will be no support crews waiting by after a landing on Mars. 

"This is a real problem for astronauts in microgravity," Bereiter-Hahn said. "Astronauts need to train a lot because otherwise they really would have serious problems when they get back to gravity conditions."

Research shows that the effects of microgravity on the human body resemble those of long-term bed rest. Strangely, bed rest while hibernating doesn't seem to result in such effects at all. Unlike a patient recovering from a long illness or medical coma, an animal waking up from hibernation shows surprisingly high fitness levels. 

"When animals wake up from hibernation, they very quickly remember their surroundings," Ngo-Anh said. "Within seconds, they remember where they hid their food before they went into hibernation, and they actually don't suffer much muscle loss, which is quite surprising after months just lying and sleeping in a cave."

Researchers think that the key to the protective effects of the torpor state is its physiology. Although hibernation superficially resembles sleep, inside the body the process works in a completely different way. Unlike a sleeping brain, a hibernating brain produces barely any electromagnetic activity. The heart rate of an animal in torpor drops to only a few beats per minute, and its body temperature declines to what would otherwise be considered dangerous hypothermia. Even the cells that make up the animal's body stop their usual business of processing or creating  nutrients, dividing and dying. By all biological measures, the torpor state is almost like hitting a pause button on life. 

"We know from studies that it reduces the lifespan of animals which normally go into torpor when they are prevented from going into torpor," Alexander Choukèr, a professor of medicine and an anesthesiology expert at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, who is also a member of the ESA team, told Space.com. "When they have these torpor phases in between, the animals can live five years, for example. When the torpor is missing, it could be just four years."

This pause-button quality of the torpor state is key to its promise for spaceflight missions. The hibernating astronaut in a Mars-bound capsule would not only save the agency cost for water, food and oxygen. He or she would, most likely, wake up rather fit, without suffering many of the negative side effects of long-term bed-rest or living in microgravity. In fact, studies show that the slowed down cells of a hibernating body don't get damaged by radiation, which is one of the biggest health-concerns during lung-duration space missions.  

Boon to medicine

These protective properties make hibernation a fascinating possibility not just for spaceflight, but also for medicine. Just like astronauts in microgravity, patients in long-term bed-rest and those in medically-induced coma waste away quickly. The recovery is slow and painstaking. 

"We put people under anesthesia all the time, but they still degrade," said Choukèr. "After you leave an Intensive Care Unit, if you are there for a long time, you are like a skeleton because of the degradation metabolism that sets in. To be able to hit that pause button would be a game-changer."

Slowing life processes, including the degradatory ones, to a minimum would provide what Bereiter-Hahn calls a "bridge," a period of time that would allow physicians to look for solutions without racing against the clock. 

"You can use that time to, for instance, develop special antibodies for a tumor and treat that tumor very successfully," said Bereiter-Hahn. "Also in organ transplantation, you would put the whole organ into torpor, as well as the patient, and then you could exchange those organs at much less danger for the patient."

In fact, added Ngo-Anh, cooling has been used by brain and cardiac surgeons for decades to improve outcomes of complicated surgeries. 

Although most of the current hibernation research is funded by space agencies and zoology institutions, Choukèr thinks that the first human to be put into this paused state of being will most likely be an intensive care patient. Once the first human survives and benefits from torpor, things will likely start moving forward much faster. 

— Astronauts on Mars missions could suffer cognitive and emotional problems, new research suggests — Boiling blood and radiation: 5 ways mars can kill — What does space do to the human body? 29 studies investigate the effects of exploration  

"As it has always happened in medicine, you have to have the first human to be subjected to these conditions," Choukèr said. "At a certain point, there is a case number one where you apply [the new technique] because the risks and benefits are in a balance, and leaning more to the benefits of the subject. And then you can start from there."

Choukèr is not worried if medicine doesn't have the complex biological intricacies of the torpor state including all of its neurotransmitter signaling and environmental factors perfectly nailed down by that time. Patients (and astronauts) could still benefit, just as they have done from general anesthetics for decades. 

"We do [anesthesia] every day but we still don't 100% understand how it works," Choukèr said. "We've gained a lot of knowledge over the past 20 years but certainly, when they first started applying anesthesia, there was no real idea how this was working in the brain."

The researchers, however, agree that for hibernation to be of any use in spaceflight, it would have to work without complicated life support machines and constantly monitored intravenous lines. The journey from patient one to a trip to Mars may therefore take quite a bit longer.

Follow Tereza Pultarova on Twitter @TerezaPultarova . Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook . 

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Tereza is a London-based science and technology journalist, aspiring fiction writer and amateur gymnast. Originally from Prague, the Czech Republic, she spent the first seven years of her career working as a reporter, script-writer and presenter for various TV programmes of the Czech Public Service Television. She later took a career break to pursue further education and added a Master's in Science from the International Space University, France, to her Bachelor's in Journalism and Master's in Cultural Anthropology from Prague's Charles University. She worked as a reporter at the Engineering and Technology magazine, freelanced for a range of publications including Live Science, Space.com, Professional Engineering, Via Satellite and Space News and served as a maternity cover science editor at the European Space Agency.

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• allanrbrewer Biochemistry suggests that muscle-wasting results from the action of myostatins - these continually break down muscle cells, after which, normally, new muscle cells are generated according to exercise demands. The possibility of using myostatin inhibitors during hibernation in ultra-long spaceflight is explored in my SF novel "The Latest Flake of Eternity". Reply

Admin said: First hibernation studies with human subjects could be feasible within a decade, a European Space Agency (ESA) researcher thinks. Astronauts that hibernate on long spaceflights is not just for sci-fi. We could test it in 10 years. : Read more

• EleusisDub Can we go into torpor during election cycles? I'd love to not have to watch another political ad for the rest of my life. Reply
• Giin Interesting. Last I had read, "sleeping for months without eating or drinking" was a cartoon version of hibernation, that real hibernating animals tend to get up once a day or so for an hour, usually grab a quick bite, etc. To put a crew of astronauts into this deep a hibernation, up to a year of continuous sleep with no IV... Really does sound quite scifi. Reply
• uswine This is pie in the sky. The mechanisms in animals is not fully understood and human physiology has a long list of reasons it isnt likely possible. We have not evolved to allow this and it isn't likely just biochemical. There are cellular and organ level differences between humans and animals that hibernate. We are decades away, if ever. Reply
• ScudaAtl I see lots of other uses for hibernation. Hibernate to see the future in 50 years. Hibernate to fix medical issues, Hibernate as a crime sentence, other medical uses ... Reply
• View All 6 Comments

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Breaking the Warp Barrier for Faster-Than-Light Travel: New Theoretical Hyper-Fast Solitons Discovered

By University of Göttingen March 11, 2021

Artistic impression of different spacecraft designs considering theoretical shapes of different kinds of “warp bubbles.” Credit: E Lentz

Astrophysicist at Göttingen University discovers new theoretical hyper-fast soliton solutions.

If travel to distant stars within an individual’s lifetime is going to be possible, a means of faster-than-light propulsion will have to be found. To date, even recent research about superluminal (faster-than-light) transport based on Einstein’s theory of general relativity would require vast amounts of hypothetical particles and states of matter that have “exotic” physical properties such as negative energy density. This type of matter either cannot currently be found or cannot be manufactured in viable quantities. In contrast, new research carried out at the University of Göttingen gets around this problem by constructing a new class of hyper-fast ‘solitons’ using sources with only positive energies that can enable travel at any speed. This reignites debate about the possibility of faster-than-light travel based on conventional physics. The research is published in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity.

The author of the paper, Dr. Erik Lentz, analyzed existing research and discovered gaps in previous ‘warp drive’ studies. Lentz noticed that there existed yet-to-be explored configurations of space-time curvature organized into ‘solitons’ that have the potential to solve the puzzle while being physically viable. A soliton – in this context also informally referred to as a ‘warp bubble’ – is a compact wave that maintains its shape and moves at constant velocity. Lentz derived the Einstein equations for unexplored soliton configurations (where the space-time metric’s shift vector components obey a hyperbolic relation), finding that the altered space-time geometries could be formed in a way that worked even with conventional energy sources. In essence, the new method uses the very structure of space and time arranged in a soliton to provide a solution to faster-than-light travel, which – unlike other research – would only need sources with positive energy densities. No “exotic” negative energy densities needed.

Image to show how long it would take different types of spacecraft to travel from our solar system to Proxima Centauri (the nearest known star). Currently, the only option would be to use a chemical rocket meaning a journey time of over 50,000 years. Credit: E Lentz

If sufficient energy could be generated, the equations used in this research would allow space travel to Proxima Centauri, our nearest star, and back to Earth in years instead of decades or millennia. That means an individual could travel there and back within their lifetime. In comparison, the current rocket technology would take more than 50,000 years for a one-way journey. In addition, the solitons (warp bubbles) were configured to contain a region with minimal tidal forces such that the passing of time inside the soliton matches the time outside: an ideal environment for a spacecraft. This means there would not be the complications of the so-called “twin paradox” whereby one twin traveling near the speed of light would age much more slowly than the other twin who stayed on Earth: in fact, according to the recent equations both twins would be the same age when reunited.

“This work has moved the problem of faster-than-light travel one step away from theoretical research in fundamental physics and closer to engineering. The next step is to figure out how to bring down the astronomical amount of energy needed to within the range of today’s technologies, such as a large modern nuclear fission power plant. Then we can talk about building the first prototypes,” says Lentz.

Currently, the amount of energy required for this new type of space propulsion drive is still immense. Lentz explains, “The energy required for this drive traveling at light speed encompassing a spacecraft of 100 meters in radius is on the order of hundreds of times of the mass of the planet Jupiter . The energy savings would need to be drastic, of approximately 30 orders of magnitude to be in range of modern nuclear fission reactors.” He goes on to say: “Fortunately, several energy-saving mechanisms have been proposed in earlier research that can potentially lower the energy required by nearly 60 orders of magnitude.” Lentz is currently in the early-stages of determining if these methods can be modified, or if new mechanisms are needed to bring the energy required down to what is currently possible.

Reference: “Breaking the warp barrier: hyper-fast solitons in Einstein–Maxwell- plasma theory” by Erik W Lentz, 9 March 2021, Classical and Quantum Gravity . DOI: 10.1088/1361-6382/abe692

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22 comments on "breaking the warp barrier for faster-than-light travel: new theoretical hyper-fast solitons discovered".

“Sufficient Energy” This already exist in the form of Element 115. If the Unauthorized Black Projects are ever revealed, word on the grapevine says its actually instantaneous. Lets go to Alpha Centaur i.

If we had that kind of energy on earth, everyone would know.

If only because that much energy in one place would have as much gravity as Jupiter.

Proposed mechanism is a propagation of a distortion of spacetime of a particular form. Thus it is ultimately very much like propagation of gravitational waves. However gravitational waves propagate with speed of light. Therefore I don’t see how it may be possible.

“Take us Out… Chekov”

The biggest form of untapped energy is at rest and stable energy. We only think of energy in it’s transitions. If we would convert the energy of stable space it is limitless.

Useful work of any kind has always, not only by man but by nature as well, only been accomplishable by exploiting an energy gradient (i.e. harnessing the movement of energy from where it is plentiful to where it is scarce). That’s what entropy is.

Find a way around that and we won’t *need* warp drives, we can simply create anything and everything we could ever want from nothing, forever.

You mean element 151…

IDK. I think it is about TIME… to find a horse of a different color. The protocols heron defined have “designed” a wonderful “horseshoe” (RELATIVELY speaking) and are busy trying to fit it to an elephant just because it’s in the ROOM: where time and space are limited… TIME to leave the womb… er… ROOM. Which is to say: Star Trekking is a fantasy, a phantasm and a FICTION devised inside a “boxy” Universe, whose PHYSICS seem to conform to the BIAS of Mortality (TIME is the limiting factor). It engenders HASTE in seeking a solution: We are “on the run”, desperately looking for a way to boldly go where no HUMAN has gone before. Good LUCK with that. Back to the Horseshoe, in want of a “NAIL”. As DANTE writ above the GATES of Hell: “Abandon ye all HOPE who enter here:” Where strayeth the MIND the FEET will follow. But it’s not about Feet, or Miles or Light Years. SINGULARITIES ALL: Infinite acceleration = Infinite ENTROPY. One is effectively DEAD in the water, while the proverbial WORM in the HOLE has a feast. It’s about standing still in the STREAM of Time, while SPACE flows on around ONE: A STREAM where the banks are in motion as well. It’s about being IN the FIELD and NOT UNDER IT. No need for flesh-liquifying SPEED. Think about it… In the meantime, ring up ACME Fireworks Inc. Ask for the “Wile E Coyote” Package. Next stop: Alpha CENTAURI… now passing URANUS on the way out of here. WARP NINE MISTER WARF. MAKE IT SO. Walk the World Round and wind up where you started from. FEET again. It is the ultimate Circular Argument of Intent in a two-dimensional UNIVERSE, OUTSIDE of TIME. The FABRIC of a DREAM…

A very small craft might be fitted with a very high power drive. A craft of 100m radius is mentioned. Eventually we will miniaturize the craft.

I totally agree with you because no way would time ever change no matter how much energy is used in traveling. The most important aspect of this research as I’m working on is understanding hot and cold. Gravity and acceleration of planet and stars to then making a mechanism that can trick the universe into believing the mechanism behavior is indeed faster heavier or lighter then what would be expected for such a device on Earth. Artificial takes new meaning with my studies and I wish you all the best likewise.

Warp drive or not we are not ready until we are one we will never understand we will never be welcomed to intelligent beyond earth I believe ther are watching.

At the present time nothing is faster than light, but there is! It’s always been here watch! The Sun’s light takes about 8 minutes to arrive to earth. If I (THINK) about the sun to earth I have beat the light travel. Human thought is faster than light. Just for thought. Now let’s get down to business. WARP DRIVE can be achieved. Anti-gravity is negative energy. Loaded in darkness of space. What u need in space is large amounts of gravity to pull or accelerate. Warp Drive is a push pull in a sense. A laser SCOPE can achieve this. Space/time bends light as u know, riding on a laser beam moving to a point of reference (sun) gives u the positive gravity neccessary inside the bubble to move. In theory the light is behind you. Still within einstein’s theory.more to say later see ya

The illustration atop this page is an excellent example of WHY artists impressions are NOT useful is the discussion of science.

Put most simply : there is no data, yet there IS an illustration… of SOMETHING, that means nothing. What is there to learn from this?

We Warp Drive manufacturing, our fission-annihilation antigravity propulsion accelerate to lightspeed, but by nuclear annihilation reaction generate high-density time-space, so from outside observation, we traveling on higher speed. The best is to travel outside of the galactic disk for maximum speed. To understand advanced physic is necessary to first understand the Theory of Relativity. Sped of light is constant only in the frame, outside dependant on the speed of time.

Chris m exactly..rest energy would be the best for getting us out of this area..it’s the ink pen vs pencil problem.spend tons of cash on writing with a pen or use a pencil for $.05.we already have the oxygen thing worked out..I say we just jump on in and figure it out as we go haha

Why not look into the idea like the Enterprise u already have this ISS up there why not try to buid a space hanger to build the ship like the Enterprise in it we have the technology to do it and while ship was getting built u cold work on the warp drive engines to power it this is the 21st century we should be thinking on lines like that im not saying theres vulcans or klingonns out there but with a ship like that we might get to see if we are alone in this galaxy or not

This would also allow for sub-light speed as well with I am assuming lesser energy requirements. Works be with losing for just to get around the solar system faster

How do we stop this spaceship?

by “breaking” the warp bubble in advance by a few nano seconds. lowering the space ship to sub light speeds temporarily.

Just traveling at light speed would be an accomplishment, yet no one talks about sailing on waves of gravity which would take much less energy. Even though warp speed is faster, we should probably walk before we run.

faster than light propulsion and anti-gravity

https://pronewsreport.com/2021/05/31/antigravity-flying-saucer-for-solar-system-exploration/

Antimatter for Antigravity and Faster than Light Propulsion

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Space Travel Calculator

Table of contents

Ever since the dawn of civilization, the idea of space travel has fascinated humans! Haven't we all looked up into the night sky and dreamed about space?

With the successful return of the first all-civilian crew of SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission after orbiting the Earth for three days, the dream of space travel looks more and more realistic now.

While traveling deep into space is still something out of science fiction movies like Star Trek and Star Wars, the tremendous progress made by private space companies so far seems very promising. Someday, space travel (or even interstellar travel) might be accessible to everyone!

It's never too early to start planning for a trip of a lifetime (or several lifetimes). You can also plan your own space trip and celebrate World Space Week in your own special way!

This space travel calculator is a comprehensive tool that allows you to estimate many essential parameters in theoretical interstellar space travel . Have you ever wondered how fast we can travel in space, how much time it will take to get to the nearest star or galaxy, or how much fuel it requires? In the following article, using a relativistic rocket equation, we'll try to answer questions like "Is interstellar travel possible?" , and "Can humans travel at the speed of light?"

Explore the world of light-speed travel of (hopefully) future spaceships with our relativistic space travel calculator!

If you're interested in astrophysics, check out our other calculators. Find out the speed required to leave the surface of any planet with the escape velocity calculator or estimate the parameters of the orbital motion of planets using the orbital velocity calculator .

One small step for man, one giant leap for humanity

Although human beings have been dreaming about space travel forever, the first landmark in the history of space travel is Russia's launch of Sputnik 2 into space in November 1957. The spacecraft carried the first earthling, the Russian dog Laika , into space.

Four years later, on 12 April 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin became the first human in space when his spacecraft, the Vostok 1, completed one orbit of Earth.

The first American astronaut to enter space was Alan Shepard (May 1961). During the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to land on the moon. Between 1969 and 1972, a total of 12 astronauts walked the moon, marking one of the most outstanding achievements for NASA.

In recent decades, space travel technology has seen some incredible advancements. Especially with the advent of private space companies like SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and Blue Origin, the dream of space tourism is looking more and more realistic for everyone!

However, when it comes to including women, we are yet to make great strides. So far, 566 people have traveled to space. Only 65 of them were women .

Although the first woman in space, a Soviet astronaut Valentina Tereshkova , who orbited Earth 48 times, went into orbit in June 1963. It was only in October 2019 that the first all-female spacewalk was completed by NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch.

Women's access to space is still far from equal, but there are signs of progress, like NASA planning to land the first woman and first person of color on the moon by 2024 with its Artemis missions. World Space Week is also celebrating the achievements and contributions of women in space this year!

In the following sections, we will explore the feasibility of space travel and its associated challenges.

How fast can we travel in space? Is interstellar travel possible?

Interstellar space is a rather empty place. Its temperature is not much more than the coldest possible temperature, i.e., an absolute zero. It equals about 3 kelvins – minus 270 °C or minus 455 °F. You can't find air there, and therefore there is no drag or friction. On the one hand, humans can't survive in such a hostile place without expensive equipment like a spacesuit or a spaceship, but on the other hand, we can make use of space conditions and its emptiness.

The main advantage of future spaceships is that, since they are moving through a vacuum, they can theoretically accelerate to infinite speeds! However, this is only possible in the classical world of relatively low speeds, where Newtonian physics can be applied. Even if it's true, let's imagine, just for a moment, that we live in a world where any speed is allowed. How long will it take to visit the Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way?

We will begin our intergalactic travel with a constant acceleration of 1 g (9.81 m/s² or 32.17 ft/s²) because it ensures that the crew experiences the same comfortable gravitational field as the one on Earth. By using this space travel calculator in Newton's universe mode, you can find out that you need about 2200 years to arrive at the nearest galaxy! And, if you want to stop there, you need an additional 1000 years . Nobody lives for 3000 years! Is intergalactic travel impossible for us, then? Luckily, we have good news. We live in a world of relativistic effects, where unusual phenomena readily occur.

Can humans travel at the speed of light? – relativistic space travel

In the previous example, where we traveled to Andromeda Galaxy, the maximum velocity was almost 3000 times greater than the speed of light c = 299,792,458 m/s , or about c = 3 × 10 8 m/s using scientific notation.

However, as velocity increases, relativistic effects start to play an essential role. According to special relativity proposed by Albert Einstein, nothing can exceed the speed of light. How can it help us with interstellar space travel? Doesn't it mean we will travel at a much lower speed? Yes, it does, but there are also a few new relativistic phenomena, including time dilation and length contraction, to name a few. The former is crucial in relativistic space travel.

Time dilation is a difference of time measured by two observers, one being in motion and the second at rest (relative to each other). It is something we are not used to on Earth. Clocks in a moving spaceship tick slower than the same clocks on Earth ! Time passing in a moving spaceship T T T and equivalent time observed on Earth t t t are related by the following formula:

where γ \gamma γ is the Lorentz factor that comprises the speed of the spaceship v v v and the speed of light c c c :

where β = v / c \beta = v/c β = v / c .

For example, if γ = 10 \gamma = 10 γ = 10 ( v = 0.995 c v = 0.995c v = 0.995 c ), then every second passing on Earth corresponds to ten seconds passing in the spaceship. Inside the spacecraft, events take place 90 percent slower; the difference can be even greater for higher velocities. Note that both observers can be in motion, too. In that case, to calculate the relative relativistic velocity, you can use our velocity addition calculator .

Let's go back to our example again, but this time we're in Einstein's universe of relativistic effects trying to reach Andromeda. The time needed to get there, measured by the crew of the spaceship, equals only 15 years ! Well, this is still a long time, but it is more achievable in a practical sense. If you would like to stop at the destination, you should start decelerating halfway through. In this situation, the time passed in the spaceship will be extended by about 13 additional years .

Unfortunately, this is only a one-way journey. You can, of course, go back to Earth, but nothing will be the same. During your interstellar space travel to the Andromeda Galaxy, about 2,500,000 years have passed on Earth. It would be a completely different planet, and nobody could foresee the fate of our civilization.

A similar problem was considered in the first Planet of the Apes movie, where astronauts crash-landed back on Earth. While these astronauts had only aged by 18 months, 2000 years had passed on Earth (sorry for the spoilers, but the film is over 50 years old at this point, you should have seen it by now). How about you? Would you be able to leave everything you know and love about our galaxy forever and begin a life of space exploration?

Space travel calculator – relativistic rocket equation

Now that you know whether interstellar travel is possible and how fast we can travel in space, it's time for some formulas. In this section, you can find the "classical" and relativistic rocket equations that are included in the relativistic space travel calculator.

There could be four combinations since we want to estimate how long it takes to arrive at the destination point at full speed as well as arrive at the destination point and stop. Every set contains distance, time passing on Earth and in the spaceship (only relativity approach), expected maximum velocity and corresponding kinetic energy (on the additional parameters section), and the required fuel mass (see Intergalactic travel — fuel problem section for more information). The notation is:

• a a a — Spaceship acceleration (by default 1   g 1\rm\, g 1 g ). We assume it is positive a > 0 a > 0 a > 0 (at least until halfway) and constant.
• m m m — Spaceship mass. It is required to calculate kinetic energy (and fuel).
• d d d — Distance to the destination. Note that you can select it from the list or type in any other distance to the desired object.
• T T T — Time that passed in a spaceship, or, in other words, how much the crew has aged.
• t t t — Time that passed in a resting frame of reference, e.g., on Earth.
• v v v — Maximum velocity reached by the spaceship.
• K E \rm KE KE — Maximum kinetic energy reached by the spaceship.

The relativistic space travel calculator is dedicated to very long journeys, interstellar or even intergalactic, in which we can neglect the influence of the gravitational field, e.g., from Earth. We didn't include our closest celestial bodies, like the Moon or Mars, in the destination list because it would be pointless. For them, we need different equations that also take into consideration gravitational force.

Newton's universe — arrive at the destination at full speed

It's the simplest case because here, T T T equals t t t for any speed. To calculate the distance covered at constant acceleration during a certain time, you can use the following classical formula:

Since acceleration is constant, and we assume that the initial velocity equals zero, you can estimate the maximum velocity using this equation:

and the corresponding kinetic energy:

Newton's universe — arrive at the destination and stop

In this situation, we accelerate to the halfway point, reach maximum velocity, and then decelerate to stop at the destination point. Distance covered during the same time is, as you may expect, smaller than before:

Acceleration remains positive until we're halfway there (then it is negative – deceleration), so the maximum velocity is:

and the kinetic energy equation is the same as the previous one.

Einstein's universe — arrive at the destination at full speed

The relativistic rocket equation has to consider the effects of light-speed travel. These are not only speed limitations and time dilation but also how every length becomes shorter for a moving observer, which is a phenomenon of special relativity called length contraction. If l l l is the proper length observed in the rest frame and L L L is the length observed by a crew in a spaceship, then:

What does it mean? If a spaceship moves with the velocity of v = 0.995 c v = 0.995c v = 0.995 c , then γ = 10 \gamma = 10 γ = 10 , and the length observed by a moving object is ten times smaller than the real length. For example, the distance to the Andromeda Galaxy equals about 2,520,000 light years with Earth as the frame of reference. For a spaceship moving with v = 0.995 c v = 0.995c v = 0.995 c , it will be "only" 252,200 light years away. That's a 90 percent decrease or a 164 percent difference!

Now you probably understand why special relativity allows us to intergalactic travel. Below you can find the relativistic rocket equation for the case in which you want to arrive at the destination point at full speed (without stopping). You can find its derivation in the book by Messrs Misner, Thorne ( Co-Winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics ) and Wheller titled Gravitation , section §6.2. Hyperbolic motion. More accessible formulas are in the mathematical physicist John Baez's article The Relativistic Rocket :

• Time passed on Earth:
• Time passed in the spaceship:
• Maximum velocity:
• Relativistic kinetic energy remains the same:

The symbols sh ⁡ \sh sh , ch ⁡ \ch ch , and th ⁡ \th th are, respectively, sine, cosine, and tangent hyperbolic functions, which are analogs of the ordinary trigonometric functions. In turn, sh ⁡ − 1 \sh^{-1} sh − 1 and ch ⁡ − 1 \ch^{-1} ch − 1 are the inverse hyperbolic functions that can be expressed with natural logarithms and square roots, according to the article Inverse hyperbolic functions on Wikipedia.

Einstein's universe – arrive at destination point and stop

Most websites with relativistic rocket equations consider only arriving at the desired place at full speed. If you want to stop there, you should start decelerating at the halfway point. Below, you can find a set of equations estimating interstellar space travel parameters in the situation when you want to stop at the destination point :

Intergalactic travel – fuel problem

So, after all of these considerations, can humans travel at the speed of light, or at least at a speed close to it? Jet-rocket engines need a lot of fuel per unit of weight of the rocket. You can use our rocket equation calculator to see how much fuel you need to obtain a certain velocity (e.g., with an effective exhaust velocity of 4500 m/s).

Hopefully, future spaceships will be able to produce energy from matter-antimatter annihilation. This process releases energy from two particles that have mass (e.g., electron and positron) into photons. These photons may then be shot out at the back of the spaceship and accelerate the spaceship due to the conservation of momentum. If you want to know how much energy is contained in matter, check out our E = mc² calculator , which is about the famous Albert Einstein equation.

Now that you know the maximum amount of energy you can acquire from matter, it's time to estimate how much of it you need for intergalactic travel. Appropriate formulas are derived from the conservation of momentum and energy principles. For the relativistic case:

where e x e^x e x is an exponential function, and for classical case:

Remember that it assumes 100% efficiency! One of the promising future spaceships' power sources is the fusion of hydrogen into helium, which provides energy of 0.008 mc² . As you can see, in this reaction, efficiency equals only 0.8%.

Let's check whether the fuel mass amount is reasonable for sending a mass of 1 kg to the nearest galaxy. With a space travel calculator, you can find out that, even with 100% efficiency, you would need 5,200 tons of fuel to send only 1 kilogram of your spaceship . That's a lot!

So can humans travel at the speed of light? Right now, it seems impossible, but technology is still developing. For example, a photonic laser thruster is a good candidate since it doesn't require any matter to work, only photons. Infinity and beyond is actually within our reach!

How do I calculate the travel time to other planets?

To calculate the time it takes to travel to a specific star or galaxy using the space travel calculator, follow these steps:

• Choose the acceleration : the default mode is 1 g (gravitational field similar to Earth's).
• Enter the spaceship mass , excluding fuel.
• Select the destination : pick the star, planet, or galaxy you want to travel to from the dropdown menu.
• The distance between the Earth and your chosen stars will automatically appear. You can also input the distance in light-years directly if you select the Custom distance option in the previous dropdown.
• Define the aim : select whether you aim to " Arrive at destination and stop " or “ Arrive at destination at full speed ”.
• Pick the calculation mode : opt for either " Einstein's universe " mode for relativistic effects or " Newton's universe " for simpler calculations.
• Time passed in spaceship : estimated time experienced by the crew during the journey. (" Einstein's universe " mode)
• Time passed on Earth : estimated time elapsed on Earth during the trip. (" Einstein's universe " mode)
• Time passed : depends on the frame of reference, e.g., on Earth. (" Newton's universe " mode)
• Required fuel mass : estimated fuel quantity needed for the journey.
• Maximum velocity : maximum speed achieved by the spaceship.

How long does it take to get to space?

It takes about 8.5 minutes for a space shuttle or spacecraft to reach Earth's orbit, i.e., the limit of space where the Earth's atmosphere ends. This dividing line between the Earth's atmosphere and space is called the Kármán line . It happens so quickly because the shuttle goes from zero to around 17,500 miles per hour in those 8.5 minutes .

How fast does the space station travel?

The International Space Station travels at an average speed of 28,000 km/h or 17,500 mph . In a single day, the ISS can make several complete revolutions as it circumnavigates the globe in just 90 minutes . Placed in orbit at an altitude of 350 km , the station is visible to the naked eye, looking like a dot crossing the sky due to its very bright solar panels.

How do I reach the speed of light?

To reach the speed of light, you would have to overcome several obstacles, including:

Mass limit : traveling at the speed of light would mean traveling at 299,792,458 meters per second. But, thanks to Einstein's theory of relativity, we know that an object with non-zero mass cannot reach this speed.

Energy : accelerating to the speed of light would require infinite energy.

Effects of relativity : from the outside, time would slow down, and you would shrink.

Why can't sound travel in space?

Sound can’t travel in space because it is a mechanical wave that requires a medium to propagate — this medium can be solid, liquid, or gas. In space, there is no matter, or at least not enough for sound to propagate. The density of matter in space is of the order 1 particle per cubic centimeter . While on Earth , it's much denser at around 10 20 particles per cubic centimeter .

Dreaming of traveling into space? 🌌 Plan your interstellar travel (even to a Star Trek destination) using this calculator 👨‍🚀! Estimate how fast you can reach your destination and how much fuel you would need 🚀

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ol{padding-top:0px;}.css-4okk7a ul:not(:first-child),.css-4okk7a ol:not(:first-child){padding-top:4px;} Spaceship and destination 👩‍🚀👨‍🚀

Spaceship acceleration

Spaceship mass

Mass of spaceship excluding fuel.

Destination

Select a destination from the list or type in distance by hand.

Which star/galaxy?

If you want to input your own distance, select the 'Custom destination' option in the 'Which star/galaxy?' field.

Calculation options

Do you want to stop at destination point? If yes, the spaceship will start decelerating once it reaches the halfway point.

Calculations mode

You can compare Einstein's special relativity with non-relativistic Newton's physics. Remember that at near-light speeds only the former is correct!

Travel details 🚀

Time passed in spaceship

Time passed on Earth

Time passed in the resting frame of reference. It could be an observer on Earth.

Required fuel mass

Assuming 100% efficiency.

Maximum velocity

Note that our calculator may round velocity to the speed of light if it is really close to it.

Additional parameters

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The Military Wallet

Space-A Travel Guide: Everything You Need to Know to Take a Flight on a Military Hop

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What Are Space-A Flights (AKA, Military Hops)?

Are you eligible for a space-a flight, how does space-a travel work.

1. Identify Your Destination and Possible Routes

2. Follow the Space-A Flight Schedules of the Passenger Terminals You May Use

3. sign up to travel from all possible starting locations, 4. mark yourself present within 24 hours of roll call, 5. listen for your name during roll call, 6. check your luggage and obtain your boarding pass, 7. board the aircraft and pick your seat, what to expect on a space-a flight, pros and cons of flying space-a, the pros: what are the advantages of flying space-a, the cons: what are the disadvantages of space-a, when should you use space-a, what would a seasoned space-a traveler recommend.

Update: On April 22, 2022, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense lifted all restrictions on Space-A travel. These restrictions were put in place in March 2020 to limit the spread of Covid-19. Mask mandates and medical screening protocols may still apply.

Looking for a way to save money on travel ? Flying space-available (Space-A) on a military flight can be a fun and inexpensive way to see the world, as airfare to and from U.S. military bases can cost you next to nothing.

Flying Space-A on military aircraft is very different from using commercial air travel, and you can’t just call a military passenger terminal and book your flight. It’s worth learning how Space-A travel works so you can take advantage of this incredible privilege available to eligible members of the military community.

After military flights accommodate all required passengers and cargo, they often release extra seats to service members, retirees and their families. These eligible passengers can “hop” on the flights on a space-available (Space-A) basis. This is where the term “military hop” comes from.

Because these are military, not commercial, flights, the military mission is always the priority. You may fly on a commercial plane, but you could also be in a cargo plane or fuel tanker.

See What You Qualify For

Select an option to continue:

There are six categories, or “cats,” of eligible Space-A travelers, depending on their duty status and the reason they are traveling.

Those in lower-numbered categories receive higher priority for available seats.

Here is a summary of the Space-A travel categories, according to the Military OneSource website :

Cat 1: Emergency leave unfunded travel

Cat 2: Accompanied environmental and morale leave (EML)

Cat 3: Ordinary leave, service members’ relatives, house-hunting permissive temporary duty (TDY), Medal of Honor holders , and foreign military; also includes unaccompanied dependents of service members deployed for more than 365 consecutive days.

Cat 4: Unaccompanied EML; also includes dependents of service members deployed between 30 and 364 consecutive days

Cat 5: Permissive TDY (non-house-hunting), student travel, and post-deployment/mobilization respite absence; also includes unaccompanied dependents of service members stationed outside the continental U.S. (OCONUS)

Cat 6: Military retirees, their dependents, military reserve, Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) members and veterans who are 100% disabled

It is important to know your category when planning your Space-A travel because your category determines when you can sign up, what paperwork you need, and where you are eligible to fly. Table 3 in Section 4.11 of Department of Defense Instruction 4515.13 has more details on eligibility by category and approved geographical travel segments.

Eligibility Note for Veterans with a 100% Disability Rating :

According to the AF.mil website , “veterans with a service-connected, permanent disability rating of 100 percent will be able to travel in the Continental United States or directly between the CONUS and Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa (Guam and American Samoa travelers may transit Hawaii or Alaska); or traveling within Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands on flights operated by Air Mobility Command.”

Disabled veterans must have a DD Form 2765, Defense Department ID Card (Tan), to fly Space-A.

The better you understand how to fly Space-A, the greater your chances of having a successful trip.

The first step is to learn which bases have regular flights to where you want to travel. This list of worldwide destinations where Space-A travel may be available includes profiles of some of the terminals and information about typical flight destinations. You’ll want to begin following some of their Space-A flight schedules, which we’ll discuss in the next step.

You may find several possible routes to your desired destination. For example, if you are on the East Coast and want to fly to one of the common destinations, including Spain or Germany, you will likely be able to travel from several nearby bases. Travelers from other parts of the U.S. may need to take two or more hops to get there.

The Space-A Travelers Facebook group can help you put together a flight plan to your destination. You can ask questions and find information about flying to and from specific locations.

You may have to combine Space-A travel with other transportation. For example, you may need to fly or drive to a base with regular Space-A flights to your desired destination. Or you may need to take a train or flight from an overseas base to your final destination.

The Air Mobility Command website maintains a list of all the military passenger terminals , as well as their contact info and links to their websites and Facebook pages.

You’ll find a 72-hour flight schedule for most terminals on their Facebook pages or the AMC website. The schedules include trip destinations, the number of Space-A seats and the “roll call” time. The roll call time is when terminal staff announces who has been selected for the flight.

You may also find information about recently departed flights, including how the number of Space-A seats and how many passengers competed for those seats.

Click here for more details on how to read the Space-A schedules on Facebook .

When you monitor the flights that depart from your target passenger over several weeks or months, you’ll notice patterns in the location and frequency of their missions.

Determine all the terminals you could depart from to reach your desired destination. You’ll increase your chances of success by signing up to fly from all of them. Signing up is free and takes only a few minutes.

The AMC website details the sign-up options, including the required information. You can sign up through their website, by email or in person at the terminal. You can also use the Take-A-Hop app (which costs $6.99). If you’re signing up for several terminals, email and the Take-A-Hop app are the easiest ways to do so.

The sooner you can sign up, the better, as priority within each category is based on the sign-up date and time. So sign up as early as possible. At most terminals, your sign-up is valid for up to 60 days.

Keep in mind that your category may affect how early you can sign up for Space-A travel. For example, active-duty service members (Cat 3) must be on leave before they can sign up. Those in Cat 3, however, have precedence over those in Cats 4 through 6, regardless of when they signed up.

You must mark yourself present at the terminal before roll call to let the staff know that you are competing for the flight. You can do so anytime within 24 hours of the scheduled roll call. Note: roll call times can change unexpectedly, so continually monitor the terminal’s 72-hour flight schedule to ensure you get there in time or, better yet, call the terminal to confirm.

Bring your military ID and any necessary documents, such as your passport, your leave form or your EML orders. If you are an unaccompanied dependent, you’ll need a memo from your sponsor’s command. Also bring a copy of your sign-up email as a backup to prove your sign-up date and time.

At roll call, terminal staff will announce how many Space-A seats are available for the flight and then the names of the selected passengers,  beginning with those in the highest-priority category.

If they call your name, go to the desk and confirm that you and any dependents traveling with you are present. You’ll need to show your military ID and any required paperwork, as well as ID cards for passengers older than 10 years old. For younger passengers,  bring their passports or MilConnect printouts that show the Department of Defense ID numbers.

If they don’t call your name, don’t leave the terminal just yet. Sometimes last-minute Space-A seats become available, so stay at the terminal until boarding time.

Once you and all members of your traveling party, along with all your luggage, must be present when the baggage check begins. This may be right after roll call, or it may be several hours later. You will need to stay in the terminal, as boarding times, like roll call times, can change without notice.

The AMC website’s FAQ page includes detailed information on baggage allowances. Because smaller aircraft may have different weight limits for luggage, it’s best to check ahead of time.

You will generally be allowed to check two pieces of luggage weighing up to 70 lbs each. Similar to many commercial flights, you can also bring one piece of carry-on luggage that fits under your seat or in the overhead compartment. You can usually check car seats and strollers, and they won’t count toward your baggage allowance.

AMC terminals follow the Transportation Security Administration’s baggage screening guidelines , so check their website ahead of time to see what you can bring in your carry-on bag, and what you must put in checked luggage.

Check if meals are available on the flight, as you’ll pay for these when you check your luggage. Some locations offer simple box lunches for a nominal cost.

If you are flying Space-A on a Patriot Express flight , your boarding pass will list your assigned seat.

When terminal staff announces boarding, you’ll go through security and wait in a secure area. With most flights, a bus will take you to the aircraft, and you’ll board from the tarmac.

On most Space-A flights, you’ll choose your seat when you board. On Patriot Express flights, your boarding pass will list your assigned seat.

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Patriot Express flights offer amenities, including meals and in-flight movies. 

Other Space-A flights do not. Snacks and water may be available, but it’s best to be prepared and bring your own.

Seating depends on the type of aircraft. Some have seats that are comparable to commercial airlines. Others have web seating along the sides of the plane. If this is the case, you can stretch out if there’s room.

Patriot Express flights are climate-controlled, but other military aircraft are not. They are often cold or hot, so dress in layers. They can also be loud. The crew usually provides foam earplugs, but it’s a good idea to bring your own.

There are advantages and disadvantages to Space-A travel.

Space-A flights can save you hundreds or thousands of dollars over commercial airlines, which is a clear advantage. The only costs you might incur are a low per-passenger fee on Patriot Express flights, and you may be able to purchase low-cost meals at some terminals that offer meals for purchase.

When you land, you’ll be able to access base resources, including overnight base lodging and the commissary. You may even be able to purchase discount tickets to local events and attractions through the base’s Information, Tickets and Travel office (ITT).

Being able to stretch out on some aircraft can be another advantage over flying economy in a commercial plane. 

If you’re traveling with small children, you may also find that other passengers are more supportive than with a commercial airline.

And, of course, there may be a greater sense of adventure with Space-A travel.

• Free or low-cost air travel
• Access to base amenities (Base Exchange, Commissary, MWR, ITT, etc.)
• Possibly more space to spread out compared to commercial airlines
• It’s an adventure!

Space-A travel is less predictable than flying commercially. Passenger terminals post flight schedules only 72 hours in advance, and you won’t know if you got a seat until the last minute. 

Peak travel times, including summer, winter holidays, and even spring break, are even more competitive. You may need to be more flexible about when you travel and even where you’ll go.

You may incur other costs with Space-A travel, such as transportation to the base you’ll be flying from. You may need to wait for a flight home–possibly for days–and the costs of lodging and meals can quickly add up.

Finally, Space-A travel, unless you’re on a Patriot Express flight, is bare bones. You may find it cold, loud, and uncomfortable. 

• Travel and schedules can vary.
• Seats aren’t guaranteed — you must have flexible travel plans!
• Travel can be difficult during busy times (summer PCS season, holidays, etc.).
• Lodging, meals and transportation costs can add up.
• Military aircraft can be cold and uncomfortable.

If you have the time, flexibility, and patience to wait for a flight, Space-A travel can offer you an adventure while saving you a lot of money. If you’re traveling for an event, such as a wedding, and must arrive by a specific time, Space-A is not the best way to travel, especially if it’s during the peak seasons of summer, winter holidays, and spring break.

Flying Space-A requires planning, patience, and flexibility. Learn as much as you can about the process, and also research desired destinations and passenger terminals so that you can put together a successful flight plan.

When you are ready to leave, make sure you always have a backup plan and ensure you have enough money to pay for commercial transportation if Space-A doesn’t work out. Also, be prepared for a multi-legged journey–several shorter hops that bring you closer to your destination rather than one long direct flight.

About Post Author

Stephanie Montague

Stephanie Montague is the founder of Poppin’ Smoke , a website designed to encourage members of the military community to use their military benefits for travel. Stephanie and her husband have been traveling the world since he retired from the Army in 2015. Through Poppin’ Smoke, Stephanie shares everything they learn about Space-A travel and using military benefits while abroad.

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ray maring says

December 29, 2023 at 9:17 am

Thank you for hosting this information. I am a guardsman, retired and are interested in traveling now.

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How to prepare for a trip to space.

Illustration by Oliver Burston/Ikon Images

Astronauts spend years training for missions. How do commercial travelers get ready?

Part of the wondering series.

The Medical School’s Aleksandra Stankovic is an aerospace psychologist and spaceflight biomedical researcher who studies how to optimize human performance and behavioral health in extreme operational environments. We asked her how a person gets ready to travel to space.

The spaceflight environment presents many challenges — technical, physical, and psychological. With more people having access to space travel today than ever before, successful and safe spaceflights require varying levels of preparation before launch day.

For government astronauts, candidates undergo a rigorous two-year initial training period before qualifying for flight assignment. This training includes learning about Space Station and flight vehicle systems, studying orbital mechanics, becoming proficient in emergency procedures (like how to handle scenarios such as fire, cabin depressurization, or medical issues), conducting flight training in T-38 jets (to build quick decision-making skills in high-performance aircraft), and developing Russian language skills (since international space missions involve collaboration among astronauts from various countries).

To prepare for the microgravity environment of space, astronauts also participate in simulations of weightlessness, including parabolic flights and training in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, a large swimming pool where astronauts practice conducting spacewalks and learn to perform tasks in their pressurized spacesuits. Astronauts complete survival training and learn to cope with extreme conditions — a crucial skill in case of an emergency landing back on Earth in the water or in very cold locations like Siberia. They are trained to operate the robotic arm that is used for tasks such as capturing cargo spacecraft.

Once they receive a flight assignment, astronauts complete an additional 18 months of mission-specific training. They simulate various mission scenarios — including launch, rendezvous, and docking — and emergency procedures. Additionally, they undergo extensive training on the scientific experiments they’ll be conducting, like how to work with equipment, collect samples, and handle data.

Anyone who spends prolonged periods in space will need to spend a lot of their day working out to keep their bodies in strong shape to be healthy when they return home.

Since maintaining physical fitness is vital for astronauts to counteract the muscle and bone loss experienced in microgravity, they spend a lot of time preflight working out. At the same time, long-duration space missions can be mentally challenging, given the prolonged isolation, confinement, and separation from family and friends. Astronauts learn strategies to manage stress, maintain psychological well-being, and work effectively in close environments with their fellow crewmembers.

Commercial astronaut training is significantly less intensive than the training government-sponsored astronauts receive, since their missions are often of shorter duration and focus more on providing safe and enjoyable flying experiences. While commercial crews may stay in space for shorter intervals ranging from a few minutes for suborbital flight to several days or even weeks on the Space Station, government astronauts typically spend six months or more on the station. (Astronaut Frank Rubio recently set the record for longest American space mission with 371 consecutive days in space; cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who logged 437 continuous days in orbit on Russia’s Mir space station between 1994 and 1995, still holds the world record.)

Commercial astronauts often receive more generalized training that covers the basics of space travel and safety/emergency procedures. Anyone who spends prolonged periods in space will need to spend a lot of their day working out to keep their bodies in strong shape to be healthy when they return home. Everyday activities can be challenging without gravity, and sleeping can be difficult without the normal light cues from the sun that our bodies rely upon on Earth to regulate our circadian rhythms. A combination of technology and training help space travelers adapt.

As more people travel to space, on an expanding range of flight vehicles and for varying types of missions, spaceflight preparation too will undoubtedly continue to evolve. It’s an exciting time to be studying how to keep humans safe and healthy in space, and researchers like me are thrilled to be a part of enabling this next great wave of human space exploration!

— As told to Anna Lamb/Harvard Staff Writer

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20 Inventions We Wouldn't Have Without Space Travel

Space A Travel: Everything You Need To Know

Julie Provost

What is Space-A Travel?

Table of Contents

Space-A is being able to travel on DOD aircraft for free or at a limited cost. The flights you take are on a space-available basis, and the number of passengers they take will depend on the flight. Space-A can get you to many different places worldwide, but some locations are more challenging to fly to than others.

When you fly Space-A, you have to do some planning and research. You must know which Space-A category you fall into and what that will mean for flights. You will need to make sure you are eligible and have all the right paperwork. You can travel with children, but you do need to be prepared for the whole trip, and that might be more difficult than flying commercially.

What Are the Different Categories for Space-A Travel?

Those who are eligible for Space-A typically fit into one of six different categories. These categories help determine how likely it is that you can fly.

Category I : Emergency Leave Unfunded Travel- For emergency situations only.

Category II: EML (Environmental Morale Leave) for Active Duty and dependents.

Category III: Active Duty Ordinary Leave- This category also includes those on Terminal Leave as well as their accompanied dependents, those on House Hunting Permissive TDY, Medal of Honor Holders, and dependents of deployed service members as long as they are deployed for 365 consecutive days or more. It is important to note that these dependents will be selected behind active duty members no matter when they sign up.

Category IV: Unaccompanied Dependents on EML or dependents whose sponsor is deployed between and including 30-364 days as well as DODDS teachers on EML during the summer.

Category V: Unaccompanied command-sponsored and non-command-sponsored dependents of active duty, permissive TDY (non-house hunting), and students.

Category VI: 100% disabled veterans.  Retirees as well as their accompanied Dependents, reserve, ROTC, NUPOC, and CEC. The DoD adds, “Surviving Spouses of service members who died while on active duty, inactive duty training, or annual training status. as well as retired military members, and their accompanying dependents.”

Can Retirees Fly Space-A?

Retired military members who are issued DD Form 2 and eligible to receive retired or retainer pay may use Space-A travel according to the Air Mobility Command Space-A official site.

RELATED : Disabled Veterans Can Now Fly Space-A

Are You Able to Travel Without Your Service Member?

Only eligible dependents whose service member is stationed overseas can travel unaccompanied and would do so as CAT-V, with some CONUS restrictions. Those whose service member is deployed for 30 days or more may travel unaccompanied anywhere that Space-A is allowed at a CAT-III, after active duty, or CAT-IV, based on how long they are deployed, as mentioned above. If your spouse is not deployed and stationed in CONUS, you can not use Space-A unless you are with your service member.

What About National Guard or Reserve Members?

At press time, Space-A travel is authorized for National Guard/Reserve components/members of the Ready Reserve and members of the Standby Reserve who are on the Active Status List.

What Do You Have to Do to Get On A Flight?

The first step is get authorized to travel on Space-A. This means starting leave if you are on active duty or getting a travel letter if you are an unaccompanied dependent. If you are a retiree, you should be authorized when you are ready to start the process.

• Sign up and register at the locations you plan to travel to and from. You can do this at some terminals through an online form, in person, by email, or by fax. This signing up doesn’t mean you are on a flight or have an exact flight time. What you will be doing is getting assigned a date and time. This will put you in front of anyone in your category who has a later date and/or time than you do.
• Sign up as soon as possible for as many places as you think you might go. If you are unsure where you will be flying from, sign-up for all potential places. You don’t want to sign-up too far in advance so that your sign-up expires before the date you want to fly. For active duty, you should sign-up as soon as your leave starts, and that sign-up should last until your leave is over. For non-active duty, sign-ups are valid for 60 days.
• Each sign-up location is independent. Call to verify that you are signed up and carry a printed copy of your emails verifying you have done so. That way, you can show that you should be on any list you need to use to travel.

Showing Up for a Flight

• Show up before any potential flight you want to take. Flights will get posted, and you can make your plan from there. You need to mark yourself “Present” for the flight you want to go on. This tells the terminal that you are there and will be ready to fly when the time comes.
• When exactly you are marked “Present” doesn’t matter as far as where you are in line; the date and time of when you signed up does, but you would need to be marked present within 24 hours of flight time.
• It is a good idea to get to the terminal, ready to fly with all of your bags and paperwork, about an hour before what is called “Show Time.” You would then mark yourself “Present” by checking in at the desk and wait until “Show Time.” At this point, you do not want to leave the area, even to grab a bite to eat. Times can change, and you want to be ready if that happens.

Show Time and Roll Call

• “Show Time” is when “Roll Call” can begin, and it is about 2-3 hours before it would be time to fly. You need to be aware of when “Show Time” is supposed to start, as well as what time you would fly if you make it on the flight. Always give yourself extra time.
• “Roll Call” is going to be when the date and time you “signed up” for that location and the category you are in come into play. With “Roll Call,” they start with CAT-I and go through all the way until CAT-VI or until they fill all the seats. For example, someone in CAT-IV, who signed up on June 1st at 10:30 am will be ahead of someone who signed up for CAT-IV, on June 1st, at 11:30 am.  All of CAT-IV would be ahead of all of CAT-5. They might just have 10 seats, or they might have 50 seats, it depends on the flight, aircraft, and how much space they actually have on the flight.
• You will need to be right there during “Roll Call.” If you are somewhere else, and they call your name, and you don’t check-in, you will not make it on the flight. You will need to be travel-ready when this happens.
• Being “Manifested” means you are selected for a flight, and you will be going on this flight unless the flight itself is canceled or you get bumped for cargo. This is where you want to be.
• You can also be “Manifested Through,” which means you won’t have to compete for a seat on your second flight. However, you need to make sure you are “Manifested Through” to your end location. This, however, does not mean you have your round trip covered. You will have to compete for seats on your return trip.

How Much Does Space-A Travel Cost?

Many Space-A flights are free; however, if you take a Patriot Express flight, you may be charged a head tax and inspection fees. Bring cash for this flight, you may not be permitted to pay using a credit card.

You may also need to have extra money for possible stays in hotels, extra food, or even money for transportation. Because some flights get canceled, or it can be hard to get on right away, you might have to wait near the terminal for a few nights.

How Many Bags Can You Bring?

For Space-A, the nature of the mission determines how much baggage can be loaded. On some flights, you may be allowed to bring two pieces of luggage each, not to exceed 70 lbs.  For others, there may be a requirement for the bags to be under 30 lbs.

Where Can You Go For Extra Help?

• The Air Mobility Command website – This is where you can read information about how Space-A works, sign up for flights, and more.
• SpaceA.net – An informational site about the ins and outs of Space-A travel.

Other Tips For Flying Space-A?

The main thing you need to remember is that Space-A is going to require some planning. You will need to spend some time researching where you will go, how many flights they have, and how easy it might be for you to get on a flight. Certain times of the year are busier than others, and you must bring your patience.

Flights can get delayed for days. You might go through the entire process and end up on a flight, only to have to get off and start all over again because there is something going on with the plane. You need to plan for if your first idea doesn’t work out.

There are a lot of benefits to flying Space-A. You can see the world and can do so without having to spend a lot of money, but you have to understand that you will have to work for it. Some flights will be easier than others, and you just never really know what you will find when you attempt to fly Space-A.

If you need to reach your destination by a certain date, Space-A might not be the best way to get there. Unlike a commercial airline, you are not guaranteed a time and a place to fly. Being flexible and understanding is a must. If you can go into Space-A with that mindset, you can enjoy everything Space-A has to offer. 

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