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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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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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Want to go to space? Here's how you can

Have you ever wanted to travel into space? It's theoretically possible. Here are the various options, and how much it will cost you.

Ezzy Pearson

Have you ever wanted to go to space? Is it your dream to leave Earth behind and travel the cosmos? These days getting to space is becoming more of a reality for non-astronauts, even if the cost of doing so remains astronomical.

Go back 60 years and the idea of anyone going into space was little more than a dream. Today, more than 550 people have achieved this ambition, journeying beyond our planet and into low Earth orbit.

For decades it’s been governments footing the bill for training and flying astronauts, but that could all be about to change as space tourism becomes more of a reality over the coming years.

Private spaceflight is on the verge of being able to regularly carry private passengers into space, allowing anyone who wants to travel to the stars to do so – provided they have the money, that is.

What companies are sending tourists to space?

The private company closest to sending people into space is SpaceX. In fact, it has already done so, having completed the first successful crewed flight of the Crew Dragon modules in August.

Rival Boeing isn’t far behind and hopes to have its own Starliner spacecraft certified for human spaceflight by the end of 2021.

Both companies are remaining tight-lipped about their fees, but a 2015 NASA estimate put the cost of a round trip ticket to the International Space Station (ISS) on a Crew Dragon or Starliner module at around $58 million.

Though both companies built the spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS, they also plan on selling flights to whoever can afford it, be they academic institutions hoping to conduct research in orbit or deep-pocketed individuals wanting to take the ultimate trip.

Getting into space: your options

Visit the international space station.

NASA is already anticipating the coming boom of private passengers, announcing back in March that the American space manufacturer Axiom would be building an ISS module to accommodate them.

Axiom is also helping to facilitate flights to the station. Their first, which will take 3 private astronauts to the International Space Station , is planned for mid 2021. There’s still a seat going spare but you’ll have to pay the $55 million price tag on the ticket.

If your budget can stretch to the billions rather than the millions, however, you can always approach private space exploration companies direct for something a little more bespoke than an off-the-shelf flight.

Take a trip around the Moon

Space X is currently working with Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa on such a mission, called #dearmoon , which will send 6 to 8 passengers on a flight around the Moon.

Maezawa is even giving away his seats, but you’ll have to be a world-class artist to stand a chance of getting one; his plan is for all the passengers to create works of art attempting to convey the experience of being in space to the world.

Reach 'outer space' with Virgin Galactic

At the other end of the fee scale, relatively speaking, is the option of taking a sub-orbital flight with Virgin Galactic .

The company promises passengers three things: to cross the boundary into outer space 100km above Earth’s surface; to let them see the curvature of Earth; and at least 5 minutes of free-floating weightlessness.

After years of postponements, founder Richard Branson has announced that he hopes to take his own first flight in early 2021, before working down the list of 600 people who have purchased a ticket at the early-bird price of $250,000.

Become an astronaut

While it’s nice to daydream, the reality is that most of us could never afford even the 6-figure option. There is one more possibility, however: become a professional astronaut.

All you need is excellent physical health; a masters in a physical science, engineering or medicine; several years of work experience; a decorated military history; or over 1,000 hours of flight experience. Easy, eh?

If you’re applying to NASA, who select around a dozen candidates every few years, then you’ll need to have US citizenship. For more on this, read the guide to becoming a NASA astronaut .

For Europeans there might be a bit more of a fight, as the European Space Agency (ESA) hasn’t selected a new class of astronauts since 2008, when 8,414 people applied for just 6 places.

Rumour has it that the agency will be sending out a call for new astronauts in 2021, so it might be time to start working on the CV.For more on this, read the ESA guide to becoming an astronaut .

Which non-astronauts have been to space?

In 1984, American citizen Charles D Walker became the first non-government sponsored person to reach space.His employer, aerospace company McDonnell Douglas, paid for him to fly on three Shuttle missions.

NASA charged just $40,000 per flight, though the company spent around $20 million of its own money training him.

Most private spaceflights, however, were not flown on NASA's Space Shuttle but on the Russian Soyuz .

In the 1990s, the Soviet Union’s wider financial problems left its space agency with a shortfall in its ledger, making it more than willing to accommodate paying customers.

In 1990, a Japanese broadcasting company paid for reporter Toyohiro Akiyama to fly to the Mir space station, and a few years later Helen Sharman had her flight paid for by various sponsors, becoming the UK’s first astronaut.

In 1998, Space Adventures began working with the Russian space agency to broker future flights to the International Space Station (ISS).

Since then, the company has trained and flown seven individuals, including the second person to wear the British flag in space, gaming entrepreneur Richard Garriott.

In all these flights, the individuals did more than just float around, looking at the view.Instead, they helped to conduct research and experiments, or put on outreach events to educate those back on Earth.

Ezzy Pearson is BBC Sky at Night Magazine's News Editor. This guide originally appeared in the November 2020 issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine .

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Ten things to take on your next trip to space

Tory Shepherd

Tory Shepherd is an Adelaide-based freelance journalist who has covered Space 2.0 for The Advertiser.

By all accounts, going to the toilet in space is horrid. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson said it was the most challenging thing about the International Space Station (ISS). Still, at least they have toilets. On the Apollo missions, astronauts used plastic bags .

Things have got better since Whitson’s time. Last year, NASA introduced its new space toilet , with an “improved seat and funnel design for increased cleanliness and crew comfort”.

It’s still not that easy to “boldly go”, though.

This week, space archaeologist Alice Gorman took a look at how toilets and other household artefacts translate (or don’t) into space.

The Flinders University associate professor gave a talk to commemorate the 60 th anniversary of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s 1961 orbit of Earth – after which an Australian journalist presented him with a boomerang to symbolise the act of returning.

More on the boomerang later.

Gorman has studied the ISS and how the crew use objects, and talked about her findings in Don’t leave Earth without it: Ten objects you need to survive in space .

1. A pencil

You know the old Cold War gag about the US spending millions on a special pen that will write in space? Meanwhile, the Russians used pencils…

“It’s a great story, but it’s unfortunately not true,” Gorman says. “Both NASA and the USSR use pencils.” Today’s astronauts and cosmonauts use both pens and pencils, but the pencils as an “old and simple technology” are used both functionally and artistically – like “ space artist and pioneer ” Alexei Leonov.

Another space myth? Many think Velcro was developed by NASA for space use, but it was actually invented in 1941, long before the Apollo missions. Having said that, though, its use in space may well be what made it so popular. 

Gorman says there are dots of velcro all over the ISS and that these act as “gravity surrogates”. In areas of high activity, you might have lots of “male” Velcro dots, so you put “female” Velcro dots on the things you carry around.

3. Wet Wipes

Water’s at a premium, so the ISS crew use wet wipes. There are gentle ones for skin, and disinfectant ones for other areas.

“You want to get the right ones, though,” Gorman says. “Because there are bleach-infused ones for cleaning the surfaces.”

4. Toothbrush

Gorman says the ordinary, non-electric-powered toothbrush is “almost pre-adapted to space”.

“When you have free liquid water… it doesn’t fall, it stays floating in a little globule. If you squeeze a bit of water onto a toothbrush, the bristles will capture the water and hold in place because of the surface tension. So it’s perfect,” she says.

Then there was the time the ISS suffered a malfunction after a bolt became encrusted with metal shavings. Astronaut Sunita “MacGyver” Williams made a tool out of toothbrush to fix it .

You don’t need shoes in space, because you’re barely touching the floor… actually, there’s not really a “floor” to touch. Socks become the main footwear. They help protect feet from rubbing against footholds, but they have also become a form of self-expression. People might have Christmas socks, or even pictures of their families on the socks keeping their toes warm.

Sometimes, in male-dominated industries like space, men aren’t really sure how women will cope with their menstrual cycles. Turns out it’s pretty straight forward, and Earthly tampons will do the trick.

Gorman says space toilets are “horrendous things”. “They work by suction. They’re not very well adapted for women’s bodies. They’re horribly expensive, and no one likes using them,” she says.

But she explains another reason going to the toilet can be such a pain in the proverbial: “We rely on the presence of gravity for a full bladder to send signals to the brain,” she says.

“That’s not what happens in space. Because liquid floats, there’s no pressure, and the bladder fills from the inside. And you only become aware that you need to do something about this right at the last minute.”

See this article in The Conversation for more information on going to the toilet in space (includes pictures!).

It takes a lot of technology to put in something as “ordinary” as a window on a spacecraft. Gorman says initially engineers were not keen on the idea – they thought of them as an “unnecessary piece of frippery” – but the astronauts said it was an absolute necessity. And as it turns out, it can help with situational awareness, with seeing other craft docking, and of course with alleviating the monotony of space.

“What’s the point of being in space if all you can see is the walls of the tin can that you’re floating in?” Gorman asks.

9. Photographs

When you’re away from your loved ones photos become essential, and crew members keep them in their personal spaces. Apollo astronaut Charlie Duke did something a bit different, which was leaving a photograph of his family in a plastic bag on the Moon. A quickly fading memorial.

10. Boomerang

Gorman brings us back (returns us, if you will) to the boomerang.

While Gagarin’s boomerang never made it into space, another one recently did. US astronaut Shannon Walker carried a boomerang made by Kaurna man Jack Buckskin up to the ISS – Dr Walker is married to Adelaide-born former astronaut Andy Thomas. In this video , she talks about returning the artefact to Earth.

Gorman points out that the boomerang shows a connection to Aboriginal cultures, and is also a symbol of flight, and returns.

The Royal Institution of Australia has an Education resource based on this article. You can access it here .

Originally published by Cosmos as Ten things to take on your next trip to space

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Do You Want to Travel in Space?

A 29-year-old cancer survivor is set to become the youngest American to travel to orbit. Have you ever dreamed of taking such a journey?

By John Otis

Students in U.S. high schools can get free digital access to The New York Times until Sept. 1, 2021.

Have you ever dreamed of becoming an astronaut — or traveling to outer space? What’s so appealing about leaving Earth?

How realistic are such aspirations?

One “ordinary citizen” was recently chosen to be a passenger aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Kenneth Chang writes about Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old cancer survivor who recently learned that she had been chosen to join a crewed mission to orbit the Earth, in “ She Beat Cancer at 10. Now She’s Set to Be the Youngest American in Space .” Here’s an excerpt:

Ms. Arceneaux, a physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, will be one of four people on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Florida. Scheduled to launch late this year, it is to be the first crewed mission to circle Earth in which no one on board is a professional astronaut. “I did ask, ‘Am I going to get a passport stamp for going to space?’” Ms. Arceneaux said. “But I don’t think I’m going to. So I’m just going to draw a star and the moon in one of my passports.” This adventure is spearheaded by Jared Isaacman, a 38-year-old billionaire who announced in January that he had bought the rocket launch from SpaceX, the space company started by Elon Musk. Mr. Isaacman said at the time that he wanted the mission to be more than a jaunt for the superwealthy, and that he had given two of the four available seats to St. Jude.

The article goes on to explain the significance of this space journey:

Ms. Arceneaux could become the youngest American ever to travel to orbit. She will also be the first person with a prosthetic body part to go to space. She was a patient at St. Jude nearly 20 years ago, and as part of her treatment for bone cancer, metal rods replaced parts of the bones in her left leg. In the past, that would have kept her firmly on the ground, unable to meet NASA’s stringent medical standards for astronauts. But the advent of privately financed space travel has opened the final frontier to some people who were previously excluded. Dr. Michael D. Neel, the orthopedic surgeon who installed Ms. Arceneaux’s prosthesis, says that although having artificial leg bones means that she can’t play contact sports on Earth, they should not limit her on this SpaceX trek. “It shows us that the sky is not the limit,” Dr. Neel said. “It’s the sky and beyond. I think that’s the real point of all this, that she has very little limitations as far as what you can do. Unless you’re going to play football up there.”

Students, read the entire article , then tell us:

Have you ever dreamed of becoming an astronaut or working for NASA? Are you fascinated by outer space or space travel? Why do you think so many of us are captivated by space and its mysteries?

If you had an opportunity to go anywhere in space, where would you visit? The moon? Mars? Another planet? Would you want to venture beyond our solar system? Why?

If you could be part of the SpaceX Falcon 9 flight, what would thrill you the most about the ride? Making history? Experiencing weightlessness? Viewing Earth from orbit? Something else?

In the article, Ms. Arceneaux said that she wanted to give hope to those battling serious illness: “They’ll be able to see a cancer survivor in space, especially one that has gone through the same thing that they have. It’s going to help them visualize their future.” Are you inspired by Ms. Arceneaux? Have you been through hardships that have inspired others?

If you don’t want to journey to outer space, where would you prefer to go instead?

About Student Opinion

• Find all of our Student Opinion questions in this column . • Have an idea for a Student Opinion question? Tell us about it . • Learn more about how to use our free daily writing prompts for remote learning .

Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Voyager 1: Facts about Earth's farthest spacecraft

Voyager 1 continues to explore the cosmos along with its twin probe, Voyager 2.

The Grand Tour

Voyager 1 jupiter flyby, voyager 1 visits saturn and its moons, voyager 1 enters interstellar space, voyager 1's interstellar adventures, additional resources.

Voyager 1 is the first spacecraft to travel beyond the solar system and reach interstellar space . 

The probe launched on Sept. 5, 1977 — about two weeks after its twin Voyager 2 — and as of August 2022 is approximately 14.6 billion miles (23.5 billion kilometers) away from our planet, making it Earth 's farthest spacecraft. Voyager 1 is currently zipping through space at around 38,000 mph (17 kilometers per second), according to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory .

When Voyager 1 launched a mission to explore the outer planets in our solar system nobody knew how important the probe would still be 45 years later The probe has remained operational long past expectations and continues to send information about its journeys back to Earth. 

Related: Celebrate 45 years of Voyager with these amazing images of our solar system (gallery)

Elizabeth Howell, Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022. She was contributing writer for  Space.com  for 10 years before that, since 2012. Elizabeth's on-site reporting includes two human spaceflight launches from Kazakhstan, three space shuttle missions in Florida, and embedded reporting from a simulated Mars mission in Utah. 

Size: Voyager 1's body is about the size of a subcompact car. The boom for its magnetometer instrument extends 42.7 feet (13 meters). Weight (at launch): 1,797 pounds (815 kilograms). Launch date: Sept. 5, 1977

Jupiter flyby date: March 5, 1979

Saturn flyby date: Nov. 12, 1980.

Entered interstellar space: Aug. 25, 2012. 

The spacecraft entered interstellar space in August 2012, almost 35 years after its voyage began. The discovery wasn't made official until 2013, however, when scientists had time to review the data sent back from Voyager 1.

Voyager 1 was the second of the twin spacecraft to launch, but it was the first to race by Jupiter and Saturn . The images Voyager 1 sent back have been used in schoolbooks and by many media outlets for a generation. The spacecraft also carries a special record — The Golden Record — that's designed to carry voices and music from Earth out into the cosmos. 

According to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) , Voyager 1 has enough fuel to keep its instruments running until at least 2025. By then, the spacecraft will be approximately 13.8 billion miles (22.1 billion kilometers) away from the sun.  

The Voyager missions took advantage of a special alignment of the outer planets that happens just once every 176 years. This alignment allows spacecraft to gravitationally "slingshot" from one planet to the next, making the most efficient use of their limited fuel.

NASA originally planned to send two spacecraft past Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto and two other probes past Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune . Budgetary reasons forced the agency to scale back its plans, but NASA still got a lot out of the two Voyagers it launched.

Voyager 2 flew past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune , while Voyager 1 focused on Jupiter and Saturn.

Recognizing that the Voyagers would eventually fly to interstellar space, NASA authorized the production of two Golden Records to be placed on board the spacecraft. Sounds ranging from whale calls to the music of Chuck Berry were placed on board, as well as spoken greetings in 55 languages. 

The 12-inch-wide (30 centimeters), gold-plated copper disks also included pictorials showing how to operate them and the position of the sun among nearby pulsars (a type of fast-spinning stellar corpse known as a neutron star ), in case extraterrestrials someday stumbled onto the spacecraft and wondered where they came from.

Both spacecraft are powered by three radioisotope thermoelectric generators , devices that convert the heat released by the radioactive decay of plutonium to electricity. Both probes were outfitted with 10 scientific instruments, including a two-camera imaging system, multiple spectrometers, a magnetometer and gear that detects low-energy charged particles and high-energy cosmic rays . Mission team members have also used the Voyagers' communications system to help them study planets and moons, bringing the total number of scientific investigations on each craft to 11.

Voyager 1 almost didn't get off the ground at its launch , as its rocket came within 3.5 seconds of running out of fuel on Sept. 5, 1977.

But the probe made it safely to space and raced past its twin after launch, getting beyond the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter before Voyager 2 did. Voyager 1's first pictures of Jupiter beamed back to Earth in April 1978, when the probe was 165 million miles (266 million kilometers) from home.

According to NASA , each voyager probe has about 3 million times less memory than a mobile phone and transmits data approximately 38,000 times slower than a 5g internet connection.  

To NASA's surprise, in March 1979 Voyager 1 spotted a thin ring circling the giant planet. It found two new moons as well — Thebe and Metis. Additionally, Voyager 1 sent back detailed pictures of Jupiter's big Galilean moons ( Io , Europa , Ganymede and Callisto ) as well as Amalthea .

Like the Pioneer spacecraft before it , Voyager's look at Jupiter's moons revealed them to be active worlds of their own. And Voyager 1 made some intriguing discoveries about these natural satellites. For example, Io's many volcanoes and mottled yellow-brown-orange surface showed that, like planets, moons can have active interiors.

Additionally, Voyager 1 sent back photos of Europa showing a relatively smooth surface broken up by lines, hinting at ice and maybe even an ocean underneath. (Subsequent observations and analyses have revealed that Europa likely harbors a huge subsurface ocean of liquid water, which may even be able to support Earth-like life .)

Voyager 1's closest approach to Jupiter was on March 5, 1979, when it came within 174,000 miles (280,000 km) of the turbulent cloud tops. Then it was time for the probe to aim for Saturn.

Scientists only had to wait about a year, until 1980, to get close-up pictures of Saturn. Like Jupiter, the ringed planet turned out to be full of surprises.

One of Voyager 1's targets was the F ring, a thin structure discovered only the year previously by NASA's Pioneer 11 probe. Voyager's higher-resolution camera spotted two new moons, Prometheus and Pandora, whose orbits keep the icy material in the F ring in a defined orbit. It also discovered Atlas and a new ring, the G ring, and took images of several other Saturn moons.

One puzzle for astronomers was Titan , the second-largest moon in the solar system (after Jupiter's Ganymede). Close-up pictures of Titan showed nothing but orange haze, leading to years of speculation about what it was like underneath. It wouldn't be until the mid-2000s that humanity would find out, thanks to photos snapped from beneath the haze by the European Space Agency's Huygens atmospheric probe .

The Saturn encounter marked the end of Voyager 1's primary mission. The focus then shifted to tracking the 1,590-pound (720 kg) craft as it sped toward interstellar space.

Two decades before it notched that milestone, however, Voyager 1 took one of the most iconic photos in spaceflight history. On Feb. 14, 1990, the probe turned back toward Earth and snapped an image of its home planet from 3.7 billion miles (6 billion km) away. The photo shows Earth as a tiny dot suspended in a ray of sunlight. 

Voyager 1 took dozens of other photos that day, capturing five other planets and the sun in a multi-image "solar system family portrait." But the Pale Blue Dot picture stands out, reminding us that Earth is a small outpost of life in an incomprehensibly vast universe.

Voyager 1 left the heliosphere — the giant bubble of charged particles that the sun blows around itself — in August 2012, popping free into interstellar space. The discovery was made public in a study published in the journal Science the following year.

The results came to light after a powerful solar eruption was recorded by Voyager 1's plasma wave instrument between April 9 and May 22, 2013. The eruption caused electrons near Voyager 1 to vibrate. From the oscillations, researchers discovered that Voyager 1's surroundings had a higher density than what is found just inside the heliosphere.

It seems contradictory that electron density is higher in interstellar space than it is in the sun's neighborhood. But researchers explained that, at the edge of the heliosphere, the electron density is dramatically low compared with locations near Earth. 

Researchers then backtracked through Voyager 1's data and nailed down the official departure date to Aug. 25, 2012. The date was fixed not only by the electron oscillations but also by the spacecraft's measurements of charged solar particles. 

On that fateful day — which was the same day that Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong died — the probe saw a 1,000-fold drop in these particles and a 9% increase in galactic cosmic rays that come from outside the solar system . At that point, Voyager 1 was 11.25 billion miles (18.11 billion km) from the sun, or about 121 astronomical units (AU).

One AU is the average Earth-sun distance — about 93 million miles (150 million km).

You can keep tabs on the Voyager 1's current distance and mission status on this NASA website .

Since flying into interstellar space, Voyager 1 has sent back a variety of valuable information about conditions in this zone of the universe . Its discoveries include showing that cosmic radiation out there is very intense, and demonstrating how charged particles from the sun interact with those emitted by other stars , mission project scientist Ed Stone, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, told Space.com in September 2017 .

The spacecraft's capabilities continue to astound engineers. In December 2017, for example, NASA announced that Voyager 1 successfully used its backup thrusters to orient itself to "talk" with Earth . The trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) thrusters hadn't been used since November 1980, during Voyager 1's flyby of Saturn. Since then, the spacecraft had primarily used its standard attitude-control thrusters to swing the spacecraft in the right orientation to communicate with Earth. 

As the performance of the attitude-control thrusters began to deteriorate, however, NASA decided to test the TCM thrusters — an idea that could extend Voyager 1's operational life. That test ultimately succeeded. 

"With these thrusters that are still functional after 37 years without use, we will be able to extend the life of the Voyager 1 spacecraft by two to three years," Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd, of NASA's Jet Propulsion, Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, said in a statement in December 2017 .

Mission team members have taken other measures to extend Voyager 1's life as well. For example, they turned off the spacecraft's cameras shortly after the Pale Blue Dot photo was taken to help conserve Voyager 1's limited power supply. (The cameras wouldn't pick up much in the darkness of deep space anyway.) Over the years, the mission team has turned off five other scientific instruments as well, leaving Voyager 1 with four that are still functioning — the Cosmic Ray Subsystem, the Low-Energy Charged Particles instrument, the Magnetometer and the Plasma Wave Subsystem. (Similar measures have been taken with Voyager 2, which currently has five operational instruments .)

The Voyager spacecraft each celebrated 45 years in space in 2022, a monumental milestone for the twin probes.

"Over the last 45 years, the Voyager missions have been integral in providing this knowledge and have helped change our understanding of the sun and its influence in ways no other spacecraft can," says Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in a NASA statement .

"Today, as both Voyagers explore interstellar space, they are providing humanity with observations of uncharted territory," said Linda Spilker, Voyager's deputy project scientist at JPL in the same NASA statement.

"This is the first time we've been able to directly study how a star, our Sun, interacts with the particles and magnetic fields outside our heliosphere, helping scientists understand the local neighborhood between the stars, upending some of the theories about this region, and providing key information for future missions." Spilker continues.

Voyager 1's next big encounter will take place in 40,000 years when the probe comes within 1.7 light-years of the star AC +79 3888. (The star is roughly 17.5 light-years from Earth.) However, Voyager 1's falling power supply means it will probably stop collecting scientific data around 2025.

You can learn much more about both Voyagers' design, scientific instruments and mission goals at JPL's Voyager site . NASA has lots of in-depth information about the Pale Blue Dot photo, including Carl Sagan's large role in making it happen, here . And if you're interested in the Golden Record, check out this detailed New Yorker piece by Timothy Ferris, who produced the historic artifact.  Explore the history of Voyager with this interactive timeline courtesy of NASA.  

Bibliography

• Bell, Jim. " The Interstellar Age: Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission ," Dutton, 2015.
• Landau, Elizabeth. "The Voyagers in popular culture," Dec. 1, 2017. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/the-voyagers-in-popular-culture
• PBS, "Voyager: A history in photos." https://www.pbs.org/the-farthest/mission/voyager-history-photos/

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Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, " Why Am I Taller ?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science at several institutions since 2015; her experience includes developing and teaching an astronomy course at Canada's Algonquin College (with Indigenous content as well) to more than 1,000 students since 2020. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace

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Everything you need to know about space tourism

Posted: April 4, 2024 | Last updated: April 4, 2024

Between floating in weightlessness, witnessing 16 sunrises a day and gazing into the infinite void, space travel sure sounds like an out-of-this-world experience. And now, it’s no longer a thing of the future.

That’s right, soon interstellar awe will be open to (almost) anyone, as billionaires Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk are pushing the space tourism industry to a higher orbit.

What is space tourism?

Well, it’s almost like regular tourism: travel for recreational and leisure purposes… but in outer space. Some organizations like the Commercial Spaceflight Federation and the Citizens in Space project prefer to use the terms “personal spaceflight” or “citizen space exploration,” though.

In a nutshell, it’s space travel for non-astronauts.

Who can travel to space?

Anyone ! Well, that is, anyone with enough money. No need to have any previous science qualifications or NASA training, especially since a trained crew will escort tourists on their galactic journey.

According to Virgin Galactic, future space tourists will be between 10 and 90 years old, and come from diverse professional and cultural backgrounds.

The only thing you need? The desire to explore the universe!

What is orbital travel?

The main difference between orbital and suborbital flights lies in the trajectory and speed of the vessels.

To go into orbit, a rocket or spaceship needs to follow a path that goes around the Earth at the very fast minimum speed of 7.7 kilometres (4.8 miles) per second, in order to keep circling and never fall back down.

It allows astronauts and travellers to stay in space for extended periods of time, hence it is for now the preferred type of flight.

What is suborbital travel?

A suborbital flight , which is what Branson and Bezos did, “just” requires enough energy to blast off to space and then naturally fall back to Earth, making a huge arc.

It requires less energy and is less costly than orbital flights, thus opening doors for relatively affordable space tourism in the future.

Passengers would experience up to six minutes of weightlessness and a grandiose view.

How do you prepare?

Although Virgin Galactic doesn’t explicitly list its physical requirements, they did say astronauts would have to pass certain medical checkups and training programs. Blue Origin, on the other hand, has said that training for suborbital trips will only take a day.

And of course, any space tourist will also have to pass a series of thorough tests to determine whether they’re fit to fly up there.

Once in space, you may have to perform small bouts of exercise to prevent muscle wasting , which takes place after just seven days.

What is lunar tourism?

As its name hints, lunar tourism is the project of sending paying travellers to the moon. The first one could happen as soon as 2023, and would consist of a loop flight.

But three types of lunar tourism could be available in the near future: circumlunar trajectory, lunar orbit, and even lunar landing.

How cool would it be to say to someone, upon returning from a lunar vacation, “I’ve literally loved you to the moon and back”?

Where does space tourism take place?

Admittedly, space is a vast place. So where exactly would tourists go ?

First, any space travel begins with the Kármán line , which lies at 100 kilometres (62 miles) above sea level and is commonly accepted as the limit between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.

Then, there are several options: orbital, suborbital, and lunar space tourism.

Have touristic space travels already occurred?

Yes! From 2001 to 2009, the Russian space agency and the U.S.-based space tourism company Space Adventures took seven (very wealthy) members of the public for several orbital space travels to the International Space Station.

The flights took place aboard the famous spacecraft Soyuz but stopped in 2010, since the crew of actual astronauts grew bigger and left no more seats available for paying space tourists.

Who were the first space tourists?

The American businessman Dennis Tito became officially the first space tourist in April 2001, when he stayed for seven days on the International Space Station.

He was followed by six multimillionaire fellows from various countries: South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth, American scientist Gregory Olsen, Iranian engineer Anousheh Ansari (the first female space tourist), Hungarian-American computer programmer Charles Simonyi, British video game mogul Richard Garriott, and Canadian businessman Guy Laliberté.

On July 11, 2021, billionaire Richard Branson, along with three Virgin Galactic employees and two pilots, reached an altitude of 85 kilometres (53 miles) above Earth aboard his Virgin Galactic rocket plane, the Unity. Less than 10 days later, on July 20, the world’s richest man, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, briefly entered space on Blue Origin , his private space company’s reusable rocket. He was joined by his younger brother Mark, Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen, and Wally Funk, who, at 82 years old, became the oldest astronaut.

Who would be the space tourism “agencies”?

Unlike past tourism experiments, which took place aboard vessels sent off for scientific purposes, future travels will happen on private companies’ flights set up solely for space tourism.

Those pioneering aerospace companies are Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic ; SpaceX, founded by Tesla co-founder Elon Musk ; and Blue Origin , created by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

When will space tourism happen?

Sooner than you think. According to Forbes , Virgin Galactic’s successful trip means the company could start sending civilians up into space as soon as early 2022. Likewise, Blue Origin, which has a Federal Aviation Administration licence for human space travel through August 2021, could officially enter the space tourism game by early 2022.

How much will it cost?

It’s not exactly clear at the moment, but there have been some indications. For example, Virgin Galactic began selling ticket reservations for US$250,000 and sold roughly 600, before a test crash in 2014 brought sales to a halt. They’re expected to start selling tickets again in 2022, but at a much higher price.

It was reported in 2018 that seats on Bezos’s Blue Origin would also cost in the ballpark of US$200,000 to US$300,000, but that could change given how high demand is. At a recent auction, the winning bid for a seat aboard the company’s first spaceflight was a whopping US$28 million .

The bottom line is, those hoping to take a trip around the stars will either need to know someone or have hundreds of thousands (likely even millions) of dollars to spare.

How do we get there?

The development of space tourism vehicles is still an ongoing project.

But a few options already exist, like Virgin Galactic’s spaceplanes that can carry up to eight people, or SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft , launched by the Falcon Heavy rocket.

Blue Origin’s New Shepard looks more like a regular rocket that takes off and lands vertically, but also claims to offer the biggest windows of any spacecraft—a good selling point. It comfortably sits six people and is fully autonomous, meaning no pilot onboard.

What does it feel like?

Needless to say, travelling to space is no walk in the park.

You’re eager to experience the joys of floating in microgravity? You better also get prepared to endure several physical discomforts: nausea and sea sickness, dizziness, headache, disorientation, puffy face, and bloodshot eyes.

But astronauts and previous space tourists agree that the body adjusts fairly quickly, getting used to its spatial environment in about three days.

Is it safe?

Safety is a reasonable concern , considering the many hazards involved in space travel: the probability of a crash, exposure to cosmic radiation, and even unknown dangers that could emerge with this new industry. But here is the real question for any adventurer: is the thrill worth the risk?

What is the food like?

For many tourists, food is a crucial criterion for a successful vacation. But outer space is no place for gourmets, at least not yet. Interstellar tourists can expect to enjoy mostly canned, modified, and pre-packaged meals (such as space burritos and freeze-dried ice cream). But soon, thanks to NASA’s veggie farm , space tourists might be able to savour space-grown salads.

What about the accommodations?

Orbital space travel allows you to stay up there for a few days or even weeks. At that point, you might want to stretch your legs outside of the spacecraft, right? Well, in the future, space stations could be used as hotels: the Genesis inflatable habitats by Bigelow Aerospace and the Space Island Project are existing examples. Make sure to book a room with a view of planet Earth!

How to pack a space suitcase?

Packing a suitcase for a trip through the cosmos is actually less of a headache than doing so for a weekend vacation on Earth. Just keep in mind that it’s impossible to do laundry in space, so pack clothes accordingly : stock up on underwear, light clothing (space station temperature is controlled at about 22 degrees Celsius, or 72 degrees Fahrenheit), and exercise outfits. Outerwear will be provided: an orange suit for takeoff and re-entry, and a white one for potential space strolls.

Is it eco-friendly?

With ecotourism being a growing trend and concern over the last few years, the question is legitimate. Well, bad news: space travel could have a negative impact by accelerating global warming . This would be caused by the black carbon released into the stratosphere after suborbital launches. But of course, entrepreneurs in the industry claim that the carbon footprint of space tourism would be minimal. The truth is, rockets emit 50 to 100 times more CO₂ per passenger than a regular flight. Considering that Virgin Galactic plans to do 400 trips per year, that’s a lot of CO₂ entering the atmosphere.

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The 12 Greatest Challenges for Space Exploration

Humanity began in Africa. But we didn’t stay there, not all of us—over thousands of years our ancestors walked all over the continent, then out of it. And when they came to the sea, they built boats and sailed tremendous distances to islands they could not have known were there. Why?

Probably for the same reason we look up at the moon and the stars and say, “What’s up there? Could we go there? Maybe we could go there.” Because it’s something human beings do.

Space is, of course, infinitely more hostile to human life than the surface of the sea; escaping Earth’s gravity entails a good deal more work and expense than shoving off from the shore. But those boats were the cutting-edge technology of their time. Voyagers carefully planned their expensive, dangerous journeys, and many of them died trying to find out what was beyond the horizon. So why keep doing it?

I could tell you about spin-off technologies, ranging from small products of convenience to discoveries that might feed millions or prevent deadly accidents or save the lives of the sick and injured.

I could tell you that we shouldn’t keep all our eggs in this increasingly fragile basket—one good meteor strike and we all join the non-avian dinosaurs. And have you noticed the weather lately?

I could tell you that it might be good for us to unite behind a project that doesn’t involve killing one another, that does involve understanding our home planet and the ways we survive on it and what things are crucial to our continuing to survive on it.

I could tell you that moving farther out into the solar system might be a good plan, if humanity is lucky enough to survive the next 5.5 billion years and the sun expands enough to fry the Earth.

I could tell you all those things: all the reasons we should find some way to live away from this planet, to build space stations and moon bases and cities on Mars and habitats on the moons of Jupiter. All the reasons we should, if we manage that, look out at the stars beyond our sun and say, “Could we go there? Maybe we could go there.”

It’s a huge, dangerous, maybe impossible project. But that’s never stopped humans from bloody-mindedly trying anyway.

Humanity was born on Earth. Are we going to stay here? I suspect—I hope—the answer is no. — Ann Leckie

Ann Leckie is the Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning author of Ancillary Justice .

problem: takeoff

Getting off Earth is a little like getting divorced: You want to do it quickly, with as little baggage as possible. But powerful forces conspire against you—specifically, gravity. If an object on Earth’s surface wants to fly free, it needs to shoot up and out at speeds exceeding 25,000 mph.

That takes serious oomph—read: dollars. It cost nearly $200 million just to launch the Mars Curiosity rover, about a tenth of the mission’s budget, and any crewed mission would be weighed down by the stuff needed to sustain life. Composite materials like exotic-metal alloys and fibered sheets could reduce the weight; combine that with more efficient, more powerful fuel mixtures and you get a bigger bang for your booster.

Scott Gilbertson

Medea Giordano

But the ultimate money saver will be reusability. “As the number of flights increases, economies of scale kick in,” says Les Johnson, a technical assistant at NASA’s Advanced Concepts Office. “That’s the key to getting the cost to drop dramatically.” SpaceX’s Falcon 9 , for example, was designed to relaunch time and again. The more you go to space, the cheaper it gets. —Nick Stockton

problem: propulsion

Hurtling through space is easy. It’s a vacuum, after all; nothing to slow you down. But getting started? That’s a bear. The larger an object’s mass, the more force it takes to move it—and rockets are kind of massive. Chemical propellants are great for an initial push, but your precious kerosene will burn up in a matter of minutes. After that, expect to reach the moons of Jupiter in, oh, five to seven years. That’s a heck of a lot of in-flight movies. Propulsion needs a radical new method. Here’s a look at what rocket scientists now have, or are working on, or wish they had. —Nick Stockton

problem: space junk

Congratulations! You’ve successfully launched a rocket into orbit. But before you break into outer space, a rogue bit of broke-ass satellite comes from out of nowhere and caps your second-stage fuel tank. No more rocket.

This is the problem of space debris , and it’s very real. The US Space Surveillance Network has eyes on 17,000 objects—each at least the size of a softball—hurtling around Earth at speeds of more than 17,500 mph; if you count pieces under 10 centimeters, it’s closer to 500,000 objects. Launch adapters, lens covers, even a fleck of paint can punch a crater in critical systems.

Whipple shields—layers of metal and Kevlar—can protect against the bitsy pieces, but nothing can save you from a whole satellite. Some 4,000 orbit Earth, most dead in the air. Mission control avoids dangerous paths, but tracking isn’t perfect.

Pulling the sats out of orbit isn’t realistic—it would take a whole mission to capture just one. So starting now, all satellites will have to fall out of orbit on their own. They’ll jettison extra fuel, then use rocket boosters or solar sails to angle down and burn up on reentry. Put decommissioning programs in 90 percent of new launches or you’ll get the Kessler syndrome: One collision leads to more collisions until there’s so much crap up there, no one can fly at all. That might be a century hence—or a lot sooner if space war breaks out. If someone (like China?) starts blowing up enemy satellites, “it would be a disaster,” says Holger Krag, head of the Space Debris Office at the European Space Agency. Essential to the future of space travel: world peace. —Jason Kehe

problem: navigation

The Deep Space Network, a collection of antenna arrays in California, Australia, and Spain, is the only navigation tool for space. Everything from student-project satellites to the New Horizons probe meandering through the Kuiper Belt depends on it to stay oriented. An ultraprecise atomic clock on Earth times how long it takes for a signal to get from the network to a spacecraft and back, and navigators use that to determine the craft’s position.

But as more and more missions take flight, the network is getting congested. The switchboard is often busy. So in the near term, NASA is working to lighten the load. Atomic clocks on the crafts themselves will cut transmission time in half, allowing distance calculations with a single downlink. And higher-bandwidth lasers will handle big data packages, like photos or video messages.

The farther rockets go from Earth, however, the less reliable this method becomes. Sure, radio waves travel at light speed, but transmissions to deep space still take hours. And the stars can tell you where to go, but they’re too distant to tell you where you are. For future missions, deep-space navigation expert Joseph Guinn wants to design an autonomous system that would collect images of targets and nearby objects and use their relative location to triangulate a spaceship’s coordinates—no ground control required. “It’ll be like GPS on Earth,” Guinn says. “You put a GPS receiver on your car and problem solved.” He calls it a deep-space positioning system—DPS for short. —Katie M. Palmer

problem: radiation

Outside the safe cocoon of Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field, subatomic particles zip around at close to the speed of light. This is space radiation, and it’s deadly. Aside from cancer, it can also cause cataracts and possibly Alzheimer’s.

When these particles knock into the atoms of aluminum that make up a spacecraft hull, their nuclei blow up, emitting yet more superfast particles called secondary radiation. “You’re actually making the problem worse,” says Nasser Barghouty, a physicist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

A better solution? One word: plastics. They’re light and strong, and they’re full of hydrogen atoms, whose small nuclei don’t produce much secondary radiation. NASA is testing plastics that can mitigate radiation in spaceships or space suits.

Or how about this word: magnets. Scientists on the Space Radiation Superconducting Shield project are working on a magnesium diboride superconductor that would deflect charged particles away from a ship. It works at –263 degrees Celsius, which is balmy for superconductors, but it helps that space is already so damn cold. —Sarah Zhang

problem: food and water

Lettuce got to be a hero last August. That’s when astronauts on the ISS ate a few leaves they’d grown in space for the first time. But large-scale gardening in zero g is tricky. Water wants to float around in bubbles instead of trickling through soil, so engineers have devised ceramic tubes that wick it down to the plants’ roots. “It’s like a Chia pet,” says Raymond Wheeler, a botanist at Kennedy Space Center. Also, existing vehicles are cramped. Some veggies are already pretty space-efficient (ha!), but scientists are working on a genetically modified dwarf plum tree that’s just 2 feet tall. Proteins, fats, and carbs could come from a more diverse harvest—like potatoes and peanuts.

All that’s for naught, though, if you run out of water. (On the ISS, the pee-and-water recycling system needs periodic fixing, and interplanetary crews won’t be able to rely on a resupply of new parts.) GMOs could help here too. Michael Flynn, an engineer at NASA Ames Research Center, is working on a water filter made of genetically modified bacteria. He likens it to how your small intestine recycles what you drink. “Basically you are a water recycling system,” he says. “with a useful life of 75 or 80 years.” This filter would continually replenish itself, just like your innards do. —Sarah Zhang

problem: bone and muscle wasting

Weightlessness wrecks the body: It makes certain immune cells unable to do their jobs, and red blood cells explode. It gives you kidney stones and makes your heart lazy. Astronauts on the ISS exercise to combat muscle wasting and bone loss, but they still lose bone mass in space, and those zero-g spin cycles don’t help the other problems. Artificial gravity would fix all that.

In his lab at MIT, former astronaut Laurence Young is testing a human centrifuge: Victims lie on their side on a platform and pedal a stationary wheel as the whole contraption spins around. The resulting force tugs their feet—just like gravity, but awkward.

Young’s machine is too cramped to use for more than an hour or two a day, though, so for 24/7 gravity, the whole spacecraft will have to become a centrifuge. A spinning spaceship could be shaped like a dumbbell, with two chambers connected by a truss. As it gets easier to send more mass into space, designers could become more ambitious—but they don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Remember the station in 2001: A Space Odyssey ? The design has been around since 1903. —Sarah Zhang

problem: mental health

When physicians treat stroke or heart attack, they sometimes bring the patient’s temperature way down, slowing their metabolism to reduce the damage from lack of oxygen. It’s a trick that might work for astronauts too. Which is good, because to sign up for interplanetary travel is to sign up for a year (at least) of living in a cramped spacecraft with bad food and zero privacy—a recipe for space madness . That’s why John Bradford says we should sleep through it. President of the engineering firm SpaceWorks and coauthor of a report for NASA on long missions, Bradford says cold storage would be a twofer: It cuts down on the amount of food, water, and air a crew would need and keeps them sane. “If we’re going to become a multiplanet species,” he says, “we’ll need a capability like human stasis.” Sleep tight, voyagers. —Sarah Zhang

Planet, ho! You’ve been in space for months. Years, maybe. Now a formerly distant world is finally filling up your viewport. All you have to do is land. But you’re careening through frictionless space at, oh, call it 200,000 mph (assuming you’ve cracked fusion). Oh yeah, and there’s the planet’s gravity to worry about. If you don’t want your touchdown to be remembered as one small leap for a human and one giant splat for humankind, follow these simple steps. —Nick Stockton

problem: resources

When space caravans embark from Earth, they’ll leave full of supplies. But you can’t take everything with you. Seeds, oxygen generators, maybe a few machines for building infrastructure. But settlers will have to harvest or make everything else.

Luckily, space is far from barren. “Every planet has every chemical element in it,” says Ian Crawford, a planetary scientist at Birbeck, University of London, though concen­trations differ. The moon has lots of aluminum. Mars has silica and iron oxide. Nearby asteroids are a great source of carbon and platinum ores—and water, once pioneers figure out how to mine the stuff. If blasters and drillers are too heavy to ship, they’ll have to extract those riches with gentler techniques: melting, magnets, or metal-digesting microbes. And NASA is looking into a process that can 3-D-print whole buildings —no need to import special equipment.

In the end, a destination’s resources will shape settlements, which makes surveying the drop zone critical. Just think of the moon’s far side. “It’s been pummeled by asteroids for billions of years,” says Anita Gale, a space shuttle engineer. “Whole new materials could be out there.” Before humanity books a one-way ticket to Kepler-438b, it’ll have to study up. —Chelsea Leu

problem: EXPLORATION

Dogs helped humans colonize Earth, but they’d survive on Mars about as well as we would. To spread out on a new world, we’ll need a new best friend: a robot.

See, settling takes a lot of grunt work, and robots can dig all day without having to eat or breathe. Theoretically, at least. Current prototypes— bulky, bipedal bots that mimic human physiognomy—can barely walk on Earth. So automatons will have to be everything we aren’t—like, say, a lightweight tracked bot with backhoe claws for arms. That’s the shape of one NASA machine designed to dig for ice on Mars: Its two appendages spin in opposite directions, keeping it from flipping over as it works.

Still, humans have a big leg up when it comes to fingers. If a job requires dexterity and precision, you want people doing it—provided they have the right duds. Today’s space suit is designed for weightlessness, not hiking on exoplanets. NASA’s prototype Z-2 model has flexible joints and a helmet that gives a clear view of whatever delicate wiring needs fixing. When the job’s done, just hop on an autonomous transporter to get home. Attaboy, Rover. —Matt Simon

problem: space is big

The fastest thing humans have ever built is a probe called Helios 2. It’s dead now, but if sound traveled in space, you’d hear it screaming as it whips around the sun at speeds of more than 157,000 miles per hour. That’s almost 100 times faster than a bullet, but even at that velocity it would take some 19,000 years to reach Earth’s first stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri. It’d be a multigenerational ship, and nobody dreams of going to space because it’s a nice place to die of old age.

To beat the clock, you need power—and lots of it. Maybe you could mine Jupiter for enough helium-3 to fuel nuclear fusion—after you’ve figured out fusion engines. Matter-antimatter annihilation is more scalable, but smashing those pugilistic particles together is dangerous. “You’d never want to do that on Earth,” says Les Johnson, technical assistant for NASA’s Advanced Concepts Office, which works on crazy starship ideas. “You do that in deep space, so if you have an accident, you don’t destroy a continent.” Too intense? How about solar power? All you’d need is a sail the size of Texas.

Far more elegant would be hacking the universe’s source code—with physics. The theoretical Alcubierre drive would compress space in front of your craft and expand space behind it so the stuff in between—where your ship is—effectively moves faster than light. Tweaking the Alcubierre equations gets you a Krasnikov tube, an interstellar subway that shortens your return trip.

All aboard? Not quite. Humanity will need a few more Einsteins working at places like the Large Hadron Collider to untangle all the theoretical knots. “It’s entirely possible that we’ll make some discovery that changes everything,” Johnson says. “But you can’t count on that breakthrough to save the day.” If you want eureka moments, you need to budget for them. That means more cash for NASA— and the particle physicists. Until then, Earth’s space ambitions will look a lot like Helios 2: stuck in a futile race around the same old star. —Nick Stockton

problem: THERE’S ONLY ONE EARTH

A couple decades back, sci-fi author Kim Stanley Robinson sketched out a future utopia on Mars built by scientists from an overpopulated, overextended Earth. His Mars trilogy made a forceful case for colonization of the solar system. But, really, other than science, why should we go to space?

The need to explore is built into our souls, goes one argument—the pioneer spirit and manifest destiny. But scientists don’t talk about pioneers anymore. “You did hear that frontier language 20, 30 years ago,” says Heidi Hammel, who helps set exploration priorities at NASA. But since the New Horizons probe passed by Pluto last July, “we’ve explored every type of environment in the solar system at least once,” she says. Humans could still go dig in the dirt to study distant geology—but when robots can do it, well, maybe not.

As for manifest destiny? Historians know better. Western expansion was a vicious land grab, and the great explorers were mostly in it for resources or treasure. Human wanderlust expresses itself only in the service of political or economic will.

Of course, Earth’s impending destruction could provide some incentive. Deplete the planet’s resources and asteroid-belt mining suddenly seems reasonable. Change the climate and space provides room for humanity (and everything else).

But that’s a dangerous line of thinking. “It creates a moral hazard,” Robinson says. “People think if we fuck up here on Earth we can always go to Mars or the stars. It’s pernicious.” His latest book, Aurora , again makes a forceful case about settlement beyond the solar system: You probably can’t. As far as anyone knows, Earth is the only habitable place in the universe. If we’re going to leave this planet, let’s go because we want to—not because we have to. —Adam Rogers

This article appears in the March 2016 issue .

Illustrations by 520 Design; Nebula by Ash Thorp

10 Things to Know Before You Go to Outer Space

All photos courtesy of NASA's Instagram feed .

Commercial space travel will be here in the blink of an eye. And when it does, we will be ready for liftoff. Below, an imagined (abbreviated) cheat sheet for the intrepid and intergalactic traveler's first foray into outer space.

BREAKING THROUGH THE ATMOSPHERE

Where does space begin anyway? About 100 kilometers above sea level (it ends at the upper limit of low Earth orbit). Close enough to phone home and full of photo-ops. There are no black holes, supernovas or gamma ray bursts here — for that, you'll have to go to deep space. For the occasional astronaut, space is less about comet-hopping and more about stargazing while traveling 4.8 miles per second.

ORIENTATION

There are no road signs in space (yet). Get your bearings from the ground up: Continents and clouds occupy the troposphere. Passenger jets fly under the ozone layer in the stratosphere. Shooting stars burn briefly in the mesosphere. Auroras dance and shuttles glide through the thermosphere. Satellites, the International Space Station, and future space resorts, like the Galactic Suite , orbit in the outermost exosphere.

With physics at the wheel, you're basically on a carousel ride around Earth, and you're bound to be disoriented doing sixteen laps around it every 24 hours. Up is down in zero gravity. Figure out your position using any three fixed celestial points of reference and some friendly impossible math (there's probably a button on the dashboard for this).

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral.

PREPARATION

Exiting the atmosphere isn't easy. You have to do your stretches, eat your veggies, and brace yourself for a complete change of scene. Visit a doctor to ensure you're fit for flight. Train your body for weightlessness 40-feet underwater or in microgravity on a zero-g flight. In two years' time, you'll be ready for takeoff.

TAKEOFF AND RE-ENTRY

Odds are you're making it out of the atmosphere. Still, space travel is risky business, so you’ll want to relax and live life to the fullest the week before launch. Have a steak or two. Don't skip dessert. Binge-watch Netflix (you won't get it up there). Get good sleep and report to Spaceport America the day of your flight.

Before you know it, you'll have your eyes to the sky, sounds muffled by the helmet on your hundred-pound spacesuit. You won’t pass out mid-launch — blood won't drain from your brain in your seated position. Endure for nine minutes, and suddenly you're weightless.

If you're not a fan of tradition, you can opt for an air launch, which avoids drag and turbulence in the lower atmosphere by launching from a carrier aircraft. When it’s time for re-entry, don't sweat it: Most Earthbound debris disintegrates from atmospheric heating. Your star cruiser isn't like an unwanted space rock. It has heat shields, parachutes, and an "abandon ship" button. You'll be fine!

WEIGHTLESSNESS

At some point, pouring a glass of celebratory champagne is going to be darn near impossible. On the upside, your decompressed spine will make you look longer and leaner than ever before. A daily space exercise regime (stationary bikes, squats, and cable-machines) is a must for conditioning your body for re-entry.

LIFE ON BOARD

With sixteen sunrises a day, it's all about power naps, not REM sleep. Those sudden blinding flashes are cosmic radiation triggering false signals on your retina. when gazing into the infinite void, a general feeling of insignificance is totally normal. But before you curl up in a ball, look back down at Earth for renewed feelings of awe, gratitude, and uncontrollable glee.

Control your urge to call Houston every time you have a problem, as that’s only for NASA; yours is a commercial space flight. Sound like a local: “yestersol” is yesterday on Mars; “Malfunction Junction” is Cape Canaveral. Astronauts speak in shorthand, so try abbreviating everything.

Food is pre-packaged, modified, and unfortunately not available in allergen-free formats. In addition to such classics as freeze-dried ice cream and Tang, you can indulge in out-of-this-world delicacies like space burritos (thanks, Taco Bell), modified kimchi, and tubes of borscht. Fresh fruit and vegetables, delivered on resupply missions, can be enjoyed within two days of delivery before they spoil. Locally sourced fare will soon join the ranks of thermo-stabilized and irradiated on the space menu thanks to space-grown lettuce and other produce from NASA's in-the-works veggie farm.

STYLE AND ATTIRE

Conditions aboard a space station are controlled at approximately 72 degrees fahrenheit and 60 percent relative humidity, So dress for comfortable California afternoons. Cargo room is limited, but don't skimp on the underwear: You can't do laundry in orbit. Shoes are unnecessary, and outerwear (an orange suit for takeoff and re-entry and a white suit for space strolls) is provided.

READING LIST AND RENTAL CUE

Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time will make you sound like a genius. Chris Hadfield's An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth is inspiring. Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy triggers the imagination . G et dreamy with Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon or the black and white film it inspired, Georges Méliès' beauty, Le Voyage dans La Lune . Overcome fear with TED Talks from rocket scientist Olympia Lepoint .

We make every effort to ensure the information in our articles is accurate at the time of publication. But the world moves fast, and even we double-check important details before hitting the road.

Matador Original Series

How to: Travel to Outer Space

YOU’VE BEEN TO remote jungle villages in Papua New Guinea , the desert expanses of the Sahara , even the frozen wasteland of Antarctica . Next, the stars?

To really experience the final frontier — today — you only have one option:

The International Space Station

Since November of 2000, the ISS has been continually occupied by rotating multinational “Expedition” crews. These men and women carry out scientific experiments and assist in the ongoing construction of the station, due to be completed by 2011.

For the most determined civilian space travelers, this is currently the ultimate goal — to journey to and live for a short time aboard the International Space Station.

In 2001, American Dennis Tito became the first true space tourist by doing just that.

He was shuttled to the ISS by the Russian Space Agency, on board a Soyuz spacecraft and with a small Russian crew, and spent seven days on the station.

A handful of other fee-paying space travelers have followed Tito, most recently Canadian Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté .

Russia is still the only game in town for getting to the ISS. But you can’t just call the Kremlin and ask for a ride. All Soyuz trips are brokered by the American company Space Adventures .

Its space tourist program includes intensive astronaut/cosmonaut training — think zero-gravity jet flights, underwater spacewalk simulations, and spins in a high-g centrifuge — in addition to the flight and an average of 10 days on the station.

The exact amount paid by each Space Adventures client is not readily disclosed, but figures ranging from $20 to $30 million USD are most often tossed around.

For just $3 million, you can sit in on all the training, only to watch the Soyuz blast off without you.

Individual training exercises, “launch tours,” and other opportunities are available for much less.

ISS visitors are now able to participate in a spacewalk for an additional $15 million — so far, no one has accepted the challenge.

Sub-Orbital Flights

If you aren’t a dot-com billionaire or haven’t started your own interpretative circus troupe, there might still be hope for you.

Sub-orbital flights are the up-and-coming trend in space tourism, transporting passengers in small, airplane-like craft beyond the internationally recognized boundary of space (100km straight up).

Richard Branson is looking to take the lead in this. His Virgin Galactic has already pre-sold over 250 $200,000 tickets for flights that will begin at an as-of-yet-unspecified date.

Virgin is the only company with the rights to SpaceShipTwo, successor to the Scaled Composites craft that won the Ansari X PRIZE back in 2004.

Weekly flights will launch from California’s Mojave Spaceport and carry six passengers to an altitude of 109km (68 miles), where they will experience several minutes of weightlessness and have views of twinkle-free stars and the curvature of Earth.

And Virgin’s not alone. Companies like Space Adventures and Armadillo Aerospace are also developing sub-orbital tourist flights to launch from spaceports around the world.

For a less elevated expedition, Incredible Adventures runs flights to what they refer to as “the edge of space” (21km/68,000ft) in a Russian MiG-31 fighter jet. While certainly not an extraterrestrial voyage, passengers do get a glimpse of black sky. Cost: $10,000+

What the Future Holds

The space tourism industry is advancing faster than most people realize. Within a decade or two, the well-heeled (and perhaps even you and I) will enjoy a variety of options for experiencing outer space. Detailed analysis of potential space tourism markets can be found here .

Resorts in space

One avenue being explored by several outfits, including Bigelow Aerospace and Galactic Suite , is the construction of space hotels. Bigelow already has two prototype modules in orbit.

By the time any orbiting resorts are ready for use, it’s estimated transport will cost around $20,000 per guest, plus tens of thousands more per night’s stay.

The Space Island Group takes things a step further, advertising plans to construct multiple independent orbiting “islands.” The islands will house

factories, hotels, medical centers, laboratories, zero-gravity sports arenas and satellite repair centers, along with dozens of other uses which can’t be imagined today.

They make the rather bold claim that 20,000 people will be inhabiting and working within their islands by the year 2020.

Beyond Earth orbit

Space Adventures is stepping it up in this category as well. For a mere $100 million, you can sign up to be one of the first to take part in their circumlunar mission.

Following six to eight months of training, you’ll launch aboard a specially designed Soyuz craft and, depending on whether you make a pitstop at the ISS or not, spend 10 to 21 days in space.

The climax will come as you swing round the far side of the moon and experience the allegedly spiritual sight of earthrise.

Sound like a pipe dream? National Geographic reports this voyage could be ready to launch in three years.

The farther space tourism reaches, the cheaper the close-at-hand options will become. Here’s to adding Earth orbit to our travel itineraries within our lifetime. [ Editor’s note: Read this post in the new Space Destination Center at travora.com.]

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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

Does outer space end – or go on forever?

Associate Professor of Physics, University of Richmond

Disclosure statement

Jack Singal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Richmond provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.

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• Bahasa Indonesia

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to [email protected] .

What is beyond outer space? – Siah, age 11, Fremont, California

Right above you is the sky – or as scientists would call it, the atmosphere. It extends about 20 miles (32 kilometers) above the Earth . Floating around the atmosphere is a mixture of molecules – tiny bits of air so small you take in billions of them every time you breathe.

Above the atmosphere is space. It’s called that because it has far fewer molecules, with lots of empty space between them.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel to outer space – and then keep going? What would you find? Scientists like me are able to explain a lot of what you’d see. But there are some things we don’t know yet, like whether space just goes on forever.

Planets, stars and galaxies

At the beginning of your trip through space, you might recognize some of the sights. The Earth is part of a group of planets that all orbit the Sun – with some orbiting asteroids and comets mixed in, too.

You might know that the Sun is actually just an average star, and looks bigger and brighter than the other stars only because it is closer . To get to the next nearest star, you would have to travel through trillions of miles of space. If you could ride on the fastest space probe NASA has ever made, it would still take you thousands of years to get there.

If stars are like houses, then galaxies are like cities full of houses. Scientists estimate there are 100 billion stars in Earth’s galaxy . If you could zoom out, way beyond Earth’s galaxy, those 100 billion stars would blend together – the way lights of city buildings do when viewed from an airplane.

Recently astronomers have learned that many or even most stars have their own orbiting planets . Some are even like Earth, so it’s possible they might be home to other beings also wondering what’s out there.

You would have to travel through millions of trillions more miles of space just to reach another galaxy . Most of that space is almost completely empty, with only some stray molecules and tiny mysterious invisible particles scientists call “dark matter .”

Using big telescopes, astronomers see millions of galaxies out there – and they just keep going, in every direction.

If you could watch for long enough, over millions of years, it would look like new space is gradually being added between all the galaxies . You can visualize this by imagining tiny dots on a deflated balloon and then thinking about blowing it up. The dots would keep moving farther apart, just like the galaxies are.

Is there an end?

If you could keep going out, as far as you wanted, would you just keep passing by galaxies forever? Are there an infinite number of galaxies in every direction? Or does the whole thing eventually end? And if it does end, what does it end with?

These are questions scientists don’t have definite answers to yet. Many think it’s likely you would just keep passing galaxies in every direction, forever . In that case, the universe would be infinite, with no end.

Some scientists think it’s possible the universe might eventually wrap back around on itself – so if you could just keep going out, you would someday come back around to where you started, from the other direction.

One way to think about this is to picture a globe, and imagine that you are a creature that can move only on the surface. If you start walking any direction, east for example, and just keep going, eventually you would come back to where you began. If this were the case for the universe, it would mean it is not infinitely big – although it would still be bigger than you can imagine.

In either case, you could never get to the end of the universe or space. Scientists now consider it unlikely the universe has an end – a region where the galaxies stop or where there would be a barrier of some kind marking the end of space.

But nobody knows for sure. How to answer this question will need to be figured out by a future scientist.

Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to [email protected] . Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

This article has been updated to correct the distances to the nearest star and galaxy.

• Dark matter
• Astrophysics
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• Curious Kids
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• Curious Kids US
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• Newsletters

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

• Neel V. Patel archive page

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.)

Amplifying space’s potential with quantum

How to safely watch and photograph the total solar eclipse.

The solar eclipse this Monday, April 8, will be visible to millions. Here’s how to make the most of your experience.

• Rhiannon Williams archive page

The great commercial takeover of low Earth orbit

Axiom Space and other companies are betting they can build private structures to replace the International Space Station.

• David W. Brown archive page

How scientists are using quantum squeezing to push the limits of their sensors

Fuzziness may rule the quantum realm, but it can be manipulated to our advantage.

• Sophia Chen archive page

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Wonder of the Day #19

What Would You Pack for a Trip to Outer Space?

SCIENCE — Earth and Space

Have You Ever Wondered...

• What would you pack for a trip to outer space?
• What do you need to survive in outer space?
• Why is recycling important?
• astronaut ,
• ecosystem ,
• International ,
• life-support system ,
• recycling ,
• spaceship ,
• Astronaut ,
• Ecosystem ,
• Life-Support System ,
• Recycling ,
• Spaceship ,

Today’s Wonder of the Day was inspired by Kylie. Kylie Wonders , “ What is it like to live on the International Space Station? ” Thanks for WONDERing with us, Kylie!

Have you ever dreamed of traveling in space ? For many kids, gazing at the stars leads to daydreams about what it would be like to be an astronaut . Would you like to travel on a spaceship? Just think about how awesome it would be to set foot on the moon or another planet!

Of course, becoming an astronaut isn't easy. There aren't many astronauts in the world , so you have to be very skilled in a number of different areas. Astronauts have special combinations of skills that make them suitable to be traveling scientists beyond Earth.

Although it sounds like it would be great fun to travel to outer space, it would be a lot of work, too. Traveling to outer space takes lots and lots of preparation. Everything has to be planned carefully in advance. Why? Because once you leave Earth's surface, you're on your own with what you have in your spaceship. There's no store to go to in space!

Once you are in space, nothing can come on board the ship and practically nothing can go out. You must take everything you need to survive into outer space with you. Let's call these items “inputs." Inputs might include necessities such as food , water and oxygen .

Now let's talk about “outputs." Every input creates an output . Let's say you open a box of Coco Comets cereal for breakfast. What will you do with the box when it is empty? You only have so much room to store outputs on your spaceship. Every piece of garbage you create while on tour will stay on the ship with you. Where will you store the garbage? Can you think of a way to reduce the amount of waste output you create during your time in space?

In order to survive, you must eat and drink . This means your body will also process those food and water inputs and output them in the form of solid and liquid waste . Since nothing can leave the spaceship, you will need to think of a way to handle these bodily wastes. On Earth, we simply flush a toilet, but what happens after our bodily output leaves our homes and enters the sewer systems? Where does it go? It might seem icky, but this is an important question.

Even breathing creates an output — carbon dioxide! Can you think of a way to filter the carbon dioxide from your spaceship? And how will you replace it with the oxygen your crew needs to breathe? Hint: Plants love carbon dioxide and depend on it in the same way humans depend on oxygen to breathe.

Conveniently, plants output oxygen ! However, plants also have other input needs, such as water and fertilizer. If you bring a banana tree on board your ship, you will need to bring enough water to sustain it for a year. You must also consider another type of output the bananas will leave behind after you have snacked on the fruit — the peel! The banana peel will become another output to add to your garbage output pile. Can you think of other plants or trees that may provide a tasty treat without leaving a rind or peel behind for your garbage output pile?

See how carefully you have to plan for a trip to outer space? Not only do you have to think about all the things you'll need, you have to consider the consequences of those things in terms of the wastes they create.

Packing for a trip to outer space isn't as simple as packing your bag for a week at camp. Considering the impact of all your actions takes time and energy. And you can start right now! All of your actions here on Earth have impacts just like they would in space. How can you plan your actions on Earth to have the least impact on the environment and your future ?

Common Core , Next Generation Science Standards , and National Council for the Social Studies ."> Standards : CCRA.L.3, CCRA.L.6, CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.2, CCRA.R.4, CCRA.R.10, CCRA.SL.1, CCRA.W.4

Wonder What's Next?

Can’t wait for tomorrow's Wonder of the Day? Are you counting down the seconds? It’ll be here in t-minus 3… 2… 1…

Ready for a tour of outer space? Find a friend or family member to help you check out one or more of the following activities:

• Curious about what actual astronauts take with them into space? Do some research on the International Space Station , where astronauts stay for weeks and months at a time. You can learn more about the space station and even see a video that will take you on a tour. Do you think you'd want to spend months at the International Space Station? Why or why not? What would be fun? What would you miss about Earth?
• Fasten your seat belt and prepare for lift off! Close your eyes for a moment and imagine that your car is a spaceship and you and your family are preparing to blast off and tour a far, faraway galaxy. Once in space, your crew will not be able to communicate with planet Earth, nor will you be able to receive any extra supplies from home. Whatever you pack in your spaceship is all you will have for one year. Thinking carefully about what you learned in today's Wonder of the Day about inputs and outputs, what items would you pack with you? Make a list and discuss it with your friends and family members. What do they think of your list? What would they add? Is there anything they'd leave behind? Make sure you evaluate your list carefully to make sure you have a plan to satisfy all of your inputs and to deal successfully with the outputs that will be created!
• Welcome home! We hope you enjoyed your trip! Now that you have returned from your galaxy tour, discuss with your friends and family members how inputs and outputs affect Earth. Much like your spaceship, Earth must carry everything it needs to sustain itself and its many ecosystems and life forms. Nothing can come in and nothing can go out. There is no way to communicate with another planet to ask for help or supplies. If Earth doesn't have enough water or oxygen, what will we do? We can't order it from Neptune! If our landfills begin to overflow, we can't send our garbage into a black hole. The survival of “Spaceship Earth" depends on the choices, actions and behaviors of the crew who inhabit it. That's me and you! Discuss simple changes your family can make to help conserve the resources on “Spaceship Earth" and reduce the amount of output you contribute to Earth's garbage output pile. These can be as basic as turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth or carrying water in a reusable thermos instead of drinking from disposable plastic bottles. When you're done, ask for an adult’s help sharing the ways your family is improving life on our spaceship via social media. Be sure to tag us @wonderopolis. We'd love to hear your ideas!

Wonder Sources

• http://www.windows2universe.org/kids_space/astronaut.html  (accessed 03 Feb. 2020)
• https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/behindscenes/troy_mann.html  (accessed 03 Feb. 2020)
• https://www.businessinsider.com/what-astronauts-pack-when-they-go-to-space-2013-9  (accessed 03 Feb. 2020)

Did you get it?

Wonder contributors.

We’d like to thank:

killian and Emma for contributing questions about today’s Wonder topic!

Keep WONDERing with us!

Wonder Words

• consequences

Would that trash can have a heavy lid, too, Space Geek? Or, maybe a vacuum system to draw in the trash so it doesn't float around the space ship. 

Hmmmmm......? I will think about that.

Caroline Huey

Thanks for sharing, Caroline! 

Hey, there!

You can check out Wonders about UFOs and Area 51 that might help with your question about aliens. 

As far as when NASA is going to Mars, you can check out NASA's website about missions to Mars . 

Fortnite_GOD_Girl_

Henry stricker

Tyler Hayden

If I was to bring anything I would bring a snack and my family and maybe my candy. the most important thing I would bring is my bible.

Thanks for sharing, Tyler!

Hi, Harper! Great list of your favorite foods! Did you know that astronauts have to eat foods prepared a certain way in space? To learn more, check out  Wonder 208: What Do Astronauts Eat In Space?

Thanks for sharing, Xavier! Have you ever WONDERed about  What It's Like to Live on the International Space Station? Let us know what you find out!

CodeBreaker416

Oh, no! We're sorry to hear that, CodeBreaker416! What are some of the topics you are most interested in?  You can explore other Wonders here!

Welcome to Wonderopolis, Ms. Green! We are excited to hear about what your students would pack, as well!

that was rude code breaker 416.

Hi, Ashlynd! Great question! We encourage you to take a Wonder Journey to see what you can discover!

We hope that the wifi hotspot would work in space, Idkimbored! 

Great question, km!! It sounds like there may be a few different answers for this question, though.  This Wonder can help give some examples of things you may want to consider packing, and ideas that you would need to consider before taking a trip to outer space!

Thanks for sharing, breanna!

Brice______kbl

I would bring oxygen water and my phone so I can listen to music. BTW LOOOVVVVeEE the article.

Thanks for sharing and for WONDERing with us!! 

Thanks for sharing, Spencer_K! Do you think your dog would like outer space?

Great question, tani_madii! We did some digging and think that this link:  https://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/livinginspace/Now_Thats_A_Long-Distance_Call.html should help you out!

Tani_Meowww#####

Thanks for sharing, Tani_Meowwww####!  Would you be excited for a trip to outer space?

Tani_Meowww#######

That's a good list!  But now we are ?...how is there electricity in outer space?

Curious kid

Oooo good question!  We've got to think about that one...what would YOU pack?

Great question, Karter!  Yes, it is true muscles can easily weaken in space.  Without gravity there is much less resistance so the muscles aren't challenged very much.  This is why astronauts have to spend some significant time each exercising so they can counteract that.  Cool, huh??

Kenzy Ossama

Thank you for commenting, Kenzy! We're glad you visited Wonderopolis today!

Aidan Davidson

That's a great list, Aidan! Sounds like you have thought this through pretty well!

Damian Ortega

Tbh athena, would there be plugs for all tht n would u clean up ur dogs poop whn he/she uses the restroom and where would u put all those electronics

Thanks for joining the discussion, Damian. It's fun to pretend we're going on a space trip! ?

That seems like a good list, athena! Don't forget the power cords and chargers for your electronics (and dog food)! ;-)

would that work in space?

Thank you for joining the discussion, sarah! What would you bring?

Thanks for sharing your list with us, Leo! Tell your brother we said Hello! :D

It sounds like you've given this a lot of thought, Athena! Thanks for WONDERing and sharing with us! :)

You need air.

VERY good point.

Those are things you'd definitely need, Lucas! Thank you for commenting! :)

Hi, Fazaima! We hope you liked this Wonder! Thanks for your comment! :)

We think this sounds like an interesting writing topic, Fazaima! We hope you learned lots of cool new facts! :)

Great question, verona! We hope this Wonder was helpful! We also encourage you to embark on your own Wonder Journey. We're sure you can find lots of info at your library and online! :)

How ever it works just do it

Thanks for WONDERing with us, Taylor and Nevaya! Sounds like you will be ready for a space mission! :)

Sounds like you'll be prepared, Tyresse! Thanks for sharing your ideas with us! :)

Hi, Gregory! We're glad you're having fun exploring Wonderopolis! Thanks for sharing your list of items for space travel! :)

Wonderpolis do you have a second website?

Great question, Gregory! Check out Camp Wonderopolis where you can earn Wonder Cards and explore Maker activities! :)

Flying rosegold zebra!

Thanks for sharing! Those would all be important items to bring! Thanks for WONDERing with us! :)

Hi, Joseph! We're THRILLED to hear you would bring books! Sounds like a GREAT list of important items! :)

We're sorry it didn't help you, Quinn. We have many other Wonders of the Day related to outer space -- perhaps those will help! Just click here to view them. :)

Yu-An Huang

Welcome, Yu-An! All important items for a space mission! Thanks for visiting Wonderopolis! :)

WONDERful, Nancy! Thanks for stopping by Wonderopolis! We're glad this Wonder was helpful and you learned something new! :)

Parth Kotwal

Welcome, Parth! We hope this Wonder was helpful. Thanks for visiting Wonderopolis! We're THRILLED you're WONDERing with us! :)

Cole Richards

Wonderopolis

Great, Cole Richards! We love when we are learning and having fun at the same time! Thanks for visiting WONDERopolis, today! :)

MorgPorgGorp

I hate it too

We're sorry to hear that, Fazaima! There are more than 1,700 Wonders of the Day. We're sure you can find one you like better! :)

We're sorry you didn't like this Wonder! We'd LOVE to have you stop by and read a few other Wonders. :)

SpaminCanadian

You don't have satellite connection in outer space..... So the screen will be blank.

We're glad you joined the conversation, SpaminCanadian! Thank you for visiting Wonderopolis! :)

CarlyRae107

LOL minecraft

Hi, Carly! Many WONDER Friends would agree that Minecraft is a "must pack" item. Do you like playing Minecraft, too? :)

We think you'd have LOTS of things to do to keep you busy in outer space, Daivionne! We're WONDERing what kinds of foods you would want to take to eat? Happy WONDERing! :)

No no that we need real food and not no phone

Thanks for joining the discussion, kaylan! We appreciate you sharing your opinion. The GREAT part is we can all bring different items! :)

Those are some interesting choices, Bryce. Who would you call from outer space? We hope you join us to WONDER again tomorrow! :)

Wow, sian pi! We are impressed with all of your WONDERful thinking! You ROCK! :)

Way to go, Lyrik! Those are some WONDERful things to take with you to outer space. Do you have anything special that you would want to take? Thanks for stopping by Wonderopolis today! :)

Hi, Wonder Friend Hemanta! We are so HAPPY you shared some of the things you think you would need in outer space with us today! We hope you WONDER with us again soon! :)

We're SO GLAD you're spending time with us WONDERing today, Lawrence! We think a pillow and cover would be a GREAT idea to take to outer space! :)

Hello, Amaria. Thanks for visiting us today! Outer space doesn't have electricity, so there isn't a need for outlets. You need food and water to survive, so you would need food and water in outer space. We think bringing a space suite and helmet is a MUST if you were to visit outer space! :)

WONDERful, Orianna! Books make it possible to travel anywhere! Keep Reading and WONDERing with us! :-)

Mrs. Foster's Class

Alright, we're so excited that you're WONDERing with us today, Pinkninja! Thanks for sharing your comment AND telling us all about your interest in NASA! We hope you follow your dreams! Check out all these Wonders about space: https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonders?q=space :)

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Question 1 of 3

Which of the following is an example of an “input” you would need to survive in space?

• a television Not Quite!
• b oxygen Correct!
• c maps Not Quite!
• d both (B) and (C) Not Quite!

Question 2 of 3

Breathing creates what “output”?

• a oxygen Not Quite!
• b carbon dioxide Correct!
• c nitrogen Not Quite!
• d trash Not Quite!

Question 3 of 3

Which of the following is an example of an output that an astronaut would need to plan for on a trip to outer space?

• a carbon dioxide Not Quite!
• b trash Not Quite!
• c human waste Not Quite!
• d all of the above Correct!

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Space Travel: IELTS Speaking Part 1, 2 & 3 Sample Answers

10 min read

Updated On Apr 08, 2024

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From the marvels of rocketry to the awe-inspiring sights of distant galaxies, space travel has always excited us. However, as we don’t usually talk about it on a daily basis, it is important to be prepared with topics like space travel for the IELTS Speaking exam.

So, let’s venture forth and discover the endless possibilities that await us among the stars through the sample answers for Part 1, 2 & 3 of IELTS Speaking exam.

Outer Space Travel & Stars IELTS Speaking Part 1

Let’s start with some sample responses to  Part 1  speaking topic space exploration related questions from the IELTS Speaking test, and we’ll look at  some relevant words and phrases  that you can use in your answers.

• Do you like to travel by air?

Certainly! It’s the quickest and most efficient way. I would choose this over a 12+ hour bus or car ride any day! Furthermore, whenever I set foot on a plane, I tend to feel sleepy and end up drifting off for pretty much the entire flight.

• What do you think about travelling to outer space? 

I think it’s quite intriguing, as I believe that other life forms may exist. Moreover, it’s fascinating to find out more about the other complex galaxies surrounding us. I believe there is much more to the universe than only Earth.

• Do you want to travel in outer space?/Would you like to travel into space?

Yes, of course! I would be really interested to see what else is out there. I’m not sure if this would happen in my lifetime though. However, I’ve heard that one day we may be able to take trips to space. I think it’s a possibility! The future never ceases to amaze me.

• What would you do if you had the opportunity?

If I am given the opportunity to space travel, I would be ecstatic to take on such a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Since childhood, I have been curious about space. Therefore, I will gladly take part in any scientific studies or investigations carried out while travelling, and experience weightlessness in the vastness of space.

• Are you thinking of going on holiday in space?

While traveling to space sounds like an exciting opportunity, I don’t think I will be able to afford going on holiday in space as of now. Nevertheless, in future, if such a chance comes my way or I am able to earn that money, I would definitely like to go on one such space vacation.

• Who would you like to go with?/Whom would you like to go with if you travel to space?

At this point in time, I can just imagine going alone with a specialized person. Down the road I could imagine going with my partner, and perhaps my children as well. I would love for all of us to share this experience together.

• What would you prepare on a trip to the outer space?

Definitely appropriate astronautical gear, as I’ve seen in pictures. Furthermore, I would like to bring some kind of camera or video to be able to show my friends on earth what I saw. Lastly, I would like to bring some kind of gift from earth just in case I came across another life form there.

• Where would you like to go to?

The moon or mars! I would say the moon because I’m interested to know what it feels like to walk on it. I’m also curious if the myth that it’s made out of cheese is accurate. On the other hand, I’ve heard there is water on Mars, suggesting that there could be life there, so I’d be fascinated to investigate that firsthand.

• Do you think it’s necessary to see other planets?

I would say it’s a luxury more than a necessity for average people. However, I think it’s necessary for scientists to investigate other planets so that we have better research and understanding of what is going on around us. Lastly, it’s good for us humans to realize that Earth isn’t the only planet.

Outer Space Travel & Stars Speaking Part 1 Vocabulary

• Set foot on 

Meaning:  enter; step into

Example:  My brother dreams of being a part of space exploration and setting foot on Mars.

Meaning:  sleep

Example:  The driver was drifting off at the end of the journey and I was scared.

Meaning:  fails

Example:  The night sky never ceases to amaze me.

• Down the road

Meaning:  in the future

Example:  John has a plan of becoming a surgeon down the road.

• Came across 

Meaning:  encountered by accident

Example:  Mohona came across his first teacher at the bookstore.

• Plunge oneself into something  (phrase)

Meaning:  to suddenly start doing something with energy and enthusiasm, but sometimes without thinking about it first

Example:  After the accident, Ray plunged himself into swimming.

• Every now and then  (idiom)

Meaning:  sometimes

Example:  The postmaster calls the boy to work for him every now and then.

• Get-together  (noun)

Meaning:  a small informal meeting or social gathering

Example:  Are you invited to the get-together at the club?

IELTS Speaking Part 2 Cue Card – Imagine You are Planning to Take a Space Holiday on Mars

You will receive a task card in  IELTS Speaking Part 2  that asks you to explain a situation or a topic. There will then be three to four questions on the topic, such as the one below.

Talk about your plan to take a space holiday on Mars. 

You should say :

• When are you planning to go?
• What are the difficulties you are expecting?
• How will you prepare for the journey?
• And say how you feel about it.

Talk about your plan to take a space holiday on Mars – IELTS Cue Card Sample Answer 1

In the next ten years, I hope to take a space vacation to Mars. I think by then, because of developments in space exploration and the ambitious aspirations of both commercial and government space agencies, Mars travel will become more affordable.

Undoubtedly, going to Mars is definitely going to be difficult and full of problems. I believe there might be psychological and physical difficulties due to the extended travel time, which may extend to several months. In addition, meticulous planning and preparation are required to guarantee safety and well-being due to the harsh circumstances on Mars, which include intense heat, radiation exposure, and a lack of breathable air.

Preparing for a journey to unknown terrain, like Mars, requires thorough training and preparation. To make sure I’m fit for space flight, I would go through a rigorous physical and psychological evaluation. Simulated spaceflight circumstances, emergency drills, and sharpening of skills relevant to living on Mars, such as spacecraft systems operation, scientific research, and maintenance, would all be part of the training.

Taking a space vacation to Mars is an exciting yet intimidating experience. It is very thrilling to think about visiting a different planet, traveling its surface, and taking in the splendor of the Martian environment. Nonetheless, I am also skeptical when I consider the difficulties and dangers that come with space travel. Nevertheless, I feel a great feeling of excitement and purpose coming from the chance to take part in humanity’s trip to Mars and further space exploration.

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Talk about your plan to take a space holiday on Mars – IELTS Cue Card Sample Answer 2

Honestly, I have not thought about space travel to Mars yet. Even while infrastructure and technology for Mars missions are developing quickly, I think it will be some time before the general people can travel to Mars in a commercial capacity. So, maybe it will take possibly a few decades for me to organize a space vacation to Mars.

Although I am not making any plans, I know that there are many obstacles on the way to Mars, one of which is the lengthy space flight, which might take six to nine months. Furthermore, the hostile environment on Mars, which includes a thin atmosphere, high temperatures, and possible health hazards from prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation, might create a lot of challenges. Moreover, the practical difficulties of providing food, water, and shelter for life on Mars also need to be properly considered.

Firstly, I would have to go through a thorough evaluation process to make sure I am mentally and physically prepared for space travel. In addition to practicing emergency protocols and gaining vital skills for Mars life, such as conducting scientific research, managing spacecraft systems, and carrying out maintenance duties, training would involve simulating spaceflight circumstances. Additionally, I would also become knowledgeable about the difficulties and dangers of space travel and take the required safety measures to lessen them.

The thought of taking a space vacation to Mars excites and frightens me in equal measure. I am aware of the hazards and difficulties that come with space travel and planet exploration, but I find these possibilities to be immensely alluring. Nevertheless, I would gladly take advantage of the possibility to travel to Mars and further the research of space if granted.

Outer Space Travel & Stars – IELTS Speaking Part 3

Look at the IELTS Speaking  Part 3  questions related to the space travel and exploration cue card and develop your own sample answers.

• Do you think humans will live in space in the future?

Absolutely, I think that at some point, whether it be on the Moon, Mars, or in space habitats around the planet, mankind will construct permanent communities in space. Living in space will become an achievable goal in the future thanks to technological advancements and human curiosity and exploring instincts.

• How does space exploration impact life on Earth?

There are several advantages to space travel for Earthly existence. Firstly, it stimulates scientific research, accelerates technological advancement, and promotes global collaboration. Secondly, a plethora of innovations and technology that advance society—from satellite communications to medical imaging methods—have been made possible by space exploration. Moreover, finding an alternative planet or universe can prove to be helpful in times of crisis, as shown in sci-fi movies.

• What are your thoughts on the search for extraterrestrial life?

Extraterrestrial life has always piqued the interest of humans. I think when there are multiple galaxies, finding life forms different from us is not mere imagination. It is just a matter of time that we will be exploring these alien life forms just like we found out about black holes and new planets.

• How should children be taught about space?

Children should be taught about space in an engaging and accessible manner that sparks their curiosity and imagination. Hands-on activities, interactive lessons, and age-appropriate educational resources can help children grasp complex concepts about space, astronomy, and space exploration. Encouraging questions, exploration, and critical thinking fosters a lifelong interest in space and science.

• Will space tourism become popular in the future?

Yes, in my opinion, space tourism will also become the talk of the town in a few years. With the emergence of commercial spaceflight companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic, space tourism is becoming more accessible to private individuals. Therefore, with the rate of technological development, that day is not far when the general public will be able to have vacation on other planets or even the moon.

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Outer Space Travel & Stars IELTS Speaking Vocabulary for Part 2 & 3

Meaning:  showing great attention to detail; careful and precise

Example:  The meticulous work of the student impressed the teacher.

Meaning:  physical features of a tract of land, such as its elevation, slope, and surface characteristics

Example:  You should be careful and alert as you are traveling in unfamiliar terrain.

• Intimidating

Meaning:  causing fear or nervousness due to being large, powerful, or difficult to deal with

Example:  The voice with which you speak is very intimidating for others.

Meaning:  unfriendly or antagonistic; showing opposition or aggression

Example:  The prisoners were kept in hostile conditions.

• Cosmic radiation

Meaning:  high-energy radiation, such as protons and other atomic nuclei, originating from sources outside the Earth’s atmosphere, including the sun, stars, and other celestial objects

Example:  Astronauts traveling or living in space stations are often exposed to cosmic radiation which are very harmful.

Meaning:  a vehicle or device designed for travel or operation in outer space

Example:  In the future, the billionaire plans to make his own spacecraft.

Meaning:  short for science fiction; a genre of speculative fiction that explores imaginative and futuristic concepts, often involving advanced technology, space exploration, and extraterrestrial life

Example:  Marco likes to watch sci-fi movies.

Meaning:  a region of space-time where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape from its gravitational pull

Example:  We were taught about black holes in school.

Make Your Speaking Skills Stand Out with IELTSMaterial

Speaking well involves more than just being fluent and confident. You also have to express your ideas concisely, use a variety of language, and proper  grammar . Achieving all these on your own through just practicing  test papers  might be a little challenging.

So, you can  connect with our IELTS experts  or join the  free webinars  for tips to take your IELTS Speaking preparation to the next level!

Additional Reads

• 151 IELTS Speaking Topics Part 2 & 3 with Model Answers
• Mastering IELTS Speaking: Learning Fluency and Coherence
• 50 Recent IELTS Speaking Part 2 and 3 Topics with Model Answers for IELTS 2024
• Social Media – IELTS Speaking Part 1 with Sample Answers
• IELTS Pronunciation Guide
• Common English words in IELTS Speaking
• IELTS Study Plan for 1 month (30 Days) / 15 Days / 7 Days
• Idioms for IELTS Speaking
• IELTS Speaking preparation tips
• Linking words for IELTS Speaking
• IELTS Speaking recent actual test

Bonus IELTS Speaking part questions with Answers

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Kasturika is a professional Content Writer with over three years of experience as an English language teacher. Her understanding of English language requirements, as set by foreign universities, is enriched by her interactions with students and educators. Her work is a fusion of extensive knowledge of SEO practices and up-to-date guidelines. This enables her to produce content that not only informs but also engages IELTS aspirants. Her passion for exploring new horizons has driven her to achieve new heights in her learning journey.

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