Background
Technological advancement and the desire of ordinary people to be among the stars now allow us to plan and implement tourist flights to the Moon. A one-week lunar stay for civilians can provide an opportunity to develop space tourism and make a significant step forward in relation to future long-term lunar missions. When preparing for such a seven-day experience, it is essential to consider several factors, including tourists’ safety, habitation, life support systems, and expected activities.
Literature Review
Special attention should be paid to offering tourists practical, high-quality health assessments and training programs to address potential safety concerns. Adequate education can help mitigate severe risks and prepare tourists physically and mentally (Walter, 2021). Next, Jolliff et al. (2018) mention harsh environmental factors, such as extreme temperature fluctuations, the lack of atmosphere, and exposure to abrasive lunar dust, solar radiation, and other issues.
When designing a stable, secure, and comfortable habitation, they must be considered. Efficient life support systems will minimize dependency on Earth. Lastly, a plan for the best activities can be created with the help of resources like Virgin Galactic (2023), World View (2023), and others. The emphasis will be placed on pre-flight training, in-flight education and entertainment, and different lunar surface experiences, including Earth observation. At the same time, this paper notes that special attention should be paid to avoiding tourists’ physical and mental deterioration or concerns like boredom, fear, and others.
Further, the tour consists of nine major phases, during which tourists are under severe and constant medical control. They can prepare for the trip and enjoy such a fantastic experience, and they can share their feedback so that further excursions can be enhanced. These phases are the following: pre-launch, launch to LEO, launch to destination orbit, arrival on the moon surface, surface stay, back to orbit, back to LEO, from LEO to Earth, and post-mission on Earth. Each of the stages is of extreme importance, and tourists will be supported and cared for by professional medics during each phase.
As evident from the review, several positive and negative aspects of the lunar excursion can be highlighted, and the value of both this project’s strong and weak elements cannot be underestimated. Thus, positive aspects allow us to prove that such a tour is a brilliant and promising idea that will bring numerous benefits if implemented properly. At the same time, focusing on some adverse aspects is important because it will enable the project team to address potential weaknesses or concerns adequately and on time.
Pros and Cons
Firstly, a one-week lunar stay is a valuable opportunity for ordinary people to travel to space, see the beauty of the Earth from such a distance, and receive an incomparable experience that is not available to many others. This might be the primary positive aspect because it will also increase society’s interest in lunar excursions and further advances in space exploration.
Next, according to Clarke (2022), now is a great time to offer such trips to the Moon because of the required technological advances and solutions. It is an opportunity to make space tourism thrive, and those who choose to have a one-week trip to the lunar surface will contribute to developing this commercial sphere. It is quite positive that technologies and research allow us to create safe, comfortable, and stable conditions. Many resources and other space tourism organizations’ experiences can be used to enhance the plan for the current project (Virgin Galactic, 2023; World View, 2023). Lastly, the availability of different activities, excursions, and educational programs is a unique way for tourists to develop mentally, physically, and intellectually while enjoying the views and experiencing extreme but interesting conditions.
At the same time, the negative aspects are quite severe and indicate that such a trip is a risky and even dangerous project. Therefore, although resources, tools, information, and prior experiences are available, sending ordinary people to the lunar surface and allowing them to stay there for several days might have adverse implications. The paper mentions that many professionally prepared astronauts suffer from serious or mild conditions (Clément et al., 2020).
Moreover, tourists can think that they are mentally ready to travel to space and observe the Earth from the surface of the Moon. Still, it is unpredictable whether they will have panic or anxiety attacks. Constant medical support is a positive factor, but unexpected situations can make the lunar stay more challenging or uncomfortable for some tourists. Eventually, space tourism will be a relatively new direction in business. Thus, a lack of prior experience makes one consider the presence of factors that cannot be foreseen but can only be experienced during the first excursions launched.
Recommendations
Research findings and information analysis presented in the previous parts of the paper can be used to make efficient and practical recommendations to improve future lunar excursions. First of all, surveys are one of the best tools for determining the positive and negative aspects of an implemented project, fostering the former and minimizing the latter (Li et al., 2019).
To be more precise, tourists and all staff members involved in the launching process should be offered to provide their sincere feedback about different aspects of the trip, including several mandatory questionnaires and optional interviews. Based on the results, required changes will be made when planning lunar excursions in the coming years.
Another critical factor that will greatly impact the implementation of future trips to the Moon is medical screening. It is recommended that the results of medical tests and observations from first excursions be used to analyze tourists’ healthcare statuses before, during, and after the launch to identify any concerning patterns, healthcare problems, and other essential factors (Clément et al., 2020). The staff’s and tourists’ physical and emotional states should be medically assessed to adapt or upgrade healthcare assessments conducted during future lunar trips.
Finally, information about activities in the nearest excursions can make lunar trips conducted in the coming years more interesting, diverse, and educational. It is recommended that tourists be offered activities to engage them mentally, physically, emotionally, and intellectually to receive a full range of experiences. Furthermore, diverse activities, such as yoga and meditation, Earth observation, scientific investigations, and others, ensure that tourists are not bored. All the recommendations mentioned and the project’s positive and negative aspects can make space more available to ordinary people.
References
Clarke, A. C. (2022). The exploration of space. Hachette UK.
Clément, G. R., Boyle, R. D., George, K. A., Nelson, G. A., Reschke, M. F., Williams, T. J., & Paloski, W. H. (2020). Challenges to the central nervous system during human spaceflight missions to Mars. Journal of Neurophysiology, 123(5), 2037-2063. Web.
Jolliff, B. L., Wieczorek, M. A., Shearer, C. K., & Neal, C. R. (2018). New views of the Moon. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
Li, C., Wang, C., Wei, Y., & Lin, Y. (2019). China’s present and future lunar exploration program. Science, 365(6450), 238-239. Web.
Virgin Galactic. (2023). Welcome to Virgin Galactic. Web.
Walter, J. (2021). Will space tourists need astronaut-level training? Sports Medicine Weekly. Web.
World View. (2023). Engineering peak experiences in the stratosphere. Web.