Space travel is becoming a reality for tourism thanks to magnates like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. However, smaller companies believe that these experiences are extremely expensive and impractical for everyone. That’s why a new Japanese company called Iwaya Giken is trying to “democratize space” with its new space balloon that can take anyone to the stratosphere.
The future has caught up with science fiction, and nowadays it’s common to be amazed by headlines that seem to come from a futuristic world, but they are realities that we must gradually get used to. Decades ago, space travel for any citizen was only part of the imagination of dreamers, but that’s changing.
Private industry has gradually entered the space transportation market, and the world’s most powerful men are in charge of companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic, which have already taken the first citizens to space. Although it seems not enough, the Japanese company Iwaya Giken has criticized magnates for offering impractical and unaffordable space travel for anyone who wants to experience it and has created new technology to bring space closer to tourism.
The Space Balloon Will Allow You to See the Curvature of the Earth
To embark on a space trip today, rigorous physical preparation is necessary to withstand the harsh conditions of takeoff. Not to mention the practically unattainable costs of occupying a seat in the crew of luxurious spacecraft. Regarding this, Keisuke Iwaya, CEO of Iwaya Giken, believes that a new approach to space tourism is needed. That’s why his company has just unveiled a space balloon that will allow you to travel to the stratosphere, and although the crew on board it won’t reach outer space, they will be able to admire the curvature of the Earth.
“Iwaya Inc is a company that aims to travel to space by balloon, and we are very close to making it a reality,” explains the CEO of Iwaya based in Sapporo, Japan.The project has been on the table since 2012, and since then, Iwaya has been working on the development of a space balloon cabin that will travel to the stratosphere. They recently announced that the spacecraft is ready, and they will begin testing to send the first citizens. It’s a hermetic two-seat cabin and a balloon capable of reaching an altitude of 25 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. From this point, the curvature of the Earth is clear, and there’s an unobstructed view of outer space, which is the goal of most tourist space trips.
“We believe that the price could be as low as one million yen ($7,400) in the future, but it takes a long time to get to that point, perhaps another 10 years or so,” adds Iwaya.
The Reality of Space Travel
Although admiring space is a dream that lives in the collective imagination, the arrival of devices that have finally made it possible is contradictorily representing a serious problem for the planet. Current technology requires jet propulsion takeoffs, which means an enormous amount of fuel burned to transform it into the energy needed to propel the spacecraft into space.
Behind a visit to space, there are emissions of millions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere, causing the acceleration of global warming and worsening the climate crisis we currently live in as part of everyday life. Although the democratization of space may seem like a dream come true, it remains to be seen how sustainable Iwaya’s practice will be.
The big space agencies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic leave significant carbon emissions in the environment, a worrying situation in the face of space travel becoming increasingly common.
Story originally published in Spanish in Ecoosfera.