Environmental Sustainability in Space Tourism
Blom, Sonja; Mauno, Virva (2021)
Blom, Sonja
Mauno, Virva
2021
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202103113169
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202103113169
Tiivistelmä
The commercial space industry has progressed rapidly during the past decade, and the operators have never been so close to success than now. The growing need for exciting and unique experiences has caused an increased demand for public space travel. The space industry has been moving towards a more accessible field with new players from both private and public sectors emerging to the field. The industry is experiencing a paradigm shift from government collaborations and large government investments to a new era of innovation, participation and commercialisation. Many operations of the growing commercial space industry are in conflict with the current trend of sustainable development and environmental protection. The operators of the commercial space tourism industry need to address this issue since they are starting to operate in an era of global environmental crisis.
The aim of this research is to gain an understanding of the current state of the space tour-ism industry, as well as understanding how environmental sustainability is included to this growing field. The research also addresses how environmental issues should be considered in the operations of space tourism. Since the industry is still in its development stage and regular commercial spaceflights have not yet started, the research mainly concentrates on the future prospects. The research was conducted without a commissioner.
The theoretical framework defines the concept of space tourism the history. It also introduces the most advanced operators of the field, as well as the different forms of commercial space activities. The theoretical framework presents the current laws and regulations of the space industry and discusses the possible future legislation framework for space tour-ism. It also defines the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development and discusses how these are connected to space activities on different levels.
The research problem was approached by qualitative research method. The research was conducted by gathering theory from literature and articles and collecting data with semi-structured interviews.
Due to the industry being still in its development stage and as there is no regular suborbital or orbital tourism yet, the knowledge of the environmental impacts of this future industry still remains limited. The environmental sustainability has currently only a small part in the operations of the space tourism operators, which results as a crucial need for developing sustainable practices for the industry and including sustainability into the business models. The current limited information about the practices of the operators sets a challenge to form a regulatory framework for the growing space tourism industry. The environmental issues of the industry are recognised in general, but the concrete large-scale actions are still waiting to be taken.
The aim of this research is to gain an understanding of the current state of the space tour-ism industry, as well as understanding how environmental sustainability is included to this growing field. The research also addresses how environmental issues should be considered in the operations of space tourism. Since the industry is still in its development stage and regular commercial spaceflights have not yet started, the research mainly concentrates on the future prospects. The research was conducted without a commissioner.
The theoretical framework defines the concept of space tourism the history. It also introduces the most advanced operators of the field, as well as the different forms of commercial space activities. The theoretical framework presents the current laws and regulations of the space industry and discusses the possible future legislation framework for space tour-ism. It also defines the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development and discusses how these are connected to space activities on different levels.
The research problem was approached by qualitative research method. The research was conducted by gathering theory from literature and articles and collecting data with semi-structured interviews.
Due to the industry being still in its development stage and as there is no regular suborbital or orbital tourism yet, the knowledge of the environmental impacts of this future industry still remains limited. The environmental sustainability has currently only a small part in the operations of the space tourism operators, which results as a crucial need for developing sustainable practices for the industry and including sustainability into the business models. The current limited information about the practices of the operators sets a challenge to form a regulatory framework for the growing space tourism industry. The environmental issues of the industry are recognised in general, but the concrete large-scale actions are still waiting to be taken.