Space Tourism News - Daily!

Stop press! Graduate student in crazy attempt to pay his way to space through stellar website advertising!

That's right. I'm attempting to raise enough cash to fly into space. To achieve this mighty feat I've set up this website to advertise my nutty idea. The earliest available flight is in 2009. That gives me 3 years to raise the money. Will you help me out?

Who are you? 

My name is Michael Halls-Moore and I'm a 24 year old graduate student studying for a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering in London, UK.

All my life I've dreamed about flying into space. Unfortunately a PhD bursary doesn't quite cover the cost of admission. As it happens I am also a web designer which has allowed me to make this site. It has been designed and constructed entirely by myself, not only to help me fly into space but to also teach me more about marketing and product sales.

 What are you doing for your PhD?

My PhD is in the area of Hypersonics. I'm currently working on special engines known as ramjets and scramjets. Unlike a conventional jet engine these engines compress air without a mechanical compressor (i.e. the engines have few or no moving parts). The high pressure is needed for fuel combustion.

I'm working on designs for supersonic intakes and in particular, I look at what happens when the engines are not run at optimal conditions to see how this affects their performance. My work is carried out on computer simulations - Computational Fluid Dynamics or CFD - and so most of my time is spent initialising, computing and analysing the results.

The picture above shows a slice through an intake with the contour lines representing the density of the air.

My PhD will (hopefully) finish in October 2008, after which I'll be able to head to the stars if I can raise the cash!

Why are you doing this? 

I believe that access to space should be available to everybody on Earth. It seems that only professional astronauts and the rich are able to fly at the moment. However, by making this site and raising the cash I am showing that it is possible for a common bloke like me to realise my dream.

The way I see it, if I can do it, then anyone can do it. Challenges like mine raise public awareness of space exploration in general. This then causes more funding to be allocated to new space missions which in turn provide indirect benefits to mankind. For instance the Apollo missions helped bring us the digital computer (imagine life without those!).

On a more personal note, I also want to try and see if I can actually achieve this crazy goal!

What is Space Tourism?

Space Tourism is the act of paying for the ability to visit "space". Space is commonly defined as being 100km (or about 62 miles) above the surface of the Earth. Currently the only way to go into space is to fly with the Russian Space Agency to the International Space Station (ISS). This has a price tag in the region of $20 million!

However, in 2004, the Ansari X-Prize changed all of that. Burt Rutan's revolutionary White Knight/SpaceShipOne combination won the $10 million prize leading to a deal with Virgin Galactic.

In 2009, Virgin Galactic plan to begin sub-orbital trips to approximately 400,000ft (about 120km) which will include around 5 minutes of "weightlessness" and incredible views for 1000 miles in all directions across the Earth.

I plan to be on one of these trips!

How much does it cost?

The current price tag for a trip on a Virgin Galactic flight is $200,000 (around £104,000 at the current exchange rate). You might be wondering then why I am trying to raise £1,000,000?

Well, first of all, if I'm going to start a crazy money making venture then I want to think big. A million pounds is a nice round number.

Secondly, there is talk of SpaceShipThree being a full orbital vehicle. This means that the price tag will be substantially higher. If I am to get a seat on that (and I hope I can!) then I'm going to need a lot of money to fund some more "out-of-this-world" business ideas!

Although I don't expect to raise £1,000,000 I'll be pleased even if I am able to cover the costs of hosting this website! Let's see how much I can get!

How exactly will you fly into space?

The best looking (and most realistic!) option for becoming a space tourist within the next 5 years is through the flights offered by Virgin Galactic. Virgin are well known for running incredibly successful transportation companies (see Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Trains for evidence!) and I believe Virgin Galactic will be no different.

The "proof-of-concept" has already been demonstrated with the launch of SpaceShipOne. SpaceShipTwo is designed to carry 5 passengers along with the pilots and will offer fantastic views through multiple "port holes" around the ship.

How do you plan to raise the money?

 Situated above is a large galactic star chart. You as an individual or your company can purchase the right to display a stellar object in this space. These objects will link to a website of your choice and as an added bonus will also popup a company description and name when you move your mouse over them. I have set various pricing brackets for the different stellar objects depending upon their size. See Advertise for further details.

If the star chart becomes incredibly popular and space becomes limited then I will consider increasing the size of the chart to reflect demand.

Hasn't somebody already tried that?

Yes! In fact, Alex Tew designed the Million Dollar Homepage which uses a similar form of advertising to mine. A vast number of "copycat" sites sprang up in response to his great idea. Most of these were unsuccesful. I believe that was due to a lack of effective marketing. Nobody wants to see the same thing twice. With this site, people can view my unique challenge along the way - as well as visit your site and buy your products!

Although my idea for revenue generation is unoriginal, I believe that the concept behind the site is sound. It is the challenge and excitement of flying into space that will keep visitors coming back to my site.

Alex, if you're reading this - thanks for a fantastic idea. I just hope I can implement it as well as you! (I'm not sure I'll be spending all my proceeds on new pairs of socks though).

How will this benefit anybody else?

This website, although designed to help me raise funds to "Buy Me To The Stars", provides other benefits. I hope to educate people along the way (via my Blog as to why space exploration is important in today's society). By garnering public interest in space, public spending in this sector will increase. This will lead to greater number career opportunities for people in exciting positions.

Some may ask whether the money spent here could be put to a better use. I can't argue when people say I could use it to pay for traditional good causes. However, the organisations/individuals advertising on this site are receiving a service (an influx of visitors) and so are getting value for money.

Raising public awareness of space tourism will lead to an increased demand for flights. This will in turn cause prices to drop. So in essence, paying for me to fly into space will make it cheaper for you later on!