A Japanese startup wants to take you into the stratosphere. In a futuristic helium capsule, specifically

SpaceX sent three millionaire businessmen and their escort of astronauts to the International Space Station for 55 million euros each. It was the company's first private charter flight after two years of flying only NASA astronauts there. Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin offered trips on his New Shepard rocket for up to 28 million euros and Axiom Space also wants to sell 10-day trips to the International Space Station for 55 million a seat.

Space tourism is a reality, but it is not accessible to everyone, since not everyone can pay those fortunes to see the earth from the outside. However, a Japanese startup wants to end that inequality and plans to launch commercial flights into the stratosphere in helium capsules this year.

The project. Iwaya Giken wants to make space more accessible, but his design for a stratospheric flight looks like something out of an amusement park. Unlike a rocket, this Japanese startup wants to send people to the edge of space using a sphere and a helium-filled balloon. It should also be noted that the passengers will not be completely in outer space, since the machine will only ascend to the middle of the stratosphere, which is much more than a plane goes up. Enough to be able to contemplate the curvature of our planet and the space vacuum.

The starting price of the trip will be around 180,000 euros, but Iwaya Giken wants to bring the price down to a few thousand soon. The good news is that, since it is not a rocket or a space plane, passengers will not have to go through any special training. "It is safe and cheap. We want to democratize space," explains the company, which has already planned the first trip by the end of 2023.

How is the ship? Small, very small. But big enough to fit two crew members, who will be held in safety harnesses. In total, this hermetic cabin, called T-10 Earther, is a meter and a half in diameter and is made of aluminum and steel. It is also pressurized and heated, and the armored and transparent glass allows a panoramic view of space and the earth.

How does it work? with helium. The sphere will hang from a helium balloon that will lift it to an altitude of about 25 kilometers above the Earth, where the Earth will be perfectly visible from outside. That is, it will still be far from the Karman line, 100 km high, which defines the limit of outer space. The journey will take about two hours to climb and then fly for an hour (for public enjoyment) before descending. And the machine can be reused again.

A trend. This Japanese startup is not the first to come up with a similar concept of space tourism. Arizona-based World View Enterprises is working on its own stratospheric balloon ride, with an expected cost of €50,000 per passenger. Instead of the small Japanese two-seater, World View's capsule is much more spacious and the journey will take anywhere from six to 12 hours, according to the company.

Also Space Perspective is developing a luxurious capsule linked to a balloon to transport passengers to the stratosphere for 125,000 euros. It even serves cocktails while passengers enjoy the show. But it is that even in Spain we have companies that want to take advantage of this business. Zero 2 Infinity, a company that uses balloons to send cargo into space, wants to break into space tourism and launch a capsule up to 36 kilometers high.

FUENTE - xataka.com