Shortening Flights With a Detour Though Space

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New research from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) shows potential in significantly reducing flight time. How? By taking a small detour through space of course.

Experts say that flights from Sydney to London, for example, could be reduced by close to 20 hours by travelling through space. Additionally, they claim that these suborbital flights could be commercialized in the next decade, meaning passengers will be able to navigate the globe in less time than it takes to fly across Australia.

In this recent study, the CAA recreated the G forces that would be expired by passengers in suborbital flights. Though the test group was quite small, consisting of 24 participants in total, results showed that most of them could handle space travel without suffering severe health concerns. The most common temporary side effect of the trial was temporary loss of vision, experienced by 88% of participants.

Interestingly, due to their stiffer arteries – older people may cope better with the effect of space travel than younger people.

In terms of costs, currently, space tourists pay around £350,000 per seat – making it easy to understand why most passengers opt for the slower but significantly cheaper option. However, regulators have predicted these prices will soon plummet, eventually making this intergalactic flight option more viable, according to a report by innovationnewsnetwork.com.

This new study and the possibility of lowering costs for orbital flights could indeed be the catalyst needed to expand the world of space tourism and reach new heights, quite literally.