***The recent US Shuttle/Russian Mir link-up demonstrated the growth of cooperation in space. Next, reports Gemini News Service, comes the development of space tourism — and some travel companies are already preparing the way.***

OON jaunts may Msoon replace round-the world luxury sea cruises as t he ulti-ultimate vacation for the rich and famous.

"It's a possibility within 10 years", declares Dwayne Brown, a senior spokesman for the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) in the United States.

Some tour operators are already preparing for lift-off as the prospect of weekend breaks on the moon draw nearer, even though firm dates remain a gamble. British bookmakers Ladbrokes quote odds of 100-to-one against space packages before the century's end.

Prominent among the enterprising entrepreneurs is Globetrotter, a Scandinavian Airlines' affiliate. Globetrotter has been fuelling people's imagination by advertising space flight packages — lasting from 14 to 21 days — for $200,000.

Promising tour guides and sumptuous meals, the company says each tour will be undertaken in a spacecraft about the size of a large modern jet.

Crewed by four flight-deck astronauts including two pilots, it will have a 30-tonne payload, allowing room for 20 or 30 tourists. "We assume the passenger capacity would be very small at the start", Brown says.

Blasting off vertically, the craft would leave the Earth's residual "pull” at a height of around 200 miles, and level out for normal flight and orbit at between 17.000 and 18.000 mph — the same speeds as the recent joint US Russian mission.

The views for space tourists will be fantastic, way . beyond tour-brochure superlatives. Cavernous darkness takes over from around 20 miles upwards — but travellers will see at close quarters the vast panorama of the "Milky Way’" (our spiral-

shaped galaxy), pin-pricked by hundreds of billions of stars.

Below, through swirling white cloud-masses, ' the Earth, with its azure oceans snaking around continents green and brown, may be glimpsed.

Having re-entered Earth's Sivitatlonal field, the space-ip would resume conventional flight altitude and land like an airliner — but using parachutes in addition to reverse engine-thrust in order to brake to standstill.

Such is the future vision that has fired public imagination. Coupled with scientists' prophesies of passenger space-flights within a decade, it has prompted certain travel agents — especially in the US — to accept downpayments for Inaugural trips.

Assuming basic integrity, it is a legitimate business initiative — the deposits are' usually refundable after a set period. '"Agents meanwhile have use of the cash, earning interest in the bank. It's wonderful way of making money!" observed one radio astronomer at Britain’s Jodrell Bank Science Centre.

The view at Jodrell Bank is that pioneer passengercarrying space flights will not happen for perhaps another 40 years with voyages to further planets unlikely for 150 years after that).

Although the moon is already reachable on a four-day round-trip, the return Journey to Mars — one of our next nearest planetary neighbours — would take at least four years.

On existing technology, reaching the centre of the Milky Way would require about 80.000 years for the outward voyage alone, reducible to 4.3 years if travel speeds could somehow be accelerated to the 186.000 mph speed of light.

It all sounds like space fiction, but Mark Williamson, editor of the international scientific journal Space.

maintains: "Anything is possible technically — if there’s a commercial reason”.

Mineral extraction, one of the likeliest reasons for the development of space travel, may be needed to supple-tnent our own dwindling resources.

A "gold rush" to the stars, followed by colonisation? Perhaps; but the chief prize would more probably be elements like titanium, one of the strongest and lightest metals, which is currently used in spacecraft construction.

What is certain is that instead of the "space race", we will be talking about "space collaboration".

With national priorities changing and budgets being cut for economic or social reasons — NASA's alone has been cut by $5 bifhop over the next five y^ars no country can now afford solo space projects. 1

Exploration programmes are cooperative cross-border efforts Involving not only the US and Russian but also Canada. China, the 13 member-states of the European Space Agency. India and Japan (which is particularly interested in stellar tourism).

Cost is not the only factor in building larger spaceships: there are unresolved legal and logistical questions.

Special safe-passage agreements will be needed to avoid collisions and conflicts. Insurance risks will have to be assessed and covered.

Higher heartbeat-rates, sleeping difficulties, acclimatising to weightlessness, coping with boredom and eating food out of squirty tubes will be among the challenges confronting travellers.

"They'll need training. Going on a space-flight is not like getting on a bus.” NASA's Brown points out. — GEMINI NEWS

Nicola Cole is a British freelance Journalist.