A new study predicts that within the next decade, it would be able to send a laser light from Sydney to London in under two hours.
With suborbital space travel, travellers would be sent into space for a short period of time before returning to Earth, drastically reducing the current flying time of 22 hours from Sydney to London.
Research by the UK Civil Aviation Authority indicates that suborbital flights could become commercial within the next decade, despite the fact that they are now offered to wealthy space tourists and scientists.
Suborbital flights not only have a significant financial cost (a seat on Virgin Galactic’s space trips is over $650,000), but they also have physiological effects on humans.
Gravitational forces act on the body both when one leaves and returns to Earth’s lower atmosphere, which can be as much as 100 kilometres away.
The study found that the effects of these forces included a feeling of weight on the chest that made it harder to breathe, decreased oxygen intake, altered heart rhythm, and blood pooling away from the brain.
The study, which involved 24 people, was done by King’s College London using equipment given by the Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom to simulate the effects of weightlessness.
The study concluded that space flight is safe for most people.
When compared to younger, more physically fit passengers, the elderly may be better able to tolerate the rigours of a suborbital flight because their “stiffer arteries” prevent blood from pooling away from the brain.
Eighty-eight percent of the test subjects suffered from temporary blindness as a result of their space missions.
Suborbital flights may be more dangerous for people with preexisting health concerns, such as heart or lung disease, or for those who are overweight.
There may be a need to adjust pre-flight safety measures to account for the potential health effects.
Researchers concluded that centrifuge testing should be required of all space passengers.
