I did not read the entire article, as I was on my lunch break, but it got me to thinking that maybe today's cruise ships face the same enemy that ended the days of the grand liners - the airplane.

Please weigh in your opinions.

Though the problem for the planes would be, at the moment anyway, they would have to spend a lot of time on the ground. So all those airports world wide would have to develop new airport cruise terminals!

Still you might take it a bit further. What about holidays in space. There would be a cruise to write home about.

For a few years the great Airships competed with liners, in terms of their luxury accommodation, plus they were faster (see my posting 'Another type of ship' in the ocean Liners section). People today are getting bigger, but economy class seats are not.

I don't agree with Molly and Joe about 'arriving too quickly'. When I'm on a long haul flight, I'd love to be able to walk around and go into a shop. However, it's hard to imagine airlines giving up there seating capacity.

Perhaps the most ironic point is that it is the cruise industry, which now buys millions of dollars of flights per year. The aeroplane virtually killed the transatlantic liner voyage, but it is now the aeroplane that brings the passengers to the cruise terminals.

You may all think I'm mad, but I belive that one day we will see the return of the luxury passenger carrying Airship. It is argued that they are potentially safer than areoplanes.

This picture is NOT the interior of an Ocean Liner, but of an Airship.

I agree with Paddy,at present flying is a method of transport, cruising is a method of pleasure! Both ships and planes can live in harmony. However, just like the Ocean liners evolved from methods of transportation into holiday destinations, anything is possible - even if it is unlikely.

May 18, 2000

WHAT'S NEXT
Cruise in the Caribbean? How About a Week in Lunar Orbit?
By CATHERINE GREENMAN

Madhu Thangavelu and David Schrunk/Planet Moon Project

VISIONS OF LUNAR FUN - People are thinking of ways to exploit the moon's low gravity for recreation. A magnetically levitated train might take tourists to sights and rides.
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avid Gump's vacation-in-space ideas make activities like sky diving or mountain climbing seem downright ho-hum. "At an orbital resort, you'd either have zero gravity or a low level of gravity, which would be supplied by artificially spinning it," he said. "So there are all sorts of amusements that could be created, such as strapping on a pair of wings and flying around inside a giant orbital or lunar structure."

Mr. Gump, the president of Lunacorp, a company that develops technology and financing for space-related travel, is not alone. He is one of a surprising number of scientists, architects and entrepreneurs who are developing concepts and designs for accommodating tourists in space.

Although the rockets to transport people safely and cheaply to lower earth orbit and beyond have yet to be built, several companies and organizations are preparing for the day when they will be.

Robert Bigelow, owner of Budget Suites of America, said he planned to invest $500 million in the next 15 years toward the building of a space hotel. Passengers in a rocket launched from earth would meet a cruise ship orbiting the moon, he said. The hotel would be able to handle 150 people and 50 crew members on a seven-day trip.

Working off the idea that passengers would eventually become bored with weightlessness in orbit and that they would want a degree of gravity for things like taking a shower and eating at a table, an architecture firm, Wimberly, Allison, Tong & Goo, based in Honolulu, has developed a design for a space resort that combines areas of artificial gravity with areas of weightlessness for a more varied and comfortable trip.

"Seasoned travelers are not going to want to be Velcroed to a wall when they go to sleep," said Howard Wolff, senior vice president of the architectural firm. Mr. Wolff said the structure would be built from tanks used in future space shuttle launchings, which typically measure about 27 feet in diameter and 155 feet in length. The tanks would connect from end to end like a string of hot dogs and form a circle.

The circle of tanks would rotate to create one quarter of the earth's gravity at the outside, and the structure would also house long, cylindrical walkways toward the center of the circle, similar to the spokes of a wheel, that would lead passengers to an area of zero gravity for activities in a weightless environment.

Space tourism, however, depends on the development of a rocket that can shuttle passengers cheaply and safely enough to sustain the potential tourism industry. Indeed, Mr. Bigelow said that building a space hotel might entice rocket manufacturers to build the means of transporting guests to inhabit it.

"We're hoping that when our hotel is ready to be launched and put in orbit that we have the launch capabilities," Mr. Bigelow said. "We're very co-dependent on the launch community's success in being able to provide good launchers."

The X-Prize, initiated a few years ago by a group of Missouri investors to create a "New Spirit of St. Louis," will award $10 million to the company that manufactures a rocket that successfully transports three passengers into lower earth orbit (www.xprize.org). The reusable launch vehicle must travel 62 miles or higher above the earth and must be able to repeat the procedure within 14 days of landing.

Peter Diamandis, the competition's founder and chairman, said the prize was designed to encourage competition among rocket companies and to help them build awareness about the potential market for suborbital flights. Once suborbital flights are successful, he said, the potential for traveling into orbit and eventually to the moon will open up.

"The biggest issue is raising the funds to build these flights," Mr. Diamandis said. "We developed this as the very first step toward suborbital flights. The X-Prize vehicle's required velocity is Mach 5, whereas a space shuttle requires Mach 25, so we've chosen the lowest first hurdle." More than 10 companies are competing for the prize.

In addition to developers who are designing structures for space travel, several universities, including George Washington University and the University of Southern California, have introduced classes that address elements of the burgeoning space tourism industry, classes like space policy, architecture and the sociology of space travel. The Space Tourism Society, founded in 1995, has a site at www.space-tourism-society.org.

"When you're removed from gravity, you're not used to functioning with that force gone out of you," said Madhu Thangavelu, a space architect who teaches courses in building space habitats at the University of Southern California. " How do we keep people happy under these constraints?"

Until the space resorts -- and the means to get to them -- come to fruition, several companies, including Space Adventures, based in Reston, Va., offer real but somewhat limited space travel vacations.

For $5,400, a space enthusiast can go to Moscow and board the Ilyushin-76, a zero-gravity training jet used by the Russian Space Agency to prepare cosmonauts for space travel; $12,600 will buy a trip on a Mig 25 fighter that soars to an altitude of 82,000 feet, giving passengers a view of the curvature of the earth.

Another company, Space Camp, has five-day programs for children in Alabama, Florida and California, starting at $699; a weekend program for parents and children is $658 (www.spacecamp.com).

Sarah Dalton, marketing director at Space Adventures, said the company has taken 140 reservations for suborbital flights, to be taken when a reusable launch vehicle comes to market.

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Related Sites
These sites are not part of The New York Times on the Web, and The Times has no control over their content or availability.

www.xprize.org
www.space-tourism-society.org
www.spacecamp.com

The future is there, you only have to embrace it!