Space Tourism in Malaysia and the Developing World

As Malaysia launches its first astronaut to space in October many are already asking about what comes next after his return to Earth. Will the Malaysian astronaut program survive with such high costs at the expense of its developing economy, or will it die and lose the gained experience?

According to Norul Ridzuan Zakaria, space tourism is the answer to the space needs of Malaysia and other developing nations. By adopting a space tourism industry and its supporting services, developing nations can both offer space travel for their own citizens as well as drive other industries.

Zakaria is the founder of the Malaysian Institute of Aero and Space Studies, a voluntary organization that promotes aero and space travel studies in Malaysia. Under his organization, Zakaria was also able to establish Space Future Consulting Malaysia under the umbrella of Space Future in November 2004, and the Malaysian Chapter of the Space Tourism Society in July 2006.

Ever since resigning from the Malaysian Space Agency in 1995, Zakaria has been promoting space tourism in Malaysia and the developing world. He presented the first lecture on space tourism in Malaysia at a seminar at the School of Aerospace Engineering, University Science Malaysia in July 1999, and wrote the first book in the Malay language on space commercialization, titled "Introductory Space Economy" in February 2003. He was also part of an international team of space tourism experts that presented a proposal to the state government of Perak, Malaysia in November 2004 on how to develop a spaceport for space tourism there.

In May 2007, he presented a paper titled "The Symbiotic Relationship between Astronaut Program and Space Tourism Development - A Third World Perspective" at the 2nd International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety, a conference sponsored by ESA, NASA, JAXA and ROSCOSMOS in Chicago, USA. The paper proposed the benefits of promoting and undergoing space tourism in the third world to act as an alternative to expensive space programs established by developed nations.

IslamOnline.net (IOL): Mr. Zakaria, thank you for joining us. I understand that you worked for about 4 years for the Malaysian Space Agency and its precursor the Malaysian Space Science Studies Division. What is the spirit there like and what do people want to achieve in the field of space?

Norul Ridzuan Zakaria: The working environment in the space agency was fine. Most of the workers there were proud to work at the space agency, just like people in other space agencies, because the organization is unique compared to other government agencies.

The organization became a "space agency" only recently when it short listed 900 candidates for the astronaut program in September last year. Before that, the organization concentrated more on operating planetarium for astronomical education. Being a small and new space agency, the organization's future development depends especially on opportunities to participate in international programs like the astronaut program, which was an offer from the Russian government due to the purchase of Russian military hardware by the Malaysian government. Therefore what the agency hopes to achieve depends upon such development.

IOL: Other than the current highly-publicized launch of Malaysia's first astronaut to space in October, what other activates is the Malaysian Space Agency currently engaged in as far as you are aware?

Zakaria: As far as I am aware, the space agency is engaged in a micro satellite program, an astronomical observational program using an astronomical observatory at Langkawi Island, and an educational program using a planetarium in Kuala Lumpur. I do not think there is any major research or product development activity currently being engaged by the agency. Maybe in the near future there will be one.

IOL: A lot of the press releases and media reports surrounding Malaysia's first traveler to space have spoken about cultural activities such as making tea (later canceled) or religious activities such as prayer and fasting. Is the Malaysian Space Agency announcing what the astronaut will be doing in terms of scientific activities?

Zakaria: Yes. Recently the space agency has announced some basic scientific activities planned to be conducted by the astronaut. Most of them are about crystallization of biological molecules, which are the most popular and standard activities in zero-gravity. More serious scientific activities should have been submitted to the ISS scientific committee since the opportunity to send an astronaut there is extremely very rare, unless the government can purchase a similar tourism package at US$25 million in the future.

IOL: Now, talking about your own endeavors, you have established the Malaysian Institute of Aero and Space Studies to promote aero and space travel studies in Malaysia. Tell us a bit about that and how successful have you been so far in this endeavor.

Zakaria: The institute is a voluntary institute established on February 2000. Until today it has not received any financial support from the government, but has been operating with support only from its members. However, it has sponsored the establishment of Space Future Consulting Malaysia in November 2004 and Space Tourism Society Malaysia Chapter in July 2006. Currently it runs a program in aero travel and 2 programs in space travel studies. The aero travel program is the study for the development of a centerline thrust (CLT) airplane. The space travel programs are directed towards the development of meal containers for astronauts and space tourists, and planning for the development of suborbital space-plane in a third world country.

IOL: When you talk about promoting space tourism in the developing world, are you talking about pushing private citizens to go to space through private companies or about establishing a supportive industry for the construction of spacecrafts, spaceports, and space equipment? In either case, do you think that the developing world has the financial capacity to spend on such activities?

Zakaria: Space tourism will create new economy to the third world. If there is a spaceport operating in a third world country where there is space tourism flight, rich people from around the world will come to the country and stay there for some time to attend space flight training and medical certification. The space tourist will also attend a complete space tourism package, which will involve visiting various terrestrial tourist destination in the country before and after their space flight, and of course this will contribute a lot to the local tourism industry. The spaceport and the space-plane operation will provide job and technology transfer opportunity to the country. The educational sector will benefit because it can offer programs to local and international students in the field of space technology.

The financier of the space tourism industry will be the space tourism business operators, not the country. The government of the country only needs to provide the initial investment as a start-up of the program which is lower than the cost of sending an astronaut to the ISS. The government can even make money out of the program in the initial stage through advertisement, if it views the space-plane as a formula 1 racing car, where the money comes from the sponsors!

IOL: Malaysia is a multiethnic society with Indian and Chinese ethnic backgrounds as well as the indigenous Malays. How far is this multiethnic spectrum represented in the space program and space activities of Malaysia?

Zakaria: The astronaut was selected without any consideration of religion or race. The selection was monitored by the Russian space agency. The competition was open to all Malaysian citizen with a degree of a pilot license. Other programs by the space agency or my organization are also open to participation of Malaysians without any discrimination based on religion or race.

IOL: Among the recent announcements in space tourism, a number of private companies seem to be competing over putting the first hotel in space. Have you contacted any of these companies to offer your organization's products such as the meal tray? What services do you think companies in the developing world can offer such companies?

Zakaria: Yes. We are in conversation with several organizations which are involved in the development of space hotel.

Companies in the third world can participate in the program by offering sites for spaceport development, and propose the spaceport to be the gateway to the space hotels besides the training center for the space tourist-to-be.

IOL: Considering the amount of training necessary for astronauts to prepare them for space travel today, how do you foresee space tourism developing in the next decades as investors hope to send space tourists beyond suborbital spaceflight? Can space tourists who are not top notch health-wise be capable of enduring and living in space?

Zakaria: Astronaut training is very different from space tourist training. Space tourist training is more like a preparation rather than training, because passenger space-plane is more comfortable and safe than the expendable launch vehicle which carry astronaut. The launch vehicle design and operation is based on that of intercontinental ballistic missile, which launched from launching pad and not reusable, but reusable passenger space-plane design and operation is based on that of passenger airplane, which take-off and land at airports. People who can fly on passenger airplane will be able to fly on passenger space-plane.

IOL: The X-Prize Foundation has been trying to spur the international private market for developing its own space industry away from government funding. Teams from several developed nations from around the world joined in their first competition for suborbital flight. In your view, why has the developing world, and in particular the Muslims world, not been participating in these competitions?

Zakaria: The third world in general and the Muslim world particularly is not aware of space tourism. They still believe that space transportation systems consist of vertically launch multiple stage giant rockets, which is actually a technology that has not been developing significantly since Yuri Gagarin went to space. They do not realize that now space is opened to everybody, not restricted to major space agencies, such as NASA, ESA, ROSCOMOS or JAXA, and that now, people in developed countries are thinking of space transportation systems that consist of reusable passenger space-planes which can take-off and land like Concorde. The people of the third world are not aware of this because they are stuck with the policy of the major space agencies which were established during the space race era in the 50s, 60s and 70s, while in fact these space agencies are secretly developing space-planes of their own.

IOL: Considering how the Muslim world, especially the Arab gulf, has people with significant wealth. Why do you think there has been little by way of offering prizes such as the X-Prize to get people in the Muslim world involved in space exploration? Has your organization attempted to contact those businessmen to participate?

Zakaria: First the rich Arab countries must be aware of space tourism and its benefits, and then the potential that they have in the industry. If this is achieved, the Arab countries can simply offer to companies around the world, which are developing space-planes, to develop one for them, with or without offering prizes like X-Prize. The Arab countries do have the capability to offer better than the X-Prize. Currently my organization is trying to reach organizations in the Arab countries to promote space tourism and propose them to lead in the investment of the industry to gain the technology and new economy.

IOL: Some would argue that space travel, whether through multi-billion dollar government programs or multi-million dollar private ones, are a waste of money and should rather be invested to solve pressing issues such as disease, illiteracy, and poverty to name just a few. How would you respond to that?

Zakaria: The argument is true for only the multi-billion dollar government space programs, but not the private initiated programs, because the extremely expensive government programs are for the popularity of these program, not for the benefit of the people, but space tourism is for the people.

The astronaut program of a third world country, for example, cannot be maintained by sending another astronaut, because it cost millions of dollars, and cannot be terminated in order to maintain its popularity. However, space tourism programs will be cheaper as time goes by because the market will grow bigger and will reduce the price of its products and services. In 2 or 3 decades, there will even be low-cost space tourism package, which will cost similar to that of expensive ocean liner packages today.

Third world countries are located near the equator where the momentum of the Earth rotation is maximum. This is where the space transportation is most economic because the momentum from the Earth rotation can be exploited to contribute to the economics of spaceflight. Long distance communication via satellite to remote areas are needed in the third world. The countries in West Asia and North Africa with vast deserts have fewer cloud coverage, therefore are very suitable for space remote sensing and high resolution camera application.

So the third world will benefit the most from space technology, which will evolve from space tourism industry. This will help in taking care of problems such as disease, illiteracy and poverty in the third world.

IOL: On a more personal note, what got you interested in the field of space and especially space tourism?

Zakaria: My understanding of space economics and technology and the reality of space transportation systems, plus the feeling of responsibility towards sharing the understanding with the third world and the Ummah.