08. How long would the basic, average space journey be? How many days, weeks, months or years would we as space tourists be able to safely stay in space, and how long will it be until we get back home? (A K2S Question)
From The Space Library
The length of a space journey depends entirely on your destination! To just get into space takes a matter of minutes. To travel to an orbiting space station or hotel would take a few days depending on the destination orbit. This is not the fastest time possible, but time needs to be allowed for the space tourists to become accustomed to the environment, particularly weightlessness. Other trips that space tourists might likely make to hotels orbiting around other planets or bases on the surface would take from months to many years with current rocket technology—not that many people would want to have a holiday in space that takes 30 years! However, this is all in the future when scientists have developed a way to stop the human body from degrading in the weightless environment. This is the main limitation to safe, long-duration human spaceflight—if we aren't using our muscles against gravity like we do here on Earth everyday, they waste away. Also there is harmful radiation from the Sun that we would be exposed to on journeys to other planets that we are protected from here on Earth. So until scientists find a way to protect us from these effects, holidays in space will be limited to a few months, including the trip home. Of course by then spaceships will have evolved and may be able to travel these vast distances in a matter of hours.
Answer provided by Hazel McAndrews
Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer
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