The woman who helped design and then lived in the 3-acre Biosphere 2 which is like living on Mars on Earth is now planning family trips to edge of space in a space balloon.
Meet Elon Musk's female version Jane Poynter, the CEO of World View, who is planning edge of spacefamily-trips in huge helium balloons. The five- hour flight will take six passengers more than 100,000 feet above the Earth in a capsule.
The aim is to offer the passengers the opportunity to view the planet as the astronauts do. The "terrifying and exhilarating" experience will cost about $75,000 per ticket, much below Virgin Galactic price of $250,000.
Poynter is fully convinced that this rocket-less, training-deficient journey would be a success. She told Engadget that this will make the space-tourism dream come true for more people than what is possible with rockets.
"While rocket flight is incredible, and it'll take people to places in the solar system, balloon flight affords so much comfort. It's gentler and it's safer. It opens the door to so many more people being able to go to space than I believe is really possible with rockets," Poynter told.
Notably, Poynter's team was responsible for Google exec Alan Eustace's epic space- jump from 135,908 feet above earth's surface in 2014. The success of that experiment has really made Poynter confident about the possibilities of space travel.
The idea of using balloons is not new; NASA has already used them in transferring telescopes to space. But, the difference, Poynter believes, is that she is trying to send people to space using balloons.
Poynter says that her company will conduct the trip to edge of space in a Wi-Fi connected capsule adorned with an onboard bar and lavatory under a huge Helium- balloon. So, it is also quite different from space travel ideas offered by some other companies. s
"(When) we've thought about space travel in the past, normally we think of high vibration, high Gs, incredible acceleration and power and speed and rockets," Tech.Co quoted Poynter saying. "What we are hoping to do with World View is change that idea for people."