Tourists in space? *Nsync's Lance Bass wants to go up. One American already paid $20 million for a trip. But is space tourism a good idea? (opinion).

YES Enthusiasm for space tourism has been growing over the last few years, as the opportunity becomes more and more real. I believe space tourism is a wonderful idea, because it will rekindle the excitement for space exploration that existed in the 1960s when America was racing to put a man on the moon by the decade's end.

As space travel comes closer to ordinary people, it generates more interest. The public identifies with people who're not just specially selected for these missions.

But for space tourism to really take off, we will have to develop the ability to take large numbers of people into space in short periods of time--maybe 60 to 80 at a time, on daily flights. Eventually, we'd also need a place for them to stay--a kind of space hotel. These are precisely the kind of facilities that the government would need for further exploration of the moon or a trip to Mars someday.

Rather than being a frivolous and expensive indulgence, space tourism could, in a sense, pave the way for further space exploration by developing--partly with private money--the necessary infrastructure. Whichever country first develops the capability to take adventure travelers into low Earth orbit will have such a large advantage on space exploration. That country would have a worldwide monopoly on the technology, which would lead to tremendous economic benefits.

Space tourism is such a major industry that it's going to come sooner or later, whether segments of the American government want it or not. Space travel is an out-of-this-world experience: the exhilaration of weightlessness, circling the Earth in 90 minutes, and seeing 15 sunrises in one 24-hour period.

The world conditions right now are not too supportive of quick development of a space tourism industry. Hopefully, that will change in the next 5 to 10 years, and we'll start to see real progress.

--BUZZ ALDRIN Apollo 11 Astronaut

NO When American multimillionaire Dennis Tito paid the Russian space program $20 million last spring to hitch a ride to the International Space Station, he realized a lifelong dream. But his presence at the space station forced the professional astronauts aboard to slow their work schedule to serve as baby-sitters.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) contended that the presence of Tito, an amateur who lacked the extensive training that astronauts undergo, endangered the safety of the astronauts who were still putting together and testing the fledgling space station, some 240 miles above the Earth. If an emergency had occurred, such as a fire or a structural failure, Tito probably would have been a burden--much like the wealthy amateur mountain climbers who climb Mount Everest and pray that their professional guides can get them back down should a blizzard strike.

Longtime observers of the American space program may remember a time back in the mid-1980s when NASA used seats on its space shuttle missions to carry amateurs in an effort to fatten its budget--much like Russia did in accepting Tito's $20 million. In 1985, former U.S. Senator Jake Garn, who at that time headed the subcommittee on funding for the space program, went along on a space-shuttle flight. The decision paid off when the Senator, upon his return, said the space program was under-funded. But NASA came to its senses and stopped sending amateurs into space after a teacher, Christa McAuliffe, died along with everyone else on board in the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster. The event underscored how risky space travel still is.

NASA should not allow "space tourists" to visit the International Space Station. There is something fundamentally offensive about letting people with a few million dollars to spare piggyback on space vehicles built with billions of dollars of public money.

--EDITORIAL The New York Times