Spaceport Selection Using a Novel Hybrid Pythagorean Fuzzy AHP & TOPSIS Based Methodology: A Case Study of Turkey

Abstract

Space technologies have continued their development accelerated with Sputnik 1 launching into space in 1957 and the USA-USSR competition. The period that is until today, due to the increase in studies about space research and space technology, has been called the space age. Turkey has launched 12 satellites from the launch of TURKSAT 1A on December 24, 1994, until today, and it has six active satellites. In this study, a hybrid PF AHP-PF TOPSIS approach has been developed on which spaceport would be the most appropriate choice for launching satellites when the political and diplomatic conditions are ignored for Turkey because of the use of various spaceports for the previous launchings. This study makes a concrete contribution to the literature through its novelty that this is the first time a spaceport selection problem is addressed in Pythagorean Fuzzy Environment with the welldescribed criteria. In virtue of the recent technological developments in space science, new opinions that new spaceports worldwide will be built to maintain the momentum of the space tourism industry emerging recently have been proposed. In this regard, this study serves as a guideline to decide which criteria to consider more carefully in order to build a new spaceport.