Astronaut Andy Thomas wants Australia to become a base for space tourism flights, saying local conditions and facilities are ideally suited to benefit from a boom over the next few decades.

The former flight engineer is currently mentoring 40 students in his home city of Adelaide alongside Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli.

Both will give public lectures at the University of South Australia's City West campus about their experiences of life beyond the Karman line - the point about 100 kilometres above sea level that marks the end of the earth's atmosphere and the start of space.

Andy Thomas says there is a lot of hype surrounding space tourism and Australia should look to play a major role in its expansion.

"I think proper space tourism, by which I mean orbital flight as opposed to sub-orbital flight, will be by the end of this decade," he said.

"Australia would be an ideal place for some of these operations and some of these commercial ventures to come to because it's got wide open spaces, ideal for launch facilities, good climate, good engineering background.

"It's got all of the elements you need."

The university is currently running its annual Summer Space Program, a five-week course for local and international students.

While there are bound to be some predictable jokes about "aiming high", "reaching for the sky" and "shooting for the stars", organisers say there is also a serious message.

NASA has just announced its International Space Station will remain open for another four years until 2024, providing new opportunities for astronauts, while space tourism is also expected to continue its boom.

"There's a real shift from government spending on space to commercial investment in space," said the program's co-director Michael Davis.

"We'll see over the next 20, 30 years an increasing number of commercial missions to space."

Andy Thomas flew his first mission in 1996 and admits few are lucky enough to make it into space, but says there are other ways for students to contribute.

"I tell people that you have to be realistic about the opportunities but ... you will find other opportunities that you cannot even have imagined and doors will open," he said.

"There's a lot of work that can be done in aerospace, in aerospace vehicles, structural design, mechanical design, computer design, avionic design, flight system software design, all kinds of things."

Don't have to be a genius to go far

Paolo Nespoli first travelled into space in 2007 aboard the shuttle Discovery.

He says you have to be a good student but not a stellar one to make it into space.

"People think you need to be a genius or something and I've got to tell people that's not true actually," he said.

Sorry, this video has expired Adelaide space school draws students from around the world ( Rosemary Tierney )

"I had a dream when I was a little kid of becoming an astronaut and people would look at me and kind of patronisingly say 'oh yeah, yeah. Very good'.

"I was a little kid from a little town in Italy. There was no space agency. Only the Americans and Russians were in space so the chances of this happening were almost nil.

"But at the same time I say to people and students ... I'm not a genius, I'm not a superman, I'm not anything. I'm just a regular guy from a little town in the middle of nowhere and still I flew in space, so they should pick up this and run with the dream."

Costa Rican student Magaly Sandoval says she is over the moon about the chance to learn from both astronauts.

"In my country we only have one astronaut and he is a national idol so to become someone who can travel into space is the most amazing dream someone can have," she said.