So You Wanna Be a Space Explorer? Sure Thing: Cash or Credit?

New competition in the space tourism industry could deliver on your dreams as soon as 2015

By Joel Barnard Posted 02.04.2009 at 12:04 pm 7 Comments

Space Tourist istockPhoto

Move over, Sir Richard Branson. Someone else wants to play in your space sandbox. Thanks to a not-exactly-generous US$9.68 million injection from the EU, a new program is poised to offer competition to existing space-tourism services offered by Virgin Galactic, Xcor Aerospace, and Blue Origin. The funding will go toward the design, development and experimental validation of hybrid propulsion engines for the Future High-Altitude High-Speed Transport (FAST) 20XX program, which includes two separate "vomit comet" concepts. The first launch is scheduled within a decade.

Vomit comet #1 is projected for service in 2015 and will give astronaut wannabes a similar ride to Virgin’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital journey. That bird will piggyback on a specially designed jet carrier aircraft to 50,000 ft., detach, blast off at three times the speed of sound, let you experience a few minutes of weightlessness, then land you safely back home where a really, really, really big credit card bill will be waiting.

Vomit comet #2 is where things start to get a little more interesting…and long term. The 2075-ish SpaceLiner concept is designed for hypersonic point-to-point transport. In other words, your 23-hour flight from Berlin to Sydney will be cut down to 90 minutes. This 50-seat craft has you sitting on the launch pad in a nose-to-the-sky space-shuttle orientation, piggybacking on a winged droptank craft burning liquid hydrogen and oxygen. Emptied during boost phase, the droptank would either glide back to earth on its own or be captured mid-glide by a specially outfitted 747 and towed back for a runway landing. As far as SpaceLiner’s reentry, the plan is for “skip” breaking as opposed to the more purgatory-esque version used by the space shuttle.

And for you Nervous Nellies out there, you’ll be glad to know the designers have considered your safety with a “detachable passenger cabin in case of losing structural integrity.” Hopefully Sir Richard was this thorough with his plans.

Via: FlightGlobal.com

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7 Comments

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DarkFx

from Winnipeg, Manitoba

02/05/09 at 2:59 am

Comet 2 sounds like a waste of money. Take the Big Bill from Comet 1 and use it to build an electromagnetic light rail system (L.R.T's) so you can get from Sydney to Berlin and back in Less then 90, possibly with the a boost from hydrogen fuel cells and energy conversion. Materials and Design able to withstand extreme weathering.

With the money from the passengers, you could then help build a global space station which could host science and technology labs, which would engineer safe space living for future generations.

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rreilly656

02/05/09 at 3:59 pm

rodreilly

Comet 2 sounds like a better bet for an orbital vehicle, and a whole lot sooner than 2075. Seriously, 2075? That's a misprint, right?

An orbiter with a drop tank that carries the boost phase propellant in the drop tank could use more conventional rocket engines rather than not-yet-developed hypersonic airbreathing engines. We already know how to "do hypersonic" with rockets. This would be a "virtual SSTO" since the only thing discarded would be the boost-phase drop tank. No need to fly the tank back, at least in an initial design -- just parachute it into the ocean, where it will float without flotation devices needed. Tow it back like the Shuttle SRBs and the planned recovery methods for the SpaceX Falcon series.

Again, editors, please check if 2075 is a typo. Also, EU funding for a competitor to genuinely private efforts? Good luck with that. It will cost more and take longer to build (which implies that the 2075 timeline may NOT be a typo!) than a private venture.

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rreilly656

02/05/09 at 4:03 pm

rodreilly

"""""Take the Big Bill from Comet 1 and use it to build an electromagnetic light rail system (L.R.T's) so you can get from Sydney to Berlin and back in Less then 90, possibly with the a boost from hydrogen fuel cells and energy conversion. Materials and Design able to withstand extreme weathering.""""""""

Seriously, a train from Berlin to Sidney? How is building a rail system with all the attendant challenges halfway around the globe and under/over oceans etc. a better bet than going by air/spacecraft?

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DarkFx

from Winnipeg, Manitoba

02/05/09 at 11:22 pm

RodReilly,
It is Faster, Fuel Efficient, You only need to build it Once, and Spacecraft is Costly, while the Majority of people on this planet could Afford LRT's . Its Realistic and will serve use for Decades. It doesn't have to Go up, and Come Down, just go straight.
Tunneling technology is at its prime, and construction makes for well hard earned cash, providing jobs to all the people without one in this economic crisis, and they only need basic education to do the job right. While as for spacecraft is rather expensive for electronic technology that will be a third the price it was each year its created.

Rapid Transit is the way to go, because that also means Rapid Trade, taking us Even Faster to the Future.

I Agree with 2075 being a typo, We will be watering plants on Mars before then.

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ShawnB

04/16/09 at 5:34 am

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ShawnB

04/24/09 at 6:16 am

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