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Topic: Entrepreneur Unveils New Tourist Spacecraft (Read 766 times) |
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Walter Watts
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Entrepreneur Unveils New Tourist Spacecraft
« on: 2008-01-23 18:58:12 » |
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The New York Times
January 23, 2008
Entrepreneur Unveils New Tourist Spacecraft
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Burt Rutan took the cloak off of his new spacecraft on Wednesday.
Mr. Rutan, the creator of SpaceShipOne, the first privately-financed craft to carry a human into space, traveled to New York to show detailed models of the bigger SpaceShipTwo and its carrier airplane, WhiteKnightTwo.
“2008 will really be the year of the spaceship,” said Sir Richard Branson, the British serial entrepreneur, at the heavily attended press conference at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. Sir Richard, who founded a company, Virgin Galactic, that promises to take tourists on brief trips to the edge of space, was there to show off the sleek pod of a spacecraft and its spidery carrier plane.
WhiteKnight, a two-fuselage, four-engine plane in its new incarnation, will ferry the smaller spacecraft high into the sky and release it. The spacecraft pilot then fires the craft’s rocket engine, which burns a combination of nitrous oxide and a rubber-based solid fuel, and shoots the vehicle upward to an altitude of more than 62 miles, the realm of black sky.
Once there, the pilot is to activate the craft’s innovative feathered wing, which rotates into a position that greatly increases aerodynamic drag and slows the craft for a glider landing back on earth.
In 2004, SpaceShipOne earned Mr. Rutan and his backer, Paul Allen, the $10 million Ansari X Prize when it carried a pilot to the edge of space twice in five days. Since then, Mr. Rutan has been working on the follow-up vehicle for Sir Richard, under his customary heavy secrecy.
Officials at the press conference said that the WhiteKnight aircraft is 70 percent complete and that SpaceShipTwo is 60 percent complete. Test flights of the planes could occur this year. Passenger flights are not expected to begin before late 2009 or 2010.
But Will Whitehorn, the president of Virgin Galactic, said that the company would not yet set a date for the startup of commercial flights, which will depend not just on testing and manufacturing but also on government approval. “We don’t want to make promises that we can’t meet,” Mr. Whitehorn said. “We’re in a race with nobody, apart from a race with safety.”
Mr. Rutan said that the new space travel system would have to be “hundreds” of times safer than present space flight, which he put at the level of safety of the early commercial aircraft of the 1920s.
“Don’t believe anyone who tells you that the safety level of new spaceships will be as safe as the modern airliner,” he said, but the risk must nonetheless be brought to an acceptable level for the customers to come.
“This has to be such that the fear of the risk doesn’t hold down the growth of the industry,” he said.
Mr. Rutan’s company encountered tragedy last summer when an explosion killed three of Mr. Rutan’s rocketeers. The blast occurred during a “cold” test of the nitrous system.
While the cause of the blast was being investigated to ensure that there was some previously undiscovered risk in the nitrous-based fuel, Mr. Rutan shifted design resources over to the WhiteKnight half of the flying pair. The California Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the company $25,870 for five violations of regulations for workplace safety.
Today, however, the rocketeers were focused on the future — and, just as importantly, on the past.
“Most people think of going to space as Saturn V or the Space Shuttle,” said Mr. Whitehorn, the company president. But the Rutan model, a descendant of the record-breaking X-15 experimental craft, shows there is another way, he said.
The vehicle is meant to open space to a new generation of spacefarers who are more creative than the classically trained astronauts, Mr. Rutan said. And that will bring with it a new way of looking at space travel, just as personal computing opened up the use of computers from a military and academic tool to something that transformed the world.
These newcomers, he predicted, will bring “breakthroughs that will come, that will tell us why we’re doing this,” he said, “and what can we do with it.”
About 100 of the company’s prospective passengers were on hand at the unveiling in Manhattan Wednesday. Stephen Attenborough, the company’s liaison with its clients — or, as the company calls them, its astronauts — said that Virgin Galactic had received 200 firm reservations and $30 million in deposits.
Virgin has tested 80 of those customers for the ability to withstand the high-G forces of space flight by taking them for a centrifuge ride. Of the 80 — who included the scientist James Lovelock, who is 88, as well as people who have had heart bypass surgery and limb replacement — only two were unable to take the forces; the company asked three customers to put off flying.
Mr. Attenborough said that means the company’s initial premise — that one did not need to be in absolutely top physical shape to go to space — is sound.
“We’ve proved that ordinary people can go to space,” he said, “and almost all of us have the right stuff.”
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Walter Watts
Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc.
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Fritz
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Re:Entrepreneur Unveils New Tourist Spacecraft
« Reply #1 on: 2008-02-25 19:11:03 » |
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Yes, but it gets bigger, higher, faster with .... MOON-2
Fritz
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/22/google_xprize_lunar_teams/
Google encourages 10 teams to rocket to the moon
Lunar X Prize joined by Jesus, a penguin and some miners
Google and the X Prize Foundation held a ceremony today for the first ten contestants to enter their $30m race to land a privately funded space craft on the Moon.
Eight new teams have joined the previous two entrants, who all gathered at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California to preview their intentions for the purse.
The firms have until the end of 2012 to land an unmanned machine
on the lunar surface and successfully send it roving for at least 500 meters. The winning team will receive a $20m grand prize for their effort. That's potentially a fraction of the cost it will take to land a machine there — although some entrants claim they can make it with a budget less than the grand prize.
Second prize is $5m for a team that successfully lands their craft, but cannot make it travel over 500 meters. An additional $5m will be awarded if the rover can go over 5,000 meters.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin said the company decided to put its funds toward the competition after a regular corporate brain storming session.
Brin's curiosity about the the cost to land a craft on the moon left him shocked about its bargain value (in the eyes of a man who lands his jet in a private NASA runway usually reserved for presidential visits, of course).
"This aspect of discovery is being ignored despite its relatively low cost," said Brin.
The X Prize Foundation aims to spur technological development in space the same way a cash prize tempted Charles Lindbergh to cross the Atlantic by aircraft in 1927. After that, your bevy of Amelia Earharts are bound to follow.
Yet this is a program nurtured and raised in Silicon Valley, and therefore lacks a reasonable amount of shame. That's why we see "Moon 2.0" slogans plastered around for this competition. That's right, "Moon 2.0." Love it, kiss it, rub it all over your naked body.
Odyssey Moon
Odyssey Moon is a privately held lunar venture based in the Isle of Man. The company was the first official entry for the competition, announcing their intentions December 6, 2007 at the Space Investment Summit in San Jose, California.
Odyssey says its strategy involves "a unique small robotic lander" made to deliver scientific and commercial payloads to the surface of the Moon.
The company's rally cry is that it will take on early risks of lunar travel to prove that it's possible — then use its position to sell "inexpensive and reliable lunar products and services to others."
Odyssey's craft for the Lunar X Prize is called "MoonOne (M-1)"
Astrobotic Technology
Second to enter, Astrobotic formed just two months after Google announced it would offer $30m for the Lunar X Prize. The company is an amalgamation of technology from Carnegie Mellon University, security contractor Raytheon Company, and The University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.
The company, headed by William "Red" Whittaker of Carnegie Mellon, has set a goal of landing a rover in the Sea of Tranquility and assessing the Apollo 11 mission landing site.
Last November, Whittaker led a Carnegie Mellon robotics team to win the $2m first place prize in an autonomous vehicle contest,
DARPA Urban Challenge.
Astrobotic intends to combine similar technology for the rover with The University of Arizona's lunar research, and Raytheon's propulsion and guidance systems.
Astrobotic's competing crafts are called "Artemis Lander" and "Red Rover."
FredNet
Team FredNet wants to triumph a Moon landing in the name of open source code.
FredNet is composed of three software and hardware developers leading an international group of engineers and scientists. Their strategy is to utilize the same approach for developing open source software in order to build and launch a small lander and several lunar rovers approximately the size of a cell phone.
"We firmly believe in our open source strategy," said team leader Fred Bourgeois. "We truly are one people, one planet, working together to solve big problems."
FredNet said they will hold an elementary school-level competition to name the rover and space vehicles.
Team Italia
Team Italia brings together several universities and the "young heart of Italy," according to team leader Amalia Erocoli-Finzi-Politecnico di Milano.
The team said reliability and costs are the driving factors for its mission design. Scientific objectives are secondary. It prefers a soft landing on the Moon using dedicated thrusters, after the craft orbits around the Moon for a few days to finalize operations. They are currently deciding whether to use a single big rover, or many smaller robots to trundle about the lunar surface.
Micro-Space
Microspace is a Colorado-based company that specializes in developing space flight systems. The company claims its accomplishments include flying 17 bipropellant liquid fuel rockets, three near-hover rockets with vectored thrust guidance, radio-tracked flying, and developing several innovative life support systems.
"I want to thank the lord Jesus Christ for this opportunity," said team leader Richard Speck at the press event, holding up a piece of paper with a cross printed on it.
Speck said that the company plans to apply technology used in landing a lunar rover for a future Mars mission, and for creating an "Ultralight Human Moon Lander." He continued that the mission would reflect that the dangers of space flight have historically been greatly exaggerated.
ARCA
Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association is a private organization headquartered in Valcea, Romania.
The team was one of the lead contenders for the Ansari X Prize in 2002, and intends to have even greater success with a Moon landing.
One of ARCA's most innovative projects thus far is Stabilo, a two-stage manned suborbital vehicle. The first stage uses what ARCA says is the world's largest Solar Montgolfier balloon. When the craft is at the appropriate height, a rocket powered manned spaceship is launched from the balloon.
SCSG
Southern California Selene Group describes its spacecraft as "an elegantly simple design that is relatively inexpensive to implement." The craft, dubbed "Spirit of Southern California," will be designed to "hop" to its destination once landed.
Members of the team hold a combined 131 space-related patents and have had active participation in over 500 space missions, SCSG said.
At the event, team leader Harold Rosen scoffed at the idea being promoted by the X Prize Foundation of mining resources on the Moon to send to Earth as "ridiculous." But other teams such as Odyssey are more optimistic about the proposition.
Quantum3
Quantum3 Ventures believes the first voyage to the Moon in 35 years can and should be led by an American team showcasing American technology.
The firm is spearheaded by three former advisers from NASA and the US Senate. It plans to use a partnership approach to the contest, making alliances in both the private and academic sector to build its lander.
It proposes to launch a small spacecraft called "Moondancer" in 2009 from the US east coast for a soft landing at the Sea of Tranquility.
Lunatrex
Lunatrex was formed only this year, and is composed of individuals, companies and universities from the Mid-West. Its combined stable of knowledge combines rocket science, high-altitude near-space R&D, aviation design, robotics, trajectories, and non conventional propulsion expertise.
"We want to make a repeatable, sustainable business model to land on and orbit the Moon," said team leader Pete Bitar.
The company has the lofty goal of making a craft for less than the amount of the prize money. Lunatrex claims the decision is not about profit, but proving that space is accessible even to small business.
Chanda
Chanda (meaning "Moon" in Sanskrit) is a bit of a dark horse in the competition.
Team leader (and sole member) Adil Jafry said he decided to enter the competition six weeks ago after reading the Lunar X Prize press release.
Jafry said he became excited about the prospect of landing a vehicle on the Moon, and began to research the subject - later paying the $1,000 to enter the contest.
He describes himself as an energy entrepreneur, having formed Tara Energy (Tara is "star" in Sanskrit) out of deregulation of the energy industry in Texas. Jafry believes the space industry is on the cusp of a similar boon as energy deregulation for private entrepreneurship.
Jafry said he's since purchased about 25 books on technical, commercial and regulatory aspects of the space industry to help him build the company from scratch.
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