New software to aid XCOR space tourism push

ALLISON GATLIN ^ | February 22, 2006. | ALLISON GATLIN

[BenLurkin]

MOJAVE - XCOR Aerospace continues to ride the cutting edge of space technology as it works on the preliminary design for its Xerus suborbital spacecraft. The Mojave-based rocket company announced it will use a sophisticated computer-analysis software program, running on a supercomputer, during the preliminary design phase for Xerus.

XCOR is developing the Xerus spacecraft to take commercial passengers to the edge of space as part of the emerging commercial space tourism industry.

This kind of high-powered computer analysis previously was only available for the large aerospace defense firms, said Rich Pournelle , XCOR's director of business development.

"Now those models are accessible to companies like us," he said. "It's no longer just the domain of the Pentagon.

"Having that kind of computing power for a company this size is really unheard of until now."

The computational fluid dynamics simulation software from Metacomp Technologies is used to create and test computer models of the spacecraft designs, allowing the engineers to make modifications within the design phase, before the airframe is built.

"This is the step you take before you do flight test, especially for a supersonic vehicle," Pournelle said.

The computer simulation tests such crucial areas as aerodynamics and thermal heating, eliminating bad designs before they are built or tested with a human in the cockpit.

[BenLurkin]

Space ping

[KevinDavis]