Posted on 06/08/2007 6:14:23 AM PDT by tang0r
Sir Richard Branson wants to be the first to offer sub-orbital flights to the general public. Currently, his White Knight Two and the Space Ship Two spacecrafts are scheduled to undergo a test flight program later this year and then finally launch commercial operations approximately a year later. Tickets start at $200,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at prometheusinstitute.net ...
I can’t sell my extremitites for that.
I would not want to be the first to try out the new spacecraft.
Tickets start at $200,000, or 10% of the going Russian price. ... In either scenario, many more citizens will enjoy the choice, unlike today, where only those with $20 million can get in line with the Russians.
Driving traffic to your site, again?
Things will only really get hopping when they start producing full orbital cargo launches of 100 tons or more. The US is planning a rocket of that sort, but a commercial lift of that kind is even more desirable.
The reasons are many. To start with, it immediately pays for itself with commercial satellite lifts. At some point, that company could become the nucleus of an international satellite consortium that self regulates commercial satellite lanes, much like sea lanes.
This leads to the next stage, which is to build a manned, permanent space station to manage commercial space traffic. It is one of a number of very practical reasons to have a space station, not just as a scientific enterprise, but as a commercial one.
With 100 ton lifts, the space station could be constructed from modular units. At first, it would be to rescue, refuel and repair satellites, cleaning the commercial space lanes of debris, and providing temporary backup services for critical satellites damaged by solar storms and micro meteorites.
When still larger, the space station would be used for fabrication of low gravity materials on a large scale. Again, a very profitable commercial application.
Larger still, the space station would be very useful as a transfer point for ships going to the Moon and eventually Mars. These unmanned and manned ships could carry much more cargo if they could be refueled in space, or even better, if they had a shuttle engine and fuel tanks added after they had reached orbit, whose purpose would be to get them from Earth orbit to Lunar or Martian orbit and back.
This would allow them to stretch their missions from weeks to months, saving enormous amounts of money in the process.
Unfortunately, the Saturn V drawings and tooling were destroyed.
It could put 130 tons into low earth orbit.
China, already having put a human into space, further demonstrated its celestial capabilities by recently shooting down an orbiting satellite. To Washington's Sinophobic lobby already hopped-up about inflated currency and devious trade practices, the Chinaman’s aerospace belligerence seemed to be cause for grave apprehension.
He discounts China's ability to destroy an orbiting satellite, calls people who are concerned with what the Chinese government is doing Sinophobic and then proceeds in the article with this:
As government satellites have become indispensable for private civilian use, space exploration and travel can similarly become accessible for mankind's commercial and leisurely demands.
Don't worry about China's new satellite killing capability because satellites are "indispensable."
10% must be for the math challanged in our group... Since I cring at “Giving 110%”, so this must be in a floating scale... 1000 (New Math) = 100% (Real world)
The specialized tooling was surplussed, but the drawings exist to rebuild them.
But why would anyone want to recreate the Saturn V? It was hand built at great cost. Not the booster for mass production at all.
I really what approach the private sector would take to heavy cargo lift. Right now, one aerospace company is planning an *inflatable* space station, which has some technical advantages.
However, in the future, I see the beginnings of a large scale station based in an invention that takes compacted pressed pre-cut aluminum sheet and molds it into strong triangular lattice “ladders” of considerable length and strength. This means that you can lift up something almost as compact as a cube of aluminum, then use the machine to make the framework of a very large station from it.
Each module of the station is then caught and attached to the framework, then it “walks” to right where it is supposed to be, using the ladder, attaching itself to another module with a minimum of human guidance. The connected modules then form the superstructure of the station.
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