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Virgin Galactic Unveils SpaceShipTwo
Posted by
kdawson
on Thu Sep 28, 2006 01:29 PM
from the up-up-and-back-again dept.
from the up-up-and-back-again dept.
BoulderDad writes, "Richard Branson presented a mock-up of the new SpaceShipTwo in New York. From the article: 'Future passengers aboard Virgin Galactic spaceliners can look forward to cushioned reclining seats and lots of windows during suborbital flights aboard SpaceShipTwo, a concept interior of which was unveiled by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson Thursday.' The video is worth watching; the spaceport details are more concept than reality, but the depiction of the phases of space flight is very good."
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Shotgun! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Shotgun! (Score:4, Informative)
I get the shotgun seat!
You can have it.
I saw Burt Rutan (the craft designer) talking at the Oshkosh EAA convention a couple months ago. He explained how they plan to allow exactly that. The typical SpaceShip 2 Flight will have 8 people on board... That's one Virgin pilot, and 7 "revenue" seats. 6 passengers will typically show up just a day or two before their flight for some brief training. The seventh guest will pay a lot more, and will arrive 2-3 months before the flight for extensive training. They will be the official co-pilot for their flight.
I'm sure you will need to be a licensed pilot going in, so start working on that training now!
Parent
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bin space? (Score:4, Funny)
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Probably just easier to leave them out.
Orbit? (Score:5, Informative)
But when will private industry make it into orbit and back.
You need that if you want to stay for more then free fall.
Its the speed of orbit, and reentry from that speed, that makes this hard.
A real space tourist will want to stay a while.
As for several minutes of weightlessness, you can get
that from conventional aircraft.
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
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Re:Orbit? (Score:4, Insightful)
As for several minutes of weightlessness, you can get
that from conventional aircraft.
True, but what you don't get is the blue sky disappearing to be replaced with the blackness of space. I'd also imagine you can see the curvature of the earth quite well from 60 miles up. Weightlessness is kinda cool I'm sure, but I think the selling point for all the millionaires will be the visuals, the G-forces, and of course telling all your too-rich friends that you officially went into space. I imagine if this thing is successfull it could fund the next stage, which would be an orbital vehicle.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Or extremely high parchuting! I remember reading a short sci-fi story about something like this once. They had a tower that went up into the stratosphere/leo region, where you take an elevator ride to the top, put on a space suit with a dish shaped heat shield, then jumped off. After re-entering the atmosphere and slowing down enough from drag, you jettison the dish, then procede like a normal jump. Soun
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And people are working on that as well.
People aren't the only thinking working on the elevator [slashdot.org]. Well, I wouldn't call it WORK, but you get the idea...
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But when will private industry make it into orbit and back.
You need that if you want to stay for more then free fall.
True, but the first thing you have to do before you worry about orbit is making sure you can get up and down safely. Look at how NASA conducted Project Mercury - a couple of sub-orbital lob shots to prove they could do it, before trying to boost a guy into orbit.
In the beginning, commercial space travel will be the arena of the commercial traveller, and they will be more interested in
Re:Orbit? (Score:4, Informative)
Virgin Galactic's (Rutan's) method is not scalable to orbital velocities. It's not even new or unique.
We have been launching small rockets off airplanes for decades now.
There is no reason to take this step. It doesn't put them going towards orbit.
It is Rutan and Co.'s marketing department that has convinced people this is a necessary step to the commercialization of space.
All it is a scam to milk $250,000 people off those that can afford it and he used the X-prize as a form of advertising for it.
Parent
Who pissed in your cheerios? (Score:4, Informative)
Great where can I get a ride on one - oh, only if I am one of a handful of jet pilots in the Air force or government space program.
Sure there is - because it can and will be completed within the next decade, unlike the private man-to-orbit projects under way. It will also likely be much more affordable than the orbital trips, even when they do come to fruition. Bungee jumping will never scale to orbital velocities, but that does not make it worthless.
Yeah, and damn that rafting company who scammed me out of $50 by providing a desired service in exchange for a mutually agreed upon sum. Dirty Capitalists.
That was the whole point of the X-prize. It was never intended to go towards orbit, and the hope was that it would lead to a commercial venture. The people who provided the money for the X-prize don't feel cheated, and are very happy about Branson's deal with Rutan to develop it into profitable business.
Oh, and you people bitching about the environmental impact need to get some perspective. There are thousands of flights across the world every day, and millions of vehicles being driven and thousands of coal plants spewing CO2 and soot. And you are worried about the pollution that one sub-orbital launch a week is going to do.
Seriously, I am used to people on slashdot being critical jerks, but this thread is ridiculous. Rutan is an excellent high-performance plane designer, and rather than sitting around bitching about how he wished there were private alternatives to get into space, he took what knew and did something about it. In just a few more years he will be providing an opportunity to people that has never existed before, and which no one will match for many more years to come. You may not think it is worth the price, but thousands of other people do, and are more than willing to pay the $250,000 to get a glimpse of space. Sure I would prefer to see an orbital trip. But I will always be far more excited to see concrete progress in the present, no matter how small, than I will be to dream about vaporware.
Parent
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And when the market is there... (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
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All in all, when jobs start here, they will be high paying jobs, not McDonald/Walmart jobs. This combined with Bigelow will lead Americ
Re:Money poorly spent... (Score:4, Insightful)
When was the last time you went out to eat?
Have you ever spent $20 on a good meal? $40? $100?
If so, for the price of your one meal, dozens of hungry people could have been fed. Using your logic, I'd say everyone should only eat the least expensive foods they can get their hands on, never have any entertainment expenses (you don't buy games, do you?) and give all of their non-necessity income to the poor.
Somehow, I don't think you're doing that. And you shouldn't.
There aren't many good answers for getting around the system and feeding the world's hungry, but "rich people shouldn't spend their money on things they want to buy" is at the bottom of the barrel. Unless you're willing to make the same sacrifices in your everyday life, I wouldn't expect others to - it's really just a drop in the bucket either way.
Parent
Why school? (Score:2)
For those with more money than common sense. (Score:4, Insightful)
200K for "several minutes" in space? Sorry, I'll wait until 2010 for Bigelow's space hotel.
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For those with more money than common sense.
200K for "several minutes" in space? Sorry, I'll wait until 2010 for Bigelow's space hotel.
Yes, but imagine the fun you will have watching other rich people having space sickness, nausea and vomiting in 0 G!!!
someone doesn't chew their food properly...
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And naturally, since your priorities are different from those of others, you've got to insult us.
Tell you what. After I land, I'll let you know whether or not I felt it was a good investment. Enjoy waiting in Bigelow's line for the next 20 years.
Not to be confused with... (Score:4, Funny)
cargo (Score:2)
Beyond that, I am curious to see the whiteknight 2. I would also guess that it will be big enough to launch SS3.
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In the words of astronaut Melania Slozar: (Score:2)
-S
Where the real money is at. (Score:5, Funny)
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No need to use future tense...
http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/movies/uranus
Space tourism (Score:2)
Popular Science Not Slashdotted Yet (Score:3, Informative)
Second-second-system effect? (Score:2, Funny)
FF (Score:2)
Oops, my bad, I guess you can
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/frequentflyer /fcpartners/virgingroup/virgingalactic.jsp [virgin-atlantic.com]
To heck with the space tourism aspect... (Score:2)
--- SER
Exterior of SpaceShipTwo (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/first-imag
One of the images compares the size of SpaceShipTwo [gizmodo.com] to other vehicles, such as SpaceShipOne, the Bell X-1, and a Boeing 747.
Somebody should have said this (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Blue's Clues Spaceship Cruise? (Score:5, Insightful)
"If you're going to build a spaceship, you've got to build a green spaceship," Branson said, adding that the carbon dioxide output from a single spaceflight is on par with those of a business class seat aboard commercial aircraft.
So, they aren't going to pollute much at all. As for being for rich people only, well, that's generally how new technologies work. Commercial air travel was, at the beginning, a luxurious way for the wealthy to travel. New technologies are expensive, and tend to be geared at first toward people who can afford them. As these flights become routine, and as the technology improves (and especially as competition enters the market), prices will fall.
Parent
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So, they aren't going to pollute much at all.
FTA: Launched from 60,000 feet.
I don't suppose they're lauching these ships by these energy friendly means [slashdot.org].
More like they latch this bugger onto a jet, take off with it and then launch the space ship from it. Can't say that sounds as efficient an ordinary old business class jet.
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Let "business jet" = "1 distance unit (DU)" = "1 pollution unit (PU)"
Let "spacecraft" = "3DU" = "1PU"
With these figures, consider a travel distance of 4DU:
4 x Business Jet = 4PU
(1 x Business Jet) + (1 x Spacecraft) = 2PU
Obviously, for travel over 2DU or less, a regular business jet would be just as green or greener (not to mention much more e
Re:Blue's Clues Spaceship Cruise? (Score:5, Insightful)
I just had an image of a slashdotter from last century saying the same thing to the wright brothers...
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Zero.
Reading is Fundamental! (Score:2, Redundant)
"If you're going to build a spaceship, you've got to build a green spaceship," Branson said, adding that the carbon dioxide output from a single spaceflight is on par with those of a business class seat aboard commercial aircraft.
"If It's in the news, it must be true"-Bullwinkle (Score:2)
From TFA
"If you're going to build a spaceship, you've got to build a green spaceship," Branson said, adding that the carbon dioxide output from a single spaceflight is on par with those of a business class seat aboard commercial aircraft.
So we're now in the business of believing everything he says rather than doing the simple math ourselves? No wonder he's a billionaire and we're just pottering around until our pensions.
emissions (Score:3, Insightful)
Whitehorn and Branson both said that SpaceShipTwo will rely on a new type of hybrid rocket fuel, one slightly different from the rubber and nitrous oxide mixture that propelled SpaceShipOne into suborbital space three times in 2004.
"If you're going to build a spaceship, you've got to build a green spaceship," Branson said, adding that the carbon dioxide output from a single spaceflight is on par with those of a business class seat aboard commercial aircraft.
Re:Blue's Clues Spaceship Cruise? (Score:4, Funny)
I thought it looked more like a sleek, white running shoe [wikipedia.org], but that's pretty improbable.
Parent
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Re:Richard Branson is scum for using imminent doma (Score:2)