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First Look At New Mexico's Space Terminal

Posted by kdawson on Tue Sep 04, 2007 08:59 PM
from the ad-astra dept.
Space Businesses
Raver32 sends us to space.com for first light on the design of New Mexico's Spaceport America. Quoting: "The winning design is the work of URS Corporation — a large design and engineering enterprise — teamed with Foster + Partners of the United Kingdom, a group with extensive experience in crafting airport buildings. When the 100,000 square-foot facility is completed — the centerpiece of the world's first, purpose-built, commercial spaceport — the structures will serve as the primary operating base for Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceliner, and also as the headquarters for the New Mexico Spaceport Authority."
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Submission: First Look at a New Space Terminal by Raver32 (978821)
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  • Spaceports instead of airports?! Where the hell is my flying car?! It's the 21st Century for God sake! I was promised flying cars!

    • Lower Launch Costs - Using Available Tech! (Score:5, Informative)

      by StCredZero (169093) on Wednesday September 05 2007, @12:30AM (#20475175)
      There are several things we could be doing to dramatically lower launch costs.

      • Two Stage To Orbit [spacetethers.com] - If done correctly, we can build one of these to operate like an airplane, instead of a munition. (See The Rocket Company [hobbyspace.com] for details. Single Stage To Orbit (SSTO) is right at the bleeding edge of our capabilities. But if we're willing to build big and build robustly, TSTO is doable with off-the shelf technology. (The fuel to get into space is not that much more expensive than the fuel to get a 747 over the Atlantic.)
      • Modular Laser Launch [google.com] - You can develop a laser module to launch a small unmanned test vehicle, then scale it up to launch useful payloads (5000 lbs) by building and combining multiple modules. When economies of scale kick in, you get launch costs that start to rival those hypothetical beanstalks.
      • Rotovators that rendevous with a High Altitude Airplane [wikipedia.org] - Again, it's hard to imagine a robust and reliable SSTO, but a Mach 12 high-altitude aircraft is much more reasonable. Also, a rotating tether that reaches only partly into the atmosphere and cancels only about half of orbital velocity can be built from materials that exist today! (Not unobtanium or carbon nanotubes.)
      • A Lofstrom Loop [wikipedia.org] - would also enable cheap access to space, and could be built with materials we have today. This is an arc that reaches above the atmosphere, suspended by the momentum of electromagnetically accelerated iron links. Vehicles would be launched into orbit by "stealing" a bit of the loop's momentum.


      If we were really serious about lowering launch costs, we would be pouring money into researching these. But we're not. (Too easy to make money off the government doing what we're doing now.)
      • Those are some awesome links.

        I'm reading a PDF about Modular Laser Launch [usra.edu] and I'm realizing nobody will ever fund this. However! If you had a tracking system that could follow a pinpoint location on a launch vehicle, and a 100MW laser that could continuously fire, then you could take down an incoming ICBM. It seems like this is the way to get this project started. Tell the DOD that the same device that can launch things into space can also destroy them.

      • What about 11km high launch towers with electromagnetic rails on the inside, powered by nuclear power plants?

        • Even if an 11km-high tower were feasible (given that it would be 20 times the tallest tower ever built) and sufficient (given that reaching escape velocity within 11km would require a steel-crushing, organ-liquefying 560 Gs of acceleration), there's still the fact that you'd end up traveling at orbital velocity at an altitude where the air still has fully 1/5 of its sea-level density. Result: fireball.

          • First of all, think pylons, not towers as in skyscrapers. This I assure you is technically feasible. Second, 11km puts you above most of the drag of the lower atmosphere (although I'll grant you it is only a few %), and crucially, above high winds and storms. Thirdly you don't need to reach escape velocity, just orbital. From there you can do what you like.

            If you can make orbital velocity, even low orbit easy and cheap to reach, its orders of magnitude more easy to reach escape velocity from there. If

        • Unfortunately, 11km is far too short an acceleration distance for anything but unmanned cargoes. (Think of how far downrange the Shuttle gets, accelerating all the while. You'd need a structure with length on that scale!) Also, getting altitude is only a small part of the problem. It's getting up to orbital velocity which is the big sticking point.

          That reminds me of another one. Apparently, some NASA researcher has determined that we could create super-strong cylindrical columns using Boron balloon tan

          • Unfortunately, 11km is far too short an acceleration distance for anything but unmanned cargoes. (Think of how far downrange the Shuttle gets, accelerating all the while. You'd need a structure with length on that scale!) Also, getting altitude is only a small part of the problem. It's getting up to orbital velocity which is the big sticking point.

            I had this discussion with a few people before, apparently you can reach orbital velocity with reasonable Gs within such a structure, which would need no spac

      • Too easy to make money off the government doing what we're doing now.

        Nice theory. Somewhat at odds with the facts however - that only about 20% or less of US launches are goverment sponsored. The remainder are commercial.

        If we were really serious about lowering launch costs, we would be pouring money into researching these.

        That's the rub - we don't need any new technologies to lower launch costs. We could cut them by half or more simply by using existing vehicles but mass producing them

  • Get the mental image of it looking like a run down backwater airport in about 20 years time?

    • Re:Anybody else (Score:5, Funny)

      by ashitaka (27544) on Tuesday September 04 2007, @09:52PM (#20473837) Homepage
      Dibs on being the first to say:

      "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by sjf (3790)
        Am I the only one who thinks that the spaceport looks like the Millenium Falcon ?
        • Offtopic? You got screwed.
          Since the story amounts to "LOOK! PICTURES!" you're about as on-topic as you could possibly get.

          And yes, the Millennium Falcon was my first thought.
          It looks so much like it, in fact, that you just might deserve a -1 Redundant...
        • I was thinking it look more like a vagina. "Welcome to the womb."
        • You might be. The first thing I thought of was vagina, followed closely by toilet seat. Once you get past that, it's just an airport.
        • Looks like a soggy nacho to me. /NM resident here

    • Re:Anybody else (Score:4, Informative)

      by Harmonious Botch (921977) * on Tuesday September 04 2007, @10:14PM (#20473995) Homepage Journal

      ...a run down backwater airport in about 20 years time?
      Maybe. There is going to be plenty of competition. From Seed magazine:

      New Mexico isn't the only state with atmospheric ambitions. In March the Wisconsin legislature voted for a $15-million spaceport in Sheboygan. Oklahoma is converting a former B-52 base into a launch site for things like rocket-powered Learjets. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos is quietly building mission control for his space company, Blue Origin, on his West Texas ranch, while Virginia-based Space Adventures plans two enormous facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Singapore. Spaceports in Florida, Virginia, Nevada and Alabama are also in the pipeline.
      And as happens when growing industries begin to mature, there is a winnowing process in which only the most fit survive. Since they are the closest one to me, I do hope they make it.
    • Actually, my mental image is like much of Mexico - partially done. It's something I've seen lots of in Mexico, but just don't see here in the states - buildings and structures stopped halfway. It's weird to see nice, quality brick houses and the like built up about halfway and then just... abandoned!

      So, I figure the tarmac would be all laid out, the foundation for the buildings poured, and then whatever mysterious forces cause projects to die halfway would kick in and we'd have another open wound in the Ear
      • Given the amount it's likely to be used, I can't understand the size of the place. Just how many people do they expect to be queueing at the check-in desk brandishing their $200,000 tickets?

        Presumably, the vastness is to allow the entire roster of passengers plus crew for a single day to play a little 5-a-side soccer before they take off. Providing they can find a couple of janitors to make up the numbers.
      • Actually, my mental image is like much of Mexico - partially done. It's something I've seen lots of in Mexico, but just don't see here in the states - buildings and structures stopped halfway.

        You see the same sort of thing in Spain too. A single storey [thefreedictionary.com] building with the rebar [wikipedia.org] poking out the top where the concrete supports would be for the second storey.

        I believe in Spain there's some tax loophole where you don't have to pay something if the building isn't completed. Is it local/council taxes/rates perha

      • Vagina was the first thing I thought of too. Mind you, it is one of the first things I always think about.

        The fact that this will be run by a company called Virgin doesn't help.

        Man, re-entry is going to be fun.

  • The real question (Score:5, Funny)

    by Weaselmancer (533834) on Tuesday September 04 2007, @09:07PM (#20473435)

    Can they get a killer whale to the moon?

  • I initially read the headline as "First Look at Mexico's New Space Terminal" and I immediately thought of the South Park episode where they send the whale to the moon. God, what a great episode. /Si, fly.
  • "What a piece of junk!"

    "She made not look like much, kid, but she's got it where it counts. I made a lot of special modifications myself, but if you don't mind, we're in a bit of a hurrry, so..."
  • When did that happen? Well, I guess since they have Roswell, it makes sense.

  • Note on the photo.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by daemonenwind (178848) on Tuesday September 04 2007, @09:48PM (#20473791)
    ...the planned gardens around the disk-like space terminal will be exquisite, keeping dozens of local workers employed on a daily basis.

    (yeah, I know I'm going to hell for that one)

  • Is it achieving real space flight?

    Trying to get the russian share of billionaires wanting to go to space.
  • You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
  • Did anyone else read that as Mexico's New Space Terminal?

    I guess we're not sending chihuahuas and tacos into space quite yet.
  • the first ever lost space luggage arrived at the facility today.

  • GOLDEN, Colorado -- Architectural and engineering teams have begun shaping the look and feel of New Mexico's Spaceport America, taking the wraps off new images today that showcase the curb appeal of the sprawling main terminal and hangar at the futuristic facility.

    What does this have to do with Golden? Granted, the Colorado School of Mines has the Center for Space Resources [mines.edu] - but the article doesn't reference them or say anything about their involvement in the project. Does anyone know?

    • Bylines often reflect where the writer of the article was actually located, so it's probably telling us that Leonard David, author of TFA, wrote aforementioned FA in Golden.
  • Is the spaceport inside the giant steel vagina? [akamaitech.net]
    • I suppose that's the architectural equivalent of a chastity belt, to keep hostile aliens from penetrating our planet's defenses.
  • Finally I've got a place to park the Millenium Falcon when I need to run out to Toshii station and pick up power converters.
    • You got the wrong country, but I think your larger point is relevant: with all the unemployment, illiteracy, crime and hate in New Mexico, should they really be spending all this money to build a spaceport at this time?
    • How did that get modded informative? Are the mods subscribing to unsubstantiated low-budget conspiracy theory shows now? The Nazca Lines are important archaeologically, but there's nothing to suggest that they are of extraterrestrial origin, or that it was involved with spacecraft at all.
    • um are you saying that Nazca was a spaceport? Riiiight, keep watching your X-Files re-runs!
    • Pffffft. You're a crackpot. The Nazca Lines wasn't a commercial spaceport, it was run by a not for profit collective.
    • Put down the bong and close your copy of "Chariots of the Gods". It is not a work of reputable archeology.

    • Re:actually not bad (Score:5, Funny)

      by tompaulco (629533) on Tuesday September 04 2007, @10:29PM (#20474083) Homepage Journal
      And in 30 years the success of he spaceport will have launched an industrious little town surrounding it, and then developers will come in and build houses right next to it, and people will move in, and complain about the noise, and get the spaceport successfully shut down.
    • I mean...quite a lot of the country lives pretty close to New Mexico, e.g. in Arizona, California, Colorado, and Texas.

      It's a bit of a haul from the East Coast, I guess. But if you're forking out $200,000 for a once in a lifetime ride I can't see the extra $500 airfare from the Sprawl making you blink.
    • Don't be such a nerd.
      .
      .
      .
      .
      Um, do you suppose they'll have Klingon bloodwine in the duty-free shop?
    • Actually, we already have that. When you drive over the top of San Augustine pass and look down on the White Sands Missile Range [army.mil] HQ area, it looks remarkably like Mos Eisely as seen in Episode IV. Maybe if I have time someday, I'll take a picture and post it along with a screen capture side-by-side on Google Earth.

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