Europe Unveils New Space Plane for Tourist Market

mrminator writes to tell us Space.com is reporting that Europe's largest space contractor, EADS, has just announced their plans to build a new space tourism vehicle. The new rocket, powered by liquid methane and liquid oxygen will carry passengers on a 90 minute round trip flight for somewhere in the neighborhood of 200,000 euros ($267,000).

$Ka-ching

[mastershake_phd]

$267,000 is a lot of cash. Why right now you can get a seat on one of those 727s that can simulate zero Gs for a mere $3,675.00. Thats affordable for almost anyone who really wants to experience it. http://www.gozerog.com/ [gozerog.com]

Methane in Space

[DynaSoar]

To answer the posted question of "what's so special", it's the methane motor. NASA tested one, but nobody's flown with one yet.

All the major hydrocarbon fuels are within about 3% of each other in specific impulse. Methane, being readily available via natural gas, is very handy. However, it's a gas, compressed to liquid. That means its density is less than a liquid. The major liquid fuel (RP-1; pretty much JP-4/Jet A kerosene) is 22% more dense since it's a liquid. To make a methane engine worth putting into a human-rated craft will require a major step in pressure tank development. They'll need to cram a lot of gas in, and it'll have to fail safe (ie. not explode if it leaks). I suspect EADS made this part of their R&D for the project, or they'd have just gone with RP-1. For a comparison of fuels see http://yarchive.net/space/rocket/fuels/fuel_table. html [yarchive.net]

This is how far behind the curve they are..

[N3WBI3]

Virgin Galactic: "Work on the SpaceShipTwo design and construction is well advanced. Testing of the SpaceShipTwo prototype is likely to start in 2007 with commercial flights on the maiden Virgin Galactic craft, the VSS (Virgin SpaceShip) Enterprise, commencing early in 2009." Rutan usually delivers on his promises and that being the case.. Other hurdles Virgin Galactic has gotten over "NASA and Virgin Galactic announce a ground breaking and exciting agreement between the two parties to collaborate in future manned space technology. In particular, NASA confirms its willingness to make available to Virgin Galactic the unique capabilities and world class facilities within the NASA Ames Research Centre in California." 2-22-07

Re:Cheap Thrill

[giorgiofr]

Erm, that only nets you 20K, not 200K. So, no, it's not doable by the middle class.

Re:So, how big is this market?

[crazyjimmy]

I'm not sure this is really a company chasing after anything. This kinds seems like a "oh yeah? we can do that!", and is being thrown together purely for prestige. The best part is this line:

"Astrium President Francois Auque said one side benefit of the project is to shatter the cliche that established aerospace giants like EADS have lost their imagination and sense of daring."

Their imagination is to copy someone else.

Their daring... I guess that's trying to find investors for a $1,000,000,000 investment. :P

--Jimmy

Re:Cheap Thrill

[fbjon]

You mean 200.000€. It's 33% more.

Re:For that much money

[CrimsonAvenger]

I could tell right away that it was misleading. You can pretty much orbit the earth in 90 minutes. And it's not like they were just hovering; 90 minutes of hover is 9.8 m/s^2 * 60 * 90 = ~53,000 m/s delta-V, compared to the necessary ~7,800 m/s for LEO.

Of course, you can glide for 90 minutes using no fuel whatsoever. Once you spend a relatively small amount of deltaV to put yourself into a ballistic trajectory that takes you up 100 Km. 2 Km/s or so should be in the timezone of enough. Then glide for the best part of 90 minutes at mach 2+....

It's not like hovering gives you zero-G or anything - if you were to hover for 90 minutes, you'd experience zero seconds of zero-G

Re:Cheap Thrill

[dawiz]

"In Europe, at least, $200,000 (or £100,000 if you prefer) is a living wage"

uhm, no. I live in Switzerland - which is considered to be one of the wealthiest nations in the world, if not the wealthiest. The average income here is 65'000 Fr. (which is about 50'000$). A good income is anything above 85k, an excellent income starts at about 150k. 200k (CHF) is the kind of money doctors, dentists and lawyers make.