Rutan's SpaceShipTwo! - one passenger, orbital...

Rxke · 2004-08-17 01:39:56

http://www.flightinternational.com/fi_f … ernational

Hmmm... Single-person version of SS1... Cramped, but could go to Bigelows hotel (?!?)

But... 130km? That's orbital?

Rxke · 2004-08-17 01:42:08

Hmm... Link causes trouble.

So here's the text:

"One-man version of SpaceShipOne may be next stage in development of space holidays

A one-person version of Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne that reaches an orbit of 130km (81 miles) to rendezvous with an orbiting hotel may form the next stage of Burt Rutan's private manned spaceflight plans.

Speaking at a lecture organised by the Manx Festival of Aviation at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London, the aerospace designer detailed how such an orbital vehicle could be evolved from his existing three-man, suborbital 3,000kg (6,600lb) SpaceShipOne. The amount of spacecraft mass dedicated to fuel would be increased to achieve the greater altitude and speed required.

"We'd have a small cramped cabin for the orbital flight and you'd be in it for a long time. You'd want to go to a hotel [because of that] and for orbital tourism you'd want an altitude of 130km," says Rutan.

In his lecture, Rutan referred to plans by Robert Bigelow, founder of Bigelow Aerospace, to develop a space hotel based on NASA-originated inflatable habitat technology."

(And redundant some X-Prize stuff...)

ROB COPPINGER / LONDON

Euler · 2004-08-17 01:49:18

The lowest stable orbit is at 185 km... and the altitude is the easy part. The difficult part is the 7.5 km/s rotational velocity.

He might mean 130 miles, but the savings from only launching 1 person should not be nearly enough to achieve orbit.

Rxke · 2004-08-17 02:05:59

Hm, yes, thats about 209 km...

And what about re-entry heat, docking etc...

Sounds wildly speculative, but who knows: a bigger carrier plane, extra strap-on boosters...

Rxke · 2004-08-17 02:09:57

Heh. something occurred to me...

Maybe they're thinking about those tether-things, hotel orbital, dangling tether for suborbitals docking magnetically (or someway else)...

SpaceNut · 2004-08-17 10:37:01

The lowest stable orbit is at 185 km... and the altitude is the easy part. The difficult part is the 7.5 km/s rotational velocity.
He might mean 130 miles, but the savings from only launching 1 person should not be nearly enough to achieve orbit.

Sounds to me that the next xprize level should be just what you have described. The higher the better but to at least achieve orbital status and real re-entry conditions. This would put the fear into Nasa to do better for less.

Rxke · 2004-08-17 11:49:21

Rutan has been quoted several times on record that for tourism-jumps, 150 km should be the minimum, so you have a bit more time being weightless. Hiss SS1 is only for testing and barnstorming, not for big-time, full-out tourism flights.

GCNRevenger · 2004-08-17 12:26:54

A one seat orbital space vehicle? He must be joking...

John Creighton · 2004-08-17 13:33:41

A one seat orbital space vehicle? He must be joking...

autopilot? Anyway, it could be scaled up. Just make everything twice as big.

SpaceNut · 2004-08-17 13:38:44

Well not quite a joke but almost the same size.
Falcon rocket rides slow road toward flight
SpaceX deals with hurdles associated
with engine and environmental rules

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5725500/

Rxke · 2004-08-17 14:38:49

Yes, Read that yesterday night, and was fuming over the insanely costly regulations red-tape. (MILLIONS? They got to be kidding!)

I sympathize with his snide remark it almost looks like a conspiracy of the big guys to keep out the start-ups...

SpaceNut · 2004-08-18 05:07:00

The Ansari X Prize hopes to do the same for space tourism. Scaled Composites’ chief engineer, Burt Rutan, believes that eventually passengers could experience a brief space voyage at a cost of $30,000 to $50,000 per person, with prices dropping in the long run to $10,000 to $12,000 each.
It is unclear what effect the popularity of the Ansari X Prize will have on U.S. government space spending.

http://www.easttexasreview.com/story.htm?StoryID=1855

SpaceNut · 2004-08-18 12:45:10

• Aug. 17, 2004 | 6 p.m. ET
Space-race updates on the World Wide Web:
• Flight International: Could SpaceShipOne go orbital?
http://www.flightinternational.com/fi_issu....ode=106
• X Prize Foundation: Argentine rocketeers test escape tower
http://www.xprize.com/press_r....0040813
• Masten Space Systems: New entrant in suborbital market
http://masten-space.com/
• The Guardian: Space travel goes sailing
http://www.guardian.co.uk/space/article … 27,00.html

dicktice · 2004-08-19 13:09:23

A one seat orbital space vehicle? He must be joking...

Burt Rutan never jokes, you turkey. You, maybe--but him, never.

GCNRevenger · 2004-08-19 13:39:07

Its still a vastly foolish idea... no pilot? Betting the vehicles' buisness model on superhigh paying billionaire tourist supplies? Heck, the Pegasus-XL rocket couldn't lift the Mercury capsule, how does Burt intenend to do this?

C M Edwards · 2004-08-19 13:41:21

Burt Rutan never jokes, you turkey. You, maybe--but him, never.

That's good, Dick. Tell us another.

Mad Grad Student · 2004-08-19 21:00:19

He must be joking...

Ah, yes, and this business of flying around the world without refueling, crazy talk. :;):

Burt Rutan is like the Aniheim Rally MonkeyTM, he ain't supernatural, but he's pretty good at what he does. Believe in the power of the Rally Monkey!...

He must be leaving lots of details out. C'mon, it would be phsically impossible to make orbit in one stage on that dinky little hybrid engine, they must be planning on using different propellants. Making a spaceplane that's 2% dry mass is awfully ridiculous, but one that's 5% dry mass, who knows? Global Flyer and Voyager already have mass ratio that good, if you could just make a rocketplane that way...

No one in their right mind would seriously consider a one-person vehicle fit for space tourism. Rutan himself said that all SS1 is good for is barnstorming, publicity, and as a starting point, at least four or five seats would be needed to make it viable. After this contraption is scaled up, then it would be useful for tourism.

For the last month we've had dozens of "rocket scientists" come out and scream about how the private space frontier is upon us and how they will lead us to it. In all honesty, that doesn't mean squat coming from a bunch of arm-waving space tourist wannabes cobbling together something off of eBay. Burt Rutan is not one of these people. When he says that he'll do something, he goes out and does it. Grouping him and Scaled Composites along with all the rest of the rather pathetic alt. space movement is an insult to their capibilities. In any event, time will tell...

SpaceNut · 2004-08-23 08:22:57

On the note of a single pilot or in automated no pilot needed here is an article from the spacereview.
Alighting the pilot
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/211/1

SpaceNut · 2014-01-11 12:43:49

Last entry 2004 Boy did the crash destroy data or what?

http://www.spacetoday.net headlines:

SpaceShipTwo performs third powered flight
Posted: Sat, Jan 11 10:11 AM ET (1511 GMT)
A piloted suborbital vehicle made its third powered flight on Friday as officials with the company developing it said they were still on track to begin commercial flights later this year. Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo was released by its WhiteKnightTwo aircraft shortly after 8 am PST (11 am EST, 1600 GMT) Friday after taking off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. SpaceShipTwo then fired its hybrid rocket motor for 20 seconds, reaching a peak speed of Mach 1.4 and ascending to 21,600 meters (71,000 feet) before gliding to a runway landing at Mojave. The flight was only slightly higher and faster than the previous SpaceShipTwo test flight in early September, which itself was only slightly higher performance from the vehicle's first powered flight in late April 2013. However, company officials said the flight keeps Virgin Galactic on track to begin commercial suborbital flights of SpaceShipTwo later this year.

GW Johnson · 2014-01-12 09:23:22

As near as I can tell, this flight pretty much duplicated the previous flight, except that the pilot in command was a Virgin test pilot, not a Scaled Composites test pilot. That would be customer pilot training, plus reproducibility of test performance, both worthy objectives.

I don't know for sure, but I'd guess the next one will fly higher. Maybe not "all the way up", but higher. Myself, I'd put pilots from both organizations on board, and let them take turns hand-flying the ship. That would telescope some customer pilot training into a single mission, while still pioneering flight envelope expansion with a manufacturer's test pilot. But, we'll see.

They have a lot of flight envelope exploration, and abort scenario exploration, to do before flying passengers this year. I think we'll see several test flights, and not all of them the nominal profile.

GW

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#1 2004-08-17 01:39:56

Re: Rutan's SpaceShipTwo! - one passenger, orbital...

#2 2004-08-17 01:42:08

Re: Rutan's SpaceShipTwo! - one passenger, orbital...

#3 2004-08-17 01:49:18

Re: Rutan's SpaceShipTwo! - one passenger, orbital...

#4 2004-08-17 02:05:59

Re: Rutan's SpaceShipTwo! - one passenger, orbital...

#5 2004-08-17 02:09:57

Re: Rutan's SpaceShipTwo! - one passenger, orbital...

#6 2004-08-17 10:37:01

Re: Rutan's SpaceShipTwo! - one passenger, orbital...

#7 2004-08-17 11:49:21

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#8 2004-08-17 12:26:54

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#9 2004-08-17 13:33:41

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#10 2004-08-17 13:38:44

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#11 2004-08-17 14:38:49

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#12 2004-08-18 05:07:00

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#13 2004-08-18 12:45:10

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#14 2004-08-19 13:09:23

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#15 2004-08-19 13:39:07

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#16 2004-08-19 13:41:21

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#17 2004-08-19 21:00:19

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#18 2004-08-23 08:22:57

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#19 2014-01-11 12:43:49

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#20 2014-01-12 09:23:22

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