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SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 28,937

Spaceship Neptune balloon capsule

I believe its sub orbital....

Spaceship Neptune balloon capsule taking shape in Titusville hangar for 2024 test flight

Resembling a white whiffle ball spanning 14½ feet across, Space Perspective's prototype Spaceship Neptune is taking shape to soar on a series of test flights to the brink of space — beneath a huge hydrogen-filled balloon.

Spaceship Neptune is a pressurized circular capsule expected to take its inaugural flight during the first quarter of 2024, said Taber MacCallum, co-founder and co-CEO of Space Perspective.

For now, Spaceship Neptune is flanked by chrome metal scaffolding inside a hangar at Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville. Technicians wearing white protective coveralls, blue gloves and red headlamps have finished assembling the carbon-composite sphere, which was manufactured at a Melbourne factory.

Over the next few weeks, MacCallum said crews will install 15 windows, shipped in from California. Inside the sphere, workers will add systems to handle temperature control, life support, communications, navigation and other equipment.

Once construction is complete, MacCallum said crews will load the capsule and balloon onto the company's specially outfitted 294-foot ship MS Voyager at Port Canaveral, then launch about 20 miles off the shoreline.

The space balloon's multi-hour maiden flight will be visible to spectators across Brevard County, he said.
"We'll probably do 10 to 14 test flights. Maybe 10 flights without people. Then in that process, we'll be building a human-rated vehicle — so this is meant to be a prototype," MacCallum said, standing alongside a yellow authorized-personnel-only metal barricade near Spaceship Neptune.

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 17,273

Re: Spaceship Neptune balloon capsule

For SpaceNut re new topic!

This new topic should have a good run!  The cost of flights is low enough so that a fair number of customers should book, for family flights as well as special occasions.

(th)

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,267

Re: Spaceship Neptune balloon capsule

The Rockoon, I'm not sure it ever worked

American company Deimos-One is developing an AI assisted concept to launch rockets and carry 'Rockoon' Balloon + Rocket launched satellites to low Earth orbit.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stealth- … 00720.html

All kinds of crazy ideas have come and gone over the years, there was a time when people proposed 'Pigeon photography' by using duct tape and a camera around a carrier pigeon. Will this catch on, maybe? 'Space Tourists' pay money for all kinds of stuff.

Spaceship Neptune is offering tourism balloon flights to the 'edge of space' perhaps there is a commercial market and money to be made and maybe a Mars Analogue to look at, measure radiation levels on animals for example and go to the so-called edge of space. Tourism gets all types and people used to buy flights on ex-soviet Migs, it won't reach the Karman Line, 100 kilometres (54 nautical miles; 62 miles; 330,000 feet) above mean sea level, it will instead go above another key boundary called the Armstrong Line around 12 miles (19km) altitude, Mount Everest is about 5.5 miles (8.8 kilometers) tall and Aircraft already fly at this altitude the unmanned NASA Helios HP01, the Mig-21, Sukhoi Su-9, SNCASO Trident II, the Grumman Super Tiger, the Lockheed F104 Starfighter. Why balloons well they are used for weather observation already and might become a recon, observe, spying thing, if you charge a tourist money for height and hours they can fly higher, further and longer than planes, temperatures will be cold , the coldest temperature on Mars can reach minus 195 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 125 degrees Celsius near the poles  on Earth a Balloon at this height temperatures they can drop to around -143C -225F colder than any temperature ever recorded on Earth's surface and comparable to Mars atmosphere. People on Earth soon expect to be able to launch a balloon that will stay aloft for a full calendar year, that is a long time up there at the 'edge of space' if you want to monitor something like rabbits or scorpions or penguins or CO2 levels. Even though it is cool up there staying cool can be a problem, fans do not work as well to cool down equipment, you can store energy through solar during the day, charge up batteries ready for the night.

Virgin Galactic is doing ok with sub orbital flight on a parasite role with another aircraft, in theory it could be 'safer' method but it is not easy to air launch they had so many issues with 'Air-Launch' never really got stuff to launch great from SpacePlanes so I'm not sure VirginGalactic or Boeing would air launched from beneath a carrier Balloon or payload from a Balloon mother ship, I expect any rocketship would create a risk of destroying the Mothership Balloon

I believe its sub orbital....

Media throw around words like orbital but It's less than sub orbital because 'sub orbital' is technically 100 km 62 mi above sea level, and then falls back to Earth, is considered a true sub-orbital spaceflight. Rocket Test Flights which attain sufficient sideways velocity to go into low Earth orbit, and then technically and deliberately de-orbit a rocket before completing their first full orbit, are not considered sub-orbital

A Japan company

'Keisuke Iwaya President, Iwaya Inc Pioneering space exploration with gas balloons'

Japan-based space tourism is about to become a reality
https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/design … res/iwaya/
As you aim to achieve Japan's first civilian space tourism trip, could you tell us why and how you chose a unique method like gas balloons?

US Army to Launch High-Altitude Spy Balloon Program in 2025
https://www.thedefensepost.com/2023/12/ … y-balloon/

a somewhat related topic 'StratoLaunch Redesign' from 2016

https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=7480

Scaled Composites and Burt

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2023-12-26 11:59:13)