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#1 2023-12-23 17:46:26
- SpaceNut
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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.
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#2 2023-12-23 19:43:19
- tahanson43206
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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)
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#3 2023-12-24 17:58:08
- Mars_B4_Moon
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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)
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#4 2026-04-12 03:22:43
- Mars_B4_Moon
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Re: Spaceship Neptune balloon capsule
we have topics on Tourism for Mars?
I think a 'High Balloon' like the Venus In Situ Explorer or Neptune Capsule could have relevant technology for communication relay on Mats or aerial scanning or research-backed platform
high-altitude balloons are also at the South Pole doing research over Antarctica recorded sub surface data using radar and radio signals, NASA planned to fly the balloons as high as 130,000 feet (40,000 meters) doing science for a number of weeks.
There are also reports some China scientists considered a Ganymede/Callisto/Jupiter mission, a fly by of Uranus or some Nuclear powered outer solar system mission.
Now there is talk of Neptune again
Chinese official calls for prioritizing Neptune orbiter mission
https://spacenews.com/chinese-official- … r-mission/
EDIT
do we have a Neptune thread somewhere? I know there was a thread somewhere about exploring Venus/Titan, building a cloud city and the Gas giants by way of Inflatable
Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2026-04-12 07:04:23)
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#5 2026-04-12 06:18:02
- tahanson43206
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Re: Spaceship Neptune balloon capsule
This topic is about a high altitude balloon ride for paying customers on Earth.
This topic is NOT about a balloon on Neptune or anywhere else than Earth.
It is time for an update on the high altitude balloon ride concept.
SpaceNut, if you have time, please investigate to see what happened to that idea.
(th)
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#6 2026-04-12 06:55:51
- Mars_B4_Moon
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Re: Spaceship Neptune balloon capsule
sorry I could not find the high altitude balloon or 'Neptune' thread
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#7 2026-04-12 08:11:06
- tahanson43206
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Re: Spaceship Neptune balloon capsule
For Mars_B4_Moon ... actually, ** this ** topic is about the tourist balloon initiative that SpaceNut reported.
Confusion of this topic with the planet Neptune is certainly understandable.
Updates about ** both ** are welcome.
This is another opportunity to remind you (and all members) that we have been operating with a structure created in 2001 (or so) by our friends in the UK who created this forum in the first place. We are fortunate to have survived all these years, but it seems possible the familiar structure is in need of some touch up. SpaceNut has introduced small changes, such as the Projects Category.
This is an opportunity for members to suggest changes. Nothing is going to happen quickly.
Simple things are possible. For example, some of the category names are meaningful to folks in the UK, but perhaps they are less familiar to members from other parts of the world.
We might be able to add text that explains the term. I'm not sure how this would be done or where the explanation would go. This is just an example of touchup work that might be considered.
This post is entered into the Spaceship Neptune balloon capsule topic created by SpaceNut, so I'll add a request that a NewMars member look for updates about the status of that ambitious project. In thinking about the Business proposal, I am reminded of the insurance aspects of the business. There is risk in every undertaking, but some activities are more risky than others. At one time, flight in an aircraft was an exercise for the bold who understood the risks and went anyway, or the clueless who had no idea.
Flight in a huge balloon had been done by researchers (military and civilian), but this would be a very large balloon carrying paying customers. The first hot air balloon (recorded in Western records) was flown in 1709, but it is possible simple hot air balloons had been flying long before the Europeans began to experiment. In any case, passengers have been flying in balloons of various kinds since 1709, and not a few have perished for a wide variety of reasons. In short, insurance for the company that would offer this service will be a significant part of the ticket price.
Beyond the risks, the business must manage the technical challenges of a very large balloon. If the balloon is filled with Helium, that gas must be acquired in competition with all the other entries that need helium, including the ever growing space programs around the world.
Such a business would have to develop the market. What ** is ** the potential market for a very expensive balloon flight? For comparison, it should be possible to discover the ticket price for short term flights. Aircraft today reach altitudes above much of the Earth's atmosphere. It should be possible to see the curvature of the Earth.
There ought to be at least ** one ** post left for this topic, before it slides off into the sunset.
(th)
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