That's easy . . .
Posted on 07/27/2005 12:08:43 PM PDT by BenLurkin
OSHKOSH, Wis. - When will Average Joe Citizen be able to fly into space, to see the black sky and curve of the Earth, and to experience the heady feeling of weightlessness? According to aerospace visionary Burt Rutan, the answer is soon.
"I think 15 years from now, every child will know, if he wants to, he can go into space," he said.
Rutan discussed his vision of the future of space travel before rapt crowds Tuesday at the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture 2005.
Rutan paved the way to make commercial space travel available for the masses with SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded, manned space program.
Last year, the stubby spacecraft and its team made history with three suborbital flights to 100 km and beyond. In doing so, they collected the $10 million Ansari X Prize and international attention.
Rutan's efforts led to the creation of the first commercial space tourism venture, Virgin Galactic.
Brainchild of Virgin CEO Sir Richard Branson, the company hopes to repeat the success of its airlines by offering suborbital flights to space.
The company has licensed the technology behind SpaceShipOne, and Rutan's Scaled Composites in Mojave is working to develop the next-generation spacecraft suitable for carrying passengers.
Branson and Virgin began looking at space tourism in the late 1990s, but could not find a proposal to meet their strict safety requirements until SpaceShipOne, said Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn.
The importance of the success of SpaceShipOne was not that it was accomplished without government funding, but that "we attacked head-on, generically, the dangers of manned spaceflight," Rutan said.
By creatively addressing the daunting safety concerns of manned spaceflight - including flight controls and rocket-engine reliability - SpaceShipOne demonstrated that suborbital spaceflight on a large scale is possible, he said.
As more and more flights are made and more people are drawn to commercial spaceflight, the process will become safer, much in the same way aviation became safer as more people joined following the Wright brothers' efforts, he said.
While the initial ticket costs - $200,000 - will exclude all but the wealthiest passengers, those costs are expected to decrease as Virgin Galactic grows and other competing endeavors join the market, Whitehorn said.
The company is also about to announce plans for ticket contests and donations to space-related organizations to bring other passengers aboard the spaceflights.
"This is not going to be just a rich-person plaything. Our idea is to democratize this as much as possible," Whitehorn said.
The first passengers - labeled pioneers and including celebrities - will be assisting in making the initial capital investment in the concept, he said. Virgin is putting in $120 million of its own capital.
Right now the biggest obstacle to investment in commercial space travel is the overriding impression that space travel is very dangerous.
"People have filed spaceflight in the too-difficult cupboard," Whitehorn said.
Virgin Galactic expects to prove that a safe, commercially viable space endeavor is possible, creating a society in which even the man on the street is comfortable with the concept.
The company plans to host up to 35,000 passengers in the first 10 years, Whitehorn said. Rutan predicts 100,000 astronauts will be created in the first 12 years of commercial spaceflight overall.
Rutan and Virgin Galactic officials said they do not plan to announce a strict timeline for the project or when passenger flights will begin.
Whitehorn, however, said they are looking at flying five spacecraft and two carrier aircraft by sometime around 2010.
Branson, joined by Rutan and SpaceShipOne financial backer Paul Allen were expected to announce their future plans Tuesday night at AirVenture.
Ping
For the children?
For the profit (and the children).
That's more like it. :)
Alas, like all other tourism, to have any kind of lasting appeal there has to be a "there" there...
That's easy . . .
That is a possibility. A $2 billion hotel is not a big deal in Vegas, what are we looking at for LEO? Number of rooms, airport/spaceport shuttle, permanent staff?
With Paul Allen involved, the space craft will have plenty of windows.
Everyday AstronautPublicly thanking Paul G. Allen, who admitted to investing more than $20 million in the project, Rutan appeared to physically choke up when he said, "We were able to develop a complete space program from scratch for the price of one of those government paper studies." ...Mojave Airport Manager Stu Witt... said. "Nobody's ever done anything like this before," Pearson said. "That's part of what's unique about America--nowhere else in the world. It's a great day for the country." Non-military government involvement was limited. In fact, according to Rutan, the first contact between NASA and the program participants came in a phone call to Rutan the day before the launch to notify him that NASA would like to send an observer.
by Scott Gourley
June 21 2004
Popular Mechanics
reprised from
Well, yeah, there is also the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, too, but I think it's highly improbable that I'll ever get to eat there. :-)
I'd settle for being a bus boy on an LEO resort/hotel/casino whatever. I'd tell people I was a busboy, they'd sneer and condescendingly ask where, then I'd smile and point straight up. :)
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