Europe Unveils Space Plane for Tourist Market

[scottb50]

Europe Unveils Space Plane for Tourist Market<br /><br />Peter B. de Selding<br />Space News Staff Writer<br />SPACE.com <br /><br />PARIS - Europe's biggest aerospace company, EADS, has concluded that carrying wealthy tourists to 100 kilometers in altitude for several minutes of weightlessness could be a multibillion-dollar industry in 20 years and is seeking co-investors to build a rocket plane it already has designed.<br /><br />EADS's Astrium division, prime contractor for Ariane 5 rockets and for Europe's contribution to the international space station, said a group of its engineers has spent two years quietly designing a vehicle that looks like a business jet with exceptionally long wings and a rocket engine powered by liquid methane and liquid oxygen. The company unveiled the project here June 13.<br /><br />Taking off from an as-yet undetermined spaceport using two conventional jet engines, the plane would climb to 12 kilometers in altitude before its rocket engine ignites, powering the vehicle through the atmosphere and into a coast phase whose 100-kilometer apogee would provide passengers with one and one-half minutes of near-zero-gravity experience.<br /><br />The round trip would last about 90 minutes. The plane would carry four passengers and a pilot, with the passengers each paying about 200,000 euros ($267,000) for the experience.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Auque said Astrium and EADS have investigated the business model in recent months and concluded that their project has sufficient advantages compared to similar efforts under way by start-up companies in the United States to attract as many as 4,500 paying customers per year by 2020.<br /><br />At $267,000 per ticket, that customer volume would generate gross revenues of some $1.2 billion per year.<br /><br />Auque said the company has de <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[scottb50]

I even looked there before I posted here. How I've missed it all day I don't know. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[gunsandrockets]

I do like the handholds next to the windows. Good thinking.<br /><br /><br />http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=070613_astrium_int_02.jpg&cap=A+artist%27+illustration+of+the+proposed+interior+for+EADS%27+new+space+plane.+Credit%3A+EADS

 

[gunsandrockets]

<He said Astrium has surveyed other space-tourism projects, mainly in the United States, and found most of them lacking in engineering or business-model seriousness. "There are those who think you can design a rocket plane in a garage," Laine said. "Suffice it to say that that is not our niche." ><br /><br />Which explains this...<br /><br /><Auque said the company has determined that designing and flight-qualifying its proposed space plane would require 1 billion euros in investment. /><br /><br />A billion euros?!! Just for a little suborbital space-plane? Sheesh!<br />Virgin Galactic will slaughter them in the marketplace.<br /><br />

 

[scottb50]

No doubt. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[spacefire]

from the article I read on space.com, it seems the design phase is already complete. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[scottb50]

I'm not a stockbroker but suborbital is just a gimmick. Orbital is where it's at.<br /><br />Once you can deliver passengers, or cargo, to LEO and back from LEO the rest is simple.<br /><br />From there it's simply a matter of providing the needed thrust for further missions. Tanks, engines and various Modules.<br /><br />Like Leggos, you plug in Propellant Modules and add engine Modules as needed. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[kelvinzero]

Re subobital being a gimmick, Mightnt it become a standard way of getting around the world rapidly? What is the comparative efficiency of a suborbital flight to the other side of the world, vs flying the whole way through atmosphere? <br /><br />but yeah... its just not the real thing, is it <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

[MeteorWayne]

Yeah, 200,000 Euros for a trip halfawy to space?<br /><br />And they're spending a billion to develop it?<br /><br />Hmmmmm, I won't be investing. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>