Translated material
Race for space. For paid space
On October 22, the head of Virgin Galactic, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, in a solemn setting opened the world's first private spaceport (runway for missileplaces), which is located in New Mexico (USA). In the note by Marat Musin, a brief overview of the current state of commercial space tourism is given and tells about the most important tests that have passed recently.
Since 1986, when Senator Bill Nelson became the first unprofessional astronaut to go into space, and until 2009, when the last space tourist - Guy Lalibert, was flying to the ISS, the theoretical opportunity to get into space had any healthy resident of the Earth. If there is, of course, $ 20 million. However, in connection with the folding of the Space Shuttle program, the loading of the Soyuz spacecraft increased, and the flights of tourists temporarily stopped. It turns out that there is a demand for private flights into space, but there are no proposals. This situation clearly contradicts the modern economic model, so the appearance of private companies to send tourists to space was predetermined. The Launch Services Purchase Act, signed in 1990, came in handy, which gave private American companies the right to make suborbital flights and, in the future, to deliver goods to orbit. This will allow in the future to concentrate NASA's activities on expensive scientific projects and attract new energetic companies to the space of space transport.
For 12 years that have passed since the founding of Space Adventures, the first private company to send tourists to space, a whole industry has been formed, which has all the attributes of a young high -tech industry. There are companies that develop space suborbital devices. There are companies that think about the long run and immediately swing to the construction of space stations and orbital hotels. There are a number of private funds that sponsor the most promising developers, residing the right to pursue marketing policy and sell tickets. There is a logical state (through NASA grants) support for various programs that increases competition among project participants. Finally, there is a non-state X-PRIZE fund, which established prizes for companies that were the first to achieve serious success. In this motley company, their favorites, losers, as well as informals appeared.
This article is devoted to two important events that occurred in recently: the first test flight of the Spaceshiptwo ship and the signing of the contract between Armadillo Aerospace and Space Adventures.
On October 10, 2010, the SpaceShiptwo tourist spacecraft separated from the Whiteknighttwo launch vehicle and made the first independent flight. Recall that the Virgin Galactic, which owns the ship, is the same company that won Ansari X-Prize-a prize of $ 10 million. For the first non-state organization that has performed two manned subobital space flights on one reusable spacecraft for two weeks.
During the latest tests, the pilot controlled by a pilot with drowned engines planned 13.7 km from a height and landed on the runway of the only private cosmodrome in the US desert Mohava. During the flight, the system of disconnecting the ship from the carrier aircraft was checked, the technology for starting the main engine, descent and landing was worked out.
Thus, the third began - of the seven declared - the testing phase of the suborbital ship. The ground tests and joint flights of the Whiteknighttwo launch vehicle, which began in March 2010, were successfully completed. For 2011-2012 The latest stages of testing are planned: short -term inclusion of the engine at subsonic speeds, overcoming the sound barrier, reaching the height of the space of space (100 - 110 km) and, finally, a full suborbital flight, after which the project should get a license for commercial launches. In total, it is planned to conduct more than 100 test launches. At the same time, it must be remembered that, according to Bert Rutan, the legendary aerospace designer, designer Spaceshiptwo, “... a ship [for space tourism] will be as safe as the aircraft of the 1920s. Do not believe when they say that the safety of this ship will be at the level of modern liners - they have been improved for 70 years ”[1].
A feature of SpaceShiptwo will be the use of a new method of entering the atmosphere, the so -called “featREDED Reentry” (entrance on a span of flight). The essence of the idea proposed by engineers and designers is that when reaching the calculated height of the wings of the ship, they fold in a certain way, slowing down the cosmoplane about the upper layers of the atmosphere. The ship descends at speeds that are smaller compared, for example, with shuttles, which means that there is no need to pay such much attention thermal protection, which greatly increases the weight of the ship, and therefore the cost of the flight. In addition, the aerodynamics of the ship allows him to enter the atmosphere at any angle. Computer modeling of a flight called “Virgin Galactic Space Tourist Animation” is available on the Internet [2].
Although the first commercial launches are scheduled for the end of 2012, more than 340 people have already booked places on the company's official website [3]. Compared to the flight to the ISS, this flight will cost a modest amount - 200 thousand dollars. After returning to Earth, space tourists will receive a stamp in a passport confirming the flight into space.
But everything is not so cloudless for SpaceShiptwo: in the near future, Virgin Galactic may feel strong competition from Armadillo Aerospace. In May 2010, Armadillo Aerospace and Space Adventures signed a cooperation agreement, which means that the John Kar-Mak team, the famous programmer, founder of ID Software, will receive good financial assistance, marketing support and more than 200 guaranteed customers [4]. Now Armadillo Aerospace does not have a ready -made ship that could compete with Spaceshiptwo. But their prototype won Lunar Lander Challenge - competitions held under the auspices of NASA for vertical take -off and landing devices that can potentially sit on the surface of the moon and return to Earth - in 2008 and 2009. Without calling the exact deadlines, Karmak claims that they can send the first tourists in 2012.
It is believed that space tourism can become a new source of ideas and financing of space developments that slowed down after the Americans into Constellation program. Indeed, almost every company brings innovative ideas that were rarely used in state programs or have never been used:
Armadillo Aerospace offers spaceships of vertical take -off and landing.
FethedRED Reentry technology: entering the atmosphere at low speed of Virgin Galactic.
SpaceShiptwo uses the Whiteknighttwo carrier to enter the calculated height, made according to a rare two-tower scheme (in Fig. 3 shows a carrier with a suspended spacecraft).
Danish developers from Copenhagen Suborbitals are trying to offer the ultra-compact missile "quiet Brage" (we talked in detail about this development in the crus-hobby No. 62).
Boeing offers to use one-time thermal protection for its piloted CST-100 spacecraft.
Bigelow Aerospace is working on creating inflatable space stations and has already launched the Genesis I and Genesis 2 modules.
Such a great competition among companies is understandable: in such a young industry, the first to take off all the cream to the finish line. Those who first will launch a person into space will secure leadership for several years. All companies at the initial stage were in almost equal conditions, so the advantage of a particular team or another is usually directly proportional to the amount of money invested in the project. The cost of developments is so high that no company withstands previously declared test start schedules. Thus, the current favorites can miss their primacy -this has happened more than once. Watching the next, this time a purely peaceful turn of the space race is very exciting.
And the Earth is already slowly preparing for a boom in space tourism - for example, not everyone knows that ground infrastructure is also developing. And this is not only a network of sales and pens with the symbols of participating companies: Cosmodroms in the USA (California, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Virginia, Alaskan, Wisconsin), Sweden, Singapore, Marshalls, Arab Emirates are ready to become a launching platform for wealthy people who want to look at Earth from Cosmos.
Just in case, if you have firmly decided to fly into space, and private companies-which is quite possible-will again postpone their starts, do not rush to be upset: by 2013, Roscosmos plans to increase the number of Soyuz missiles to five per year, which will free one or two places a year for space tourists at the previous prices-$ 20-30 million.
1. Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/spaceshiptwo
2. Www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ng6g7kspja&feature=channel
4. Www.armadilloaerospace.com/nx/arma-dillo/home/news?news_id=370