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Richard Branson Says He's Going to Send People Into Space by Christmas (cnn.com)
Would you pay $200,000 for a ride into space? I ask beause billionaire Richard Branson "really, really wants you to believe he's going to send people to space -- and soon," reports Gizmodo. "In a new interview with CNN, the Virgin Group founder now says he's "reasonably confident" his spaceflight company can beat out competitors like Blue Origin and SpaceX with crewed trips to space before Christmas."
An anonymous reader quotes CNN: "We have a brilliant group of astronauts who literally believe 100% in the project, and give it their everything," he said. The first few trips to space will be flown by test pilots without anyone else on board. Branson says he will be the first passenger. Eventually, paying tourists will also make the trip....
The design and flight control systems of SpaceShipTwo were overhauled following a 2014 test flight crash that killed a co-pilot. Branson has said the accident made him question whether to continue pursuing his riskiest business venture. But the company said it received an outpouring of support, including from customers who had reserved $200,000 to $250,000 tickets to one day ride in SpaceShipTwo. Hundreds of people are still lined up for a shot. The flight will offer tourists a few minutes of weightlessness and views of Earth's curved horizon....
Branson is known to set deadlines that aren't met. Virgin Galactic has been developing SpaceShipTwo since 2004, and Branson initially said commercial rides would begin in 2007. Eleven years later, the firm is still working on getting its 600 customers into space. "Space is difficult. Rocket science is rocket science," Branson said. "I obviously would love to prove our critics wrong, and I'm reasonably confident that before Christmas, we will do so."
"We'll see," writes Gizmodo.
An anonymous reader quotes CNN: "We have a brilliant group of astronauts who literally believe 100% in the project, and give it their everything," he said. The first few trips to space will be flown by test pilots without anyone else on board. Branson says he will be the first passenger. Eventually, paying tourists will also make the trip....
The design and flight control systems of SpaceShipTwo were overhauled following a 2014 test flight crash that killed a co-pilot. Branson has said the accident made him question whether to continue pursuing his riskiest business venture. But the company said it received an outpouring of support, including from customers who had reserved $200,000 to $250,000 tickets to one day ride in SpaceShipTwo. Hundreds of people are still lined up for a shot. The flight will offer tourists a few minutes of weightlessness and views of Earth's curved horizon....
Branson is known to set deadlines that aren't met. Virgin Galactic has been developing SpaceShipTwo since 2004, and Branson initially said commercial rides would begin in 2007. Eleven years later, the firm is still working on getting its 600 customers into space. "Space is difficult. Rocket science is rocket science," Branson said. "I obviously would love to prove our critics wrong, and I'm reasonably confident that before Christmas, we will do so."
"We'll see," writes Gizmodo.
He's promoting nothing more than an expensive joyride, his ship won't reach nowhere near the orbital speed. So you can just as well go up to "space" on a balloon.
The distinction is "going to space" vs. "going to orbit". His listed "competitors" - Blue Origin and SpaceX - aren't targeting "space", they're targeting orbit. It's an entirely different thing, and involves your craft gaining more than an order of magnitude more energy than simply crossing the Karman line. 100000m * 9,81 m/s = 0,981 MJ/kg. 1/2 * (7800m/s)^2 + 350000 * 9,81 = 33,8535 MJ/kg - that is to say, over 34 times more energy**.
Reaching orbit is a little bit of "up" and a LOT of "across". Or, as XKCD put it: how the public thinks going to orbit works vs. how it actually works.
** In practice, the consumed energy distinction isn't as stark, as both vehicles have to deal with air resistance and gravity losses for the first part of the flight - but on the other hand, it's a far-more-than-linear increase in difficulty to add more delta-V, since you have to lift the fuel to lift your fuel, and lift the fuel to lift that fuel, and lift the fuel to lift that fuel...
You people make me envy the deaf and the blind!
If SpaceX wanted to get into tourism the first stage usually cuts out at ~80 km and the second stage would have enough velocity to cross the 100 km line without further thrust. So they could just design a big passenger "stage" with a few engines and fuel just for the reentry/landing burn. The second stage is 3.6m in diameter, 16m long and the normal payload fairing 5.2m in diameter, 13.9m long so in total almost 30m long. If they can expand the diameter to 5.2 meters all the way - I don't really see why not - they have ~200 m^3 volume and a 116 ton weight budget.
The Dragon crew capsule crams 7 people into 10 m^2 of pressurized space, if we say 150 m^2 is doable then ~100 passengers to space. That's $60 million for an F9 launch / 100 = ~$600k/head, but you wouldn't expend the second stage so it's really just refurb costs. Real cost would be no more than Virgin is charging. Do I think SpaceX is going to do it? Nope. Because there'll be no escape system, propulsive landing and 100 very wealthy, very dead people would kill SpaceX no matter how many disclaimers you make them sign.
I also expect the novelty of it to wear off pretty soon, right now 561 people have been to space. Like ever, all the way back to Yuri Gagarin. If you start adding hundreds each year it's not that special anymore, it's >$100k for a ten minute joyride including a few minutes of weightlessness. I mean the value proposition is absurd, you either have to be a billionaire or a millionaire and space nut to waste so much money on something that'll be over so quick. Granted you don't need many passengers but I think it's a really shallow pool of customers that could run out, once it actually becomes possible.
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My apologies. In the future, I'll do all of my own illustrations for no reason whatsoever.
You people make me envy the deaf and the blind!
Seven people crammed into 10 SQUARE meters??? Just how do they flatten the people down to two-dimensions? Very heavy weights? Or run over them with the boring machine?
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