DailyDirt: Space Tourism vs Working In Space

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Even though there are less than a handful of ways for people to get into space right now, there may be a few more options in the near future to get close to space or into low earth orbit. If you have the resources, you could just book a seat on a Soyuz for $20-70 million. But for a bit less, you can book a trip on various vehicles without a decades-long track record. Or... you could be paid to be an astronaut if you have the skills, but the odds of getting selected are pretty slim.

• Virgin Galactic has built a replacement for its SpaceShipTwo vehicle that was destroyed in a fatal accident. The new VSS Unity incorporates a few more automated safety features and uses a different rocket fuel -- and may someday take dozens (hundreds?) of passengers to the edge of space as tourists. [url]
• Over 18,000 people have applied to become an astronaut for NASA -- in order to be named one of the 8 to 14 new astronauts in 2017. It's never been easy to be selected as an astronaut, but this is apparently the highest number of applications that NASA has received (even when NASA still operated a vehicle that could take people into space). [url]
• World View Enterprises is another step closer to building its own "spaceport" in Arizona. Spaceport Tuscon would launch World View's high altitude balloons to about 100,000 feet up in pressurized cabins. FYI, World View owns the tech that helped ex-Google VP Alan Eustace make a record-breaking skydive from an altitude of 135,908 feet. [url]

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Filed Under: astronauts, leo, manned missions, soyuz, space, space exploration, space tourism, spaceport, spaceport tuscon, spaceshiptwo, vss unity
Companies: nasa, virgin galactic, world view enterprises

DailyDirt: Plenty Of Spaceships... Sorta

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The number of ways to get a person into space is pretty limited at the moment. Only Russia and China have operational launch systems that can escape the Earth's gravity (with people as passengers). There are a bunch more spaceships in development, though, so if you really want to get into space without a Soyuz or Shenzhou, you'll have to be patient. There have been a few recent accidents, but it looks like engineers have figured out some of the problems.

• Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo crash was evidently caused by human error. Co-pilot Michael Alsbury prematurely unlocked the ship's braking system which deployed and led to a catastrophic structural failure. This spacecraft was designed with minimal automated systems to reduce complexity, but Virgin Galactic has added a safety feature to prevent this from happening again -- and the design philosophy that favors manual systems may need additional tweaking. [url]
• EmDrive is a theoretically impossible propulsion system that produces "anomalous thrust" which has been observed by at least two independent labs now. It's still not clear what is going on, but if this technology actually works, it would completely change the timetables for space travel. An EmDrive-powered vehicle could reach Pluto in 18 months -- instead of the years that it took New Horizons to do so. [url]
• If you want to just see the edge of space, there are more and more helium-balloon-like ways to get there. Stratospheric ballooning for space tourism might be a bit safer than a rocket to LEO, and maybe a little bit cheaper. (Who's counting pennies c-notes when we're talking about traveling to the edge of space?) [url]
• Blue Origin has tested its New Shepard suborbital system successfully, but it didn't recover its reusable booster stage. Ultimately, the New Shepard spaceship will hold 3 passengers and reach an altitude of 62 miles, but further unmanned testing will be done before passengers are allowed onboard. [url]

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Filed Under: emdrive, leo, new shepard, propulsion, shenzhou, soyuz, space tourism, spacecraft, spaceships, spaceshiptwo, stratospheric ballooning
Companies: blue origin, virgin galactic

DailyDirt: Going To Space

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Only three countries have developed manned space vehicles: Russia, US and China. However, since the retirement of NASA's space shuttle program, the US has not had a vehicle (of its own) ready to take astronauts to space. The European Union, Japan, and India have plans to develop manned space programs, and several commercial ventures are working on various ways to get people into space (or at least close to the edge of space). Here are a few ways Americans might get into space in the not-too-distant future.

• NASA will be sending astronauts into space on Boeing and SpaceX rockets in a few years. By 2017 (if everything goes right), NASA won't need to rely on the Russian Federation Space Agency to get astronauts to the International Space Station. [url]
• There's a relatively cheap way for tourists to visit the edge of space -- in a helium balloon. For the bargain price of just $75,000, World View Enterprises will take a passenger on a 5-hour ride up to 100,000 feet in a pressurized capsule hanging from a giant balloon. The first launch is planned for 2016. (For comparison, Virgin Galactic tickets cost about $250,000 and a trip on a Soyuz to the ISS can cost anywhere from $20-70 million.) [url]
• NASA has been working on its own Orion Space Capsule vehicle designed to take astronauts to various destinations in our solar system. The Orion spacecraft system is planning an unmanned test launch in December 2014, and it could be sending astronauts back to the moon (or beyond) by the 2030s. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: astronauts, iss, manned missions, orion, soyuz, space exploration, space vehicles
Companies: boeing, nasa, spacex, virgin galactic, world view enterprises

DailyDirt: Space Exploration - The Next Generation

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Plenty of space geeks complain about the seemingly stalled progress in manned space missions, pointing out that plans to go back to the moon (or to Mars or to an asteroid) sound unlikely to happen within a Baby Boomer's lifetime. Sure, there might be some touristy flights to the near edge of space with Virgin Galactic, but really inspiring never-been-done-before space walks on another planet aren't coming any time soon (unless you count some suicide missions). Here are just a few links on the future of space transportation.

• SpaceX wants to compete with larger aerospace companies to provide its launch systems for the US Air Force. Elon Musk says, "Frankly, if our rockets are good enough for NASA, why are they not good enough for the Air Force?" [url]
• NASA's Project Morpheus is making progress in developing an autonomous landing vehicle for a variety of terrains. A recent successful flight makes it look easy to get a vehicle to land on a rocky surface. [url]
• NASA is also looking for some commercial partners to help it develop robotic lunar landers. NASA will be accepting proposals for the next couple weeks, and these potential partnerships could bring up the legality of lunar property rights if commercial companies want to mine the moon's resources. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: elon musk, exploration, lunar lander, manned missions, mars, moon, morpheus, space
Companies: nasa, spacex, virgin galactic

DailyDirt: Getting Into Space

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The cost of putting something into space has been getting a bit cheaper over time, but it's still not exactly affordable (unless you count the helium balloons that can reach altitudes of around 100,000 feet or roughly 30 km). The edge of space is generally considered to be about 100 km (~62 miles or ~330,000 feet) up. Here are just a few projects making some progress in getting stuff into space on the cheap.

• The International Space Station is scheduled to launch 33 cubesats into space. Some of these tiny satellites will be used for detailed imaging of the Earth's surface, and a couple of these cubesats will make Lithuania and Peru into spacefaring nations for the first time. [url]
• The concept of a space cannon that can shoot things into space isn't new, but a guy from Canada wants to build one in his backyard. Richard Graf has a Kickstarter project, looking for $65,000 to help him continue his work. [url]
• Virgin Galactic is getting closer to being able to offer commercial space flights to passengers (maybe later this year?). Virgin Galactic's third supersonic test flight for SpaceShipTwo has reached an altitude of 71,000 feet, its highest flight yet. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: cubesat, iss, richard graf, satellites, space, space cannon, spaceflight, spaceshiptwo, suborbital missions, supersonic, virgin galactic
Companies: kickstarter, virgin galactic

DailyDirt: Commercial Astronauts

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Canadian "rockstar" astronaut Chris Hadfield, who just returned from the International Space Station, says he's retiring. (Yep, he's the guy who performed David Bowie's "Space Oddity" in zero-g while orbiting the Earth.) While he may be retiring from the Canadian Space Agency, he may not be done with spaceflight just yet, as he sees commercial spaceflight as a real possibility. In the past decade, several private commercial spaceflight ventures have been seriously developing and testing their own spacecraft, and eventually "commercial astronauts" will be needed to help run commercial space missions and space tourism flights. Here's some of the latest news in commercial spaceflight.

• Astronauts for Hire (A4H), a non-profit organization, has selected its fourth group of commercial astronaut candidates. The six new recruits, who are professionals in various fields of science, engineering, medicine, and aviation, will be trained to become research and operations specialists for future commercial spaceflight missions. [url]
• The X Prize Foundation is currently offering a total of $30 million in prize money to the first two teams to land a robot on the moon by the end of 2015. Aiming to spur commercial spaceflight innovation, the non-profit foundation also previously awarded the Ansari X Prize in 2004 to Scaled Composites for its SpaceShipOne, which Virgin Galactic has now developed into the suborbital commercial spacecraft SpaceShipTwo.[url]
• There are at least ten private spaceships in development right now. Here are the ten most promising ones: Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, XCOR's Lynx Space Plane (check out Dutch startup SXC which might give Virgin Galactic a run for its money), Armadillo Aerospace's Vertical Lander, Bigelow Aerospace's Private Space Labs, Stratolaunch's Air-Launched Rocket, the Liberty Rocket and Capsule, Blue Origin's Secret Spaceship, the Dream Chaser Space Plane, Boeing's CST-100 Capsule, and SpaceX's Manned Space Dragon.[url]
• Virgin Galactic is preparing to test its SpaceShipTwo and hopefully launch its first commercial spaceflight in 2014. At least 600 customers worldwide have already reserved tickets, which cost upwards of $200,000. Apparently, tickets recently went up to $250,000 and will remain at that price until the first 1,000 passengers have travelled into space.[url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: a4h, astronauts, chris hadfield, iss, manned space exploration, x prize
Companies: armadillo aerospace, bigelow aerospace, boeing, nasa, spacex, stratolaunch, virgin galactic, xcor

DailyDirt: Going Up Into Space Soon

Traveling to the edge of space isn't easy. Sure, we can send up small things like a digital camera with a few helium-filled weather balloons, but a whole person is quite a bit more difficult (especially if the person wants to return to Earth safely). Fortunately, there are a few companies that are working on space tourism, and space tourists could help fund the development of a growing number of commercial space services. Here are just a few links related to putting people in space.

• Virgin Galactic is gearing up for its space tourism service, planning to launch routine flights to the edge of space in 2014. Sir Richard Branson once turned down an offer from Mikhail Gorbachev to fly into space for $50 million, but now Branson has made a similar offer to anyone with $200,000 to spare. [url]
• How much do we value an astronaut's life? Life insurance for an Apollo 11 astronaut comes in the form of an autographed postcard, worth about $30,000. [url]
• China is planning to send three people to its orbiting space station in a few months. So far, only the US and Russia have independently sent people to orbiting space stations. China would become just the third country to do so. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: astronauts, china, space, space station, space tourism
Companies: virgin galactic

DailyDirt: Ready For A Trip To Space Yet?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The opportunities to hitch a ride to space are growing by leaps and bounds now. Just a few years ago, you needed to be a multi-millionaire with the right stuff to buy your way on a rocketship to space. Now, you just need to be some kind of marketing phenomenon that can help with a marketing campaign (or have a few hundred thousand bucks to spare). Here are some examples of some ordinary folks who will be going up in space (suborbital) in the near future.

• In case you missed it, an Axe marketing campaign during the Super Bowl is looking for people willing to sign away their publicity rights for a chance to ride on a sub-orbital spaceplane. The marketing is aimed at men, but women can apply, too. Ultimately, who ever wins this competition will have to pass all of the physical training and tests before going. [url]
• Coco Brown, an American porn actress, is spending $100,000 to get on a SpaceXC commercial flight. She'll be the first porn star in space, if she completes the training, and expects to go up in 2014. [url]
• Ashton Kutcher has been promised the 500th seat on Virgin Galactic's spaceplane service. Virgin tickets usually cost about $200,000 -- so if you want to buy the 501st seat next to Ashton.... [url]
• Becoming a female taikonaut has two additional requirements that men don't have: being a wife and mother. Chinese astronauts have a pretty long list of disqualifiers, including: bad breath, cavities, a thick regional accent, scars, snoring, etc, etc. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: ashton kutcher, astronauts, coco brown, space, taikonaut
Companies: axe, spacexc, virgin galactic

DailyDirt: Space Race Continues

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Recently, some cool new space efforts are lining up to deliver people and payloads into orbit. For example, SpaceX shipped some supplies to the International Space Station, and it's on track to providing a rocket system for ferrying astronauts to the ISS as well. More and more commercial space ventures are competing with government space programs, and this new space race will hopefully continue and create even more inspiring space technologies over the next decade and beyond. Here are just a few other interesting developments along the way.

• NASA and the FAA have reached a tentative agreement to provide better guidelines for regulating all kinds of space launches. Virgin Galactic has been granted a license, but it might be interesting to see if all those amateur weather balloons and sub-orbital rocket projects will run into any regulatory problems. [url]
• Excalibur Almaz is a commercial space transportation company with roots in the former Soviet Union's military space program. For about $100 million, you can hitch a ride on one of these older (but very reliable!) Soviet-era spacecraft that have been extensively tested -- possibly all the way to the moon. [url]
• Citizen scientists are putting together an ArduSat -- an open source satellite -- that could be included on a free launch via a NASA or ESA ride-along program. There ain't no such thing as a free launch? [url]
• China has recently become the third nation to successfully dock a manned space capsule with another space vessel. Three people (including China's first female astronaut/taikonaut) on the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft joined up with the Tiangong 1 space module in orbit. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: ardusat, astronauts, commercial rockets, excalibur almaz, international space station, moon, orbit, space, taikonauts
Companies: faa, kickstarter, nasa, scistarter, spacex, virgin galactic

DailyDirt: Space Tourism Is Almost Here

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The Space Shuttle program is retired, but we still have the Soyuz (and maybe a mysterious secret mini-shuttle) to get people into space. On top of that, though, the private space industry is starting to kick in with more and more ambitious plans to offer rides into space -- or at least to the edge of space. Here are just a few more examples of these private efforts.

• Travel agents are already booking seats on Virgin Galactic -- for $200,000 (including a $20,000 upfront deposit). Over 450 passengers have already bought tickets. [url]
• Mars One is aiming for human settlement on our neighboring planet around 2023. It'll be a one-way trip, so plan accordingly. [url]
• The Hermes spacecraft received some Kickstarter funding to build its next test rocket. It's still far from developing a rocket system ready for humans, but it's still cool to see more engineers trying to re-invent space travel. [url]
• Alliant Techsystems (aka ATK), which manufactured the Space Shuttle's booster rockets, is developing a rocket system it calls Liberty. This Liberty rocket system is designed to hold 7 passengers and reach destinations like the International Space Station. [url]
• To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: hermes, liberty, mars, mars one, rockets, shuttle, space, spacecraft, tourism
Companies: alliant techsystems, atk, kickstarter, nasa, virgin galactic