Space Race 2.0 has Begun 96
An anonymous reader writes "MSNBC has a story about a second company starting up to compete with Virgin Galactic. Both are planning on operating passenger sub-orbital flights. Will this new Space Race usher in more new technologies into our daily lives, like the previous one? Will the competition to go higher/faster lead to orbital tourism?" From the article: "The company that helped put three millionaires into orbit has teamed up with Russia's Federal Space Agency and the financial backers of the $10 million Ansari X Prize to develop a new breed of suborbital passenger spaceship. Thursday's announcement by Virginia-based Space Adventures herald the entry of new international players in the commercial space race -- a race that is expected to enter a critical phase in the next year or two."
Forgive me if this is a stupid question... (Score:5, Interesting)
If I recall correctly, ICBMs take suborbital, not orbital trajectories, and they are quite time savers when you want to wipe out a city, so could the same approach be applied to less malevolent projects?
New York to Tokyo in 30 minutes, anyone?
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
The real challenge... (Score:4, Interesting)
Don't get me wrong, this is cool. But suborbital travel will need to deal with these issues lest they go the way of the Concorde.
Re:Forgive me if this is a stupid question... (Score:2, Interesting)
Not to mention what the other posts responding to yours say, about how the rapid acceleration would create a high number of G forces
Even if you lived through the acceleration, a single trip would cost how many millions of dollars???
Re:What about shipping packages? (Score:2, Interesting)
"We'd be able to say that if you sent a package from Sydney by 9am, we could deliver to Los Angeles by 5pm the day before"
(hopefully properly quoted!)
Pretty exciting stuff. I understand it's possible to get anywhere in the world in around 45 minutes via space. Of course, the journey may not be all that pleasant (high-G, lots of discomfort on re-entry etc), but freight really doesn't mind that sort of thing. Given enough years at it, private enterprise would solve those problems, making space journeys the same as taking a plane now.
Re:New technologies? (Score:1, Interesting)
As revelant as the Americas Cup. (Score:2, Interesting)
There ain't no breakthroughs to be had! Space flight with rockets is fabu $$$, period. Schmancy IRBMs with inflight entertainment isn't
Seriously: "space tourism" relates to manned space flight the way the heavies do it (US, Russia and now China) similarly to the way the old Seawolf submarine ride at Disneyland compares to the Jimmuh (SSN23, as Seawolf submarine in its own right). Possibly we could substitute the Disneyland sub with one of those excursion toys you sometimes see in the carribean -- but still, not an innovator, just a cool toy.
Re:What's the point? (Score:3, Interesting)