Alpha Centauri 2

Community => Recreation Commons => Destination: Alpha Centauri => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on October 22, 2013, 08:27:57 pm

Title: Startup to Sell Balloon Trips to Edge of Space
Post by: Buster's Uncle on October 22, 2013, 08:27:57 pm

Startup to Sell Balloon Trips to Edge of Space
By Andy Pasztor | The Wall Street Journal – 15 hours ago


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Artist's rendering of a helium balloon designed to take tourists to the edge of space.

 

Space tourism may not be rocket science after all.

An Arizona company wants to develop high-altitude balloons to send thrill seekers to the edge of Earth's atmosphere. The trips would cost less than other proposed space jaunts, but passengers wouldn't experience the same intensity of weightlessness.

Closely held Paragon Space Development Corp. of Tucson, Ariz., intends to build a helium-filled balloon, with a diameter as long as a football field, able to transport up to eight passengers to an altitude of about 100,000 feet. The aerospace contractor joins a handful of other companies that are trying to develop ways for people without extensive astronaut training to reach or at least get close to outer space.

With a projected ticket price of $75,000, the goal is "bringing space to the masses as much as we can," said Taber MacCallum, Paragon's chief executive and co-founder. Revenue flights won't commence until 2016 at the earliest, while testing or regulatory complications could push that deadline out further.
World View Enterprises A helium-filled balloon, with a diameter as long as a football field, would travel to about 100,000 feet.
Protected by a high-tech, pressurized gondola-featuring large windows and life-support systems designed to withstand the extreme temperatures and blood-boiling conditions of a near-vacuum—ticket holders wouldn't soar as high as with other projects but still would get a panoramic view of the globe without having to wear space suits or don oxygen masks.

For up to six hours, according to Paragon's submission for federal approval, passengers would be able to sit, stand and move around at their leisure and savor views of "a curved Earth with its thin blue atmosphere against the blackness of space." The vehicles would launch from Spaceport America in southern New Mexico, one of eight federally licensed launch sites.

The biggest challenges involve ensuring structural reliability of the huge balloon, made of high-performance polyethylene film, and testing the capsule's flight controls. World View Enterprises, a company partly owned by Paragon and other investors, including Philippe Bourguignon, former president of Euro Disney, will operate the flights.

Paragon, which supplies hardware for the International Space Station and other space programs, aims to meld largely existing technology "to really help broaden the market," said Jane Poynter, the company's chairwoman and co-founder.

Tourism projects aren't tied to federally financed civilian or military programs, and they typically target well-heeled space aficionados eager to briefly experience weightlessness without the hazards of going into orbit or remaining weightless for extended periods.

World View's balloon-based approach won't be marketed primarily as a way to experience weightlessness, but will rather emphasize sights like the Earth's curvature.

Frequent tourist flights able to carry scientific experiments, or launch small satellites, could help spread expenses and "provide economies of scale to get to space at lower cost," said Howard McCurdy, a government policy expert at American University. "Space tourism is part of the puzzle to develop a real commercial industry."

Some studies project overall space tourism revenues topping $1.5 billion by the middle of the next decade. At least six other ventures are under development, including some offering potential trips to the space station, a planned private orbiting hotel and perhaps the moon.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the Southern California company founded by former Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, leads the field in transporting cargo to low-earth orbit and snaring government and commercial satellite-launch contracts.

But various other projects and steady progress by additional companies "point to formation of a viable industry, not just the exploits of a single high-flyer from Silicon Valley," according to Jim Muncy, an industry consultant and former House staffer.

While airborne, World View's customers would be shielded from radiation and micro-meteoroids by a roughly four-ton capsule.

During the approximately 30-minute return, the craft's two pilots would disconnect it from the balloon and then use an overhead parafoil, much like the adjustable curved wing of a paraglider, to control the descent and touch down on skids at a pre-arranged landing spot.

Eventually, Ms. Poynter expects flights to carry only a single pilot, with backup provided by ground personnel.

Purists contend that by floating about 18 miles high—an altitude reached by a few military jets and research balloons—World View technically still would remain in the atmosphere.

In a September letter approving Paragon's concept, the Federal Aviation Administration pointedly steered clear of what it called "the more difficult question" of whether the project's proposed operating envelope "constitutes outer space."

By contrast, Virgin Galactic, the space tourism project headed by British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, anticipates using a combination of a carrier-plane and a rocket to blast passengers 60 miles high— and provide intense minutes of weightlessness—during shorter rides.

Virgin Galactic, which is already accepting reservations for $250,000 tickets, is shooting for the first passenger flight, slated to carry its chairman and other members of the Branson family, sometime next year.

Congress has instructed the FAA to oversee flights of space tourists, but the agency is supposed to establish only bare-bones safety standards and then require the companies to inform passengers about the full extent of the risks they face. In the case of World View, project officials spent months trying to persuade the FAA to apply commercial-space rules rather than the tougher safety requirements that exist for traditional balloon rides.

To some extent, the industry's growth will be influenced by how the FAA and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ultimately divvy up regulatory responsibility for privately built and operated spacecraft. Some companies already are maneuvering to have the FAA's commercial-space office assert primary authority over certain projects, because in many instances NASA's long-established safety rules for manned flight are more stringent.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/startup-sell-balloon-trips-edge-040300634.html (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/startup-sell-balloon-trips-edge-040300634.html)

Title: A new idea for space tourism: Balloon over rocket
Post by: Buster's Uncle on October 23, 2013, 01:23:01 am

A new idea for space tourism: Balloon over rocket
Associated Press
By SETH BORENSTEIN 1 hour ago


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This artist's rendering provided by World View Enterprises on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013 shows their design for a capsule lifted by a high-altitude balloon up 19 miles into the air for tourists. Company CEO Jane Poynter said people would pay $75,000 to spend a couple hours looking down at the curve of the Earth. (AP Photo/World View Enterprises)



WASHINGTON (AP) — The latest space tourism venture depends more on hot air than rocket science.

World View Enterprises announced plans Tuesday to send people up in a capsule, lifted 19 miles by a high-altitude balloon. Jane Poynter, CEO of the Tucson, Ariz.-based company, said the price for the four-hour ride would be $75,000.

While it's not quite space — that starts at 62 miles — the plan requires approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees commercial space.

Poynter said the plan uses existing technology and the first launch could be as early as the end of 2016.

"There are balloons this size that have already flown up many, many times for decades," Poynter said. "From a technical point of view this is incredibly doable, low risk."


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This artist's rendering provided by World View Enterprises on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013 shows their design


The selling point is the view of the Earth and seeing its curve, she said. The venture isn't designed for passengers to experience weightlessness.

The flight would take 90 minutes to go up at about 1,000 feet a minute, set sail up high for 2 hours with an emphasis on smooth riding, and then come back down in 40 minutes, Poynter said. The capsule's interior will be roomy enough for its eight passengers to walk around.

Outside space expert Scott Pace, a former NASA associate administrator now space policy director at George Washington University, agreed that this is technically feasible. He said the issue is whether there's enough of a market for it to be financially doable, calling it "an interesting market test."

Pace said the while there are many space tourism ventures, it is not quite right to call the field growing. It is still embryonic. A few people have paid tens of millions of dollars to fly to the International Space Station and others have paid to fly in high altitude jets. But how many people will pay for near space experiences, he asked.

Poynter said she has no doubt that there's a market with other firms like Virgin Galactic selling so many tickets for yet-to-fly rides.

"Space tourism is here to stay," said Poynter, who also runs the space firm Paragon Space Development Corporation.

She and her husband earlier this year proposed a private venture to send a married couple to Mars in 2018.


http://news.yahoo.com/idea-space-tourism-balloon-over-rocket-215401203.html (http://news.yahoo.com/idea-space-tourism-balloon-over-rocket-215401203.html)

Title: For Sale: Balloon Rides to Near-Space for $75,000 a Seat
Post by: Buster's Uncle on October 23, 2013, 02:17:18 am

For Sale: Balloon Rides to Near-Space for $75,000 a Seat
SPACE.com
By Mike Wall, Senior Writer 6 hours ago


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World View Enterprises of Tucson, AZ, plans to offer suborbital spaceflight in a capsule lifted by balloon


     
You don't have to climb aboard a rocket ship to be a space tourist anymore.

For $75,000, a company called World View Enterprises will loft you 19 miles (30 kilometers) up into Earth's atmosphere using a high-altitude balloon. While the gentle ride won't earn passengers their astronaut wings — outer space is generally considered to begin at an altitude of 62 miles (100 km) — it will afford spectacular views of the blackness of space and the curvature of our planet, World View officials say.

"Seeing the Earth hanging in the ink-black void of space will help people realize our connection to our home planet and to the universe around us, and will surely offer a transformative experience to our customers," World View CEO Jane Poynter said in a statement. [See a video animation of the balloon ride]

"It is also our goal to open up a whole new realm for exercising human curiosity, scientific research and education," she added. "We look forward to pioneering this new, accessible and affordable spaceflight regime, and to sharing the breathtaking, once-in-a-lifetime experience with people from around the globe."

World View's balloon ride, which will let customers glide for about two hours at maximum altitude, is a departure from the other options available to would-be space tourists at the moment.

For example, Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace are both offering brief suborbital flights to an altitude of about 62 miles aboard rocket-powered space planes. In both cases, passengers will get a few minutes of weightlessness along with the great view.

Virgin Galactic is charging $250,000 per seat aboard its six-passenger SpaceShipTwo, while a ride on XCOR's one-passenger Lynx vehicle costs $95,000. Neither spaceship is fully operational at the moment, though both could be flying customers in the next year or so, officials with each company have said.

Passengers on World View balloon flights will ride inside a capsule designed by Paragon Space Development Corp., which is also aiding two private Mars efforts — the Inspiration Mars mission to send two astronauts on a Red Planet flyby in 2018 and Mars One, a project that aims to land four people on the Red Planet in 2023 as the vanguard of a permanent colony.

Paragon has already begun testing capsule components and will soon start demonstrating the flight capabilities of the entire system, World View officials said.

Poynter is a co-founder of Paragon, as is World View chief technology officer Taber MacCallum. World View's head scientist is former NASA science chief Alan Stern, who also leads the agency's New Horizons mission to Pluto.

The Federal Aviation Administration recently concluded that World View's spacecraft and operations fall under the jurisdiction of the office of Commercial Space Flight, company officials said.


http://news.yahoo.com/sale-balloon-rides-near-space-75-000-seat-183206605.html (http://news.yahoo.com/sale-balloon-rides-near-space-75-000-seat-183206605.html)