LAS
CRUCES, New Mexico - Backers of commercial space travel continue to make progress in building
customer-carrying spaceships, pursuing novel ways to fly the public into
suborbital space.
"We're
at the birth of a new industry," said Peter Diamandis, Chairman of the X Prize
Foundation. But to advance that industry, a flourishing private market place is
needed, he said to attendees of the 2nd International Symposium for
Personal Spaceflight.
What
is required is "something that gives off more money than it consumes," Diamandis
explained, contrasting entrepreneurial space progress to more traditional
government-backed programs. "Dream big" he told the community of personal
spaceflight advocates, builders, and investors.
The
meeting held here is part of the Wirefly X Prize Cup competitions on tap for
October 20-21 at the Las Cruces International Airport.
Knocking on the door of the future
Like
early explorers conquering great distances here on Earth, the frontier of space
is the calling for the 21st century.
Those
early pioneers, like space travelers of today "sought the frontier," said
Michael Simpson, President of the International Space University in France. "We're knocking on the door of the future...and we are the privileged generation to
see it crack open just enough...to have the opportunity to pass through.
"I
can see a time, hopefully within the next three to five years when the X Prize
Cup is flying races of suborbital vehicles," said Chuck Lauer, Director of
Business Development for Rocketplane Kistler, based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Lauer
predicted suborbital hops using a triangular course bounding between spaceports
in Oklahoma, New Mexico, and California. "And we do it all in the afternoon,"
he said.
"It's
a wonderful thing to be at the start of an industry...but also a very scary
thing," Lauer advised the audience, to bring private suborbital and orbital
space trips into reality.
Life-changing experience
NASA
isn't necessarily interested in developing the personal spaceflight
industry, explained Ken Davidian of NASA's Centennial Challenges in Washington, D.C. "However, the personal spaceflight industry could benefit NASA in a lot
of the programs that we want to ultimately develop. There's a lot of synergy
there."
NASA-sponsored
Centennial Challenges include the Lunar Lander Challenge and Vertical Rocket
Challenge competitions, as well as the Space Elevator games to be held during
the upcoming Wirefly X Prize Cup.
"I'm
really hoping to be handing out some big checks," Davidian added. "I'm getting checks printed up at
Kinkos as we speak."
There's
nothing like the view from space, noted veteran shuttle astronaut, Tom Jones,
with four flights under his space helmet.
Jones
said his space travels represent "the richest experience of my life," he explained.
While NASA is transitioning to its new Crew Exploration Vehicle, also occurring
is a new era of commercial spaceflight, he pointed out.
"Space
flight has really been a life-changing experience for me...just as it will be for
many of you in the future," Jones said.
Genius factory
In
the spaceliner-building business, the pace is quickening for Sir Richard
Branson's Virgin Galactic.
Alex
Tai, Chief Operating Officer of Virgin Galactic, said that he hopes suborbital
passenger flight from New Mexico's Spaceport America will start in 2010. The
group's spaceliner of choice - SpaceShipTwo - is now being crafted by Scaled
Composites in Mojave, California, he said, calling it a "genius factory."
"There
are bits of spaceship all over the factory floor. It's absolutely incredible.
Those will be ready, we believe sometime in 2009," Tai said.
Point-to-point
flight around the Earth via suborbital vehicles is a technology that is
available now, Tai said.
Tai's
forecast is that the cost per seat on their spaceliners will be ever-decreasing
to make access to space more and more affordable to all.
"Our
business plan is for 50,000 people to space over ten years. And we can do this
because we believe we have very safe, very reliable and a very cost-effective
and efficient way of getting people into space."
New space entries
The
diversity of approaches to fly people to the suborbital heights was in evidence
at the symposium.
New
entries are the XF1, the Excalibur, as well as the Valkyrie - all unveiled by
Brian Feeney, President of Canada's da Vinci Project.
Feeney
foresees his class of spacecraft as an "extreme sport" type of vehicle. The
initial version of his spaceship is a hybrid between NASA's X-36 design and
Boeing's Bird of Prey craft. He outlined plans to scale up the ships from
handling single customers to the larger Valkyrie design - able to hold 7
passengers and two pilots.
Dumitru Popescu, President
of Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association detailed the Stabilo - a
balloon-lofted suborbital system, created by the European team ARCA. "It's the
most unconventional suborbital ship," he said.
Popescu said a test flight
of the Stabilo design is slated for next month, with a carrier balloon test
completed last August.
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