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starship-design: Fwd: Rutan wants to fly in space by Kittyhawk aniversary
In a message dated 9/18/03 12:59:01 PM, starksk@gdls.com writes:
>He'ld be the first non gov space craft to flyinto space, on the 100th
>aniversary of the wright brothers private development of aircraft.
>
>Oh, did you know the Wright brothers beat out a big government funded
>aircraft program? The gov program craft was catipult launched off a barge,
>and the craft all just fell into the river.
>
>
>
>==> The total cost of the development and test flight program of "
>SpaceShipOne" is reported to be less
>
>
>==> than $30 million; that's about what OECD space agencies (ie Nasa,
>Esa,
>Nasda and the national agencies
>
>
>==> in Europe) spend every twelve hours. The cost per flight is said to
>be
>going to be about $80,000 - or
>
>
>==> about 1/1,000 of the cost of Alan Shepard's sub-orbital flight in
>1961. Although SpaceShipOne is a
>
>
>==> modern design and uses new materials, sub-orbital passenger space
>flights could have started fully 30 years
>
>
>==> ago, after the X-15 rocket plane proved out all the necessary
>technology in the 1960s.
>
>
>================================
>
>
>http://www.spacefuture.com/journal/journal.cgi?art=2003.09.11.spaceshipone_se
cond_flight
>
>Fingers Crossed!
>
>
>
>
>
>As the test flight program of Scaled Composites Inc's sub-orbital,
>passenger-carrying rocketplane "SpaceShipOne" progresses steadily, it
>performed its second gliding flight on August 27. Described on Scaled
>Composites' web-site the flight successfuly achieved all its objectives,
>which are listed as:
>
>"Flying qualities and performance in the space ship feather mode. Pilot
>workload and situational awareness while transitioning and handling
>qualities assessment when reconfigured. As a glider, deep stall
>investigation both at high and low altitude and envelope expansion out
>to
>200 kts and 4 G's. Lateral directional characteristics including adverse
>yaw, roll rate effectiveness and control including aileron roll and full
>rudder side slips."
>
>The flight proved out SpaceShipOne's unique re-entry configuration, and
>further increases confidence that the vehicle will perform as planned when
>it starts to use its rocket propulsion system.
>
>It's said to be an unofficial target of the program to make the world's
>"First private space flight" on December 17. That is the exact centenary
>of
>the Wright Brothers' world-changing first aeroplane flight. If Burt Rutan's
>team achieves this milestone, we can anticipate that it will receive truly
>world-wide publicity. The "Wright Brothers of Space" is a catchy title
>-
>and the implications for the existing "space industry" are absolutely
>shattering.
>
>The total cost of the development and test flight program of "SpaceShipOne"
>is reported to be less than $30 million; that's about what OECD space
>agencies (ie Nasa, Esa, Nasda and the national agencies in Europe) spend
>every twelve hours. The cost per flight is said to be going to be about
>$80,000 - or about 1/1,000 of the cost of Alan Shepard's sub-orbital flight
>in 1961. Although SpaceShipOne is a modern design and uses new materials,
>sub-orbital passenger space flights could have started fully 30 years ago,
>after the X-15 rocket plane proved out all the necessary technology in
>the
>1960s. And there's no reason to doubt that similarly focused efforts can
>reduce orbital spaceflight costs by similar orders of magnitude - which
>is
>all we need to realise Space Future's scenario of space tourism
>development.
>
>These incontrovertible cost data are excellent follow-ups to Dennis Tito's
>flight in April 2001 which showed that the cheapest and safest way to
>travel to space is to fly on basically the same vehicle that carried Yuri
>Gagarin. Trouble is, OECD space agencies have spent $1 trillion of
>taxpayers' money since then - but without reducing the cost of getting
>to
>space by a single centime. But what could be more important than making
>space accessible to the taxpayers who pay for all their work? Well, until
>SpaceShipOne came along, the agencies could still squeak by, by saying
>that
>whatever technology is used, space travel is immensely difficult and
>complex and expensive and so should be left to them - "So come back in
>40
>years, but keep paying your taxes in the meantime" etc etc.
>
>But now that nonsense won't wash any more - and the entire world is going
>to hear it on December 17. . . with a bit of luck.
>
>The space agencies are still in denial, of course. But that isn't going
>to
>prevent them being shaken to their foundations - just as trying to ignore
>the implications of the Internet hasn't saved swaths of companies from
>being turned inside out by the cutting of information transmission costs
>to
>nearly zero.
>
>So our fingers are crossed for the Scaled Composites team: Take care -
>and
>please give us the best imaginable memorial possible of the Wright
>Brothers' 100th anniversary!
>
>
>PS Even if SpaceShipOne or some other "X-Prize" contender don't hit the
>December 17 deadline, the implications of their successful flights will
>be
>just the same whenever they occur: proving that space travel costs can
>be
>just 1/100 to 1/1,000 of space agencies' costs. December 17 is just a
>publicity "Sweet Spot" which would guarantee the most rapid spread around
>the world of this wonderfully subversive fact.
>
>
>
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>Subject: Rutan wants to fly in space by Kittyhawk aniversary
>To: rhonda.elpers@mindspring.com, kryswalker@aol.com, ben@b2foundation.com,
> kellyst@aol.com
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>Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 15:58:26 -0400
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--- Begin Message ---
He'ld be the first non gov space craft to flyinto space, on the 100th
aniversary of the wright brothers private development of aircraft.
Oh, did you know the Wright brothers beat out a big government funded
aircraft program? The gov program craft was catipult launched off a barge,
and the craft all just fell into the river.
==> The total cost of the development and test flight program of "
SpaceShipOne" is reported to be less
==> than $30 million; that's about what OECD space agencies (ie Nasa, Esa,
Nasda and the national agencies
==> in Europe) spend every twelve hours. The cost per flight is said to be
going to be about $80,000 - or
==> about 1/1,000 of the cost of Alan Shepard's sub-orbital flight in
1961. Although SpaceShipOne is a
==> modern design and uses new materials, sub-orbital passenger space
flights could have started fully 30 years
==> ago, after the X-15 rocket plane proved out all the necessary
technology in the 1960s.
================================
http://www.spacefuture.com/journal/journal.cgi?art=2003.09.11.spaceshipone_second_flight
Fingers Crossed!
As the test flight program of Scaled Composites Inc's sub-orbital,
passenger-carrying rocketplane "SpaceShipOne" progresses steadily, it
performed its second gliding flight on August 27. Described on Scaled
Composites' web-site the flight successfuly achieved all its objectives,
which are listed as:
"Flying qualities and performance in the space ship feather mode. Pilot
workload and situational awareness while transitioning and handling
qualities assessment when reconfigured. As a glider, deep stall
investigation both at high and low altitude and envelope expansion out to
200 kts and 4 G's. Lateral directional characteristics including adverse
yaw, roll rate effectiveness and control including aileron roll and full
rudder side slips."
The flight proved out SpaceShipOne's unique re-entry configuration, and
further increases confidence that the vehicle will perform as planned when
it starts to use its rocket propulsion system.
It's said to be an unofficial target of the program to make the world's
"First private space flight" on December 17. That is the exact centenary of
the Wright Brothers' world-changing first aeroplane flight. If Burt Rutan's
team achieves this milestone, we can anticipate that it will receive truly
world-wide publicity. The "Wright Brothers of Space" is a catchy title -
and the implications for the existing "space industry" are absolutely
shattering.
The total cost of the development and test flight program of "SpaceShipOne"
is reported to be less than $30 million; that's about what OECD space
agencies (ie Nasa, Esa, Nasda and the national agencies in Europe) spend
every twelve hours. The cost per flight is said to be going to be about
$80,000 - or about 1/1,000 of the cost of Alan Shepard's sub-orbital flight
in 1961. Although SpaceShipOne is a modern design and uses new materials,
sub-orbital passenger space flights could have started fully 30 years ago,
after the X-15 rocket plane proved out all the necessary technology in the
1960s. And there's no reason to doubt that similarly focused efforts can
reduce orbital spaceflight costs by similar orders of magnitude - which is
all we need to realise Space Future's scenario of space tourism
development.
These incontrovertible cost data are excellent follow-ups to Dennis Tito's
flight in April 2001 which showed that the cheapest and safest way to
travel to space is to fly on basically the same vehicle that carried Yuri
Gagarin. Trouble is, OECD space agencies have spent $1 trillion of
taxpayers' money since then - but without reducing the cost of getting to
space by a single centime. But what could be more important than making
space accessible to the taxpayers who pay for all their work? Well, until
SpaceShipOne came along, the agencies could still squeak by, by saying that
whatever technology is used, space travel is immensely difficult and
complex and expensive and so should be left to them - "So come back in 40
years, but keep paying your taxes in the meantime" etc etc.
But now that nonsense won't wash any more - and the entire world is going
to hear it on December 17. . . with a bit of luck.
The space agencies are still in denial, of course. But that isn't going to
prevent them being shaken to their foundations - just as trying to ignore
the implications of the Internet hasn't saved swaths of companies from
being turned inside out by the cutting of information transmission costs to
nearly zero.
So our fingers are crossed for the Scaled Composites team: Take care - and
please give us the best imaginable memorial possible of the Wright
Brothers' 100th anniversary!
PS Even if SpaceShipOne or some other "X-Prize" contender don't hit the
December 17 deadline, the implications of their successful flights will be
just the same whenever they occur: proving that space travel costs can be
just 1/100 to 1/1,000 of space agencies' costs. December 17 is just a
publicity "Sweet Spot" which would guarantee the most rapid spread around
the world of this wonderfully subversive fact.
--- End Message ---