Private Space Travel Goes for Launch
It looks like our desire for private space travel for practical commercial uses is going for launch! A new company Planetary Resources, Inc. has been formed to mine asteroids. They have contracted with Richard Branson's private Virgin Galactic company to use his WhiteKnightTwo jet plane freighter to take off from Spaceport, New Mexico, and carry the LauncerOne rocket up into the edge of our atmosphere where it will detach and ignite to carry the 500 pound payloads out into space.
The total cost for launching 500 pounds is reportedly about $10 million. The cost savings over NASA public launches comes about because for most of the launch distance the payload is propelled by the normal air breathing jet engines on WhiteKnightTwo until it runs out of air in the upper atmosphere. Since it only has to carry fuel and doesn't have to carry heavy oxidizer gas and can collect it from the surrounding air with the big compressor fans cramming it into the front of the jet engines for most of the way there is not as much cost involved in the launch process. Once the combination ship reaches the edge of our atmosphere the LauncherOne rocket carrying the payload detaches and fires up using on board fuel and oxidizer, thrusting the package up into orbit or to space beyond.
Then the LauncherOne rocket will place the Arkyd-100 space telescopes into position and offload them. Later Arkyd- 200 and 300 series satellites will carry telecommunications equipment and finally robotic mining equipment.
Now more companies are contracting with Virgin Galactic to provide their private launch needs and it will kick off the start of the human exploration of near space. Three cheers for Richard Branson and his brilliant engineers and designers. Ultimately, it will take something like commercial antigravity drives to take us out farther on our explorations of the universe.
The total cost for launching 500 pounds is reportedly about $10 million. The cost savings over NASA public launches comes about because for most of the launch distance the payload is propelled by the normal air breathing jet engines on WhiteKnightTwo until it runs out of air in the upper atmosphere. Since it only has to carry fuel and doesn't have to carry heavy oxidizer gas and can collect it from the surrounding air with the big compressor fans cramming it into the front of the jet engines for most of the way there is not as much cost involved in the launch process. Once the combination ship reaches the edge of our atmosphere the LauncherOne rocket carrying the payload detaches and fires up using on board fuel and oxidizer, thrusting the package up into orbit or to space beyond.
Then the LauncherOne rocket will place the Arkyd-100 space telescopes into position and offload them. Later Arkyd- 200 and 300 series satellites will carry telecommunications equipment and finally robotic mining equipment.
Now more companies are contracting with Virgin Galactic to provide their private launch needs and it will kick off the start of the human exploration of near space. Three cheers for Richard Branson and his brilliant engineers and designers. Ultimately, it will take something like commercial antigravity drives to take us out farther on our explorations of the universe.
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