SpaceShipTwo

Компания Virgin Galactic представила полностью законченную версию своего частного космического корабля для платных суборбитальных полетов SpaceShipTwo. http://watta.ru/novosti/pervyiy-v-mire-chastnyiy-kosmicheskiy-korabl.html

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Science & Technology

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• SpaceShipTwo

[Bigalinjapan]

That is why the mother plane has two bodies? To see your friend off?

[wrylie188]

@cumulonimbus71 Untrue. As corporation leaders go, he's very hands-on. He bought spaceship one, and based the design for spaceship two on it. 

[deputyindigo]

I'm with you there, but that's in the longer term. A mass-driver requires phenomenal amounts of energy, and setting up a power station capable of supplying the juice for an Earth-based system in turn requires phenomenal amounts of money and R&D. Rockets may be crude, slow and inefficient, but it's what we can get "off the shelf", right now. Virgin (and many others) probably have mass-driver investments, they just haven't paid off yet. And we've still got to get back to the Moon...

[18CaStRaDoMiS89]

If anything Virgin should of invested in mass driver development.

Launching a spacecraft from a mass driver (especially from the Moon where the low gravity would pose less of a technological challenge) would be infinitely cheaper AND faster, for space travel throughout the Solar System (it would also make space tourism financially practical for all people).

The main obstacle preventing one from being built is cost.

[deputyindigo]

True, but if no investments are ever made, then nothing can improve. Air travel has become the transport method of choice for people who have to cross long distances, especially over water, but it took a lot of time and money and effort to build the air-travel industry. Space travel is still in the "breaking eggs" stage, but the omelet's a-coming...

[18CaStRaDoMiS89]

Space travel IN GENERAL is still in it's infancy (and will be for a long time) and will never be cheap for the foreseeable future. It's not comparable to terrestrial travel.

[deputyindigo]

In a way, ALL private space exploration has to follow a development path. VirginGalactic is still in the early stages, and they need a reliable source of income before they can do more research. Space tourism, for now, is that source. Later, once they can do heavy cargo lifting (like, say, satellites and such), new possibilities will become available. I'm looking forward to it.

[deputyindigo]

Space exploration, back in the day, was expensive and required cumbersome bureaucracy to get anything done. Private space exploration is possible today because of the technology that couldn't have been developed any other way. Kind of like how FedEx (and others) couldn't exist without the USPS laying the groundwork.

[deputyindigo]

Government, in this case, means that NASA has a lot of bureaucratic barriers hindering obvious progress, mostly to prevent huge disasters. The most cynical truth: smaller, private agencies can fail without killing thousands or hobbling the national economy. My real problem with NASA is a failing ability to replace critical satellites (GPS, communications, etc.) That will be a disaster even worse than the current economic recession.

[deputyindigo]

Considering how VCR sales were boosted once porn became so freely available, "out of this world sex" might very well become literal. You KNOW you're being hit on by a rich person if they offer to pay your way on a "1000-mile-high club".