My Next Vacation...Outer Space

**iwant2believe2** · 07-27-2008, 03:43 PM

Space

Yep, outer space -- that most remote of all destinations, is about to become accessible for all Earthlings. Virgin Galactic, the brainchild of entrepreneur and adventurer Sir Richard Branson, is offering flights to the final frontier for a mere $200,000 ticket. That's round-trip, by the way. The flights aboard the spacecraft are set to begin sometime in 2009, and will initially launch once a week from the Mojave Desert. The six passengers and two astronauts will piggyback aboard a mother ship to 50,000 feet and then launch from that height to 350,000 feet and return to Earth. Already, 100 have signed up.

I am sooooooooo going.....wish me better luck on this trip...this last vacation nearly killed me lol

**Andrew** · 07-27-2008, 06:07 PM

How are you going to be able to afford the ticket? It will only be for rich people for a long while yet. I don't like this bit:

Virgin Galactic, the brainchild of entrepreneur and adventurer Sir Richard Branson,

They had already won the X-Prize before he stepped in with funding, and a passenger service was the goal to begin with. Maybe he came up with the name, but then it is just a play on the name of his airline, Virgin Atlantic.

**iwant2believe2** · 07-27-2008, 09:17 PM

Originally Posted by Andrew

How are you going to be able to afford the ticket? It will only be for rich people for a long while yet.

I can't say...that's about 5 years into the future for me...assuming that they'd even let people with half a lung travel...but if there's way, there's a will...

They had already won the X-Prize before he stepped in with funding, and a passenger service was the goal to begin with. Maybe he came up with the name, but then it is just a play on the name of his airline, Virgin Atlantic.

All that aside...its still very exciting...don't you think, Andrew...that space travel for ordinary people is on the horizon? The government space agencies certainly aren't doing much...they seem content to launch probes and take pictures (although I am pretty excited about the new astrobiology department at NASA)...maybe private funding is the only way...

**Fen Star** · 07-28-2008, 04:09 AM

If i had to pick one thing to do in my life time, going into space would be it, i can only hope that it is more accessible in the time i have left on this Planet...

**Andrew** · 07-28-2008, 05:17 AM

Originally Posted by iwant2believe2

I can't say...that's about 5 years into the future for me...assuming that they'd even let people with half a lung travel...but if there's way, there's a will...

Do you have one and a half lungs or just half a lung? I believe Virgin Galactic's flight profile has an acceleration limit of 3g. The Space Shuttle's acceleration doesn't exceed 3g either. Earlier astronauts had to cope with worse: on Apollo it was about 4g and on Mercury it was more than 6. The acceleration of ascent is the most strenuous aspect of a rocket flight. Reducing the acceleration required for launch is one of the goals of manned rocket designers because the lower the acceleration, the greater the number of eligible people there are to travel into space, so they are not only catering to those of an equivalent level of physical fitness to the Mercury Seven. I am sure also, that there will be centrifuges on the ground to test one's ability to cope with the rocket flight.

All that aside...its still very exciting...don't you think, Andrew...that space travel for ordinary people is on the horizon? The government space agencies certainly aren't doing much...they seem content to launch probes and take pictures (although I am pretty excited about the new astrobiology department at NASA)...maybe private funding is the only way...

Yes, it is exciting. It is my dream too to travel in space and also to be professionally involved in making it happen. However, I fear that if there is not some revolution in the way in which we generate energy, there will be too much economic stagnation to ever make low cost space travel viable or to build space stations or space colonies. I expect that if Barrack Obama is elected, he will set back US governmental manned space flight by more than a decade and will choose to focus on robotic science missions instead.

**Andrew** · 07-28-2008, 05:53 AM

Originally Posted by Andrew

The acceleration of ascent is the most strenuous aspect of a rocket flight.

I should say on a suborbital flight. Re-entry from orbit can be just as strenuous as launch, even worse on some missions. On Mercury, the acceleration of re-entry was around 12g. This is improved on the Shuttle. If something went wrong on the launch pad, the earlier rockets, and the current Russian Soyuz, would fire the launch escape tower, which is a rocket that sits above the crew capsule, and this would take the capsule up in the air at about 16g. But fortunately, that is not something you need to prepare for on a spaceplane-type rocket, because they do not have launch escape towers.

**vyrtigo** · 07-28-2008, 06:52 AM

thats crazy... are they expecting average civilians to be able to handle that? that is hilarious!

there is no way that you are getting me to go up into galdern space unless we get anti gravity. i hate heights, i guess i've never been a bird before...

**Andrew** · 07-28-2008, 07:25 AM

Originally Posted by vyrtigo

thats crazy... are they expecting average civilians to be able to handle that? that is hilarious!

What are you talking about? Scaled Composites' Space Ship 2 will have a peak acceleration of 3g, which is exceeded by most fairground rides.

**vyrtigo** · 07-28-2008, 09:42 AM

oh yeah huh, B)

thats right, its not a rocket ship, its like a space jetliner...

id still be scaared.

**iwant2believe2** · 07-28-2008, 10:18 AM

Originally Posted by Andrew

Do you have one and a half lungs or just half a lung? I believe Virgin Galactic's flight profile has an acceleration limit of 3g. The Space Shuttle's acceleration doesn't exceed 3g either. Earlier astronauts had to cope with worse: on Apollo it was about 4g and on Mercury it was more than 6. The acceleration of ascent is the most strenuous aspect of a rocket flight. Reducing the acceleration required for launch is one of the goals of manned rocket designers because the lower the acceleration, the greater the number of eligible people there are to travel into space, so they are not only catering to those of an equivalent level of physical fitness to the Mercury Seven. I am sure also, that there will be centrifuges on the ground to test one's ability to cope with the rocket flight.

One and a half lung. That's good news about the Gs, I hope I'll be able to handle that when I'm able to go.

Yes, it is exciting. It is my dream too to travel in space and also to be professionally involved in making it happen. However, I fear that if there is not some revolution in the way in which we generate energy, there will be too much economic stagnation to ever make low cost space travel viable or to build space stations or space colonies. I expect that if Barrack Obama is elected, he will set back US governmental manned space flight by more than a decade and will choose to focus on robotic science missions instead.

You're probably right there. The US is already falling behind, I think. Private funding and profit seem to be the only thing that will move us forward.