airrocket said:Great concept not much news lately.... ??? ?
FutureSpaceTourist said:Graphics/model of the XF1, from the da Vinci website, are attached.
FutureSpaceTourist said:According to a report at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15303947/ the vehicles are modelled after Boeing's Bird of Prey experimental plane as well as the NASA X-36 prototype. Graphics/model of the XF1, from the da Vinci website, are attached.
FutureSpaceTourist said:To use some classic British understatement, I agree that the design is somewhat unconventional ... the following might be another way of saying it:
>>We really wanted to have something that would inspire people visually
airrocket said:Dream Space XF1-A vehicle was mentioned as possible sub-orbital concept entry for the NASA CRuSR project.
blackstar said:What do you do if there's a bunch of money sitting around and no actual services to buy?
FutureSpaceTourist said:I think NASA heard you The first CRuSR awards last week to Masten and Armadillo ($250k and $225k respectively, a few details here and here) are not for flights to 100+ km. Instead the initial flights are to between about 5 and 40 km.
So somewhere in between paying for development and waiting for vehicles that can meet the full requirements.
Goehlich, R.A. & Ruecker, U. (2003). "Life-cycle Program Proposal for a Commercial Tourist RLV Fleet Operated from Kourou Spaceport," presented at the 3rd International Symposium on Atmospheric Reentry Vehicles and Systems, Arcachon, France.
RanulfC said:Quick "correction" note; you listed the Cosmos Mariner as an "unmanned" vehicle.
FutureSpaceTourist said:The company also planned the: "Cosmos One: an unmanned, horizontal takeoff and landing, reusable spaceplane launch system for placing light weight satellites into low Earth orbit.
Length | Wingspan | ΔV | Liftoff Weight | |
m (ft) | m (ft) | m/s (ft/s) | kg (lbs) | |
Orbiter | 17 (57) | 27.0 (90) | 5500 (18,300) | 77,400 (170,300) |
Booster | 35 (117) | 37.4 (125) | 3500 (11,700) | 300,000 (660,000) |
Overall | 35 (117) | 37.4 (125) | 9000 (30,000) | 377,400 (830,300) |
POWAY, Calif., May 25 /PRNewswire/ -- As a result of a five month-long study by SpaceDev, Benson Space Company (BSC) has chosen to pursue a fresh approach in the design of its Dream Chaser spaceship, it was announced today by BSC Chairman and President Jim Benson.
Rather than using the orbital NASA HL-20 vehicle as a model, BSC will base its suborbital spaceship on an amalgam of the NASA and Air Force X-2, X-15 and T-38 vehicles. While the new design is safer and more aerodynamic, explains Benson, it will also be easier and faster to construct, allowing BSC to remain on-schedule to make its initial commercial spaceflights in 2009 -- aiming to provide the first, safest and best astronaut-making spaceflights for the emerging space tourism market.
"The mandate of our initial five-month Phase I study, which began in November, was a design review to ensure that we had the very best spaceship possible. During the past two months a small, highly experienced team has taken a fresh look and concluded that we can do better," says Benson. "To that end, the new spaceship will incorporate the best elements selected
from other successful vehicles. This will result in a spaceship that provides a better ride and even more spectacular views, and at this early stage we will lose little time in bringing it to the commercial market."
The new Dream Chaser spaceship design is lighter and sleeker, resulting in less drag and requiring less propulsion than the earlier design. The vehicle, powered by safe hybrid rocket motors, will launch vertically and glide to a landing at the launch site. A safer carefree reentry, after
achieving an altitude of at least 65 miles, will subject passengers to minimal G-forces, compared to other designs. It will also have many large, well-placed windows for ideal passenger views of the Earth and space.
FutureSpaceTourist said:However, in 2007 BSC announced a new suborbital VTHL vehicle design
Sadly the images are out of date…this deserves a book.Not convinced it's a great concept if you factor in cost. It hasn't gone anywhere because they couldn't raise the €1 billion needed!
I've been having fun trawling through this website looking for space tourism spaceplane concepts and there are quite a few. (If you're looking for space tourism rockets try here.)
All the following spaceplanes never achieved (or are yet to achieve) the funding required (which in some cases led to the closure of the associated companies):
The two I know of in development that do have funding are:
- Advent Launch Services Advent
- ARCA Orizont 2B
- Benson Space Company suborbital vehicle design
- Beyond Earth Enterprises Raven
- Bristol Spaceplanes Ascender
- Bristol Spaceplanes Spacecab
- Bristol Spaceplanes Spacebus
- Canyon Space Team XPV
- Cerulean Freight Forwarding's Kitten
- Cerulean Freight Forwarding's Calico and Angora
- da Vinci Project / DreamSpace
- Dassault VEHRA / VSH (VSH picture below)
- DLR Spaceliner
- EADS Astrium (as above)
- Fundamental Technology Systems' Aurora
- Georgia Tech's Reusable Exploration Vehicle
- Hopper Plus
- Kelly Space Astroliner (I believe they were an X-prize competitor so must have been proposed for tourism use)
- Kistler Rocketplane
- Lone Star Space Access' Cosmos Mariner
- Malaysian chapter of STS MC
- Malaysian chapter of STS MX
- Marcus Aerospace Explorer
- Orbital Sciences Corporation CCDev2 proposal
- PanAero Condor-X
- PanAero Millennium Express
- PanAero SabreRocket
- PanAero X Van
- PanAero X Van 2001
- PanAero X Van 2008
- PanAero X Van 2011
- Pioneer Pathfinder Rocketplane
- Project Enterprise
- Myasishchev C-21/Explorer
- Myasishchev MK-91
- Reaction Engine's Skylon (perhaps not primarily for tourism but does have passenger module)
- Space Access' Skyhopper
- Space Clipper International SC-1
- SpaceDev Dream Chaser
- Spaceflight SF-01
- Spacelinq
- Vela Space Cruiser
- XCOR Xerus
- World Aerospace Inc Alpha spaceplane
Of course the only potential tourism spaceplane to have actually flown to space is SpaceShipOne (although hopefully SpaceShipTwo will make it in testing in the next 12 months or so).
I'm sure there are some other tourism spaceplanes out there, please raise any I've missed.
Update 29/05/2010: added PanAero X-prize concepts Condor-X, SabreRockect and X Van
Update 01/06/2010: added further PanAero concepts, FTS Aurora, CFF Calico & Angora and Lone Star Space Access Cosmos Mariner
Update 12/06/2010: added Space Access' Skyhopper
Update 22/06/2010: added Georgia Tech's Reusable Exploration Vehicle
Update 26/06/2010: added Spaceflight SF-01
Update 27/06/2010: listed Bristol Spaceplanes' Spacecab and Spacebus separately
Update 09/07/2010: added link to separate space tourism rocket list
Update 26/09/2010: added Advent Launch Services X-prize entry
Update 09/10/2010: added Malaysian chapter of Space Tourism Society MC and MX concepts
Update 28/10/2010: added Hopper Plus concept and Space Clipper International SC-1
Update 29/10/2010: added XCOR Xerus
Update 31/10/2010: added ARCA Orizont 2B
Update 17/11/2010: added Canyon Space Team XPV and Beyond Earth Enterprises Raven
Update 22/11/2010: added Marcus Aerospace Explorer
Update 20/12/2010: added Orbital Sciences Corporation CCDev2 proposal
Update 10/04/2011: added Spacelinq
Update 19/06/2011: added Benson Space Company suborbital vehicle and World Aerospace Inc Alpha spaceplane