‘For the last 40 years, innovation in spaceflight had been stalled,’ reads the website of the Ansari X Prize. This space competition was to award a prize of $10m, essentially, to the first private manned-spaceship launch. It was modelled on the iconic Orteig Prize, won by Charles Lindbergh in 1927 for flying non-stop from New York to Paris. Almost eighty years on, and the Ansari X was taken out to similar fanfare by a project called simply ‘Tier One’ by Scaled Composites. Tier One’s iconic spacecraft, SpaceShipOne, seemed fitting for the next pioneer in aviation.

Why this spacecraft, designed by Scaled Composites’ leading aerospace engineer Burt Rutan and funded by legendary philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and no other? There have been many attempts in the past to claim the prize and usher in a new age of aeronautical travel. Yet it is Rutan’s Scaled Composites, now working with Sir Richard Branson and his new start-up Virgin Galactic, which continues to hold the advantage. The space-tourism market is expected to be lucrative, very lucrative. Branson has already released concept art of the interior of SpaceShipOne’s successor, SpaceShipTwo, promising reclining seats, lots of windows, and safety standards bar none. For an estimated $200 thousand dollars per ticket, one might also expect onboard refreshments.

Light as a feather

What SpaceShipOne did differently from its competitors was to use a two-tier system, comprising of a flying launch-pad and payload carrier. The theory is simple but ingenious: you blast off while already in the air, instead of on the ground. The launch-pad, a twin-engine plane called White Knight is more or less a conventional aircraft. Attached to its belly is SpaceShipOne, which launches at a height of around 50 thousand feet. The initial launch of most conventional rockets from the ground, against huge g-forces, is what consumes the lion’s share of fuel required. Hence the use of White Knight as airborne platform reduced both fuel expenses and the weight of fuel the actual spacecraft needed to carry.

SpaceShipOne’s ‘hybrid motor’ used a mix of solid and liquid rocket fuels for greatest possible acceleration; Rutan intends to do away with the combination of laughing gas and rubber for SpaceShipTwo, looking for better-performing alternatives. Nevertheless, SpaceShipTwo will retain the flip-up ‘feather’ wings of its predecessor, which can turn through 90 degrees to generate extremely high drag during re-entry. Once the ship has passed through into the Earth’s atmosphere, the wings fold back down and the ship glides smoothly in to land. No other spacecraft currently has this feature, and many consider it the ‘killer-blow’ that allowed Scaled Composites to win the Ansari X.

Buck for the bang

Revolutionary features like the carrier-spaceship system and feather-wings led SpaceShipOne to scientific victory. Evidently, the technology is now up to scratch. The next frontier, of course, is commercialisation. One might have expected Paul Allen’s entrepreneurial streak to take over, but the co-founder of Microsoft once again expressed interest solely in the technology, not the moneymaking. At this point Branson, known for initiating a new wave of budget airlines with Virgin Airlines and other, more conventional feats of derring-do, stepped in.

Branson’s Virgin Galactic has the goal of carrying 50 thousand unique passengers in the first ten years of operation. Tickets are expensive, but they are selling fast: Virgin Galactic has already raked in over $30 million in deposits for the two-hour sub-orbital flights they offer. The company has also been quick to point out the relative ‘green-ness’ of its launch mechanism. Branson notes that ‘you’ve got to build a green spaceship’ and points out that the emissions cost of a suborbital flight is about the same (unlike the monetary cost) as a business-class seat on conventional aircraft. There have also been comparisons made to the lunar missions which, thanks to the stunning images of the Earth from space, inadvertently sparked the green movement of the latter 20th-century.

The tourist option is, for now, the primary goal. Conceptual designs for SpaceShipTwo show the flyer with sleek Virgin-inscribed bodylines and an assortment of viewing ports, along with a cool-blue interior finish and ergonomic reclining chairs. The rusty bolt-bucket of the Millennium Falcon, it is not. Yet the spacecraft may also serve a more utilitarian purpose. Being a relatively small and efficient payload delivery system, White Knight Two will be well-suited for launching satellites into low-Earth orbit, and both military and business groups have already expressed interest in the prospect. Virgin is almost certainly going to capitalise on this, but probably not for some time.

Scaled Composites may have the lead, but there is still competition for the heavens. Blue Origin, funded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, looks to be an upcoming adversary as its New Shepard launcher continues to progress. The Canadian Arrow, said to be in partnership with aeronautical giant Lockheed Martin, is also looking to break Scaled Composite’s current domination. All this can only be good for the fledgling industry, for aerospace development, and for hip pockets the world around. Yet the obstacles which brought down promising spaceships like the X33 VentureStar, Lockheed’s own foray into the area, still remain. The costs are high, commercial success unproven. Whether Branson’s gamble on the final frontier takes profits to infinity and beyond will remain uncertain for some time.

>Written by d/visible contributor Mark Yeow.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 10:41 am and is filed under Technology, Business, Industrial, Culture, Art & Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.