Weightless tourism just 4 years away

**airdog07** · November 9th, 2016, 06:03 PM

Weightless tourism just 4 years away
by Staff Writers
Beijing (XNA) Nov 04, 2016

File image.

Want to have a birthday party 140 kilometers above the ground, or dance weightlessly with your loved one? Just wait for a few years. These out-of-this-world experiences will be possible, according to the plans of China's newly established commercial space company, which expects to start providing high-atmosphere and space journeys for people with enough cash as early as 2020.
Han Qingping, president of ChinaRocket Co Ltd in Beijing, said the company first will develop a 10-metric-ton reusable spacecraft and use it to ferry three to five travelers to a height of 80 km for a new perspective on the mother planet and experience weightlessness. That is the upper part of the mesosphere, higher than jets and balloons can travel, but just below the height where satellites fly.
No prices were given. "By 2025, a 100-ton reusable spacecraft will be produced to send up to 20 passengers to an orbit as high as 140 km above the ground," he said. That's into the thermosphere, and is high enough to be considered space. "Furthermore, we will begin to use the 100-ton vehicle to perform intercontinental scheduled flight and long commercial spaceflight around 2030."
Han made the remarks at the New Power of Space Industry Forum on Monday in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, one day before the 11th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, commonly known as Zhuhai Air Show.
His company was founded in mid-October by China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, the country's largest developer of ballistic missiles and carrier rockets. The academy itself is a subordinate of the larger China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the State-owned main contractor for the country's space program.
During the air show, ChinaRocket will sign a launch service contract with Changguang Satellite Technology Co Ltd in Changchun, capital of Jilin province, a major maker of commercial remote-sensing satellites in China, according to the company. No further information was immediately disclosed.
Tang Yagang, deputy head of CALT's space activity department, said ChinaRocket will offer four types of rockets to the commercial launch market, covering all orbits suitable for commercial space missions.
In China, a commercial space mission generally refers to a space activity paid for by an entity other than a Chinese government or a military agency. Earlier reports quoted experts as predicting that by 2020, the market value of commercial space activities in China will reach 30 billion yuan ($4.6 billion) each year.
"Three of the four rockets are off-the-shelf models because they are based on the current Long March series. The two liquid-fueled rockets will launch payloads to sun-synchronous orbit, low Earth orbit and geosynchronous orbit. The solid-fueled rocket will lift satellites to sun-synchronous orbit," he explained. Sun-synchronous orbit can keep a satellite in constant daylight, whereas geosynchronous orbit matches the Earth's rotation.
"We are also developing a new type of liquid-fueled, medium-lift rocket specifically for the commercial launch market. It will use pollution-free propellants. The maiden flight is scheduled to take place in 2018."
Han said his company plans to go public around 2020, adding it will share its facilities and equipment with other enterprises to boost the growth of the whole sector.
Hao Zhaoping, vice-president of CALT, said ChinaRocket will strive to tap the commercial launch market because commercial space activities have begun to represent the development trend of the industry.
"In addition to commercial launches, the company will also build launch facilities and space-themed parks," he said. "We are creating a commercial space sphere in China, which will turn into a significant part of the nation's space industry."
Beside carrier rockets, the academy is designing a combined-cycle spaceship propelled by a combination of turbine engines, ramjets and rocket engines. The futuristic space vehicle will take off and land on an airport runway and will carry out space tourism and ultrafast passenger flight, according to researchers at CALT.
Internationally, several private space enterprises such as SpaceX and Orbital Sciences are developing space vehicles in a bid for business opportunities in space tourism and passenger and cargo transportation.

**airdog07** · November 9th, 2016, 06:05 PM

Space balloons inflating passenger flight hopes
By Lynne al-Nahhas
Dubai (AFP) Nov 4, 2016

Artist's impression of near space balloon platform.

After a string of high-profile setbacks for rocket programmes aimed at one day flying paying customers into space, a Spanish tech firm plans to send stargazers skyward using gas-filled balloons.

Barcelona-based Zero2Infinity aims to harness the same technology used in helium weather balloons to float its first clients to the edge of space within two years, according to CEO Jose Mariano Lopez-Urdiales.

"We are solving the problem with space access in a totally different way. We're getting outside of the atmosphere using cheap, clean, high-altitude balloons -- a technology that is well-understood and mature," he told AFP at the World Space Risk Forum in Dubai.

"From there, the possibilities are endless."

At a cost of 110,000 euros (around $122,000), the trip to the stratosphere will not be cheap, but Mariano believes there will be a big market for people interested in experiencing a few hours as an astronaut.

"Some people want to provide connectivity so we will launch their satellites," he said. "Some people want to get married up there, so we will send them on a ride and the captain of the ship will marry them."

Founded seven years ago, the company has already done over 30 test flights using prototypes to demonstrate the technology.

A number of setbacks have hit other bids to achieve regular passenger space travel in recent years.

In 2014, British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic spaceship -- intended to take tourists to the edge of space -- broke up on a test flight, killing a pilot and delaying the firm's space-tourism goals.

In February this year, Virgin Galactic unveiled a new commercial spaceship but underscored that commercial space flights would not be available until it was satisfied it could carry them out safely.

SpaceX, a privately-funded initiative planning to launch a human mission to Mars by 2024, has suffered accidents in testing, most recently when a Falcon 9 rocket exploded on the launchpad in September.

But with balloons, Lopez-Urdiales insisted, the dangers are dramatically minimised.

"You don't have all the explosion risks associated with rockets and you don't have the high-speed re-entry risk," he said.

"We don't even go above the speed of sound."

- 'Affordable, safe' -

Zero2Infinity is one of a number of companies eyeing new methods of low-cost, high-altitude flights to the edge of space.

US-based company World View Enterprises also plans to float tourists using pressurised pods attached to helium balloons. It believes it can begin as soon as next year.

Lopez-Urdiales said his firm first plans to launch satellites into orbit from their balloons, releasing the devices from beneath the balloon canopy.

Human flights will follow, carrying passengers in a futuristic pod providing unparallelled views of the curvature of the Earth, as well as surrounding stars and planets set against the blackness of space.

"You can provide the visual experience that astronauts have," he said.

Rising to height of around 40 kilometres (25 miles), or three times the altitude of passenger jets, the flight will take between five and six hours -- "more than enough to really remember the experience", he added.

Lopez-Urdiales said his firm is considering launching balloon flights from Dubai as well as other Gulf destinations.

"We think both launching satellites and launching space tourists is going to be an activity that creates a lot of wealth and a lot of prestige for the location where this happens," he said.

"That's one of the reasons why we think Dubai and (the Gulf) are a good place to come to."

A growing tourist destination, the United Arab Emirates said last year it was pressing ahead with plans to send the first Arab unmanned probe to Mars by 2021.

In 2014, the UAE government said its investments in space technologies topped 20 billion dirhams ($5.4 billion, 4.8 billion euros).

Lopez-Urdiales said that the technology for balloon space flights has existed for decades.

"We just want to make it affordable and safe for as many people as possible," he said.