British Virgin Galactic company "Spaceship II" test machine.
On July 11, British Virgin Galactic's "Spacecraft II" completed its first full suborbital test flight. The company's founder Richard Branson participated in the test flight as a crew member. On July 20th, Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark Bezos, founders of Amazon and Blue Origin, successfully entered the suborbital Earth on the "New Shepard" rocket developed by Blue Origin. These two test flights are milestones in commercial suborbital flights and mean that ordinary people are one step closer to traveling in space.
Technological development boosts ordinary people’s flying dreams
Some aerospace powers have been promoting manned space tourism projects to increase revenue. From 2001 to 2009, a total of seven ordinary people who were non-professional astronauts boarded the International Space Station on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft on eight occasions. Due to the experience of weightlessness, overweight, and thrilling speed, this kind of flight requires extremely high physical and economic conditions for passengers. Not only must passengers be rich, they also need to undergo professional training on the ground for a period of time before going to the sky, making space tourism projects Difficult to promote.
In recent years, with the development of suborbital technology, suborbital tourism has also become popular. Suborbital is also called "near space", "near space" and "super high altitude", and some foreigners also call it "cross-cut zone" and "near space". The International Aviation Federation will determine its range at an altitude of 23 kilometers to 100 kilometers, but most experts tend to define it at 20 kilometers to 100 kilometers, which is between the highest flying altitude of existing aircraft and the lowest orbital altitude of spacecraft. . Compared with traditional space tourism, suborbital tourism has a low flight altitude, a short time, a much lower threshold, and a larger future market.
British Virgin Galactic's "Spaceship One" flew for the first time on May 20, 2003, and was retired in October 2004. "Spaceship Two" was first launched in December 2009. The project uses a large aircraft to carry a spacecraft for air launch, and then the spacecraft uses a hydroxy-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) hybrid engine to ignite. After a few minutes of acceleration, the engine is turned off. Point (approximately 100 kilometers) and then return to the earth by gliding. The moment the engine turned off, passengers began to feel weightlessness. When the spacecraft re-enters the atmosphere, passengers begin to experience aerodynamic drag and will remain weightless for about five minutes. The spacecraft took about 2.5 hours from take-off to landing.
"Spaceship II" has a unique design, with aerodynamic tilting tail and horizontal stabilizer, inspired by badminton. The two tail wings use aerodynamic drag to ensure that the abdomen is down when the aircraft reenters the atmosphere, and it can be corrected even if the attitude is inverted. Once the aircraft is in a subsonic state and re-enters the atmosphere, the wings will be straightened and a relatively standard landing process will take place. 16 cameras are installed inside the spacecraft to help passengers record the flight process. There is a display on the seat back, which allows passengers to understand the flight status at each stage. The seat is also dynamically adjusted, and is also equipped with a self-retracting seat belt, which can maximize the comfort and safety of passengers during different stages of the flight, and also allow them to leave the seat in a state of weightlessness. There are 17 windows in the spacecraft, which are convenient for passengers to enjoy the scenery outside.
According to reports, this is the fourth manned test flight of Virgin Galactic, and also the first full test flight with a total of six people, including the company's four mission experts and two pilots. At that time, a catamaran carrier carrying the "Spacecraft II" took off from the space launch site in New Mexico, USA, and was released at an altitude of about 15 kilometers above the ground. Then the spacecraft started the rocket engine to accelerate, shut down after a few minutes and continued to climb with the help of inertia. After reaching the highest point about 86 kilometers above the ground, the spacecraft turned slowly, glided down, and finally landed smoothly. According to Virgin Galactic, the main goal of the test flight is to evaluate the cabin and user experience, including evaluating the cabin environment, seat comfort, human body weightlessness, and the sights that can be seen inside the spacecraft. Virgin Galactic plans to officially start its commercial space travel business in 2022, and will also conduct two test flights before it.
Blue Origin of the United States has adopted a relatively traditional approach to enter the suborbital space travel market. Blue Origin was founded in 2000, adhering to the motto of "Step by Step, Go Forward Bravely". Its "New Shepard" rocket adopts a single-stage propulsion mode, with a maximum thrust of 50 tons, and can fly to 100 kilometers near the space boundary line on the top of the rocket. It is a space capsule with a maximum capacity of six people. After the rocket reaches the height of the apex, the arrow bay is separated, the rocket activates the air brake device and the recovery engine to return to the ground vertically. The crew cabin will deploy the parachute (reverse rocket engine ignition before landing) and slowly land on the landing site. Visitors can experience the sense of weightlessness for 3 to 5 minutes. The whole process is fully automated and does not require human driving. In order to improve safety, the "New Shepard" rocket system has an emergency escape function. In addition, as an important part of the in-flight experience, each passenger rides next to the huge windows. These windows are 0.73 meters wide and 1.1 meters high, which can provide a very beautiful viewing view. Prior to this, Blue Origin had carried out 16 unmanned suborbital flights and carried experimental payloads on several flights. Blue Origin has not disclosed the price of each ticket, which is estimated to be hundreds of thousands of dollars.
This time the bosses of the two suborbital space travel companies personally went to the battle to fly first, not only to endorse the safety of their own products, but also to squeeze their opponents by public opinion.
China is catching up
Data shows that the entire space economy market, including space tourism, space resource utilization, and communication satellites, is expected to exceed one trillion US dollars in market value by 2040. With the rise of space tourism, China has not ignored such business opportunities. According to the previously announced roadmap of China's space transportation system: By 2025, China's reusable suborbital vehicle has been successfully developed, and suborbital space travel will become a reality. Specifically, China's Long March Rocket Company was formally established in 2018 and subsequently proposed a space tourism plan. According to reports, the company plans to implement China’s first civilian space travel project by 2024 to achieve short-distance suborbital flights; the second step is to build a long-distance tour group that can accommodate 10 to 20 people at a time by 2035.
In addition to rockets and spacecraft, aerostats are also a good choice for suborbital tourism. If the spacecraft is a roller coaster, the aerostat is similar to a cable car. Passengers will steadily ascend to the adjacent space in the space capsule suspended under the helium balloon airbag, and return to the ground smoothly after a period of sightseeing. In 2014, Beijing Golden Ocean Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd. proposed the edge of space sightseeing project. It intends to use high-altitude helium balloons to send tourists to the edge of space at a height of 40 kilometers. Complete some scientific experiments. On October 25, 2017, China Guangqi Group's self-developed near-space balloon "Voyager 3" was successfully released, completing experimental tasks such as environmental control and life support, world communication, and space environment data collection. The capsule was designed and processed, and inflated and released. Key technologies such as, environmental control and life support, autonomous control, trajectory prediction, and landing recovery have also been verified. At that time, Group President Liu Ruopeng introduced that the main cabin of the future manned series Voyager could accommodate six passengers. They do not need to wear space suits, and do not need to bear the test of weightlessness or centrifugal force. They can move freely in the cabin. At an altitude of more than meters, you can safely and comfortably experience the extraordinary beauty of the adjacent space, and watch the perfect arc of our great earth.
