Re: Rutan plans commercial tourist spacecraft

From: Joe Strout (joe_at_strout.net)
Date: 06/18/04 

Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 21:20:57 -0500

In article <aranders-1706042053160001@192.168.1.101>,
 aranders@insightbb.com (Alan Anderson) wrote:

> "Jeff Findley" <jeff.findley@ugs.nojunk.com> wrote:
>
> > If we're talking about the same flight profile (carrier aircraft lifts
> > hybrid powered spacecraft which is dropped and ascends to 100 km), what
> > would need to be different, aside from scaling the design up by a factor of
> > two?
>
> Refinements for even faster turnaround than SS1. A significantly upgraded
> passenger cabin, with "comfort" features (like a vomit vacuum system) and
> lots of video cameras.

Yes, though those seem like pretty minor engineering challenges.

I do wonder a bit how much motion sickness will impact the suborbital
tourism industry. My guess is not much -- passengers will probably be
advised to take Dramamine, which I'm told pretty dramatically reduces
the symptoms.

I like the idea of lots of video cameras though -- when paying $20K (or
whatever) for three minutes of weightlessness and a great view, you'll
want to have as much to take with you and share with your family as
possible.

,------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Joseph J. Strout Check out the Mac Web Directory: |
| joe@strout.net http://www.macwebdir.com |
`------------------------------------------------------------------'

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Print a page in 70% of its size
    ... If you're talking about the Graphics.PageScale property, it doesn't exactly change your page size. ... This works similarly to how the PageScale property does, but should apply equally to _all_ graphics rendered. ... It's entirely possible to design a single class such that it allows you to specify scaling that's applied when it draws its graphics. ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp)
  • Re: Sallen-key filter and SNR
    ... > I'll look into scaling the design. ... > The reason I started with 10 pF and 100 pF capacitors is that those ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • How to design SP with variable number of params?
    ... I see that having scaling issues. ... Another approach is to design one SP with many conditionals. ... approaches are inefficient. ...
    (microsoft.public.sqlserver.programming)