Space Tourists

Space tourism could become a reality within the opening years of the new century if the plans of a British aerospace engineer come to fruition.

David Ashford, managing director of Bristol Spaceplanes, working with a small team, has designed a four-seat delta-wing aircraft called the Ascender which will take off from a conventional
airport runway and climb higher than 9,000 metres using twin turbojet engines, before a rocket engine, powered by liquid hydrogen/oxygen, takes over to send the vehicle into a near-vertical climb.

Ascender will then coast to an altitude of almost 100 kilometres, high enough for its two passengers and two pilots to experience a short period of weightlessness, while enjoying views of earth.

At 100 kilometres the sky would turn black and bright stars would be visible even in daytime.

Certification for passenger carrying would come only after several years in service during which Ascender would be used as a reusable sounding rocket for space research, and as a spaceplane test-bed.

After its technology has been proved, Ashford sees it evolving into a bigger vehicle, which he has christened Spacecab, and then into a 50-seat Spacebus.

Several Deposits Have

Already Been Put Down

With the programme fully mature, the cost of a seat on the Spacecab could be around 6,500 pounds sterling (or 10,000 United States dollars) and several deposits from people anxious to be among the
first non-astronauts in space have already been put down with WildWings, a specialist travel agency in Bristol, western England.

David Ashford and his team have proved the concept of Ascender and its scaled-up successors with a one-fifth scale, remotely piloted version. This demonstrator, 274 centimetres long with a 152 cm
wingspan and weighing about 16 kilogrammes at take-off, has already made a number of flights in southern England, some carrying a loaded solid-fuel motor to evaluate weight and balance impacts on
controllability.

The engine was not ignited in flight but ground-test static firings have been conducted.

No expensive exotic metals would be needed for the project. Ascender would have a conventional aluminium airframe and systems for life-support, reaction controls, communication and navigation
included.

The vehicle would have a maximum speed of around 2,800 miles per hour or 4,500 kilometres per hour) and a loaded weight of 4,000 kg.

Given the required funding of 50 million pounds sterling, which Ashford is seeking to raise in the commercial sector and through sponsorships, a prototype could be flying in three years with
certification to airliner standards of safety some four years later.

Sub-orbital space tourism could start in about seven years, Ashford estimates. "There has been sufficient experience of manned spaceflight over the past 35 years with some 350 astronauts to date, to
be confident that there are no insoluble problems,'' he said.

"The result will be a paradigm shift in astronauts, with launchers based on aeroplane technology replacing those based on ballistic missiles. These results may seem surprising to many, perhaps less
so to those who have studied space tourism.

We have become so used to the high risk and cost of human spaceflight because of the use of launchers relying on ballistic missile technology that the concept of a mature spaceplane takes some
getting used to. We have a very good design and a very good team but we also have a credibility problem to overcome'', Ashford said.

Ashford's futuristic plans have been closely examined by experts and have come through with flying colours.

Spacecab was the subject of a feasibility study for the European Space Agency that showed that existing engines and conventional structural materials could be used. A subsequent independent review
for the United Kingdom Minister for Space identified no fundamental flaws in the concept.

David Ashford sees a buoyant world market for space tourism once the principle is accepted. "The significance of the 10,000 US dollars cost of a few days in space, staying in a space hotel, is that
it is affordable by most middle-income people'', Ashford said.

Market research carried out in Japan suggests that about one million people from that country alone would pay that price for such a vacation.

Subsequent surveys in Canada and the US indicate a comparable fraction of the population would be prepared to pay that amount.

So Ashford concludes optimistically: "Given the limitations of market surveys of a product that requires a lot of imagination to appreciate, it would be prudent to assume an annual demand of just
over one million space tourists. Even this would require a fleet of around 50 spaceplanes of 50-seat capacity, each making one flight per day.''

Bristol Spaceplanes, 3 Forest Hills, Almondesbury, Bristol, United Kingdom BS32 4DN.

Telephone/fax: 44 1454 613907