'Space Hotel' Test Craft Launched

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Rich Tate

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An experimental spacecraft was launched into orbit for testing purposes. If the technology is successful we could see an inflatable space station as early as 2015. Wait…did that say inflatable? You want me to live in space in a big pool toy!?

Inflatable spacecraft are attractive because they take up less space on their launch vehicle than solid components and therefore cost less to place into orbit.
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Wow.

Mr Bigelow is offering a $50m prize to anyone who can design a craft capable of carrying five people to a height of 400km (250 miles) before 2010.
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Seems to me it'd cost more than $50m to develop such a craft. But if you win, you'll definitely make a killing.
 
seems to me that if people want to just blow money, there are far better ways to do it than try and make a blowup thing for space
 
Well it had better be some strong stuff.. imagine a tiny rock or other piece of extremely small debris hitting it at several thousand miles per hour.. *POW* then we have a bunch of corpses wind burning up in the atmosphere.
 
UrielDagda said:
Well it had better be some strong stuff.. imagine a tiny rock or other piece of extremely small debris hitting it at several thousand miles per hour.. *POW* then we have a bunch of corpses wind burning up in the atmosphere.
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That's my concern too.
 
UrielDagda said:
Well it had better be some strong stuff.. imagine a tiny rock or other piece of extremely small debris hitting it at several thousand miles per hour.. *POW* then we have a bunch of corpses wind burning up in the atmosphere.
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They should die for being too rich. :p:D
 
inflatable :rolleyes:... *on the news* * the space hotel inflatable craft has been destroyed by an asteroid.... lol
 
UrielDagda said:
Well it had better be some strong stuff.. imagine a tiny rock or other piece of extremely small debris hitting it at several thousand miles per hour.. *POW* then we have a bunch of corpses wind burning up in the atmosphere.
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not strong. thick. a couple meters of foam and insulation will do the trick.
 
I doubt with enough speed, it would matter what the material is, its going to rip a hole through any space craft we can make right now.

How about being in orbit during a major solar flare. Got radiation?:D
 
This is the second one they have sent up.
The full scale version will have about 16 inch (40 cm) thick walls made of layers of Kevlar, Vectran and other fabrics.
It ain't going pop that easy.;)
 
Kadarom Douhrek said:
This is the second one they have sent up.
The full scale version will have about 16 inch (40 cm) thick walls made of layers of Kevlar, Vectran and other fabrics.
It ain't going pop that easy.;)
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Indeed. I love it how folks see "inflatable" and think "pool-toy." Sheesh.
 
OMG!!! No one wear high heels!!! *pfffffffffff......* :eek:

Eh. I dunno about the whole "spend time in space" thing. Nothing screams "Too Damn Rich" like shooting yourself into space for fun.
 
GJSNeptune said:
Wow.



Seems to me it'd cost more than $50m to develop such a craft. But if you win, you'll definitely make a killing.
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bet you 10 bucks Rutan pulls it off damn i realy should of bet on him for the X-prize i knew he would walk away with it when i frist heard about it years ago:p
 
GJSNeptune said:
Wow.



Seems to me it'd cost more than $50m to develop such a craft. But if you win, you'll definitely make a killing.
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The guys that created SpaceShipOne spent $3 mil building a craft that could go 65 miles high....and won a $1 mil prize. And AFAIK they have not had any kind of "tourist" action so they could make back some money... So I wouldn't bet on the whole "make a killing" thing.

There has been a saying in the industry for decades: "The best way to make $1 million in aerospace is to spend $2 million." The X-prize proved that.
 
Two of the first US satellites (the first communications satellites) were inflatable. This didn't seem to affect their lifespans much. Of course, anything launched in the 1950's didn't have to worry about space junk, either.
 
ScubaSteve said:
The guys that created SpaceShipOne spent $3 mil building a craft that could go 65 miles high....and won a $1 mil prize. And AFAIK they have not had any kind of "tourist" action so they could make back some money... So I wouldn't bet on the whole "make a killing" thing.

There has been a saying in the industry for decades: "The best way to make $1 million in aerospace is to spend $2 million." The X-prize proved that.
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that was a test craft 'cough' Virgin Galatic 'cough'
http://www.virgingalactic.com/
 
ScubaSteve said:
The guys that created SpaceShipOne spent $3 mil building a craft that could go 65 miles high....and won a $1 mil prize. And AFAIK they have not had any kind of "tourist" action so they could make back some money... So I wouldn't bet on the whole "make a killing" thing.

There has been a saying in the industry for decades: "The best way to make $1 million in aerospace is to spend $2 million." The X-prize proved that.
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The ansari X-Prize was 10 million, and the teams all had sponsors, their costs where not out of pocket.
 
ScubaSteve said:
The guys that created SpaceShipOne spent $3 mil building a craft that could go 65 miles high....and won a $1 mil prize. And AFAIK they have not had any kind of "tourist" action so they could make back some money... So I wouldn't bet on the whole "make a killing" thing.

There has been a saying in the industry for decades: "The best way to make $1 million in aerospace is to spend $2 million." The X-prize proved that.
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Actually it was a 10 million prize;)
 
ScubaSteve said:
The guys that created SpaceShipOne spent $3 mil building a craft that could go 65 miles high....and won a $1 mil prize. And AFAIK they have not had any kind of "tourist" action so they could make back some money... So I wouldn't bet on the whole "make a killing" thing.

There has been a saying in the industry for decades: "The best way to make $1 million in aerospace is to spend $2 million." The X-prize proved that.
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When you design a craft as a prize, it's not yours anymore to make money. However, this project didn't end up being so fruitful for them... their main objective was to be the first to do so.

Putting their name out there made them more popular than ever before and gave them a lot of business on the side.

Think of it as a very expensive billboard.
 
Ockie said:
When you design a craft as a prize, it's not yours anymore to make money. However, this project didn't end up being so fruitful for them... their main objective was to be the first to do so.

Putting their name out there made them more popular than ever before and gave them a lot of business on the side.

Think of it as a very expensive billboard.
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SS1 was a testcraft
Rutan had a working flying airframe when every one else didnt even have a working prototype

and it seem he now has a rather nice deal with Virgin now and is having $$$$ thrown at him to make some thing that is safer, flys higher, and can put more people in it
look at my last post and check out the link

Virgin is willing to spend as much money as it takes to get this off the ground as it were
 
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