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| Secretive Blue Origin Reveals New Details of Spacecraft Plans | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 7 2012, 06:41 AM (371 Views) | |
| Max | May 7 2012, 06:41 AM Post #1 |
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Pickle barrel, pickle barrel, Kumquat!
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The curtain of secrecy is being raised by Blue Origin, a private entrepreneurial space group designing both suborbital and orbital vehicles. Backed by Amazon.com mogul Jeff Bezos, the Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin group has completed wind tunnel testing of its next-generation craft, simply called the "Space Vehicle." It would transport up to seven astronauts to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station. Though the company has been stingy on public information in the past, new details of the recent work have been released. Blue Origin's spacecraft sports a biconic shape, with its design refined by more than 180 wind tunnel tests and extensive computational fluid dynamics analysis. To help validate the spacecraft's shape and body flap configuration, tests were recently carried out over several weeks at Lockheed Martin's High Speed Wind Tunnel Facility in Dallas. The testing was conducted as part of Blue Origin's partnership with NASA, under the agency's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, which awarded the company $22 million in 2011 to develop the vehicle. [Photos: Blue Origin's Secretive Spaceship] "Our Space Vehicle's innovative biconic shape provides greater cross-range and interior volume than traditional capsules without the weight penalty of winged spacecraft," said Rob Meyerson, president and program manager of Blue Origin. "This is just one of the vehicle's many features that enhance the safety and affordability of human spaceflight, a goal we share with NASA," Meyerson said in a statement. `snip` Blue Origin makes use of its own spaceport located about 25 miles north of Van Horn, Texas. Over the years, test flights of Blue Origin hardware from the spaceport have seen both success and at least one publicly announced crash in 2011. "We always expected losing a test vehicle at some point," Alexander said. "We'd like more tests than fewer tests. But in the end, it is rocket science. It's hard and you expect that." Blue Origin's New Shepard system is being pursued to provide frequent opportunities for researchers to fly experiments into suborbital space. Research experiments can take sensor readings of space, the sky and the Earth, and will experience microgravity environments for three or more minutes. Alexander said that he thought the suborbital market is real, but the question is how large is it going to be. "If spaceflight were ubiquitous there would be tons of uses for it…tons of science being done," Alexander said. Developing the capability to be responsive, cost-effective and to fit into business cycles of research firms is essential, he said. "As long as we are at least focused on that…we've got a good shot at doing it," Alexander said. "I think those markets are real. The question is, are they enough to sustain a business on their own…or are they going to be a side activity for human spaceflight, tourism, adventure experiences?" Much more @:SOURCE:Space.com I love the idea of private spacecraft. Good Luck, Blue Origin - and remember Shepard's Prayer! |
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| LarryOldtimer | May 9 2012, 11:43 AM Post #2 |
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The Man!!!
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The question is, are they enough to sustain a business on their own…or are they going to be a side activity for human spaceflight, tourism, adventure experiences?" I have no idea of what this sentence even means. Up until now, space flight has been tightly controlled by government. Costing huge sums of taxpayer money. What is exactly wrong with "human spaceflight, tourism, adventure experiences?" Had it not been for private enterprise, we would have not much knowledge of most things. Had it not been for privately funded explorers, the same. This has been how huge conglomerates have begun. |
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| Max | May 10 2012, 05:13 AM Post #3 |
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Pickle barrel, pickle barrel, Kumquat!
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Yeah, what's wrong with making money by providing a service that people want? Isn't that what capitalism is all about? |
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2:22 AM Jul 11