SpaceCollective: luis

SpaceCollective: luis http://spacecollective.org/luis Tue, 04 Dec 2007 01:26:05 +0000 http://spacecollective.org/luis en Selecting Launch Sites for Adventure Space Travel http://spacecollective.org/luis/2194/Selecting-Launch-Sites-for-Adventure-Space-Travel http://spacecollective.org/luis/2194/Selecting-Launch-Sites-for-Adventure-Space-Travel Tue, 04 Dec 2007 01:26:05 +0000 luis 2194 Another report by RS&H Aerospace & Defense (<a href="http://www.rsandh.com" target="_blank">http://www.rsandh.com</a>) Suborbital adventure space travel (space tourism) companies will have numerous choices regarding their launch location. In many cases, the selected location will influence the long term viability of the enterprise because it may or may not provide an enhanced ground-based or flight-based experience. Potentially, these launch companies could follow the cruise ship example and change sites with the seasons in order to provide their passengers with the most beautiful or thrilling space experience. The quality of the space experience at a given location is influenced by several factors including the time of day, local terrain or geological features, the presence of natural phenomena (ex: Northern Lights) and local terrestrial entertainment. This paper examines what types of characteristics could provide such enterprise enhancing capabilities and surveys several sites for their ability to deliver them. Natural Phenomenon Aurora: The Northern Lights, also called Aurora Borealis, is a variety of Aurora Polaris, a type of electromagnetic storm caused by the collision of charged particles, like electrons, with atoms in Earth’s atmosphere. The other variety of Aurora Polaris is called Aurora Australis. The Northern Lights occur in the northern hemisphere, such as Alaska, Canada, Britain, etc. The Aurora Australis is mostly centered around the continent of Australia. A space tourist could see several different lights outside the window on the earth’s horizon, though some colors are more often associated with particular regions. <img src="http://spacecollective.org/userdata/jZX63dPm/1196759363/1.jpg" border="0" width="" height="" class="padTopBot"> <cap>Aurora Borealis from Space Shuttle</cap> Lightning Storms from Space: Lightning storms are an incredible sight to behold from the ground. By some accounts, they are just as incredible from space. If flight schedules are quick enough, this could be a potential attraction for space tourism, especially since there are several places that are more prone to lightning storms, such as the southwest and southeast United States The frequent occurrence of lightning in these areas increases the chances of witnessing this event and make the visual experience of the flight more thrilling. <img src="http://spacecollective.org/userdata/jZX63dPm/1196759434/2.jpg" border="0" width="" height="" class="padTopBot"> <cap>Lightning as seen from Space</cap> Natural Earth Features Impact Craters: Large asteroid impact craters are often visible from space. Many are eroded from millennia of wind and weather, while some are fresher being only several thousand years old. Considering there are hundreds of impact craters visible on Earth’s surface, the potential sites for launches and flights are many. They complement the space theme of the flight. <img src="http://spacecollective.org/userdata/jZX63dPm/1196759476/3.jpg" border="0" width="" height="" class="padTopBot"> <cap>Meteor Crater in Arizona</cap> Erupting Volcanoes: Erupting volcanoes building new land are a unique vision from space. Each volcanic eruption represents earth-changing events. There are thousands of volcanoes but, there are only a few large eruptions a year. As such, the volcanoes that offer the best and most consistent viewing options are ones that either are consistently erupting or who have formed large craters or calderas such as Kilauea in Hawaii or Sakura-Jima in Japan. These provide large vents frequently visible from space. <img src="http://spacecollective.org/userdata/jZX63dPm/1196759511/4.jpg" border="0" width="" height="" class="padTopBot"> <cap>Straight Line of Volcanic Craters in Java</cap> Grand Canyon: The Grand Canyon is one of the largest natural features on earth. Each year, millions of people visit the canyon to revel in its magnificence. The view from space is a very unique perspective that can really give a person some perspective of the sheer size of the canyon. It is best to view the canyon at some angle, since viewing it from directly above will lose some depth due to lack of shadowing on the canyon walls. Locating a launch site to take advantage of this feature does limit options to the southwest. <img src="http://spacecollective.org/userdata/jZX63dPm/1196759791/10.jpg" border="0" width="" height="" class="padTopBot"> <cap>Grand Canyon from Space (Left: good viewing angle; Right: at 58 miles, poor viewing angle)</cap> Large Reefs: The Great Barrier Reef sits along the eastern coast of Australia. The water here is warm, clear, and teaming with life. The different colorations of the water due to differences in depth is still visible hundreds of miles off of the earths surface. Also, if viewing the Great Barrier Reef from space, a tourist may also view the whole eastern coast of Australia from their window. The same can be said for several reefs. The reefs around the Florida Keys and the Bahamas are also readily visible. <img src="http://spacecollective.org/userdata/jZX63dPm/1196759843/7.jpg" border="0" width="" height="" class="padTopBot"> <cap>Great Barrier Reef</cap> Earth Geography: Depending on the elevation of the flight, a traveler potentially could see the Mediterranean, Italy, and several other countries at the same time. If looking north, the view could include Northern Italy, the Alps, Switzerland and others. West: France, possibly Spain, and parts of Africa. Launching from Sicily would provide an excellent vantage point to see Africa on one side, Italy on the other. The boot of Italy may even be recognizable. There could also be an advantage to see a country like Italy at night, when the cities are lit. <img src="http://spacecollective.org/userdata/jZX63dPm/1196759900/8.jpg" border="0" width="" height="" class="padTopBot"> <cap>Europe and North Africa from Space</cap> Man Made Earth Features Great Wall of China: The Great Wall is one of the man-made objects on the Earth’s surface that can be seen from space at an elevation of 100-200 miles. Made up of several different individual walls, the Great Wall was built between the 5th and the 16th Century. It is the world’s longest man-made structure, stretching over 4,000 miles. <img src="http://spacecollective.org/userdata/jZX63dPm/1196759978/9.jpg" border="0" width="" height="" class="padTopBot"> <cap>Great Wall of China</cap> Many other man made features are visible from space. But which ones will add to the space flight experience? Space enthusiasts may want to view Cape Canaveral, where tens of launch pads are visible. They may be interested in seeing the islands in the Persian Gulf now being created. It may be possible to arrange the Spaceport infrastructure in such a way that the combination of buildings, transport routes and landscape preparation creates a unique and visible daytime or nighttime experience for the returning space traveler. Numerous possibilities exist. <img src="http://spacecollective.org/userdata/jZX63dPm/1196760333/table.jpg" border="0" width="" height="" class="padTopBot"> <a href="http://isdc2.xisp.net/~kmiller/isdc_archive/fileDownload.php/?link=fileSelect&file_id=433" target="_blank">Download full report</a> http://spacecollective.org/luis/2194/Selecting-Launch-Sites-for-Adventure-Space-Travel Spaceport comparisons (government vs. commercial) http://spacecollective.org/luis/2193/Spaceport-comparisons-government-vs-commercial http://spacecollective.org/luis/2193/Spaceport-comparisons-government-vs-commercial Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:58:06 +0000 luis 2193 What entrepreneurial launch companies are looking for in a spaceport Report by RS&H Aerospace & Defense, a facilities and infrastructure consulting firm(<a href="http://www.rsandh.com" target="_blank">http://www.rsandh.com</a>) Entrepreneurial launch companies have different requirements for Spaceport technical capabilities, costs and schedules than do the historical government supported launch operators. Certain aspects of existing and planned spaceports provide both appealing and disturbing features to these companies. There are examples of “If you build it, they may not come.” Work to date by the authors has accomplished detailed design and / or environmental planning for four spaceports for entrepreneurial launch vehicle programs. Some of these spaceports involved state participation in their development, while some were completely privately developed. This paper compares and contrasts these differing requirements. It provides the basic guidelines for new spaceports to implement in order to attract the new innovative launch vehicle operators. <a href="#//isdc2.xisp.net/~kmiller/isdc_archive/fileDownload.php/?link=fileSelect&file_id=432" target="_blank">Download full report </a>in pdf format http://spacecollective.org/luis/2193/Spaceport-comparisons-government-vs-commercial Spaceports: General Info http://spacecollective.org/luis/2192/Spaceports-General-Info http://spacecollective.org/luis/2192/Spaceports-General-Info Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:45:37 +0000 luis 2192 Here's some general information about spaceports all over the world: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceports" target="_blank">List of Spaceports</a> <a href="http://www.hobbyspace.com/SpacePorts/index.html" target="_blank">Hobby space/spaceports </a> The main website, (<a href="http://www.hobbyspace.com/" target="_blank">hobbyspace.com</a>) has all kinds of information and resources related to space exploration such as art, history, blogs, news, software, 3d models, space tech, space culture, etc. http://spacecollective.org/luis/2192/Spaceports-General-Info