Bigelow Aerospace started a series of projects looking at alternative uses for space travel and spacecrafts. In the
Genesis II project a private, commerical/consumer based model was created for the purpose of this orbiting spacecraft. People could pay to have their image projected onto the surface of the spacecraft and then be able to view their projections
online.
Kinda reminds me of the end of the Beck song
'The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton'
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New Global Spaceport Locations
New Mexico isn't the only location in the US for a spaceport, theFAA has licensed five spaceports in the United States: California Spaceport at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Spaceport Florida at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the Virginia Space Flight Center at Wallops Island, Kodiak Launch Complex on Kodiak Island, Alaska, and the latest site to be sanctioned - the inland Mojave Spaceport in California.
Interactive Map of US locations
After a year-long selection process, the sites in Singapore and Dubai were chosen. One key difference between the two proposed spaceports is that while the Dubai spaceport will be mainly a launchpad for sub-orbital space flights, the Singapore spaceport will have much more facilities.
In Dubai the spaceport will be located at the Ras Al-Khaimah International Airport in Ras Al-Khaimah - the northernmost of seven emirates the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Based on the renderings the spaceport will feature a triangular runway/launchpad and domed passenger terminals.
A $115 million facility to be built near Singapore's Changi International Airport.
Planned Facilities at the spaceports
Space Adventurers have selected
DP Architects for early design of both locations
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Looking at how different materials and can inform how the spacestation will be transported into space and then constructed. Using a flexible fabric, the walls of this inflatable / flexible module are stronger than 3" of aluminum.
wired
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Spaceport America
"The Foster + Partners and URS team has won an international competition to build the first private spaceport in the world - The New Mexico Spaceport Authority Building. The sinuous shape of the building in the landscape and its interior spaces seek to capture the drama and mystery of space flight itself, articulating the thrill of space travel for the first space tourists. Making a minimal impact on the environment, the scheme will be the first facility of its kind and a model for the future
The Spaceport lies low within the desert-like landscape of the site in New Mexico and seen from the historic El Camino Real trail, the organic form of the terminal resembles a rise in the landscape. Using local materials and regional construction techniques, it is both sustainable and sensitive to its surroundings.
Organised into a highly efficient and rational plan, the Spaceport has been designed to relate to the dimensions of the spacecraft. There is also a careful balance between accessibility and privacy. The astronauts’ areas and visitor spaces are fully integrated with the rest of the building to convey the thrill of space travel. The more sensitive zones - such as the control room - are visible, but have limited access.
Visitors and astronauts enter the building via a deep channel cut into the landscape. The retaining walls form an exhibition space that documents the history of the region and its settlers, alongside a history of space exploration. The strong linear axis continues on a galleried level to the ‘superhangar’ - which houses the spacecraft and the simulation room – through to the terminal building.
Designed to have minimal embodied carbon and few additional energy requirements, the scheme has been designed to achieve the prestigious LEED Platinum accreditation. The low-lying form is dug into the landscape to exploit the thermal mass, which buffers the building from the extremes of the New Mexico climate as well as catching the westerly winds for ventilation. Natural light enters via skylights, with a glazed façade reserved for the terminal building, establishing a platform for the coveted views onto the runway." - Foster + Partners
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Robert Bigelow, president of
Bigelow Aerospace based in Las Vegas, NV. and owner of the Budget Suites of America Hotel Chain among other enterprises, has been in private talks with Virgin Galactic's Sir Richard Branson and aerospace designer legend Burt Rutan about the prospects of building a an on-orbit space hotel.
"We are talking to people who are developing hotels for space. We are also talking to people who are developing launch craft to get hotels into space. People know that we can turn something that might seem a bit bizarre into a commercial reality. Personally, I think there's a demand for space hotels," Branson said while in Dubai last week discussing a new spaceport venture there.
Bigelow will launch a habitat prototype on a Dnepr booster from ISC Kosmotras, a Russian and Ukrainian rocket-for-hire company in 2007. Bigelow has hoped to launch with Elon Musk's less-than-perfect Falcon 1.
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