In the future many folks will want to go up into space as tourists. Recently Space Ship One won the ten million dollar cash prize for the first private space craft to leave the Earths Atmosphere to the edge of space, safely and reliably. Since then over 30,000 folks have put their names on a waiting list with deposit check to go into space as tourists. Thus our space tourist industry is born. Now the entrepreneurs are talking about building a four passenger craft to take up three people at a time. NASA is funding seed money to assist in the privatization and commercialization of space with 500 million to assist private companies in building an orbital spacecraft. In fact there are many concepts on the drawing table now. I propose using the DARPA giant blimp Walrus concept to take these orbital space craft up as high as 50,000 feet and then launch the private orbital space craft concepts who want to have a go it from altitude, thus improving safety, payload and fuel economy. By assisting private industry in this way, we can help jump start the orbital spacecraft research and innovation. This will bring more players to the table and increase competition to build the best and most efficient spacecraft in the spirit of competition, which is the hallmark of American ingenuity. We can do this, so think on it in 2006. |
