EADS Astrium Space Tourism Project - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The EADS Astrium Space Tourism Project, also called EADS Astrium TBN according to some sources, is a suborbital spaceplane

Spaceplane

A spaceplane is a vehicle that operates as an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere, as well as a spacecraft when it is in space. It combines features of an aircraft and a spacecraft, which can be thought of as an aircraft that can endure and maneuver in the vacuum of space or likewise a spacecraft that...

concept for carrying space tourists, proposed by EADS Astrium

EADS Astrium

Astrium Satellites is one of the three business units of Astrium, a subsidiary of EADS. It is a European space manufacturer involved in the manufacture of spacecraft used for science, Earth observation and telecommunication, as well as the equipment and subsystems used therein and related ground...

, the space subsidiary of the European consortium EADS

EADS

The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company N.V. is a global pan-European aerospace and defence corporation and a leading defence and military contractor worldwide...

. A mockup

Mockup

In manufacturing and design, a mockup, or mock-up, is a scale or full-size model of a design or device, used for teaching, demonstration, design evaluation, promotion, and other purposes...

was officially unveiled in Paris on June 13, 2007. The project is the first space tourism entry by a major aerospace contractor. A scale one mock-up of the cockpit has been exhibited at the 2007 Paris Air Show

Paris Air Show

The Paris Air Show is the world's oldest and largest air show. Established in 1909, it is currently held every odd year at Le Bourget Airport in north Paris, France...

and is now on display in the Concorde hall of the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace

Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace

The French Air and Space Museum is a French museum, located in the south-eastern edge of Le Bourget Airport, north of Paris, and in the commune of Le Bourget. It was created in 1919 from a proposition of Albert Caquot .-Description:Occupying over of land and hangars, it is one of the oldest...

.

It is a rocket plane with a large wingspan, straight rearwards wing and a pair of canards

Canard (aeronautics)

In aeronautics, canard is an airframe configuration of fixed-wing aircraft in which the forward surface is smaller than the rearward, the former being known as the "canard", while the latter is the main wing...

. Propulsion is ensured by classical turbofan

Turbofan

The turbofan is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used for aircraft propulsion. A turbofan combines two types of engines, the turbo portion which is a conventional gas turbine engine, and the fan, a propeller-like ducted fan...

jet engine

Jet engine

A jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet to generate thrust by jet propulsion and in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets...

s for the atmospheric phase and a methane - oxygen rocket engine

Rocket engine

A rocket engine, or simply "rocket", is a jet engineRocket Propulsion Elements; 7th edition- chapter 1 that uses only propellant mass for forming its high speed propulsive jet. Rocket engines are reaction engines and obtain thrust in accordance with Newton's third law...

for the space tourism phase. It can carry a pilot and four passengers. The dimensions and looks are somewhat similar to those of a business jet.

, EADS Astrium hoped to start development of this rocket plane by 2008, with the objective of a first flight in 2011. There was also a possibility that the Tunisian area of Tozeur

Tozeur

Tozeur is an oasis and a city in south west Tunisia. The city is located North West of Chott el-Djerid, in between this Chott and the smaller Chott el-Gharsa. It is the capital of the Tozeur Governorate....

might be used for the initial flights.

EADS Astrium plans to raise public and private money for its project.

Origin of the project

The origin of the project is a proposal by a group of young French, German, British and Spanish engineers from EADS Astrium. It has been studied in great secrecy for two years and finally approved by the chairman of EADS Astrium, François Auque. The design is similar in concept to the Rocketplane XP

Rocketplane XP

The Rocketplane XP is a former suborbital spaceplane design that was under development circa 2005 by Rocketplane Kistler. The vehicle was to be powered by two jet engines and a rocket engine, intended to enable it to reach suborbital space. The XP was being designed to operate from existing...

. They looked at the main concepts under development and their studies showed that Rocketplane's

Rocketplane Limited, Inc.

Rocketplane Limited, Inc. is a defunct aerospace design and development company headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with facilities in Guthrie, Oklahoma and Burns Flat, Oklahoma.- History :...

jet and rocket combination made the most sense.

In the following months, a core team came up with a detailed concept and assembled the required expertise from different areas of Astrium and other EADS subsidiaries, such as Socata

EADS Socata

SOCATA is a producer of general aviation aircraft propelled by piston engines and turboprops, including business planes, small personal or training aircraft, as well as the production of aircraft structures for other manufacturers such as Airbus, Dassault, Embraer, Eurocopter and Lockheed Martin...

, as well as several external industry partners. Australian designer Marc Newson

Marc Newson

Marc Newson was born in Sydney, Australia. Now based in London, he is a successful industrial designer who works in aircraft design, product design, furniture design, jewellery, and clothing. He incorporates a design style known as biomorphism to his various designs...

, who earned his reputation in the field of aviation as Creative Director of Qantas

Qantas

Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport...

, was also invited to join the project.

Flight profile

After takeoff the plane reaches an altitude of 12 km. This classical aeronautical phase can last for 45 minutes. The pilot shuts down the jets and starts the methane oxygen rocket engine at the rear of the vehicle. The plane then raises along a vertical trajectory. For 90 seconds of flight with a top speed of Mach 3, the plane is rocketed upwards. The maximum acceleration is 3 g (30 m/s²). At an altitude of 60 km, the rocket engine is shut down and the plane continues to climb up to a maximum altitude of 100 km.

This is the weightlessness phase.

Then the plane gets down to 15 km at a high angle of attack

Angle of attack

Angle of attack is a term used in fluid dynamics to describe the angle between a reference line on a lifting body and the vector representing the relative motion between the lifting body and the fluid through which it is moving...

, being progressively decelerated by the atmosphere; at this altitude, after transition to aeronautical mode, the jets are reignited to bring the plane back to a classical landing strip.

Characteristics

The total mass of the vehicle is 18 metric tons (39,700 lb) at takeoff. The plane has two jet engines, and an oxygen methane engine with a thrust of 30 tons. The rocket engine uses the technology of the Vulcain

Vulcain

Vulcain is a family of European cryogenic first stage rocket engines for the Ariane 5.-History:The development of Vulcain, assured by a European collaboration, began in 1988 with the Ariane 5 rocket program. It first flew in 1996 powering the ill-fated flight 501 without being the cause of the...

(the main engine of Ariane 5

Ariane 5

Ariane 5 is, as a part of Ariane rocket family, an expendable launch system used to deliver payloads into geostationary transfer orbit or low Earth orbit . Ariane 5 rockets are manufactured under the authority of the European Space Agency and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales...

), but is reusable thirty times and burns methane instead of hydrogen (hydrogen would require too much tank volume).

The cabin has a diameter of 2.3 m (7 ft 6 in), and provides 3 m³ (106 ft³) of cabin space to each passenger. The seats are attached to a pendular system which allows the acceleration to be perpendicular to the back of the passengers. They pivot around the attachment points so that the passengers are aligned rearside to the spacecraft x-axis (body aligned on Gx-axis) during launch acceleration and they are rearside on the negative z-axis during weightlessness and reentry.

The plane is designed for ten years service at a flight rate of once a week.

Industrial organisation

The development will be led by EADS Astrium. Its technical responsibility currently resides with the CTO Robert Lainé.

In 2007, development cost of $1 billion was projected by some sources. EADS Astrium plans to raise mostly private money for its project. One of the possible public investors mentioned by François Auque is the southern German state of Bavaria where the engines are to be produced. Astrium could produce up to 5 planes a year and have a fleet of 20 planes, which would require a production of 20 rocket engines a year. They do not exclude selling models to other entrepreneurs such as Sir Richard Branson

Richard Branson

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....

from Virgin Galactic.

The final assembly would be in France, while the other industrial facilities of Astrium would provide the rocket engines (Ottobrunn, Germany) or the carbon fiber structures (Spain). Other European industrial partners are associated with the project.

The target of Astrium is to secure 30% of the market of space tourism by 2020, 5000 passengers a year.
The ticket price will be 200,000 euros, including a round trip to the spaceport, training, and luxury accommodation in a theme park/resort.

Competition

The closest concept is the Rocketplane XP of Rocketplane Limited, Inc., which shares the same overall rocket plane principle. Other competitors include the SpaceShipTwo

Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo

The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo is a suborbital, air-launched spaceplane, designed for space tourism. It is under development by The Spaceship Company, a California-based joint venture between Scaled Composites and the Virgin Group, as part of the Tier 1b program.SpaceShipTwo is...

of Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic is a company within Richard Branson's Virgin Group which plans to provide sub-orbital spaceflights to the paying public, along with suborbital space science missions and orbital launches of small satellites...

and Blue Origin

Blue Origin

Blue Origin is a privately funded aerospace company set up by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. The company was awarded $3.7 million in funding in 2009 by NASA via a Space Act Agreement under the Commercial Crew Development program for development of concepts and technologies to support future human...

Criticisms

Burt Rutan

Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft...

, founder of Scaled Composites

Scaled Composites

Scaled Composites is an aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman that is located at the Mojave Spaceport, Mojave, California, United States...

, a competitor in space tourism to EADS, expressed scepticism towards the EADS Project.

External links

Films

The film has been made by Patrick Foch.

http://www.astrium.eads.net/en/prog/space-plane.html

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