Our Plans for Space Tourism

Space tourism will someday be a reality. However, getting started is a large challenge.  A logical place to start space theme parks and suborbital adventure flights.  We intend to continue our associaton with Vela Technology Development in this regard; Len Cormier served as a senior advisor on Vela's Space Cruiser.  We are working on a ground-based "zero-g" ride that we may describe later on this web site.
Our longer-range plans call for an orbital facility suitable for assembling large antenna arrays for subsequent transport to geosynchronous orbit. This type of commercial orbital facility could also be useful for on-orbit manufacturing and for checkout and launch of various types of satellites and space probes. We think that we can do this with our proposed "Alfa Phase" commericial orbital facility.  The Alfa Phase facility will feature a zero-g central module about 12 meters in diameter that is assembled on orbit.  Connected to this core module will be three 70-meter long arms -- each with six prefabricated cabin modules. The whole assembly would rotate at about 1.6 rpm. This results in a an artificial gravity of about at the outermost portions of the facility one-quarter the normal force of gravity on Earth. This, in turn, should be adequate to simplify the plumbing system. The prefabricated cabin modules would have a miniumu diameter of about 2.5 meters and a minimum length of about 4.5 meters.  One version of our Millennium Express is designed to carry these prefabricated module external to the orbiter--but internal to a permanent fairing that is part of the booster stage.  Some of our newer space transport designs are based upon a scaled-up version of the Condor-X as a subsonic carrier stage; these later designs should allow a gentle, relatively low speed climb to extreme subsonic altitude with a very bulky payload.  This should result in more flexibility with respect to planning for on-orbit assembly.

We expect to make the Alfa Phase facility a paying proposition, based upon applications other than space tourism. However, we also plan to gather valuable experience in transporting, transferring and caring for human occupants during this pre-tourism phase.

We plan to add additional core modules and additional cabin clusters as developing needs may justify. These will be Bravo and Charlie Phases. We plan two additional core modules that could be separately depressurized and despun for use as hangar and assembly areas.  The additional cabin clusters would be added to the initial rotating arms as additional tiers.

The "Delta Phase" orbital facility will feature 18 prefabricated cabins clustered at the ends of three 70-meter long arms rotating at about 1.6 rpm. We plan to have some of the Delta Phase cabins set aside as "tramp steamer" cabins for space tourists. The initial core module will have then been remodeled as a zero-g lobby and play area -- although the walls will rotate slowly. A person clinging to a fixture on the lobby wall would experience about 0.02 g artificial gravity; a person floating away from the wall would experience a much low level of microgravity. Besides experiencing micro gravity and observing the Earth and outer space from orbit, our tourist guests would also be able to observe space-based commerce in action. The figure below depicts our current concept for what one of these 18 prefabricated cabin clusters might look like.

We beleive that space transportation costs have a highly leveraged effect on the overall cost of large assemblies on orbit.  We believe that very large structures are economically and technially feasible with one of our larger space transport designs capable of carrying several tonnes per flight.  However, we are quite skeptical of the operational feasibility of such large structures, because of the danger of uncontrolled reentry.  One could envisage building such structures beyond low Earth orbit.  However, this would require considerably more transport energy.  Judicious use of extra-terrestrial materials could relieve this problem.  Another signicant problem of habitats--and transport shuttles beyond LEO--is the danger presented by solar flares.  The Earth's magnetic field diverts radiation into the Van Allen radiation belts.  This provides  valuable protection from solar flares that is hard to replace with shielding.  The "fixed" facilities--perhaps at the Lagrangian point L-5--could provide emergency "storm cellars" against solar flares.  The shuttle vehicles for carrying people from LEO to a facility beyond LEO might use about 30 cm of water to provide shielding for an unpredicted solar event.  The shielding would have to be omnidirectional, since the radiation from a flare is largely omnidirectional once it reaches the vicinity of Earth.  The resulting mass penalty is quite severe--and therefore a serious problem. 

All this having been said, the figure below is our concept for our "Saturn Hotel,"  which could accomodate perhaps 400 guests in six rotating cabin decks and two promenade decks.  Each cabin would comprise a three-module suite.  Two of these three-module suites would back up to each other on each deck between adjacent radial access stairs and elevator modules.  The central spherical module would be 100 m in diameter and would be a microgravity area.  Play areas in the outer areas would allow almost anyone to be a "slam dunk" basketball player in the 0.35 g enviroment.  Interestingly enough, the pool would have a curved surface.  Also shown is a "bath" module that connects the living module with the bedroom module in the three-module cabin suites. 

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