Space Planes
Published on Feb 22, 2006 at 7:21 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under aeronautics, space businesses.
Here I was, thinking of what to write about next, and I thought that it would be interesting to say something about space planes. Then, I saw this article on Space.com about just that topic! I swear, I thought of it before I read this!
So, what are space planes? The idea has been kicked around since the earliest days of manned spaceflight. Basically, a space plane is an aircraft that flies into space. Obviously, it would need some sort of rocket engines in order to blast into space, but the basic idea is that it would use aerodynamic forces to help lift it into space and to control its landing.   In fact, rocket planes, such as the X-15, first took men to the very edge of space. In fact, the atmosphere does not really have a sharp edge. By convention, we generally talk about being in space as being 50 miles or higher altitude. Astronauts get their wings if they fly above 50 miles. On August 22, 1963, an X-15 actually flew to an altitude of 67 miles, technically making its flight a suborbital space flight!
Space planes seemed the way to go for getting man into space. However, in the race to get men into space, missiles were used for Mercury and Gemini missions. Rocket technology seemed to be working, so space planes were sort of shelved for a while. The idea resurfaced years later with the call to build a space plane to shuttle back and forth between the ground and satellites or space stations. The Space Shuttle was born out of this concept. While not really a space planet, the Shuttle does land like an aircraft. To really be a space plane, it would also need to ascend like an aircraft for at least part of the way. The shuttle was the first operational reusable space vehicle. However, it uses rockets to muscle it into space. A space plane would lift as high as possible using lift from aerodynamic surfaces. In principle, using the air to help lift the craft should result in less fuel usage, permitting a larger vehicle. For suborbital flights, a space plane would not need to great speeds necessary to maintain orbit. Without such huge speeds, there would be less atmospheric friction upon reentry, thus saving on weight and design issues for heat shielding (there would be some heating, but nowhere near as much as with an orbital flight).  In the 1970’s, space planes seemed to be on the horizon. A suborbital plane could get passengers from one continent to another in under an hour. Given the success of the newly introduced supersonic aircraft, space planes seemed the next logical step. Besides NASA, several aircraft manufacturers were thinkiing of space plane designs to complement their supersonic aircraft designs. Then the price of fuel spiked. The economy went into recession. The novelty of supersonic flight wore off, and few people were willing to spend the money to fly on the Concorde. Aircraft makers dropped their plans. NASA’s budget was slashed to the point that decisions were made as to what programs to cut. NASA’s space plane plans were set on the back burner.Â
Every few years, NASA drags out the space plane idea and updates it. Several projects that may have led to a space plane were started, but none were carried to completion. Now, with the Space Shuttle fleet facing imminent retirement (the first retiring in under two years, and all mothballed within about four years), there is again talk of a space plane. Given that the Shuttle’s role has been more of a people and cargo transportation system to the ISS rather than carrying space station modules (though components have been carried), a space plane would be the locical replacement for the Shuttle. Over the last two decades, next day cargo and courier services have become big business. So these companies would like to have some sort of space plane to guarantee that they could deliver your letter or package to the other side of the world be tomorrow at noon. But, the major aircraft manufacturers do not have space planes in the works any time soon. NASA, ESA, or any other space agency does not have a space plane. Where are they going to come from?
How about the the small entrepeneurs? How do we get private citizens to invest in space exploration? Along comes the Ansari X-Prize. This award of $10,000,000 to the first contestant to launch astronauts into space twice within a two week period was won in October of 2004 by Burt Rutan’s Spaceshipone, built by Scaled Composites. Carried to altitude by a mothership and then released, as was the X-15, Spaceshipone last year became the first privately funded spacecraft to launch a man into space. This was a suborbital jaunt, with the spacecraft hurling upward above the 67 mile goal of the prize, nearly to 100 mile altitude, and then falling back to Earth. Upon reaching an altitude low enough for the air to provide forces on the aerodynamic surfaces, Spaceshipone became essentially a glider, and it landed as an aircraft — just like the Space Shuttle. Last year, Scaled Composites and the Virgin Group of Companies began a joint venture to build more of these craft to begin launching paying passengers on suborbital flights. Already, several next-day courier services have approached them about the possibility of one day carrying packages. At present, these flights will be from the spaceport, into space, and back to the same spaceport, so Fed-Ex, UPS, and so forth would not be served by the flights. More recently, Space Adventures, a company with a similar idea, has announced plans for a spaceport in the Uinited Arab Emerites. Both companies plan to rather soon begin offering suborbital flights into space as novelty flights. However, it is only a small step towards flights from one spaceport to another. With that, then space passenger service will begin along with courier services. Eventually, we can hope for larger space planes and regular passenger flights bewteen continents. Transoceanic flights may within two decades be only an hour long (it would take longer to get through security and to claim baggage!). I wonder how my pilot and flight attendant friends would feel about working one of these flights. Gosh. Can you imagine the mess that passengers could make in zero G?
At any rate, I remember growing up and being told that these sorts of things would be here soon. Well, I have waited and waited. Finally, though, it looks like progress is being made. I might get to see it after all!
-Astroprof
Andrew on January 9, 2009 at 3:15 pm: 1
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