Space planes 'to meet big demand' (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News

Aerospace giant EADS says it will need a production line of rocket planes to satisfy the space tourism market.

The European company's Astrium division, makers of the Ariane rocket, has plans for a commercial vehicle to take ticketed passengers above 100km.

Its market assessment suggests there would be 15,000 people a year prepared to part with some 200,000 euros (£160,000) for the ride of a lifetime.

Astrium anticipates it be will be producing about 10 planes a year.

"To satisfy the market you will need more planes than you think, because once there is regular operation, the price will decrease which means there will be more customers," Robert Laine, chief technical officer (CTO) of the pan-European company, told BBC News.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7298511.stm

[Kutjara]

1. Not surprising, really.

I think just about anyone who's paying attention wants off this planet, at the moment.

[caraher]

2. How much damage will those 10 planes a year do to the atmosphere?

just so the uber-wealthy can go sightseeing!?!

[tinrobot]

3. That's what I was thinking...

It's really cool that we can do that, but should we be doing it?

One positive could be that, if the super wealthy actually do get to space, they'll have a much deeper appreciation of the fragility of the planet and act accordingly with their money and power.

[Johonny]

4. It really depends

on the fuels they use. Without any real plans of the launch vehicle there's no way of knowing. The Ariane 5 is a terrible vehicle pollution wise. When the shuttle is retired in 2010 it will jump to top of the list.

[caraher]

5. It's methane

According to the article linked in the OP:

"The engine will be using the combustion of a liquid oxygen-methane propellant"

It also says half the vehicle's launch weight will be fuel. And it's built by the folks who brought you Ariane...

[Johonny]

6. Odd choice

I'll have to look into it more. Methane is an odd choice of fuel.

[caraher]

7. yeah. I'm just going by the source in the OP

I presume they liquify it at least!

From a site on propellants:

Another cryogenic fuel with desirable properties for space propulsion systems is liquid methane (-162 oC). When burned with liquid oxygen, methane is higher performing than state-of-the-art storable propellants but without the volume increase common with LOX/LH2 systems, which results in an overall lower vehicle mass as compared to common hypergolic propellants. LOX/methane is also clean burning and non-toxic. Future missions to Mars will likely use methane fuel because is can be manufactured partly from Martian in-situ resources. LOX/methane has no flight history and very limited ground-test history.

I like the "clean burning" line - OK, the combustion products are not too nasty, but dumping more CO2 in the upper atmosphere is not the "greenest" thing to do!

It also seems like LOx/methane rockets are not a mature technology