太空旅行不是梦！2014年加速启程

在未来的一、两年内，全球能够前往太空旅行的人数将会增加一倍，这是致力于实现人类太空旅行梦想的维珍银河公司(Virgin Galactic)特殊计划副总裁William Pomerantz所预期的新时代。 大约就在2014年，Virgin集团主席Richard Branson及其两名子女将参与 SpaceShip Two 宇宙飞船的首次商用太空飞行——在Virgin Galatic公司火箭的推进后，带领八名乘客在地球上空100公里处进行半个小时的飞行体验。 这次的首航将会在电视上全程直播，“所以它必须是安全且充满乐趣的，”Pomerantz说，“如果让Richard Branson先生感到无聊或是看起来不舒服，这对我们的业务可就不妙了，”他在参与一项由美商国家仪器公司(NI)主办的讲座上打趣的说。 当这一刻来临时，可望象征航空商用化的另一个里程碑。截至目前为止，全球已经有542人到过太空了。Virgin公司已经售出660张太空旅行机票，每个人只要准备好25万美元，即可实现太空旅行的梦想——体验为期三天累计2个小时的飞行，包括漂浮在微重力的太空中约四分钟。 “我从小爱看NASA航天员飞行，认为在此时以前应该会有比542更多千万倍的人到过太空了…但当一切都得客制以及每年只发射一次的情况下，这个理想是很难实现的，”Pomerantz说。 “NASA已经展现了了不起的壮举，但他们却未能经常进行... 部分原因在于失败的代价是必须展开深入的国会调查以及长达十年的检查过程，”他补充说。

看来就像两架飞机融合在一起的SpaceStation Two将SpaceShip Two宇宙飞船带到50,000英呎高空中。
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本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 本文下一页：Virgin希望能在两年内将660名旅客送入太空

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{pagination} Virgin希望能在两年内将已购票的660名旅客送入太空，同时目前也已经为现有的 SpaceStation Two宇宙飞船母机设计展开后续事宜了。这项工程是Virgin Galactic公司与Burt Rutan及其设计SpaceStation One的公司Scaled Composites共同开发的。SpaceStation One 曾经赢得首次商用太空飞行的Ansari XPrize大奖。 新版的 SpaceStation Two 母机已经在18个月以前完成了，目前正进行试飞。它看起来就像两架飞机融在一起，各有各的机舱，而两机舱之间还可像是第三机舱一样容纳SpaceShip Two宇宙飞船。它将从新墨西哥州的Virgin公司地面站起飞，然后爬升到50,000英呎的太空中。 接着宇宙飞船会在三秒内迅速脱离母机，发动火箭引擎达到6G加速至约3.5倍的速度航向太空。一旦达到峰值高度后，飞行员将会关闭火箭，停下来展开六分钟的观光。然后重新点燃火箭，推动宇宙飞船返回地球上的新墨西哥地面站。 “为了让宇宙飞船尾端两侧机翼采用相同的机制启动已为我们带来许多挑战了，”Pomerantz说，“更聪明的工程解决方案是确保在胶囊或飞行模式时乘客都在正确的方向，才能在短时间内承受住重力而体验到飞行的乐趣，就像搭乘跑车而不会感到危险一样。” 此外，法规也要求必须对乘客加以训练，如离心力的模拟。“由于这是首次展开人类太空旅行，美国联航空总署(FAA)要求我们要教育乘客，并告诉他们潜在的风险以及如何减轻不适与避免危险。” 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 编译：Susan Hong 参考英文原文：Space Flight Revs Up in 2014，by Rick Merritt, SiliconValley Bureau Chief

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{pagination} Space Flight Revs Up in 2014 Rick Merritt, SiliconValley Bureau Chief SAN JOSE, Calif. — Within a year or two, the number of humans who have been to space may double, says William Pomerantz of Virgin Galactic, the company who hopes to make that happen. Sometime in 2014, entrepreneur Richard Branson and his two children aim to be on the first commercial flight of SpaceShip Two, Virgin Galatic's rocket for propelling eight people 100 kilometers above the Earth. The flight will be broadcast on live TV, "so it has to be safe and fun," said Pomerantz, who is vice president of special projects for the company. "If Sir Richard is bored or looks uncomfortable, that’s not good for business," he quipped in a talk here hosted by National Instruments. SpaceShip Two is carried to 50,000 feet on what looks like two planes fused together. The moment may mark another milestone in the commercialization of space. To date, 542 people have been in space. Virgin has sold 660 tickets at $250,000 each, for its three-day experience which culminates in a two-hour flight, about four minutes of it floating in microgravity. "I grew up watching NASA astronauts fly, so I would have thought there would have been multiple zeros at the end of this [542] number by now…[but] it's hard when everything is custom and a launch only happens once a year," said Pomerantz. "NASA did amazing things, but they didn’t do them very often…[in part because] the cost of failure was a congressional investigation and a decade long review," he added. Virgin hopes to get its 660 ticket holders into space within two years, and is already working on follow ups to the current SpaceStation Two design. It was created in collaboration with Burt Rutan and his company Scaled Composites that designed SpaceStation One, the winner of the Ansari XPrize for the first commercial space flight in a reusable vehicle. The new version, finished 18 months ago, is now doing test flights. It looks like two planes, each with its own cabin, holding the rocket like a third cabin between them. It takes off from a Virgin site in New Mexico and climbs to 50,000 feet. The plane then releases the space vehicle which plummets for about three seconds before it engages its rocket for a 6G acceleration to about 3.5 times the speed of sound out and up into space. Once it reaches peak altitude, pilots shut off the rocket. It descends as a capsule for several seconds. Then wings deploy, the rocket reignites and propels the vehicle to a landing back at the New Mexico facility. "We've take a lot of pains to see both wings are actuated by the same mechanism, it's fairly redundant and surprisingly low tech," he said. "Scaled Composites is willing to go low tech" to be practical, "they are not in to technology for technology's sake," he added. "Clever engineering solutions make sure passengers are in the right orientation [when in capsule or airplane mode]" so they generally are facing the G forces that "won't last long and should feel fun, like spots car ride and not a risk to you," he said. Long term "Sir Richard's ultimate interest is not going straight up and down but going from say, San Jose to London in 45 minutes -- that’s a much harder problem to solve, but we are learning about it in bite-size fashion," he said. So are regulators. "Since we are doing this for the first time, the FAA requires us to educate customers and tell them risks and how we mitigate them," he said.