The Imminent Revolution in Spaceflight

Presentation to YENA

27 February 2014

David AshfordFounder and Managing Director

Expendable Launch Vehicle(Derived from Ballistic Missiles)

Airliner

Typical Cost per Seat, £ 20 million

(To orbit)

500 (Long distance flight)

Saunders Roe SR.53 rocket fighter

• The Saunders Roe SR.53 rocket fighter first flew in 1957

• This technology has never been bettered!

• Saunders Roe proposed a suborbital space research conversion in 1958!

AIR

Suborbital≈ 1 km/sec max speed100 km

SPACE

To Orbit, 7.8 km/sec @ 200 km height

Airliner

Suborbital & Orbital Trajectories

EUROPEAN SPACEPLANE PROJECTS OF THE 1960s

BAC

HSA

Bristol Siddeley

Junkers

Bolkow

Dassault

ERNO

Spacecab (Orbital)

(Start spaceflight revolution)

15 Years

Development Strategy

(Dent mindset)

(Early operations to build credibility)

Ascender suborbital 2-seater(based on SR. 53 rocket fighter)

Microsonic proof of concept ‘Homebuilt Spaceplane’

www.bristolspaceplanes.com

Hodder, 2013

Bristol Spaceplanes Limited

• 1991-Founded

– To exploit the then 30 years spaceplane design experience of its founder

• 1993-Feasibility study of Spacecab small orbital spaceplane from ESA

• 2003-DTI Smart award for feasibility study of Ascender small sub-orbital spaceplane

• 2011-Grant from Technology Strategy Board

• 2013-Study Contract from UK Space Agency

• Development and marketing strategies with lowest cost and risk

– For you to judge!

• Looking for strategic partners

– Superb opportunities for low-cost entry into large new markets

• www.bristolspaceplanes.com

Excellent Engineering Team

• Engineering team includes:

– ex Chief Designer, Leopard

– ex Chief Engineer, Kestrel

CMC Leopard Kestrel

Rocket engine bench test,Feb 2008

Airliner ‘Conversion’

• Change shape

• Add rocket engines

• Higher propellant mass fraction

• Two stages

• Hydrogen fuel

• Additional systems (reaction controls, thermal protection)

• Safety of rocket propulsion system

ALL THE REQUIRED TECHNOLOGIES HAVE BEEN DEMONSTRATED IN FLIGHT!

Spacebus

Airliners

Cost per Flight, £million 0.2 0.5

Number of Seats 400 50

Cost per Seat, £ (Typical) 500 10,000

Spaceplanes(When Fully Developed)

Fig.2

Space Tourism Market Survey

• What percentage of UK population would pay £20,000 for a few

days in a space hotel?

– Seeing Earth from afar

– Zero-g

– Clear views of space

– (Astronauts can’t wait to fly again)

• 0.1%?

• 1%?

• 10%?

Potential Market for Space Tourism

• Say 5% of world’s industrialised population would pay £20K for a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ few days in a space hotel

• Number of tourists = 5% of one billion, or 50 million

• A fleet of 150 spaceplanes with a 50 seat capacity and capable of 2 flights per day would carry them in ten years

• Market = £20K x 50 million = £1 Trillion

Spaceplanes Could Have Been Built 60 Years Ago!

V-2 Piloted V-2

Winged V-2

US Launch Vehicle

Evolution

V-2 & Derivatives Thor IRBM & Derivatives

To the Moon Shuttle

First to Mach 1, Bell X-1, 1947

First to Mach 2, Douglas Skyrocket, 1953

First to Mach 3, Bell X-2, 1956

First to space, X-15, 1961

US Rocket Research Aircraft

Shuttle Concepts, Early 1970s

Space Shuttle

Cost per flight & accident rate ≈ 10,000 times that of a large Airliner

Breakthrough!

• The first privately-funded spaceplane, SpaceShipOne, reached space in 2004

• Virgin Galactic plan to operate a developed version soon

• Slowly but surely, this and other developments will lead to new space age

Major Players, Suborbital

SpaceShipTwo on WhiteKnightTwo

EADS Rocketplane

Xcor Lynx

Armadillo Aerospace Test Vehicle

Saturn 51960s

SLS2020s

The Main Obstacle is Mind-Set

• NASA, ESA still developing expendable launchers even though spaceplanes would reduce costs ten times in the short term

• Major players not yet taking spaceplanes seriously

Spacecab (Orbital)

(Start spaceflight revolution)

15 Years

Development Strategy

(Dent mindset)

(Early operations to build credibility)

Ascender prototype (Suborbital,based on SR. 53 rocket fighter)

Microsonic proof of concept ‘Homebuilt Spaceplane’

Microsonic–Homebuilt Spaceplane

Ascender

AIR

1

2

4

5

Jet +RocketClimb

RocketClimb

Unpowered

Pullout

Flyback

3

Altitude Mach km No.

1 10 0.6

2 64 2.8

3 100 0

4 46 3.3

5 24 3.3

80 km

SPACE

Ascender Trajectory

Ascender Has Many Applications

• Microgravity Experiments

• High Altitude Photography

• Meteorology

• Space Science, Testing Satellite Instruments

• Spaceplane Technology Test Bed

• Astronaut Training

• Passenger Space Experience Flights

• Lower stage of launcher for nanosatellites

Spacecab

• Pioneering space tourism for the wealthy (already started)

• Funding to develop lower-cost space transportation (aeroplanes

instead of missiles)

• Airline travel to orbit (1000 times launch cost reduction)

– Low-cost environmental monitoring from space

– Boost for Hydrogen Economy

– Experimental Solar Power Satellites and the beginning of access

to the unlimited resources of space

– Large-scale space tourism (initial demand ≈ one trillion €)

• Increased environmental awareness

Environmental Benefits

Saving the planet!

30

EARTHRISE

www.bristolspaceplanes.com

Hodder, 2013

Space Hotel

Content

• Engineering

• History

• Market

• Way Ahead

• Environment