“A small step for man, a big step for mankind!” That’s the best way, to sum up, the news about the unique project of the American company Space Perspective, which opens a new chapter in the history of space tourism. The Neptune spaceship is the world’s first non-emission hydrogen spacecraft designed for commercial trips to space.
Hydrogen in space missions is not new at all. As early as 1969, the Saturn V rocket used in the American missions to reach the moon was powered by liquid hydrogen, which was mixed with oxygen in the combustion chamber. It was the use of hydrogen as a fuel that enabled the Americans to stay ahead of the other space programs in the race to reach the Silver Globe. All thanks to its physical and chemical properties. Hydrogen has the highest energy density per unit mass of all fuels used in space vehicles.
Space Perspective takes hydrogen in spacecraft to a whole new level
Or, more specifically, to an altitude of 100,000 feet, a suborbital journey above the Earth’s surface (ascending more than 99% of the Earth’s atmosphere). In late July, the company made a special announcement about the design of the new Neptune spacecraft capsule. What distinguishes this unusual space vehicle?
It is a capsule that is suspended from a huge, technically advanced version of a hot air balloon – a true revolution against rocket-powered ships. The balloon itself floating the cruise capsule is expected to have a surface area of about 18,000,000 cubic feet, which CNN compares to the surface area of a football stadium
The project is being carried out at the company’s state-of-the-art campus near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They have made it possible to design and build a spherical capsule that guarantees pressure resistance while providing space and comfort for travel (increased headroom for passengers compared to earlier designs). The patent also covers specially designed panoramic windows, described as “the largest that can be taken to the edge of space”. Travel safety is to be ensured by an innovative splash cone, which hundreds of digital iterations were used to develop. According to Space Perspective, it will make it possible to weaken the splash when landing on the surface of the water, guaranteeing passenger safety and better hydrodynamics.
The project required thousands of simulations and virtual tests to be carried out in advance, using innovative technology, including Siemens Digital Industries. The first commercial flights have been scheduled for the end of 2024, and according to the information provided, at this point, they are very popular, attracting more than 900 bookings. And it’s not a cheap pleasure. A Neptune ship flight is expected to cost a bagatelle $125,000 per person.
Neptune spacecraft – why hydrogen?
Space Perspective’s mission is to enable as many people as possible to take a space trip and see our planet. With the prospect of seeing it from above, the company wants to be more closely involved in its preservation by making its tours environmentally neutral. The company’s founders were members of the Biosphere 2 project team, a hermetically sealed and self-sustaining environment that is a prototype of a living environment that could be installed on other planets to enable human survival. Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum spent more than two years in Biosphere 2, strongly approximating the natural environment in which they came to function.
The above contributed to the development of a zero-emission solution based on the principle of buoyancy and the abandonment of energy-intensive rockets using conventional fuels. Hydrogen, as a lighter-than-air gas, allows Neptune to float gradually, without pollution from exhaust fumes and dust. The developers indicate that the solution could also operate on helium. However, this one has a limited supply and is needed for critical medical applications. Hydrogen, therefore, became the natural choice as a widely available raw material, which, if it is to be characterized by true zero-emission, should be obtained by RES-powered electrolysis. Neptune can already be called a great step in the development of space tourism. All the more reason to rejoice that, like all sectors, space tours are also striving to decarbonize and execute on sustainable principles.
The official website of Space Perspective: https://spaceperspective.com/
