The New Spacers

"When the fox hath once got in his nose, He'll soon find means to make the body follow.''          Shakespeare, Henry the Sixth Part Three WOULD-BE private space travellers are growing up. Instead of striving for orbital flight and destinations beyond, still feats far beyond their powers, they aim to master suborbital flight, a project that carries with it much of the profit and excitement of true space travel and little of the danger. Like Burt Rutan's flight of Spaceship One that startled the world in 2004, suborbital "astronauts'' will fly to about 300,000 feet, or 60 miles, and then cruise back to the ground after several minutes of weightlessness. Several companies are planning trips of this kind for profit, either to carry tourists or else to deliver cargo to different parts of the world on the same day that it was sent. For suborbital travel is much safer, cheaper and takes much less energy than real spaceflight. For example the speed needed for suborbital flight is only about 2,300 mph, compared with 18,000 mph to reach orbit. Thus flights to orbit require several tons of fuel per passenger, while suborbital flights need only about 40 pounds. Moreover "re-entry'' from a suborbital flight is a much gentler experience than from orbit. There is little or no frictional heating and hence no need for the extensive post-flight repairs that slow down the shuttle programme. From a height of 60 miles, the view of Earth, if not as spectacular as from true orbit, is still extraordinary. The curvature of our planet can be plainly seen. Concorde passengers who were only 12 miles up imagined they saw it, but were never sure. From suborbit it is unmistakable.

Mastering suborbital technology will give people the experience they need to continue to true orbit–the stepping stone that is half way to anywhere. Once accustomed to it, it will be so much easier to make the final step. No longer do space travel enthusiasts brood about the Moon and Mars. Says a writer in Reason magazine: "NewSpacers have passed out of their whiny adolescent phase and into industrious young adulthood. Their aspirations are modest, just a quick trip to the edge of the atmosphere. They're setting aside deep space exploration and the Moon, for now, opting instead for reasonable, practical short-term goals; quick hops for tourists and other near-to-Earth fun. Instead of crying on each other's shoulders, suddenly the NewSpacers are seeing each other - and sometimes NASA - as the competition.'' The wisdom of this attitude is that it recognises the need to learn, just as NASA had to learn 50 years ago. The main reason why private people cannot fly into space whenever they want to is not lack of wealth or materials, but lack of experience and confidence. Long ago, people feared to use horses. Then, having overcome that fear, it took centuries more to understand the uses of the stirrup. Then came ocean-going sailing ships, made possible by the adventures of coast-hugging explorers. And in the sky, suborbit is the way to true orbit. Like Shakespeare's fox, one can best reach a higher level of technology by first mastering a lower one.