Put yourself or your gear in space!
BY BILL DEAVER
MOJAVE - Two firms with connections to Mojave Airport are offering opportunities for space flight.
Trans-Lunar Research, which leases a building at the airport, has a web site offering a chance to "Win a trip to space."
And SpaceDev, the company building the engines for Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne vehicle, is conducting an Ebay auction for a private space mission.
Seven days in space?
Trans Lunar's "Trans Lunar Orbital Vacation Raffle" is selling $50 tickets that will be drawn when 20,000 chance have been sold.
Each time a drawing is held, a new raffle will begin.
According to the company's web site, its two-stage manned TLR Triton rocket is in development "and will be made available upon certification for orbital tourism operations."
"We expect the vehicle will be ready before the end of 2005," the website claims.
The vehicle will be able to place two astronaut pilots and four astronaut tourists into low-earth orbit for a period of seven days, and its "novel habitable orbiter stage will provide a spacious living area while in orbit," the website adds.
Launches will take place from either the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California or from an island in the South Pacific.
"As soon as navigation through bureaucratic and diplomatic 'red tape' is completed we expect to begin construction of an island spaceport and space tourism resort," the website continues.
Training
Winners must undergo physical exams and 45 days of training to prepare their bodies for spending a week in orbit.
Living quarters will be provided in the "Habitable Orbiter Stage" (HOS), the upper stage of the Triton rocket, which will remain in space. Trans-Lunar plans to link several HOS's together to form a "low-cost orbital hotel."
Pilots and guests will return to Earth in a manned reentry capsule which will undock from the HOS and land in the Pacific Ocean by parachute, like the Russian Soyuz space vehicles.
If the parachute on the capsule fails before landing, occupants will be able to use individual ejection seats to eject and land using personal parachutes, according to the web site.
Mission to space
Rather than offering space tourism, SpaceDev's plan is perhaps more practical.
The company, based in Poway, California, is auctioning the chance to launch a payload into space aboard a SpaceDev MTV satellite.
"With our successful launch and operation of CHIPSat earlier this year, and after being competively selected to provide safe hybrid rocket propulsion for manned space flight (SpaceShipOne), we are offering this unique space mission to the public," said Jim Benson, SpaceDev founder and chief executive officer.
The high bidder will have the right to supply a payload, name the SpaceDev MTV satellite, and name the mission.
The winning bidder, which can be an individual, company, or government agency, can also participate in designing the mission, assembling the satellite, testing, and even placing small personal items on the spacecraft. The winner will also attend the launch and can take part in on-orbit operations.
The nominal payload is a camera that provides a view of the launch separation on-orbit, a buyer-controlled camera on the spacecraft looking back down on earth and into space 24 hours a day, or the buyer can supply a SpaceDev-approved payload.
The microsatellite camera can be operated over the Internet by the
winning bidder, similar to SpaceDev's CHIPSat microsat, which is the world's
first orbiting node on the Internet. Specific terms are included in the
eBay auction listing. Search eBay for "SpaceDev."
More California City News Events
California City Economic Development Corporation Homepage
Check out California City the best known secret in the High Desert!!!!!!!!