UK Paper: Passenger Space Travel By Middle Of Next Decade

Daily Telegraph:

Sydney could be only two and a half hours away and it could take less time to get to Tokyo than it does to take a train from London to Manchester.

Walter Peeters, dean of the International Space University in Strasbourg, said that what has been regarded as the stuff of science fiction is close to becoming reality.

Read the whole story: Daily Telegraph

Comments

[MajorKong]

I wonder if the fuel expended to to get to 260,000 feet is worth the fuel savings of cruising at that altitude.

Then you have to factor in the weight penalty of carrying all that thermal protection.

Then there is the limited number of passengers you can probably fit into any design capable of this flight profile. That was a major problem with the Concorde. You burned a lot of fuel to haul the few people you could stuff into that skinny fuselage.

While it would be a technological marvel, I don't know if there are enough people that need to get to Tokyo in 2 hours and are willing to pay huge $$$ to do it.

[Kevbo68]

UK Paper: Passenger Space Travel By Middle Of Next Decade; Your Luggage By End Of Next Decade

[DarthVector]

Interesting.

Anyone else notice that such a system could minimize the amount of time spent in the upper atmosphere, trailing emssions...? And you don't need the engines on to orbit the earth...

[Earl]

The earth cannot sustain space tourism. We already have rocket fuel in detectable levels in our water, plants and animals around the world. Ozone layer is threatened by rocket fuel exhaust already. Should be banned.