[cipi604]

Space sheeps

[joeltrout]

You can get in early and buy some property in hopes of the Spaceport. Only $9,000 per acre. Cheap I tell ya, Cheap!

http://www.landsofnewmexico.com/newmexi ... _ID=118088

joeltrout

[cipi604]

More toys for the super-rich.

Virgin Galactic is hoping to send its first paying customers into suborbital space some 110 kilometers (70 miles) above the earth in 2010. The company has said more that more than 200 passengers have already signed up for the first flights, which will cost 200,000 dollars each.

Virgin Galactic

I bet my a$$ that in 2010 $200k won't take them that high.

[Ache]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... eship.html

The White Knight Two has a 140ft wingspan and will act as the launch craft for a smaller spaceship carrying passengers for their journey into the earth's sub-orbit.

Displaying the ship in the Mojave Desert, outside Los Angeles, the Virgin Group entrepreneur said: "It's quiet something, isn't it?

"It's one of the most beautiful and extraordinary aviation vehicles ever developed."

The catamaran-type craft, which resembles two separate planes joined by a giant internal wing, is powered by four Pratt and Whitney engines and has been made by American space entrepreneur Burt Ratan's Space Composites company.

For the first time Sir Richard revealed that the company is in talks with local authorities, the British government and the Civil Aviation Authority to launch spaceflights from the UK.

Lossiemouth is one of a number of locations – including two in Sweden – where the spaceship will launch its two-hour flights from as early as 2010.

Although not revealing the exact location, a Virgin spokesman later said that it was on British government owned land outside of the town.

Sir Richard also stressed the flight programme would be about more than just space tourism – unveiling plans to open up the craft to scientific researchers, offering to launch research tests into the atmosphere at much cheaper rates than those by mainstream space institutions such as NASA.

"Some day we maybe able to use space to fuel solar power satellites through the sun," he said.

[mos6507]

Branson is peak oil aware. His industry may be doomed but he's not going down without a fight.

[CarlosFerreira]

Branson is peak oil aware. His industry may be doomed but he's not going down without a fight.

Sure, he can't just let go. He's buried enough money on that, he can't just say it's crap and walk away. Or close the Virgin Airlines. He'll be around, we just don't know what for.

The thing sure is pretty. Wish I could believe it'd help in anything. Think the man wants to try and find oil in outer space?

[gnm]

"Sir" Richard? What is that? Some kind of medieval title of nobility or something?

Big deal, Filthy rich Dick Branson bought himself a nice little toy to entertain his filthy rich clients. Way to contribute to the future Dick!

(yes I know its a "knighthood" - I mock all such garbage - the "queen" can kiss my ass too)

-G

[gnm]

Sir Richards' EGO is too big for earth...IMHO

What will the EGOs do when there is no E to make their empires GO?

>>>nuff said about the duffer and other wankers like him...
HIS-story is littered with em'

aSSholes made Knights of the fu*king realm...


namaste

golem

You are both clever and surreal......

-G

[mos6507]

Branson - Brown - Blair 100% con-men.

Are there any public figures you like?

[dukey]

Gordon Brown is to be the first passenger. Hopefully with a one-way ticket.

Gasmon

lol
my sentiments exactly

[KevO]

with this sort of news:

Branson unveils space tourism jet
Longer-term, Sir Richard envisages many tens of thousands of people taking holidays in space.
"Let's go 20 years forward, if all of this goes to plan, I hope that we will have a hotel in space; and in that hotel I hope we will have small spaceships that can go around the Moon - an excursion," he explained.

Branson is a man with his finger on the button and he obviously does not believe one iota that we have any foreseeable energy problems from that statement.

The mothership is a white, four-engined jet designed to cradle SpaceShipTwo under its wing and release it at 50,000 feet (15,200m) in the air.
Once separated, SpaceShipTwo will fire its hybrid rocket and climb some 60 miles (100km) above the Earth.

BBC News

[Peleg]

with this sort of news:

Branson unveils space tourism jet
Longer-term, Sir Richard envisages many tens of thousands of people taking holidays in space.
"Let's go 20 years forward, if all of this goes to plan, I hope that we will have a hotel in space; and in that hotel I hope we will have small spaceships that can go around the Moon - an excursion," he explained.

Branson is a man with his finger on the button and he obviously does not believe one iota that we have any foreseeable energy problems from that statement.

The mothership is a white, four-engined jet designed to cradle SpaceShipTwo under its wing and release it at 50,000 feet (15,200m) in the air.
Once separated, SpaceShipTwo will fire its hybrid rocket and climb some 60 miles (100km) above the Earth.

BBC News

He is playing the futurist here. 20 years is about as far out as any of care to think and painting a rosy future for his byusiness venture is part of his job as CEO etc. He is well aware of the issue, his airline is struggling with high oil prices like the rest.

And in fact, it is likely that the upper crust will still exist and be prospering well into any moderate peak oil scenario. It's like a human experiencing extreme cold, the limbs go first, but the core temperature is preserved longer. I would not take what he said as a cornucopian mantra intended to belittle those who think peak oil will be more severe. He may be in some stage of grief.

The trips around the moon are clearly fanciful but big dreams help people cope with hard realities. I think we could argue that resort on the moon woul dbe the next step to a hotel in space.

It would be surreal though for them to show Apollo 13 on those around the moon flights.

[Micki]

According to a recent report on Sky News, Mr Branson is at it again. Apparently he now hopes to run a test flight of a Boeing 747-400 using biofuel by the end of next year, and the first passenger flights could be taking off within the next two years.

Virgin have apparently been working with GE and Boeing on the initiative, and they will be testing a number of feedstocks, including soya, vegetables and newspaper.

Article

Bio fuel...now why would he be looking into that...?

[Micki]

One more.....and this is a good one.

In an interview with Global Public Media, Sir Richard Branson told journalist David Strahan that aviation could be made “truly sustainable” at the launch of test flight fuelled in part by coconut oil. But the Virgin boss conceded that meaningful supplies of alternative fuel might not be available before the advent of peak oil, which he said could happen within six years.

energybulletin
You are of course welcome to debunk.

[Carlhole]

Hmmm... Bewildering.

Branson is peak oil aware. He's knows the whole story probably better than anyone at ASPO. Cheap fuel is the whole game in running an airline.

Likewise, I never have understood how elites have invested so much in globalization and free trade if it's quite obvious that it won't be economical to arrange world affairs that way for very long.

Whenever I've raised this question before, I get responses like, "The global elites should familiarize themselves with the information on this site" - which has always seemed so ridiculously funny. ;lol:

Of course, anyone who is powerful, whose power depends on control or access to cheap fuel will know the status of future supplies. They'll know it better than anyone else!

What up wit dat?

[manu]

He probably realizes how much he lost on that project and it drove him right over the edge. He should get out of the airline buisness and into the blimp buisness. Ha ha ha. Plus he has to paint a rosy picture for the morons who are willing to pay $200,000 each for a ride in the plane. Bragging rights: Yes I wasted my money on a flight in space even though the children in Haiti were eating mud cakes.

[Mesuge]

Even in the uber-mega-lastdayonearth type of crash scenario there will be so many billion-/millionaires left standing that this makes this business a very solid proposition for the future..

The technologic/complexity jump from 100km alt and few second lasting trip to the next stage of low earth orbit is just giant difference.

For LEO and beyond (space hotels/moon) they plan to use the rocket system in 2nd/3rd generation from SpaceX a payload contractor for NASA. They are still testing the first gen..

It will be fun to watch this happen even from the standpoint that many believe humans can't stand the radiation of "deeper space" and the radiation belts surrounding the earth. So if some bloke in 2025 makes a youtube-cellphone style video from his trip around the moon in a tin box this will settle the case.

The landing module and spacesuit materials used in Apollo were clearly not upto that job. I'm personally on the fence with this issue, as a fan of space programme I'm just emotionaly resistant to believe the PTB would spoil even this noble ground of human activity, however the facts are clear, they couldn't do it with those tin box like toys, impossible by laws of physics.

The latest defense line from NASA is that they just went lucky in penetrating the radiaton belt on the way to the moon in time of its minimum. The NASA has got several teams really busy working on their "return" to the moon projects, one of the crucial roadblocks is to figure out how they survive the journey and live on the ray bombarded surface of the moon.

[Micki]

Obviosusly he thinks biofuel can meet much of the fuel needs.
I'm just not sure if he is being optimistic or desperate cause he seems to be all over the place;

The links are not in cronological order.

The company talks of investing in more ventures like Californian firm Cilion, which plans to make bio-ethanol fuel from corn.

bbc

"We are looking for alternative fuel sources. We are going to start building cellulosic ethanol plants (to make) fuel that is derived from the waste product of the plant,"

treehugger

Virgin Atlantic Airways will use a 20% blend of algae-derived biofuel

gas2

"it will not be an algae or halophyte-derived alternative, second-generation biofuels that come from renewable and sustainable feedstocks. Rather, it will be a first-generation biofuel whose feedstock is generally understood to compete with either land and water use for food crops or carbon sinks such as rainforests." But this is still partly good news.

treehugger

Virgin Atlantic Airlines president Richard Branson opened a vial of jet fuel made with oil from coconuts and Brazilian babassu nuts and drank it, forcing a stiff smile.

theAustralian

Virgin have apparently been working with GE and Boeing on the initiative, and they will be testing a number of feedstocks, including soya, vegetables and newspaper.

treehugger


Having that said, they did manage to make some flight(s) with bio fuel. Will be interesting to see if they continue on a regular basis.
If they do, we can assume there will at least be a rich mans airline (and I do believe this).