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Perhaps the Puffin project could be incorporated into the Spaceship 2 project in the future by allowing the six passenger Spaceship 2 craft the unique ability to give individual passengers the option of individual exploration of space or the air.
Technology
Technologically speaking, the Spaceship 2 project represents a hybrid of humans' best technologies. Since the ship itself would be carried to high altitudes by the White Knight, it does not have to incorporate any fuel weight into the flight vehicle itself. Considerations like these allow for greater scope of development of the passenger vehicle itself, as well as a roomier, more comfortable experience. The Puffin vehicle, while environmentally friendly, would be difficult to use in space without large fuel sources or solar panels. The technologies that are being developed and tested by NASA and the Ames Research Center are more forward-looking.
These future technologies include ion engines, which would run much more efficiently in space than any other previously developed engine (Ames, 2011). These types of engines have been in development for quite some time, however the efficiencies and effectiveness's that re now being achieved are second to none. Perhaps in the future, the Spaceship 2 project will be able to yield results that will help future scientists and designers to implement the technologies that are just being discovered today, but which have not yet been implemented. The Low Earth Orbit technology that is currently on the table is the most efficient, sustainable possibility currently available to carry paying passengers into space for a short period of time (Commercial Spaceflight Federation, 2009).
Another interesting new technology that could likely be coupled with the Puffin Project as well as with Spaceship 2 is NASA's Solar Electric Propulsion System. This system is currently being developed to power vehicles and satellites as they move from orbit to outer space and requires only solar energy instead of large amounts of rocket or other fuels (NASA, 2011). However, there are also opportunities for vehicles like the Puffin and Spaceship 2 to use such technologies as they develop and grow beyond the exclusively LEO environment.
While the Spaceship 2 Project is still in development stages, the most efficient way of sending humans into orbit still remains with the...
There are currently other LEO's in development, but the fact that the necessary rocket fuel requirements to break entirely free of Earth's gravity and send an object into or beyond outer orbit remains high. The older generation of rockets and space technology is not going to put commercial space travel within reach.
Conclusion
While the Spaceship 2 project has a very lose schedule or timeline, it will likely be just one of many different concurrently developing LEO vehicle projects (Commercial Spaceflight Federation, 2009). The next 20 years will certainly be interesting in that there will likely emerge new opportunities for humans to visit space. Relative to private sector funding and development, the Spaceship 1 and 2 programs have proven very successful and will likely be at the leading edge of such future development.
The Puffin project, which is much more ambitious in scope due to the fact that it truly individualizes flight, will require some refinement. However, if different technologies are combined as they have been with the Spaceship 2 project, NASA's Puffin and Spaceship 2 may very well have some sort of close technological relationship in the future, at least conceptually. It is not out of the question to begin looking to individual vehicles to help provide humans with the next generation of commercial space flight opportunities.
References
Ames Research Center (2011). "Advanced Propulsion." White paper found online July
22, 2011 at:
http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/teacher/lessons/contributed/thomas/Adv.prop/advprop.htm.
NASA (2011). "NASA Issues Announcement For Solar Electric Propulsion Studies."
Found online July 21, 2011 t: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/jun/HQ_11-191_Solar_Projects.html.
at: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/puffin.html.
http://www.virgingalactic.com/overview/spaceships/.
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