Monday 3rd of January 2005
Cassini, SpaceShipTwo and the great vacuum
The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft passed within 72,000 kilometers Iapetus; one of Saturn’s moons on December 31st 2004, taking some great images of it’s quite intriguing features along the way.
Another thing worth mentioning, the Cassini-Huygens mission is a joint NASA/ESA/ASI project, which makes me feel all warm and tingly inside.
On to SpaceShipTwo, some details about this new ship have trickled down on to the internet. Apparently the new ship, under the Virgin Galactic umbrella, will have five to eight passenger seats and boast “the same diameter crew cabin as a Gulfstream V business jet“, which happens to be around 1.9m by 2.2m. Can’t possibly go to space without proper leg room, can we?
Burt Rutan’s proposed SpaceShipTwo will also fly higher than SpaceShipOne, as much as “135-140 km” which will allow for an additional 90 seconds of microgravity compared to SpaceShipOne. They also want to add a roller coaster-type bar that you push forward and out of the way to float and around.
It seems they also understand that the idea of “fun” is different from person to person -while someone might want to just look out the window (for which they are adding appropiate handles to help you do so), others might want to partake in different types of business:
Does that mean that some guy and his girl might want to take the whole ship? OK!
That just sealed the deal for me, even if it lacks an in-flight open bar (a martini at zero g, anyone?). I definetly want in. Now, if they just accepted peanuts as payment.. ugh.
5 Comments to “Cassini, SpaceShipTwo and the great vacuum”
5 years, 8 months ago, Salvi said:
I guess.. Sir James Deward would be proud, but i still would miss my olive on a toothpick, floating on my martini glass (and the whole cabin). It’s just not the same. Sad Salvi –> :(
5 years, 8 months ago, Kathy said:
You’d need to drink it through a straw regardless. Well, as my buddy Tyler points out, not in a flask. But opening it and getting your mouth on the hole of the flask without letting any excess alcohol out would be tricky, so I’ll go with a straw
5 years, 8 months ago, Salvi said:
I think i’ll bring a water gun filled with the goodness. :D
5 years, 8 months ago, Kathy said:
still missing the olive in your martini…oh well, life can’t be perfect all the time…
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5 years, 8 months ago, Kathy said:
I bet they’ll have alcohol on the flight. But if not, that’s why God invented flasks…