The V-Prize Foundation (Very Interesting)

Guys,

I was wondering if you had been reading about the V-Prize Foundation. There have been some interesting articles lately.

The foundation is based around the X-Prize idea but is to get from virginia to Europe in under an hour. It has been said to be the next logical step from the X-Prize, i believe we talked about hopping a bit towards the end of the X-Prize.

Here are some links if you are interested:

http://www.v-prize.com/

http://v-prize.blogspot.com/

And lastly a good article Here
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/940/1

It looks realy interesting, my only worry is the time frame.

Any thoughts?

Rob

Not to be taken seriously imo. Anything that comes out of this is very likely more expensive then the concorde. And that didn't succeed either. Who wants to go from Virginia (what on earth is so special about Virginia anyway) to Europe under an hour? Very wealthy and busy businessmen, but that's a very tiny market. They rather take the time penalty, or even do it with teleconferencing.

And regarding the next logical step. Nofi, but it's the most illogical step. X-prize went up, so they want to go horizontal? This logic eludes me.

Virginia is special because it has a space port. And I do think that suborbital travel from point to point on Earth is a possible market that would drive the development of vehicles that could also be used for space launch. All we need is low enough cost and a big enough market. But I agree that the example of Concorde does not bode well for this idea.

personally i think with regards to Virginia, it's not special as such but it is the concept and the idea that matters.

Im pretty sure this could be good! im not too sure who would enter though, they would have to be scaled up dramatically to go that distance!

Would SS2 be able to come down at another point?

Rob

The V-prize is very much about promoting Wallops Island. I think the challenge as touted is not readily achievable.

Virginia to California in 90 minutes might be a better objective. That can be given the same 'uniting the country' spin as the first railroads. Plus your destination is then coming toward you rather than running away from you. 90 minutes is about one ISS orbit, and no more arbitrary than the current one hour target, and a little more achievable.

On the other hand, it invites less international interest and participation, but how much would there really be?

Just found this info on Concorde crossing

"A normal subsonic service took around 7-8 hours to fly from London to New York, the fastest was 2 hours 52 minutes and 59 seconds. This was set by Captain Leslie Scott and his crew onboard G-BOAD, flying from New York to London, on the 7th of February 1996"

I also read that it only needed to be half full to break even, the major costs came from upgrades and repairs. I guess that this was because of the prematurity of the technology?

I wonder if this would affect any flights in the V-Prize

Rob

BTW, what's special about Virginia is Washington, D.C. Wallops Island is about an hour's helicopter ride from the U.S. capitol. If I recall correctly, the Concorde's major routes were flying from London or Paris to New York or Washington. So whether you could make any money at it or not, there seem to be plenty of high rollers who would pay a lot of money to get across the pond in a hurry.

Or perhaps getting from Washington to Vegas and then back again in time to vote

http://spaceports.blogspot.com/2008/03/ ... space.html

Two Florida state legislators have offered identical Senate and House bills to create a "Resuable Space Industry Prize Program" funded by a proposed $40-million dollar prize "to the firm or individual in the private space sector providing the most significant advancements within the reusable space vehicle industry during the period beginning January 1, 2009 and ending January 1, 2014."

The Lieutenant Governor of Florida would serve as the proposed prize program chairman with authority to appoint a committee to establish the prize rules, according to the bills as introduced in the legislature.

Senate Bill 2310 and House Bill 1295 seeks $20-million in state funding to be matched by $20-million in private sector funding with the justification, (or legislative finding), being a $40-million dollar resuable space vehicle prize would stimulate the entrepreneurial investment with "a significant monetary return on the prize purse as well as considerable social benefit."

The V-Prize Foundation, a Virginia-based non-profit corporation, is developing a similar competitive prize program for point-to-point suborbital exo-atmospheric space flight.