So, the Skylon Spaceplane is undergoing testing, and looks promising.

[Da Orky Man]

Given the intense concentration of nerds on the Escapist, it's a fair bet a lot of you already know about the Skylon spaceplane. For the less-nerdy among us, here's what it is:

Skylon is a British-designed, reusable, single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane that should hopefully cut the costs of getting stuff into orbit from about £15,000 per kilo to £650 per kilo, which is a hell of drop. It accomplishes this by being able to take off and land from any standard runway, needing no special equipment, and using a combination of an airbreather engine and atmospheric lift to get into orbit, therefore requiring less fuel.

Anyway, it's just undergoing a series of tests which will hopefully attract enough investors to make it a reality, massively decreasing the costs of spaceflight.

Plus, it looks like this:

Now, as for discussion, what do you think of the Skylon spaceplane? Hell, what do you think of spaceflight in general. Could this lead to a new theme, "Britannia Rules the Void"? I have to come up with a better song...

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17864782
http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/skylon.html

And for the truly nerdcore rocket fanatics out there, here's the self-described 'Skylon instruction manual' in PDF form:
http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/downloads/SKYLON_User_%20Manual_rev1%5b3%5d.pdf

 

[Paladin2905]

I don't know as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra includes synthesizers, so might need a wait on Britannia Rules the Void...

Otherwise, hell yes. The more invested in spaceflight now the better. Got to get off this rock before we burn up too much to pull it off. They're going in an interesting way with the hybrid air-LOX rocket there though, I wonder if it will be as reliable as they think in actual operation. The more changing parts you add in to the mix the better the chance of failure. Good to see their main goal is a reusable vehicle, I'm still sad over the retirement of the shuttle.

 

[Forgetitnow344]

Skylon, eh? Sounds a lot like a Cylon that can fly. I don't like it. Scrap it before it starts nuking everyone from orbit.

 

[Tartarga]

I don't know about the rest of you but when I look at this thing all I see is a space motorboat, and I love it.

 

[Da Orky Man]

I don't know as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra includes synthesizers, so might need a wait on Britannia Rules the Void...

Otherwise, hell yes. The more invested in spaceflight now the better. Got to get off this rock before we burn up too much to pull it off. They're going in an interesting way with the hybrid air-LOX rocket there though, I wonder if it will be as reliable as they think in actual operation. The more changing parts you add in to the mix the better the chance of failure. Good to see their main goal is a reusable vehicle, I'm still sad over the retirement of the shuttle.

They're hoping it'll be at least as reliable as the Space Shuttle, the STTO capability removing a lot of stressed moving parts.

 

[Paladin2905]

They're hoping it'll be at least as reliable as the Space Shuttle, the STO capability removing a lot of stressed moving parts.

Good to hear then. I'm not an expert on the subject by any means, just hoping like anything they come up with something actually viable.

 

[Da Orky Man]

What, no one else? Come on, it's a space motorboat, at least according to Tartarga. Plus, shameless self bump.

 

[rsacks]

I reserve judgement until they post the results of the engine test. Many things look good on paper and just fail to work when you try and implement them. That said if it does work it is a very exciting development because regardless of the actual plane itself those engines are groundbreaking.

 

[Orks da best]

Set phasers to awesome.

That is one awesome looking ship, and my is that like 95% cost drop or something.

Space travel is the way of the future.

 

[Da Orky Man]

Set phasers to awesome.

That is one awesome looking ship, and my is that like 95% cost drop or something.

Space travel is the way of the future.

After a quick calculation, it's a 95.67% drop in price. And that's only until they cover the £12 billion research and development costs. Then, it's apparently going to get even cheaper.

 

[Wieke]

Still have this among my youtube favorites:


I stumbled upon that youtube video some time ago. It's good to see that the project still has momentum (was afraid it would lose it during the economic crisis). The skylon itself looks promising and I've always like the idea of a HTOL (sc?)ramjet spacecraft. It always seemed like a key ingredient of a space faring civilization (even if the space faringness is limited to our own solar system). And that is a view of the future I quite like. (One that is starting to look pretty probable what with all these commercial space companies being founded over the last couple of years.)

 

[TephlonPrice]

Fucking. Awesome.

All you need now are photon torpedoes and a portable Pinkie Pie deploying device.

Because I'm definitely interested in this tech right here, namely the ability to use any regular runway for take off/landing.

 

[Tomeran]

This does sound awesome. Im not enough of an expert in the field to state wether its doomed to fail or not, but I sure hope it wont fail.

The financial benefits do seem to be fairly solid, which makes the prospect of investor-hunting relativly easy, so I guess it comes down to if it just works or not.

If this works, maybe we'll finally see cheaper space tourism and a more commercialized earth orbit, such as fuel depots and Asteroid mining etc, the later which is a separate project in the works.

 

[Da Orky Man]

This does sound awesome. Im not enough of an expert in the field to state wether its doomed to fail or not, but I sure hope it wont fail.

The financial benefits do seem to be fairly solid, which makes the prospect of investor-hunting relativly easy, so I guess it comes down to if it just works or not.

If this works, maybe we'll finally see cheaper space tourism and a more commercialized earth orbit, such as fuel depots and Asteroid mining etc, the later which is a separate project in the works.

It's what I'm hoping. Especially with that news about asteroid mining a few days ago.

 

[O maestre]

i think this is a fascinating project i wish it would get more attention.

on a side not, that has got to be one of the most phallic space/aircraft ever designed, its like a flying giant black....

 

[Woodsey]

Looks like a bullet vibrator (with flaps already attached).

Although everything looks like a sex toy to me these days.

 

[Fractral]

Its good to see that despite the economic downturn, there is still interest in space development, because that's where our long term best interests lie. Also, is it just me being hopeful, or does it look a bit like the normandy, without the side bits?

 

[NightHawk21]

What, no one else? Come on, it's a space motorboat, at least according to Tartarga. Plus, shameless self bump.

Careful, far as I know this is against the rules.

On Topic: I think any investment in future tech is a good investment.

 

[CrystalShadow]

I don't know as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra includes synthesizers, so might need a wait on Britannia Rules the Void...

Otherwise, hell yes. The more invested in spaceflight now the better. Got to get off this rock before we burn up too much to pull it off. They're going in an interesting way with the hybrid air-LOX rocket there though, I wonder if it will be as reliable as they think in actual operation. The more changing parts you add in to the mix the better the chance of failure. Good to see their main goal is a reusable vehicle, I'm still sad over the retirement of the shuttle.

They're hoping it'll be at least as reliable as the Space Shuttle, the STTO capability removing a lot of stressed moving parts.

That's... Not very reliable. OK, granted space travel is dangerous, but the space shuttle would be considered a death trap by commercial standards. 1 in 100 missions give or take have been catastrophic failures.

But... Other than that, it sounds like a good idea. Such a huge price drop would be amazing. It would take space launches from. Mind-meltingly expensive, to just, merely quite costly. XD

 

[XMark]

Anything that makes flight to orbit cheaper is awesome!

I'm seeing a lot of activity recently with the private sector gearing up to take over activities in low Earth Orbit and below. So far SpaceX seems to be leading the private space race with its Falcon rockets, but this Skylon thing is showing promise too! And several companies are promising sub-orbital commercial flights in the next 3 years or so (though they've been saying that for way more than 3 years and keep on pushing the date back)

The moment the first real space hotel is finished (Bigelow Aerospace seems to be the closest to making this a reality so far), there's going to be a massive worldwide explosion of orbital and sub-orbital space business.