DHis dream is by no means new.As early as 1967, hotelier Barron Hilton (Barron Hilton) and German rocket engineer Kraft Arnold Ehricke (Krafft Arnold Ehricke) discussed Space tourism And dream of a space hotel. In the next few years, the idea of continuously developing travel and reusable space companions continued to develop, and at that time it seemed that it was not far to open up near-Earth space and further space to paying customers.
But it took a long time unexpectedly Richard Branson Together with his companies Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos are now able to start the era of commercial space travel with Blue Origin. Its beginning is not as spectacular as it was imagined 50 years ago-so far, it has only been a short flight visit, which can be defined as the height of the space boundary, but at least it has already begun. The industry is expected to experience tremendous growth in the next few years. However, the delay of space tourism projects led the public to believe that it was still a blind spot in the late 1960s, despite the foresight: climate change and scarcity of resources have become core issues. It is difficult for companies not to consider sustainability on their agenda.
The idea of giving a few passengers a brief glimpse of our home planet, embedded in the dark space while using a lot of energy, in the context of international sustainable development efforts, sounds irresponsible and for many people Ignorance, climate and environmental protection.And Branson and Bezos One cannot ignore this topic and claim that their company keeps in mind the sustainability of its activities.
Branson: Carbon dioxide balance is like a transatlantic flight in business class
Richard Branson likes to compare the carbon dioxide balance of each passenger’s space flight with the carbon dioxide balance of a business class transatlantic flight-the carbon dioxide calculator estimates the carbon dioxide in each direction on such flights between London and New York The emissions are about 2 tons. Virgin Galactic’s transportation system consists of two passenger ships, a transport plane and a spacecraft, and its own rocket engine is only used at an altitude of about 15.5 kilometers. Use a hybrid drive: solid fuel, in this case HTPB, combined with liquid fuel as an oxidizer, in this case nitrous oxide. The Federal Aviation Administration mentioned the CO2 emissions of the joint flight system in a report It is estimated that each flight in 2012 will be about 27 tons-in addition to the two pilots, there will be 6 passengers on spacecraft 2, which will be 4.5 tons per passenger. The report also pointed out that the contribution of these emissions to climate change is negligible compared to national and global values.
