3696 x 2448 px | 31,3 x 20,7 cm | 12,3 x 8,2 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
11 luglio 2012
Ubicazione:
Farnborough Air Show, Hampshire, UK
Altre informazioni:
SKYLON is an unpiloted, reusable craft intended to provide inexpensive and reliable access to space. Currently in proof-of-concept phase, SKYLON, which grew out of the HOTOL project of the 1980s, will be capable of transporting 12 tonnes of cargo into space with a conventional take-off and landing. The term “conventional” may be misnomer though. SKYLON will need a runway about 5.6km long and has a take-off speed close to Mach 0.5, although it can land on conventional runways at much lower speeds. If this all sounds too futuristic to be true take a look at the numbers. At present the launch cost of a typical 2-3 tonne spacecraft is about $150 million. For SKYLON, if approximately 100 satellites were launched per year using 30 in-service spaceplanes from three spaceports, the launch cost would fall to about $40 million per flight. Alan Bond, Reaction Engines' MD, said: “We expect mission costs to fall to about $10 million per launch for high product value cargo, such as communications satellites, $2-5 million for low product value cargo, such as science satellites and for costs per passenger to fall below $100k, for tourists when orbital facilities exist to accommodate them.”
