Virgin's Spaceship Already Meets Fuel-Economy GoalIn a typical space mission fuel usage will be less than a return economy class ticket from London to Singapore.
Jan. 12, 2014 2:07 p.m. ET
Max Luke and Jenna Mukuno rightly give credit to Richard Branson's commitment to fight climate change ("Boldly Going Where No Greens Have Gone Before," op-ed, Jan.
. They also acknowledge that Virgin Galactic's new spaceship represents a "laudable technical accomplishment" and the fulfillment of a long-predicted dream. Furthermore, they state that should Virgin Galactic be able to fly (as Sir Richard has claimed) an individual to space and back with a carbon footprint equivalent to a round trip from London to Singapore in economy, it would represent a "remarkable achievement in energy efficiency."
We are extremely proud to accept that plaudit and happy to correct the outdated figures that led the authors to overstate our space vehicle's CO2 emissions by a wide margin and to dismiss our endeavor as a new frontier in well-heeled energy consumption.
First the numbers: The article rightly implies that a return economy trip from London to Singapore, in any modern airliner, will generate a C02 footprint per passenger of at least two tons.
The FAA estimates that Virgin Galactic's fully reusable SpaceShipTwo passenger spacecraft will take you to space and back leaving a carbon footprint of just 0.28 tons—in fact, less than the carbon output of an economy return seat from Los Angeles to New York.
To be fair to the authors, Virgin Galactic, for safety reasons, launches its spacecraft from a specially designed carrier aircraft. This aircraft is the largest all-carbon-composite aviation vehicle ever built and is the lightest and most fuel-efficient aircraft of its size. Therefore, in a typical space mission fuel usage for the carrier aircraft will only equate to a carbon footprint per astronaut passenger of about 1.5 tons, giving a total for aircraft and spaceship of around 1.8 tons (less than a return economy class ticket from London to Singapore).
For those with a yen for hard numbers, the data cited by the authors assumed that our carrier aircraft would use 8.7 tons of jet fuel per mission. This would be enough to fly right across the continent, when in fact we only need a maximum of two hours of flight time per space mission.
Soon we will do better still by introducing renewable, sustainable jet fuel made possible by the significant progress already achieved in this area by Virgin's airlines. Using the low-carbon aviation fuel currently being developed by Virgin Atlantic in partnership with companies such as LanzaTech, we should be able to further reduce our space flight carbon emissions by over 50%.
Thus, real data say that Galactic has already beaten the "remarkable" emissions goal cited by the authors and will significantly improve on those efficiencies in the years to come.
Virgin Galactic will transform the environmental impact as well as the safety and cost of access to space. Our 700 signed-up future astronauts, including those labeled by the authors as "environmentalist celebrities" such as Profs. Stephen Hawking and James Lovelock, understand that mission well and their vital role in helping to accomplish it. The latter described Virgin Galactic as "one of the most important industrial projects of the 21st century" and not just because of the inspiration and understanding it will bring to those who fly.
Our first flights will allow us to continue to invest in and develop new and increasingly better technologies, helping to provide answers to some of our toughest challenges back here on Earth. From low cost, rapid and frequent small-satellite launches, allowing better understanding of climate change and cheap and reliable communications to every human on the planet, to extremely fast and clean transcontinental passenger flights, above the fragile atmosphere—at speeds of thousands of miles per hour.
If there was a prime directive for humanity, it is that we have to move the human race forward (and upward). To achieve that, this year will see us move into new Virgin territory, with a mission to help bring positive transformation to the world as we know it today.
George Whitesides
CEO, Virgin Galactic http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304347904579312302691628842?ru=yahoo?mod=yahoo_itp&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304347904579312302691628842.html%3Fru%3Dyahoo%3Fmod%3Dyahoo_itp
New SMAC quizzes available.
