(CNN) – If you’re trying to avoid viruses in the air, heading to a nearby vacuum might not be the worst idea.
A Florida company plans to take passengers to the edge of space in a high-tech version of a hot air balloon, with a pilot and up to eight travelers traveling in a pressurized capsule suspended from a huge airship.
Human spaceflight company Space Perspective has scheduled the test flight of its Neptune Spacecraft for early 2021, from the auspicious surroundings of the Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
That test flight will not triple and carry research loads, but Space Perspective hopes that in a few years it will also take space tourists on six-hour sightseeing tours, complete with a refreshment bar and social media capabilities.
“We are committed to fundamentally changing the way people have access to space, both to conduct much-needed research to benefit life on Earth and to affect how we see and connect with our planet,” said the founder and co-CEO of Space Perspective. Jane Poynter in a statement.
The six-hour trips will involve a two-hour gentle climb above 99% of Earth’s atmosphere to 100,000 feet, an experience, says Space Perspective, which so far has only been enjoyed by 20 people in human history.
There will be another two hours of rest for passengers to enjoy 360-degree views from the cabin before the spacecraft makes its two-hour descent into the ocean, where it will sink safely. The trip to the coast will be completed by boat.
“We looked at all the different elements that would make the experience not only memorable, but also really comfortable,” said Nigel Goode, designer and co-founder of PriestmanGoode in a statement. “We wanted to make sure that passengers could get 360-degree unobstructed views and that we created an efficient space that allowed them to move during the trip.”
The capsule is five meters in diameter, while the top polyethylene balloon is 100 meters in diameter when fully inflated, about the length of a soccer field.
The test flight of the Neptune spacecraft will be from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.
Courtesy of PriestmanGoode
Space Perspective claims the process will be simple like boarding an airplane and that the capsule’s pressurized pod offers what it describes as a “shirt sleeve environment” (although with its plans to host weddings and other events, it could also be a tie). black). )
The bathroom, he claims, is “the toilet with the best view in the known universe,” and is located in the center of the capsule in the splash cone.
Space Perspective co-founders Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum previously designed the air, food and water systems for the Biosphere 2 space base, where they lived for two years.
“Our advanced space globe is designed to operate in the near vacuum at the edge of space,” says the Space Perspective website. “NASA has used similar balloons for decades to fly large research telescopes.”
Since helium is in limited supply and necessary for critical medical applications, the Neptune spacecraft uses hydrogen. “The elevation gas within the globe is lighter than air and allows Neptune to float above Earth’s atmosphere like an ice cube in water,” says Space Perspective.
Paul R. La Monica and Jackie Wattles contributed to this report.
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