Virgin Galactic shows off passenger spaceship cabin interior:
Highly detailed amenities to enhance the customer flight experience were shown in an online event revealing the cabin of the company's rocket plane, a type called SpaceShipTwo, which is undergoing testing in preparation for commercial service.
There are a dozen windows for viewing, seats that will be customized for each flight's six passengers and capable of adjusting for G forces, and, naturally, mood lighting.
Yet designer Jeremy Brown said the passengers' most lasting impression may come from a large mirror at the rear of the cabin.
"We think that there's a real memory burn that customers are going to have when they see that analog reflection of themselves in the back of the cabin, seeing themselves floating freely in space ... that very personal interaction that they'll have with the experience," he said.
[...] The passengers, clad in space suits designed by the Under Armour company, will be able to leave their seats and float about the cabin, using handholds tested by chief astronaut trainer Beth Moses during Virgin Galactic's second flight into space last year.
The test was aimed at helping finalize the design and at learning how to train passenger astronauts for what they will experience as they become weightless and reach the top of the flight profile, known as its apogee, before the descent begins.
Moses said she tested different ways of getting in and out of the seats, moved around the cabin and waved at the mirror, concluding that it was not disorienting.
"I also purposely went to a point in the cabin to most dramatically try to enjoy apogee and a view of Earth from the stillness of space," she said.
[...] The company has yet to set a date for flights with paying passengers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by isostatic on Wednesday July 29 2020, @10:42AM (3 children)
Hard to get enthusiastic about Virgin Galactic. Don't get me wrong, back in 2003 it was great. Since then Branson got involved and issued lots of swanky press releases, but there's been very little progress.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Wednesday July 29 2020, @11:10AM (2 children)
This is the headline I saw for this news yesterday:
Virgin Galactic Tumbles On Open Market Despite Key Cabin Reveal [wccftech.com]
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(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday July 29 2020, @11:43PM (1 child)
I was picturing something like: Virgin Galactic still hasn't got a vehicle to orbit, despite being "almost ready" since 2004"
I can't help wondering what they're really up to. It just shouldn't take this long, so is it some sort of tax dodge or something?
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Friday July 31 2020, @12:29PM
They aren't even trying for orbit - it's for suborbit 100km, which Scaled Composites did in 2004, and then Virgin Galactic formed out of that. They had a couple of setbacks, notably the Enterprise crash, but they still haven't managed the same feat as the 2004 flights.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Kitsune008 on Wednesday July 29 2020, @03:36PM (6 children)
All of the news about various 'space tourism' never seem to address the well known issue of a lot of vomiting happens in microgravity.
NASA's airplanes they use to train for microgravity have a well earned moniker of 'Vomit Comets'.
And I feel bad for whomever is tasked with cleaning and disinfecting the cabin between flights. That big mirror may not be so reflective on reentry.
Hint: If you get seasick, carsick, or lose your lunch on amusement park rides, avoid microgravity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @03:53PM (1 child)
Senator Jake Garn was a former military pilot, did not get sick on the vomit comet, but became the sickest individual to ever puke all over the ISS.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @04:26AM
I've been in some crazy airplane and helicopter flights doing science experiments and never got airsick. I've been out on a deep sea fishing boat about four times and threw up all four times. I used to sometimes get carsick as a kid, but I don't any more (or I don't think I do--I'm almost always the driver now and rarely every ride in the back). I've never got sick at an amusement park and I love riding every coaster I can get to.
I've had a pilot tell me that a colleague of his had to stop flying because later in his career he developed airsickness that he never got over, even if he was the one doing the flying.
It certainly is an interesting phenomenon. With me, I think it mostly has to do with smells (fishy-smelling boats and diesel fumes) than the motion but who knows?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @09:37PM (3 children)
LOL!! Ths, so much THIS
Yeah, being able to see my own face in the mirror as I explode and rocket myself backwards :)
What they need to design are "portholes". Places the passenger can float over to very fast, jam their heads in, puke like crazy, and have it swept away with a strong vacuum cleaner. A puke bag is not going to do it. Would you want to be in a smelly trapped cabin, in space no less, with a person vomiting? Not me.
Space is glorified and seen through rose colored glasses.
It's only going to be the super rich though, so seeing videos of them going through that shit will at least be funny. By the time the average wage slave can take a trip into space, artificial gravity will be invented.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday July 29 2020, @11:12PM (2 children)
The trick is going to be to have stations with both areas of rotational/fake gravity and microgravity. Like the Gateway Foundation [gatewayspaceport.com] concept (scam/vaporware, but a nice design).
Fully reusable Starship will make it a lot cheaper to build something 100x larger than the ISS, and normal people will be able to afford to go there, if they are willing to spend more than a cross-country trip to Disney World. As for artificial gravity, if you don't mean rotational spinning toruses, that is in the realm of magic for the foreseeable future.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @04:29AM (1 child)
Yeah, well maybe affordable for your grandkids. I'd still bank on those cross-country Disney trips for yourself, if I was you.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday July 30 2020, @04:34AM
Yeah, not anytime soon.
https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-world-delays-resorts-reopening-dates-florida-record-coronavirus-increase-2020-7 [businessinsider.com]
Maybe after the vaccine gets released in 2023.
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(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday July 29 2020, @08:54PM
For $10E3, will they let you on the plane, shake it around a little, play outer space video on the windows, and feed you a nice meal? I bet some not-all-that-rich people would enjoy that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @09:09PM
Not much else to say since I'm stuck at home trying not to die.