Chinese Entrepreneur Plans to Make Space Travel Possible in a High Tech Balloon By 2015
The Balloon Would Take Travellers 40 Kilometers Above The Earth's Surface
A Chinese Entrepreneur Jiang Fang, is planning to give space enthusiasts an experience of a life time by making it possible to travel to space through a high tech balloon. He aims at taking people above the Earth's surface giving them the opportunity to see the curve of the planet and experience weightlessness as they reach higher, reducing the effect of gravity on them. The high tech balloon filled with helium gas, would carry a manned capsule that would take the travelers 40 kilo meters above the Earth's surface.
Fang, president of a Beijing-based company "Space Vision," told state-run Xinhua news agency that this unique space tour will be possible by next year. He said that all the required research was done and the technical requirements were looked into. Experts have analysed the technical aspects and say that it would be feasible, he stated.
Explaining about the amount of work already done on the project he said that a research on the "feasible communications, radar and other ground-based monitoring operations," was done for a period of nine months. Research institutions that were funded by the government are assisting in the project and the plan was deliberated on by several Chinese aerospace experts.
They also sought expert assistance to solve issues on the gravity free-period and also about how the parachute should open, he told Xinhua. A detailed and complete plan will be completed by next month.
Pointing towards China's flight system technology for such a project he said experts have stated that they are advanced and mature.
Test flights are expected for mid-2015, if successful it will be open for public, Jiang said. The expected cost of the trip he said would be around 500,000 yuan (81,400 U.S. dollars). Though he has not revealed his investments, the project has already attracted several investors.
A decade ago this idea had people thinking that he was mad, but now he said that scientists and experts say he is doing a great business.
