Benson Space Company to Provide Low-G Rides
Posted on: Tuesday, 3 July 2007, 06:17 CDT
POWAY, Calif., July 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Using a patent pending combination of technology and technique, the newly designed suborbital space tourism spaceship from Benson Space Company (BSC) will produce rides that do not exceed approximately 3.0 G's of force on passengers. This technology, in development since 2002, uses dive brakes with variable feathering to greatly reduce deceleration forces during descent and reentry, it was announced today by BSC Chairman and President Jim Benson.
The BSC spaceship, which is based on an amalgam of the NASA and Air Force X-2, X-15 and T-38 vehicles, will spread its entry deceleration over a wide altitude band by changing the vehicle's ballistic coefficient (vehicle weight divided by drag area) during the atmospheric entry. The invention, known as Variable Ballistic Coefficient, or VBC slowing, closes the vehicle's dive brakes over an altitude band of about 75,000 feet in this instance, and over a period of time of about 20 seconds. The patent application includes other embodiments of this invention such as vehicle configuration changes, dumping of ballast weight, and release of aerodynamic decelerators. BSC has the exclusive license to this technology.
"This new invention is a major step forward in providing a safe and comfortable reentry for our future passengers, in contrast to the high-G forces to be generated by our competitors," explains Jim Benson. "This system gives us not only one way to gently slow the spaceship, but multiple redundant ways to safely reduce spaceship velocity."
About Benson Space Company
Established in September 2006, Benson Space Company (BSC) seeks to provide the first, safest and lowest cost astronaut-making spaceflights for the emerging personal spaceflight market. BSC is led by Jim Benson, founder of Compusearch and founder and former chairman and CEO of SpaceDev, which developed the world's only hybrid rocket motors used for human spaceflight. Under Benson's guidance for nearly a decade, SpaceDev designed and produced an innovative satellite for NASA and the hybrid rocket motor technology for Paul Allen's SpaceShipOne, the vehicle that won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004. BSC is currently developing a sub-orbital spaceship, based on proven designs, which will allow BSC to offer the world's first, commercial, suborbital spaceflights. For more information visit http://www.bensonspace.com/ in a few weeks for updated information.
Benson Space Company
CONTACT: Alfred Hopton of B W R Public Relations, +1-310-248-6160,ahopton@bwr-la.com, for Benson Space Company
Source: PRNewswire
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