Suborbital: Industry at the Edge of Space (Springer Praxis Books) - Softcover

Seedhouse, Erik

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3319034847 ISBN 13: 9783319034843

Publisher: Springer, 2014

Synopsis

This book explores how the commercial suborbital industry is poised to develop into a viable market. It describes how suborbital vehicles operate, how research will be conducted in suborbital flight, and how commercial organizations will train astronauts.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Until recently, spaceflight has been the providence of a select corps of astronauts whose missions, in common with all remarkable exploits, were experienced vicariously by the rest of the world via television reports and Internet feeds. These spacefarers risked their lives in the name of science, exploration and adventure, thanks to government-funded manned spaceflight programs.

All that is about to change

The nascent commercial suborbital spaceflight industry will soon open the space frontier to commercial astronauts, payload specialists and, of course, spaceflight participants. Suborbital explains the tantalizing science opportunities offered when suborbital trips become routine and describes the difference in training and qualification necessary to become either a spaceflight participant or a fully fledged commercial suborbital astronaut.

Suborbital also explains how the commercial suborbital spaceflight industry is planning and preparing for the challenges of marketing the hiring of astronauts. It examines the role of commercial operators as enablers accessing the suborbital frontier and how a partnership with governments and the private sector will eventually permanently integrate the free market’s innovation of commercial suborbital space activities

About the Author

Dr. Erik Seedhouse worked as an Astronaut Training Consultant for Bigelow Aerospace in 2005, a company for whom he wrote the Spaceflight Participants Flight Surgeon’s Manual. He also developed astronaut-training protocols for future spaceflight participants and wrote and edited several chapters of Bigelow Aerospace’s Astronaut Training Manual. Erik is a research scientist specializing in environmental life sciences and physiology, the subject in which he obtained his Ph.D. in Physiology while working for the European Space Agency between 1996 and 1998. In 2009, he was one of the final candidates for selection as an astronaut in the CSA’s Astronaut Recruitment Campaign. He is a certified commercial suborbital astronaut who will fly a payload mission in 2014. He is also Training Director for Astronauts for Hire and for the last four years served as Director of Canada’s Manned Centrifuge Operations.

About this edition

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 3319034847
• ISBN 13: 9783319034843
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 210