# 71: Conceptual Design of an All-Body Aircraft for Space Tourism
Project ID:
71
Team Members:
Sushrut Kinhekar, Henry Barahona, Pablo Garcia, Thomas Garcia, Richard Godziela, Jarod McCants, Miguel Navarro, Luke Patterson, Jenor Rasmussen, Gabriel Reyes, Benjamin Shipp, Jackie Tran, Josue Vazquez
Faculty Advisor(s):
Bernd Chudoba
Department:
Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Project Type:
Senior Design
Title:
Conceptual Design of an All-Body Aircraft for Space Tourism
Abstract:
Despite several decades' worth of progress, access to space is still very limited to civilians in the 21st century. Private sector and start-up companies have recently taken the lead in the space sector and have exhibited an interest in making space accessible to a bigger demographic of the population by creating a market for space tourism. Realizing that space tourism is the next big step in the new space age, our senior design team, Reach Sub-Orbitals, will design a reusable suborbital vehicle specifically for space tourism. “Aspiration" is a single-stage rocket-powered suborbital vehicle with a lifting-body geometry, designed to go beyond the Kármán line with six passengers and two crew onboard, creating new astronauts with each takeoff. It will be designed to operate in and out of commercial airports, employing horizontal takeoff and horizontal landing methods instead of conventional large ballistic launchers and vertical sounding rockets. Aspiration will utilize an iterating and converging design methodology and will be compared to its competitors within the space tourism market with an overall cost, market and competition assessment.