The organizers of the "X Prize" competition are offering 10 million dollars to those who will cross the atmosphere in a manned aircraft
By: David Ratner
On December 17, 2002, about a month before the launch of the "Columbia" shuttle, another step was taken towards the visit of Israelis to space. Dov Chertripsky, 33 years old, a newcomer from the USA who was absorbed into the high-tech industry in Israel, joined an Israeli group to compete for the "X-" Prize, a competition for entrepreneurs who will succeed in privately building an aircraft that will reach space, return to Earth, and take off again after two weeks. The winners are guaranteed a prize of 10 million dollars.
The idea of the competition was born in 1996 in the mind of Peter Diamandis, an American businessman from St. Louis. Diamandis believes that the global aviation industry, whose annual turnover is estimated at about 300 billion dollars, owes a lot to the tradition of awarding awards to pioneers in the field of aviation. Diamandis' hero is Charles Lindenberg, who won $25 in 1927 after crossing the ocean in a plane built by private entrepreneurs without government assistance.
The "X prize" competition is supposed, according to Diamandis, to locate the "Lindenberg" of the 21st century and with its help break a path for the space tourism industry. "The prize has an expiration date," Chartripsky explains the terms of the competition. "Until 2005 someone must meet the challenge. The condition is that the aircraft will reach a minimum altitude of 100 kilometers with three passengers inside.
Besides the Israeli group, 23 groups of entrepreneurs from the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Russia, Argentina and Romania joined the competition. The organizers of the competition have already raised a third of the promised prize money - mainly from donations - with the help of celebrities such as actor Tom Hanks, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and writers Tom Clancy and Arthur S. Clark, who participated in fundraising evenings for the benefit of the competition. The bulk of the amount will be awarded to the winners in an accepted American method: the organizers pay high premiums to an insurance company, which in fact "bets" that no one will be able to meet the task. In case the mission is crowned with success, the company will be forced to pay 10 million dollars.
Chertripsky, born in Mexico, immigrated with his family to California when he was 14. At the age of 23, he took a pilot's course. At the same time, he completed engineering and economics studies at the University of California in San Diego. His life's dream, he said, was always to be an astronaut. About three years ago he immigrated to Israel, after working in the aerospace industry in the USA.
"When I heard about the X prize a year ago, I couldn't believe that in a country so developed in high-tech and with great experience in aviation and space, there was no Israeli group that registered," says Chartripsky. He hastened to recruit for the task five scientists and engineers who work with him at a high-tech factory in the north: Dr. Yigal Cohen, Dr. Shmuel Berkovski, Oded Lebel, Shai Glazer and Yael Glazer.
The group, known as "ILAT" designed a space vehicle called "Negev-."5 A few months ago, the plans were presented to the X Prize testing team and the group received permission to join the competition. The team plans to attach the space vehicle to a helium balloon that will carry it to an altitude of 25 kilometers. After that, the vehicle will detach from the balloon, and engines will be fired that will be operated with an unacceptable mixture of liquid oxygen and fuels. When the vehicle reaches a speed of Mach 3.5 (at an altitude of 80 kilometers) the engines will shut down.
"Inertia will carry us to an altitude of 120 kilometers, and then the descent back into the atmosphere will begin," Chertripsky explains the plan. "Unlike 'Columbia' which reentered the atmosphere at a tremendous speed, our speed will be about 300 km/h and thus not much heat will be generated. The free fall will be stopped using parachutes. The whole flight will last about four hours."
The team plans to conduct a test flight using a scaled-down model of the balloon ("Negev-"1) in October 2003. After that, test flights of additional models will be conducted. The actual flight will take place in the fall of 2005.
According to Chertripsky, most of the components of "Negev-5" are at hand. However, the team still faces quite a few obstacles: it is not clear whether Israeli law allows a private citizen to launch a vehicle into space; In the event of a malfunction, there is a chance that the balloon will fall in a hostile country; And whoever will fly the tool will have to undergo intensive training in parachuting and emergency operation.
However, the biggest obstacle is the funding sources. Chartripsky recently completed writing the business plan for the project. Now he is looking for financiers, and I am sure he will find them. "The two space tourists who took off in Russian spacecraft paid tens of millions of dollars for the flight," he says. "We price a tourist flight into space at 50 dollars. There is also the potential to take some of the experiments from NASA, which collects capital for their launch."
Meanwhile, the Colombia disaster clouds the joy of the participants in the project. Last week it was published on the website of the competition (www.xprize.org) an article written by Chertripsky in memory of Ilan Ramon and his team. The organizers, according to the website, intend to continue to encourage the participants in the competition in their efforts to conquer the space - despite everything.
