MMM Classics Year 10: MMM #s 91-100 - Moon Society

such facilities, what are the choices? They are not many. Most
equatorial cities of size are ocean or river ports near sea-level.
Here are the three best exceptions:
Quito, Ecuador 0° at 9,500 ft altitude.
Quito is the capital and second largest city of Ecuador
with somewhat less than a million people. It is a minor hub
with most air and sea traffic coming into the country via the
larger, more cosmopolitan sea level port of Guayaquil. The
flagship national airline serving Quito’s Jose Marescal International
Airport is Equatoriana.
Bogota, Columbia 4.4°N at 8,563 ft.
Bogota is the capital of Columbia and its largest city,
already one of the megacities of the Third World urban tropics
with over 5 million people and growing rapidly. While it is
slightly less well situated than Quito in both latitude and altitude,
it is by far the more important air traffic transportation
hub. The flagship airline is Avianca.
If space-bound traffic grows, Bogota could make an
ideal western hemisphere aerospaceport, serving North, South,
and Central America, with travelers electing to spend several
days taking in the sights of this beautiful, colorful, vibrant, and
cosmopolitan city.
Nairobi, Kenya 1.5°S at 8,700 ft.
Nairobi is the capital and largest city in Kenya, in the
process of suddenly becoming a Third World super city with
several million people, ten times or more its size in colonial
days. Nairobi is the air traffic port of entry for most travelers to
East Africa. Air Kenya is the flagship national airline. If high
altitude equator based transatmospherics turn out to be the
most economic way for tourists to reach orbit, Nairobi could
some day be the “Space Safari” jumping off point for three
continents: Africa, Europe, and Asia (which has no low latitude
high altitude city.)
Nairobi has the added advantage of being on the
southern flanks of Mt. Kenya, whose western slopes offer an
ideal site for a launch track for space-bound high volume
commodity cargoes.
Top Cities/Airports in Comparison
All three of these equatorial cities have modern
airports which accommodate any fleet jet. But if existing hub
traffic is a consideration, Quito loses the Western Hemisphere
race to Bogota.
Would the national airlines that serve these cities
(Avianca, Air Kenya) expand intercontinentally to funnel most
orbit-bound traffic through their home hubs? Or will the traffic
be up for grab with other national airlines competing on a level
playing field? Might the transatmospherics themselves be
owned by Avianca and Air Kenya, and thus be able to offer
discount transfers to and from their hub feeder fleets? All these
questions may be moot if the extra cost of airline flights to and
from these equatorial hubs added to the cheaper cost of space
passage from them comes up to a harder-to-swallow bottom
line.
Yet there is more favoring the equatorial hub scenario
than lower seat-to-orbit costs. Equatorial Earth orbit locations
(hotels, resorts, and industrial parks), ideally suited for access
from equatorial surface hubs, have a great advantage with a
launch window to and from every 2 hours or so as opposed to
once a day to and from cul de sac higher inclination orbits that
maximize access from higher latitude spaceports like Kennedy
and Baikonur. And it will be the equatorial orbit stations and
depots which offer the most frequent launch windows and best
fuel-saving advantages to and from the Moon and other deep
space destinations like Mars.
Bogota and Nairobi Interplanetary Aerospaceport
could grow beyond their edge as space gateway cities for
people. They could become the terrestrial centers of solar
system trade, trade shows, import and export markets, mineral
and energy exchange boards, and more. After all, that is how
great cities become great, by leveraging an at first minor
advantage in an ever diversifying and pyramiding fashion.
Perhaps it is good that there are at least two prime candidate
cities, not just one.
And if high altitude doesn’t matter?
What if high altitude becomes moot, and any equa-torial
city can compete for the trade? That opens the door to
Guayaquil, Panama City, Cali and Medellin, Caracas, and
Belem in Latin America but Bogota should handle that
competition with no problem. Douala and Kinshasa might
compete limply in Africa. Half a world away off by itself,
Singapore would surely become the gateway for all Eastern
Asia and Australia. (Its national flagship carrier Air Singapore
is already the world’s top-rated airline with Milwaukee-based
Midwest Express a distant fifth. Just thought I’d throw that in
there with ISDC ‘98 in Milwaukee only 20 months off.) Even
if the advantage is with the high altitude cities, Singapore may
garner a respectable East Asian market, its sea-level handicap
meaning fewer paying passengers (less gross weight) and
higher fares per flight to orbit on comparable equipment.
by Peter Kokh
The recent winner of the X-33 competition, Lockheed-
Martin’s VentureStar is an apparently well thought out paper
study design by Lockheed’s famed Skunk Works, a team determined
to overcome the considerable head start of McDonnell
Douglas (the Delta Clipper program, with an actual succesfully
flying prototype).
VentureStar has a number of distinguishing features
like its linear aerospike engine. But as a prototype upon which
a future personnel carrier might conceivably be based it has
one very salient characteristic that presents some challenges to
passenger cabin design. VentureStar will take off vertically on
its tail like the Shuttle, and again like the Shuttle, it will land
Moon Miners’ Manifesto Classics - Year 10 - Republished January 2006 - Page 84