Solar Plane Could Reach Edge Of Space For $10 Million A Flight

Swiss company SolarStraos is building a $10-million-a-flight "solar plane" with the potential to reach the edge of space without generating any carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

SolarStratos's aircraft will take about two hours to ascend to 15 miles above Earth to the edge of space. The craft plans to stay there for 15 minutes before spending the next three hours returning to the ground. It will only be capable of carrying 2 individuals and the entire plane would weigh less than 1,000 pounds.

The plane will be the first manned aircraft entirely powered by solar power to rise above the stratosphere and will be approximately 28 feet long. SolarStratos expects to launch its first commercial flights in two to three years.

Solar aircraft are notoriously unreliable, slow and exceedingly expensive. Solar Impulse 2, the first solar plane to fly around the world, took more than a year to do so because of technical difficulties and cost $222 million. The plane's flight around the world was originally expected to take five months. The first conventionally powered airplane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling took nine days to circumnavigate the planet in 1986.

Solar planes are unwieldy because solar panels are an inefficient source of energy compared to conventional fuel. The technology magazine Wired found solar-powered planes are simply not fast and can't carry enough to be useful.

Several other groups are looking to enter the space tourism business, with starting tickets probably costing around $200,000 to $250,000. Billionaires like Richard Branson's and Jeff Bezos are already considering selling tickets to space tourists. Blue Origin is already opening up "early access" to ticket information. Countries like China are also planning to enter the space tourism industry and plan to carry 20 passangers into space.

The non-CO2 neutral space companies have been competing to develop the first fully reusable rocket. SpaceX, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, failed on two separate occasions to successfully land a reusable rocket before finally succeeding in April. Blue Origin successfully launched and landed the world's first private reusable rocket in November and reused the rocket four more times.

Reusable rockets are considered a major advance by the rocket and space industry as spaceflight cost lies not in the fuel, but rather the rocket components.