Well, technically not space*, but suborbital, and that’d still be way cool! And what’s even cooler is that you can enter to win a trip on an XCOR Lynx Mark II suborbital flight while helping to support a good cause of your choice, courtesy of The Urgency Network’s “Ticket to Rise” campaign. Check out the dramatic spaceflight-packed promotional video and find out how to enter below:
The Urgency Network is an online platform whereby participants can win experience-based prizes by participating in campaigns that are designed to aid and support good causes, many of which assist specific communities in need, awareness groups, and conservation efforts. You earn “entries” for prize drawings by purchasing gift packages from the participating foundations or by donating time, social media presence, or money directly. It’s a way for organizations that might not have (or be able to afford) a large PR department to get funded and gain widespread exposure. Learn more about The Urgency Network here.
In the Ticket to Rise campaign, the grand prize is beyond stratospheric — literally! One lucky winner will experience a ride aboard an XCOR Lynx Mark II suborbital craft, a single-stage space vehicle that takes off from a runway to ultimately coast briefly at a maximum altitude of 328,000 feet (about 100 km), experiencing 4 minutes of microgravity before re-entry and a runway landing. It’s a supersonic 30-minute flight to the very edge of space!
(*Actually, 100 km is right at the von Karman line, so riding the Lynx Mark II past that could qualify you as an astronaut. Just sayin’.)
Add to that you’d be helping any one of dozens of good causes (you can choose from different ones by clicking the “Select a Different NonProfit” text link on the donation page) and it’s a win-win for everyone. And even if you don’t get a seat aboard a spaceship (many will enter, few will win) you can still get some pretty awesome promo offers from the organizations as bulk-entry packages.
Click here to sign up and enter the Ticket to Rise campaign.
The deadline to enter the campaign is 11:59:59 p.m. EDT August 11, 2014. Drawing will be held on August 12. The Lynx flight is dependent on meeting all requirements and passing physical exams and tests by XCOR Aerospace, and although the date is expected to be in the fall of 2015, this is rocket science and things change. Read the official contest rules for all details, fine print, etc.
So this baby takes off from the ground and flies up to 100 kilometers! How much higher/farther could it fly if air dropped from a mother ship like the White Knight II? Could the flight envelope be extended to intercontinental distances? Alternately, could this vehicle be attached to an Atlas V or updated Falcon and orbited, like the X-37? THAT would be an interesting re-entry profile? Coat it with the same ablative coating SpaceX is using on the Dragon capsule?
It does not have a heat shield that could survive re-entry from orbit.
The Lynx does have ablative coating(s) on the leading edge of the wings and on the nose. Would that the whole bottom of the craft were coated with PICA-X and sufficient aerobraking maneuvers performed during re-entry, this two seat ultra light – all composite – certainly looks like it could pop into and out of orbit!
http://xcor.com/lynx/
It’s a rather cramped two-seater. Good luck adding all the extra stuff it would need for longer flights, never mind orbit.
It would need 10 times the speed and be able to dissipate that energy on re-entry.
Never been to space. Hopefully I’ll win the trip…