Abstract Taiwan would not develop reusable suborbital launch vehicle (RSLV) for commercial suborbital space tourism (SST) and intercontinental point-to-point (IP2P) transportation industry. As such, although there are many issues need be considered, spaceport becomes one of the major indices for demonstrating Taiwan's infrastructures and readiness to go from aviation tourism to SST and IP2P due to its long leading time requirement (2–3 decades usually). Currently, there are 17 civic (single use) and civic and military (dual use) airports, of which 4 are civic and one is basically civic. In this paper, these 5 airports were studied and discussed on their potential to be extended to either single use spaceport or dual use air and spaceport from the aspects of area, busyness, required extension (minor or major), redesign and reconstruction requirements, and environmental reassessment requirements. For the 5 airports included in the considerations, the 4 airports Taoyuan, Kaohsiung, Songshan and Kinmen all need minor extensions for accommodating horizontal-takeoff-horizontal-landing (HTHL) RSLV. Only the Taoyuan and Kinmen airports are suitable for major extensions to also accommodate vertical-takeoff-vertical-landing (VTVL) RSLV after major extensions. The Hengchun Airport needs environmental reassessment, redesign and reconstruction due to its very local katabatic winds weather condition. However, it is also the only one suitable for extending to become a dedicated spaceport with HTHL and VTVL RSLVs accommodated. For comparison purpose, a new spaceport dedicated to SST and IP2P with the name to be determined (TBD) is proposed as an option. For the case of considering dedicated uses for SST and IP2P, then only Hengchun and TBD are the two remaining spaceport candidates.
Highlights Upgrading of the 5 airports to become potential suborbital space tourism (SST) spaceports was studied. Four airports could become dual use as air and spaceports after minor extension for HTHL RSLV. All of them need major extension for operating commercial SST using VTVL RSLV. Hengchun Airport is the only airport in Taiwan which has the potential to become dedicated spaceport. Comparison made with a new proposed SST spaceport.
A preliminary study on the potential spaceports for suborbital space tourism and intercontinental point-to-point transportation in Taiwan
Acta Astronautica ; 181 ; 492-502
2020-11-07
11 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
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