A Brief History of Malaysian International Space Tourism Initiative (July 1999 2011) is prepared and completed on July 2011

1 to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the establishment of Space Tourism Society Malaysia Chapter on 20 July 2011.

A Brief History of Malaysian International Space Tourism Initiative (July 1999 2011) is prepared and completed on July 2011 to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the establishment of Space Tourism Society Malaysia Chapter on 20 July 2011.

A Brief History of Malaysian International Space Tourism Initiative (July 1999 2011)
Even though Space Tourism Society Malaysia Chapter was established on 20 July 2006 (exactly 37 years after Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin arrived on the Moon on 20 July 1969), space tourism initiatives in Malaysia had started almost exactly 7 years before that, when a seminar was held at the School of Aerospace Engineering of the University Science Malaysia on July 1999 and a lecture on space tourism was given at the seminar, which was the first space tourism lecture in the country. The seminar was attended by more than 500 attendees consisted of the students and lecturers of the School of Aerospace Engineering and students and teachers of higher secondary schools nearby the university. The major discussion of the lecture was a proposal that the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) to be developed into a spaceport for commercial public space travel or space tourism because the concept of the operation of space vehicles are changing from vertically launched rocket to horizontally take-off and landing airplane. The person who had given the lecture, now is the Founder and President of STS-MC, and the proposal was reported a day after the seminar in a major local English newspaper.

(KLIA becomes the 1st spaceport in Asia by 2020? To me, nothing is impossible. Malaysia Can!)

With such support from the printed medias, the space tourism activists in Malaysia had started conducting public lectures in schools and universities on space tourism, and the effort had become more intense after the activists had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Space Future in London, the United Kingdom on September 2002, which had led to the almost yearly visits to Malaysia since then by Prof. Patrick Collins, an internationally recognized space tourism expert and pioneer, and the promotion of Ascender suborbital spaceplane concept in Malaysia, and the promotion of Ascender by STS-MC internationally in the following years.

A month later, a major local Malay newspaper published a caricature, which is the most famous newspaper caricature in Malaysia describing about the proposal to develop KLIA into a spaceport by 2020. Traditionally, the caricature only describes issues that are considered as important to the country. The caricature had marked the start of space tourism initiatives in Malaysia and the country as an international space tourism pioneer, since the initiatives had preceded most space tourism initiatives in other countries particularly the initiative which proposes the development of commercial spaceport.

Since then, Prof. Patrick Collins has been giving space tourism lectures at Malaysian universities and meeting ministers and senior government officials to discuss about space tourism, and Malaysian newspapers have been publishing illustrations of Ascender including the suborbital spaceplanes illustration with a large Malaysian flag on its fuselage.

A Brief History of Malaysian International Space Tourism Initiative (July 1999 2011) is prepared and completed on July 2011 to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the establishment of Space Tourism Society Malaysia Chapter on 20 July 2011.

IAASS is an organization patronized by European Space Agency (ESA), and IAASS conferences have been organized by ESA and sponsored by National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA).

On February 2003, the Malaysian space tourism activists published a book, Ekonomi Angkasa or Space Economy with space tourism as its major content, and the book had become the first book in the world on space economy published in a language other than English. There was an illustration of a suborbital spaceplane known as, Langkasa or Space Eagle in the book, which was a unique concept of twin-boom design with a passenger on each boom and a pilot at the fuselage.

After the conference, STS-MC has been in constant contact with IAASS, and IAASS was made known by STS-MC about the commercial spaceport and suborbital spaceplane programs initiated by STS-MC. Few months later, IAASS published a white paper report, An ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) for Space, which had reported about the effort in Malaysia to develop a commercial spaceport. An illustration of Acender was also in the report.

On July 2006, the Malaysian space tourism activists accepted the offer by Space Tourism Society, a not-for-profit organization registered in California, the United States of America to establish themselves as a chapter of the society, known as Space Tourism Society Malaysia Chapter (STS-MC). Early on the following year, STS-MC was invited to submit an nd abstract to be considered for presentation at the 2 International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS) conference, and on May 2007, the society presented its first international paper at the conference held in Chicago, the USA.

Later, STS-MC requested the President of IAASS to write a letter to the Crown Prince of Perak (Perak is a state in Malaysia), the most popular royalty and also non-political figure in Malaysia to inform the prince about the societys suborbital spaceplane program, and on January 2008, STS-MC received the letter, which had strongly supported the program.

A Brief History of Malaysian International Space Tourism Initiative (July 1999 2011) is prepared and completed on July 2011 to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the establishment of Space Tourism Society Malaysia Chapter on 20 July 2011.

On February 2008, STS-MC visited Swiss Propulsion Laboratory (SPL), a private laboratory doing research and development in small rocket propulsion for suborbital spaceplane in Langenthal, Switzerland, and signed an MoU with SPL for SPL to design and develop carbon neutral rocket propulsion system for the suborbital spaceplane to be developed by STS-MC. (On June 2011, SPL had successfully developed and tested a 10,000N rocket engine).

Few months after the symposium, the university published an academic report describing the possible application of suborbital spaceplane for rapid long distance travel between cities on different continents, which had used Ascender illustrations. (Today, suborbital spaceplane is being considered for both suborbital tourism and rapid point-to-point intercontinental travel).

After the signing of the MoU, STS-MC presented a poster proposing the development of suborbital spaceplane and th commercial spaceport at developing countries at the 12 Annual International Space University Symposium held at the universitys main campus in Strasbourg, France. The poster had an illustration of Ascender suborbital spaceplane, and explained about the practicality and suitability for developing countries to develop suborbital spaceplane and commercial spaceport. The poster also exposed that the cost to develop a prototype of suborbital spaceplane which can carry a pilot and a passenger to space is relatively lower than the cost of sending a spaceflight participant to the International Space Station a reason for developing countries to consider a suborbital spaceplane program rather than an astronaut program.

On October 2008, STS-MC announced its own suborbital spaceplane program called M-R2D2 (Malaysian Research for Rocketplane Design & Development) and on July 2009, STS-MC published its own conceptual design of suborbital spaceplane completed with propulsion system designed by SPL consisting of a hybrid system of jet and rocket propulsion packed together inside the fuselage. The suborbital spaceplane concept is for carrying 2 passengers to experience zero-gravity, viewing Earth and conduct zero-gravity experiment at 120km from sea level, and named Prototype 10 to commemorate a decade of space tourism initiative in Malaysia. With the introduction of Prototype 10, STS-MC also coined the term S3 or small suborbital spaceplane, which is a class of smallest passenger suborbital spaceplane carrying between 1 to 6 passengers.

A Brief History of Malaysian International Space Tourism Initiative (July 1999 2011) is prepared and completed on July 2011 to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the establishment of Space Tourism Society Malaysia Chapter on 20 July 2011.

On May 2010, STS-MC attended the 4 IAASS conference in Huntsville, the USA, not only as a paper presenter, but also as a Program Committee Member, Conference Abstract Reviewer and a Panel Member of a discussion, Commercial Spaceflight Safety, and in the general assembly during the conference, STS-MC was appointed as a Board Member of IAASS.

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On May 2009, STS-MC went to SPL again and signed another MoU with SPL and also Talis Enterprise, a private organization in Germany which is developing Enterprise passenger rocketplane, to cooperate with both organizations to develop suborbital spaceplane through M-R2D2 program. This MoU had caught the attention of various authorities in space travel, including California Spaceport Authority and IAASS, which had published the news in their bulletins.

At the conference, STS-MC had presented a paper under the main topic of commercial spaceflight safety about a concept of S3 VTOL (vertical take-off & landing) suborbital tourism spaceplane, pioneering such concept in space tourism. The paper explained that the VTOL capability of the spaceplane will be provided by the synchronization of thrust from a lift fan powered by a turbofan engine through a shaft via a gearbox and a pair of vectoring jet nozzles of the same turbofan. The paper also described the configuration of CLDT (centerline different thrusts) design concept where the jet and rocket engines of the suborbital spaceplane are positioned in tandem at the centerline of its fuselage, improving its aerodynamic and stability. The improved conceptual design of the spaceplane now is known as, Langkasa 2.

A Brief History of Malaysian International Space Tourism Initiative (July 1999 2011) is prepared and completed on July 2011 to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the establishment of Space Tourism Society Malaysia Chapter on 20 July 2011.

As in the 4 IAASS conference, STS-MC is the Program Committee Member and Conference Abstract Reviewer of the th 5 IAASS conference. On June 2011, STS-MC had completed its assignment as the Conference Abstract Reviewer when the society had reviewed, rated and commented 40 abstracts out of 180 abstracts of the conference, mostly contributed by authors representing ESA, NASA and FAA (Federal Aviation Authority). On July 2011, STS-MC had finally proposed SpaceportSEA a program to develop a commercial spaceport for space tourism in South East Asia (SEA) and finalized the conceptual design of Langkasa 2 S3 VTOL suborbital tourism spaceplane and later transformed both programs into an international programs owned by STS with STS-MC as the Program Manager. Since May 2010, STS-MC has also been patronizing a separate space tourism program which is an initiative to produce an animated movie about orbital space tourism called, Re-Entry. The original script and characters of the movie was authored by Prof. Patrick Collins, and the movie consists of animated orbital spaceplanes, space resorts and life styles. On January 2011, STS-MC had organized a suborbital spaceplane design competition among the secondary schools in Malaysia, which will last for 18 months. It is a strategic program promoting suborbital tourism and developing a suborbital spaceplane design community in the country. 500 participants of the competition had produced their own illustrations of suborbital tourism spaceplanes where 100 of them had been shortlisted and currently are producing 3D perspective drawings and scaled models of their designs of suborbital spaceplanes. The designs are being judged by international suborbital spaceplane and space tourism experts. On April 2011, STS-MC was appointed as a member of the IAASS Technical Committee for Suborbital Spaceflight Safety, and a month later after a meeting with STS in Los Angeles, the USA, STS-MC was appointed to represent STS at the future th IAASS conferences beginning with the 5 IAASS conference to be held in Paris, France on October 2011. Currently STS-MC is the most active chapter of STS and is pioneering new space tourism concepts such as VTOL suborbital tourism spaceplane, city spacepad (VTOL spaceport on top of high rise building in the city) and seaborne spacepad (VTOL spaceport aboard luxury ocean liner). REFERENCES 1. Ridzuan Zakaria, N. Zahari, R Abd Majid, A. Othman, J. (May 2007). The Symbiotic Relationship between Astronaut Program and Space Tourism Development A nd Third World Perspective, presented at the 2 IAASS conference, Chicago, IL, USA, published by ESA Special Publication. Ridzuan Zakaria, N. Mettauer, A. Abu, J. Roshdi Hassan, M. Taufeek Ismail, A. Othman, J. Zhuhaida Shaari, C. Nasron, N. (May 2010). Human Factors Engineering in Designing the Passengers Cockpit of the Malaysian Commercial th Suborbital Spaceplane, presented at the 4 IAASS conference, Huntsville, AL, USA, published by ESA Special Publication. Ridzuan Zakaria, N. Abu, J. Taufeek Ismail, A, Aziz Basri, A. Nasron, N. (October 2010). Langkasa 2 and Langkasa 4 Vertical Take-Off & Landing Suborbital Tourism Spaceplane Conceptual Designs and Spacepad, downloadable from www.scribd.com.

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