The space port in the new guinea papua

1993/08/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astronautika

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The world's first privately funded space port could be built on a small island in Papua New Guinea. Several European banks will pay for the project.

The first phase of the project will analyze the feasibility of the space port on an islet next to the island of New Ireland, in the Bismarck archipelago, within six months. The Bismarck archipelago is located about 500 km north of the island of New Guinea. The island is located a few degrees south of Ecuador and the place is ideal for satellites to be placed in polar and equatorial geosynchronous orbits.

The news has generated strong responses in Australia. In fact, Australians want to organize a similar infrastructure, at the northern point of the continent, in Cape York. One of the drivers of this project, Richard McKinnon, said that For a few seconds it is enough to reflect to see that Papua New Guinea is the most inappropriate place to build space ports. Other statements by Prime Minister Paias Wingti of Papua New Guinea include: The space port would place Papua New Guinea on the world map.

The cost of the feasibility study will be $20-30 million and that of the $1,000 million space port. If the project thrived, the first satellite launch would be in 1997. Apparently you want to use the Russian rocket Zenit as a launcher.

The project faces many problems. On the one hand, it must achieve credibility and, on the other, the fact that the potential space port is in an area of seismic activity of the Pacific will not benefit you too much.