Local firm's foray into the final frontier

One Thursday morning, project manager Lim Chia Chiang, 34, waited at a jetty with four colleagues from Singapore engineering company Hope Technik.

They carried several changes of clothes and, among them, one fishing rod.

Beside them on the same jetty were several French engineers who boarded a different boat.

Both craft set off, but in different directions. It would be several minutes before the boat with the five from Singapore realised that they were travelling in the wrong direction.

Several frantic calls from their mobile phones and one U-turn later, their boat found its way to a barge, where the other boat had already docked.

Their destination was the South China Sea, but everyone on board knew that the crew's ultimate destination was further away - and much higher up.

It was Labour Day - May 1 this year - and they were taking Singapore's first small step into space.

When Mr Peter Ho set up Hope Technik in 2006 with three partners to design and build race cars, shooting for the stars was the last thing on his mind.

Their expertise in engineering led to projects in unmanned vehicles and drones. Some of their work resulted in the new Red Rhino - the fiery-looking attack vehicle used by the Singapore Civil Defence Force.

Over the years, the company's projects gained international attention and caught the eye of aviation giant, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, which changed its name to Airbus Group in January this year.

Having worked on the idea of a space plane for more than a decade, Airbus said it was building a space jet which could take off like an aeroplane and carry four passengers to an altitude of 100km.

It had said in 2007 that it had no plans to enter the space travel business itself, but was keen to sell the plane to companies which would sell adventurous space travellers a ticket to ride.

However, it first needed a prototype.

HOPE TECHNIK AWARDED FULL PROJECT

When Airbus' defence and space division sought out Hope Technik in 2012, it already had a miniature prototype for wind-tunnel tests.

The next step was to make and test an actual plane in real-world conditions.

Airbus reckoned that Hope Technik could not only design the SpacePlane Demonstrator, but also build it from scratch. It awarded the company the full project in 2012.

Mr Ho recalled: "We were working with one of the largest companies in the world. You had to pull yourself up to that level."

Having spent 12 years in the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) flying drones, Mr Lim joined Hope Technik in 2011 to continue working on unmanned vehicles. He did not expect to lead the Airbus project.

His team, which included two software engineers, two mechanical engineers and three electrical engineers, worked 70-hour weeks for 14 months. They slaved away on the blueprints, tested the fibreglass resin which the company made especially for the prototype, and adjusted the final design for real-world conditions.

One challenge, noted Mr Lim, was in the excruciating precision needed for the prototype.

"With cars, you do not have to be so precise. Just take a hammer and make it fit. However, when you are talking about a 0.01mm variance, how do you qualify it?"

Cultural differences also pushed the project off to a slow start.

"We had conference calls and their engineers would say, 'Okay, okay'. It took us several months to realise that when they said 'okay', it meant they understood what we were saying and not that everything was okay."

The objective for the quarter-scale prototype, called the SpacePlane Demonstrator, was to measure the descent of the craft and its aerodynamics.

Weighing 150kg, the prototype was 4.6m long, 2.5m tall and had a wingspan of 4m. It was meant to be lifted to an altitude of 3,048m and released.

Prior to the Labour Day launch, the builders took the prototype out to sea twice in April, to make sure it was airworthy and could be attached to the special harness made by Airbus (see other story).

Neither Airbus nor Hope Technik would discuss how much the project cost. Mr Christophe Chavagnac, SpacePlane programs manager and chief engineer at Airbus Defence and Space division, had only good things to say of the Singapore company and the work they put in.

He said: "We were looking for an SME which was in the business of aircraft assembly and Hope Technik managed to achieve what we needed within two years."

PROTOTYPE LIFTS OFF

At a secret location about 100km east of Singapore, the Singapore team on the barge started work by securing their project to an AS350 B3e Ecureuil helicopter operated by Airbus Helicopters South-east Asia.

In the control room, the same Airbus pilot who tested the wind-tunnel prototype would handle the special-control module which he and Hope Technik had developed.

Standing on the deck, Mr Lim watched as an ex-RSAF pilot manoeuvred the helicopter which lifted the prototype from the barge.

Earlier that day, a ferry boat ferrying Mr Ho and several high-level Airbus executives had arrived on the barge to witness the first launch.

In the control room, Hope Technik electrical engineer Lim Hewei, 30, waited with several French Airbus engineers.

Several stared into the sky in the general direction of the helicopter.

"Everything was quiet until the plane descended and then a lot of French words came out," Mr Lim said of the prototype's launch.

However, there was no need to pardon their French. The first drop was a success and its data was being collected on the barge. Soon after the launch came word that there had been a controlled crash of the prototype out at sea.

Mr Lim looked at his watch. From lift-off to splashdown, only 30 minutes had passed. Those minutes had seemed like an eternity to the Hope Technik team.

The team was prepared for another flight, but there was no need for one. Airbus had collected enough data from the first test and was happy with the information.

However, before the barge returned to shore, out came several dozen fishing rods from the Airbus team.

Work was over and it was time to relax. Alongside the celebratory wine, the crew started a barbecue which used only the freshest seafood caught by the anglers.

The Singaporeans had to make do with only one fishing rod. Their French partners, they said, did not tell them they could bring more on board.

Mr Chavagnac told Digital Life it would take several years to analyse and study the data and, until then, no more tests were scheduled.

Mr Ho would not say if Hope Technik had been contracted for a follow-up.

Airbus officials had said earlier that if this test went well, it would want to drop the prototype from 30,000m using a stratospheric balloon next year.

Asked where the SpacePlane Demonstrator was, Mr Ho shrugged, smiled and said: "Airbus paid for the entire project, so the prototype belongs to them."

After the interview at the firm's headquarters in Jurong, Mr Ho took me on a tour of the building.

Our last stop was outside a closed door on the third floor.

Mr Ho pointed to the door and said: "That's our secret room where many of our projects are being made. I can't take you inside, but if you were to look in, you may see a prototype plane."

Five things to know about space tourism

Space tourism, or personal spaceflight, is a relatively new way of privatising what has been hitherto the monopoly of governments.

Now, companies are offering adventurous travellers the chance to experience space travel.

American engineer and millionaire Dennis Tito is widely recognised as the world's first space tourist. He is reported to have paid the Russian Federal Space Agency US$20 million (S$25 million) for his 2001 trip, which lasted seven days, 22 hours and four minutes.

Several start-up companies have been formed with the intention of offering space flight to tourists. They include Virgin Galactic, a British company in Richard Branson's Virgin Group; and SpaceX, a space-transport company founded by Mr Elon Musk, Tesla Motors' chief executive officer.

A suborbital flight is a spaceflight which goes into space, but does not complete a full circle around the Earth. In this case, an orbital revolution is when a plane moves around the Earth.

Flying at an altitude higher than 100km above sea level is generally recognised as having achieved a suborbital spaceflight.

A low Earth orbit spaceflight is achieved at an altitude of 160km, with an orbital period - the time taken to orbit - of 88 minutes.

Manned space stations and most satellites operate in low Earth orbit.

Aside from private companies which are designing and building their own spacecraft, aeronautic giants, such as Boeing and Airbus, have also started working towards a similar goal.

Some companies are making vehicles for suborbital flights, while others are building ones intended for low Earth orbit.

Virgin Galactic has plans to offer suborbital spaceflights.

Boeing is working on the CST-100 Crew Space Transportation crew capsule, which will work with a rocket launch system for low Earth orbit flights which are meant to dock with a space station.

The Airbus Defence and Space SpacePlane is a rocket plane meant for suborbital space flights. Singapore company Hope Technik's prototype is for this project.

Not all companies have announced ticket prices for space flights, but tickets are expected to be priced from US$100,000 (S$125,000) for a quick hop into space to several million dollars for an extended stay.

US spaceflight company Xcor Space Expeditions is taking bookings for next year's launch of a spaceflight at an altitude of 100km.

It is priced at US$100,000. Virgin Galactic is taking reservations at US$250,000 a seat.

sherwinl@sph.com.sg

This article was published on Sept 3 in Digital Life, The Straits Times.

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