Intel Chip Set to Drive Data Systems for Private Spacecraft Venture

SAN FRANCISCO—The world's largest chip maker and a relatively little-known data storage company are teaming up to provide a major portion of the IT system for a space travel project that might one day turn into a commercial venture.

Intel is providing its new "Tolapai" chip set, and Dot Hill Systems, a small, independent storage array company, is handling all the data storage requirements.

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No, this isn't the Spaceship Two project headed by designer Burt Rutan and backed by maverick entrepreneur Richard Branson, who also is developing a commercial space bus.

This is the Hermes Spacecraft, a space shuttle designed by another entrepreneur, Morris Jarvis of Mesa, Ariz. Hermes is being developed on the premise that anyone should be able to take a trip into space.

But such a flight will never be cheap; a project spokesperson said a seat for one person will be about "the cost of a new car." However, anybody who's been auto shopping lately knows that you can buy a new Kia for tens of thousands of dollars less than, say, a new Maserati, so there's a lot of latitude in that statement.

Those tickets have to be expensive. Jarvis has said it will cost about $1.5 million to raise the craft skyward on a test flight with a helium balloon, and that launching it with a rocket engine would cost about $5.4 million. The ship will only carry a few people—most likely six to eight.

Specifically, Jarvis' business plan provides for space travelers paying $25,000 for a trip powered by a helium balloon and $100,000 for a rocket-powered ride.