Mowgli1647545497 Posted June 21, 2004 Report Share Posted June 21, 2004 Very nice, way to go! http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2004/TECH/space/06/21/suborbital.test/vert.pilot.landing.ap.jpg Here's CNN's news blip on it. Talk about low tech: cable and wire control linkages (its actually flown by the pilot, there's a thought). Oh - and that ship burns old tire rubber to make thrust, no kidding. http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2004/06/21/image625099.jpg http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2004/06/21/image625063.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olds455 Posted June 21, 2004 Report Share Posted June 21, 2004 That is AWESOME! graemlins/thumb.gifgraemlins/thumb.gif Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallard Posted June 21, 2004 Report Share Posted June 21, 2004 Awesome! Although not X Prize winning. I will be keeping and eye out for when they attempt that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mowgli1647545497 Posted June 21, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2004 Ansari's X Prize, $10 million. They've already got $20 million in it, and Ratan's said ~they weren't inspired by the X Prize, but they'll take the cash infusion when they get it, lol. I thought that was a nice way of putting it. X Prize aside, that was history right there and it snuck up on me, Ratan and Melvill's names are going in the books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nevarmore Posted June 21, 2004 Report Share Posted June 21, 2004 Originally posted by Mallard: Awesome! Although not X Prize winning. I will be keeping and eye out for when they attempt that.They're 95% as far as the X-Prize goes. The have to get it up and down one more time. The amazing thing is that they only have $20 million into it. Think about it. NASA has a several BILLION dollar budget. Admittedly Scaled Composites has probably read and referenced a lot of NASA funded research, but to go from other to space on that little money is still a massive savings from government funded space exploration. The X-Prize is targeted at jump starting space tourism. I think that is a very good first step. People wil pay a lot of money to go up and have a look around and get a bit floaty. From there funds are available to do something a little less frivolous. This is proof that when allowed to do something, the free market and privateer teams can succeed. The FAA seems to be the last regulatory agency that pays the slightest bit of attention to the little guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex1647545498 Posted June 21, 2004 Report Share Posted June 21, 2004 That's pretty sweet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stvbreal Posted June 21, 2004 Report Share Posted June 21, 2004 Next will be warp speed. Make it so number 1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Science Abuse Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Originally posted by Rotary Jihad: The amazing thing is that they only have $20 million into it. Lifting bodies own j00, though that thing would qualify as a hybrid. To wint he X prize, they have a hundred some odd thousand feet left to go, and they not only have to do it twice, but within a given time as well, I think its a few days. At this point, the ten mill means jack, they rock, AND their company name is all over the news, cant beat that. supposedly some system failed on descent, and they went to the back up, any more detailed info on that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mowgli1647545497 Posted June 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Originally posted by Rotary Jihad: The FAA seems to be the last regulatory agency that pays the slightest bit of attention to the little guy. Nailed it right on the head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ponyfreak Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 This trip does not count towards the X prize. THey did not have enough weight in the rocket. THe rules state that it has to clear 100Km and have the weight of 3 persons on board. THey will however try for the X prize in 2-3 months. YOu have to have two sucessful flights in the course of a fortnight(14days). They did have a system fail on launch and had to go to backup. That is why the rocket BARELY broke the 100Km mark. (only surpased it by 500 feet) More info can be found here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5261571/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maro Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 graemlins/thumb.gif AWESOME! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HotCarl Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 when i first read about the X-prize i remember reading that the team had to do it with a budget of a million dollars? i think it's cool none the less, but this project was also bankrolled by a microsoft exec. who's name escape's me at the moment. And no it wasn't Bill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mowgli1647545497 Posted June 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Paul Allen. Who's right up there with Bill, pert near. The two of them are probably going to get matching rockets. And it'd cost them less apiece relatively than most of us buying a beater car. By way of comparison, $20 million is relative to Bill's annual income like 4 days income or some such. And Allen is right there as a co-founder. *sigh* Money is nice... "Hey Bill, Paul here, lets go buy us some rockets! I'm getting a blue one." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractor Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Your right that is very impressive to do it for only a little more than $20M. I'm not sure how much of NASA's budget is actually put into the shuttle program, but initially the program was sold to congress in the 1960 and 70's to cost only $10M per launch, but we all know it probably exceeds 15 times that in reality. I've read papers where congress states that they are pretty pissed about that one still. If these guys or some private company finds a way to get adverage people into space cheaply and also say satelites I'm willing to bet there will be competition and a true space age will begin. Look at our beloved automobiles in the early 1900's. Don't know about you all, but I'd love to be going for a lisense to pilot a space craft. I'm pretty damn close to going for a pilots lisense anyway. Evan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ponyfreak Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 I read that it costs NASA a minimum $450million to launch a shuttle into space these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Science Abuse Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Originally posted by Ponyfreak.: I read that it costs NASA a minimum $450million to launch a shuttle into space these days. beacuse NASA has alot more shit to do. They are a govenment funded agency, which means they CAN NOT EVER LOOK BAD!! Why? Beacuse people are stupid. People see a failed mission and say "why are we letting them waste our taxes if they cant get shit right?", completely neglecting hte fact that the shoe string budget is spread so thin that they cant afford new shit. why? Beacuse NASA is super focused on quality, because failures are huge setbacks (i.e challenger, columbia). So, why does NASA cost so much? many reasons, the bigest ones being: 1-They incur the initial cost of reaserch and development. This is very expensive because it involves experimentation, trial and error, etc. This private flight would not have happened if it werent for the readily available data that NASA aquired and published over the years, expesively aquired data. 2- Redundant systems. They NEED thier shuttles to come back. There's 7 times as many people on the shuttle, they spend alot more time aloft, and they have backup after backup after backup. This private mission was so cheap for the simple fact that...well, it was so cheap. Compare it to the average NASA training craft and you'll find it sorely out classed in the tech department. They did alot with very little, perspectively. Were NASA to spend $20mill to barely touch the ede of space, people would bitch about it being a waste. They did a great thing, but lets compare apples to apples. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ponyfreak Posted June 25, 2004 Report Share Posted June 25, 2004 I was mearly ansering Evan question in the previous post. "I'm not sure how much of NASA's budget is actually put into the shuttle program..." I was not comparing this to any NASA endeavors, mearly providing some info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Science Abuse Posted June 25, 2004 Report Share Posted June 25, 2004 wasn't so much for you as it was for the reading public Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractor Posted June 25, 2004 Report Share Posted June 25, 2004 I agree that they did alot of research in the past. Now very distant past. I feel they don't bother pushing the envelope anymore. Kinda strange that they don't take many risks up front but when it comes down to looking bad or taking a chance that the shuttle will come back safely they take the chance and destroy expensive equipment. The shuttle program is old junk now. Did anyone see the press release from NASA president after the release of the resaults of the Discovery accident? It basically went like this. "Yeah it sucks we lost a shuttle and 7 people died, but we learned our lesson and from now on every shuttle that makes it into orbit will be examined by military satelites for damage. If damage is found we will simply launch another shuttle to help repair the damage and in a worse case situation we will rescue the crew and remote pilot the shuttle in an unmanned reentry attempt." When I heard that statement I went about stupid and was cussing at the damned egotistical assholes and my wife was looking at me like WTF? If I were the guys giving money to NASA that press release would have me giving my check to the chinese or someone else ready to take real risks when real risks are necessary, IMO. And this shit is comming from a guy that loves the idea of space travel more than 99% of the people of this earth. Notice I didn't say alot about wasting lives? I believe if your going to ride on a rocket of this type your asking for it anyway so you know the risks. I'd just hate to think I had these dicks calling the shots that are going to kill me. Evan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.