Rocket racers target space

steve smyth — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:54:40 GMT

I'll take the lawn chair with weather balloons first!

Rocket racers target space

Rob, Utah — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:34:24 GMT

Beat Virgin Galactic? Yeah right!

Rutan is on his second generation. NO ONE else has come close to even a first generation.

Great competition, but please face reality.

Rocket racers target space

steve smyth — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:29:28 GMT

not to beat a dead horse, but what is a "sub-orbital spaceship"?
no such thing, Alan...
or are you of the mind that says outer space starts at the ground?

Rocket racers target space

Loren, SF Bay Area, CA — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:34:03 GMT

I've seen the videos of Armadillo's Lunar Lander flights. I think they've got a shot at this, but it'll probably take two years more than they say it will. I wish them luck.

Rocket racers target space

Allen, Oregon City, Oregon — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:13:52 GMT

Rob in Utah,

Don't dismiss Armadillo so quickly. From a technical standpoint, Rutan could have lofted a paying passenger into space years ago, when the Ansari X-Prize was won. Space Ship Two is a brand new vehicle, and Rutan will not fly paying passengers on it until he has taken his family up on it. You better believe the testing program will be extensive. In addition, the Virgin craft is much more complex technically than the Armadillo craft promises to be. There will be far more possible failure modes to check out. If Armadillo beats Virgin Galactic to space with paying passengers, it will not be because of superior technical prowess. It will be because they have chosen to solve an easier problem.

Rocket racers target space

Ann Brumm — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 05:24:19 GMT

Wow...looks like you've got all your ducks in a row!I will be keeping an eye on the the Rocket racers target space-Cosmic LOG.

Rocket racers target space

Alan Boyle — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:39:41 GMT

Steve, in my book a suborbital spaceship is anything that's designed to fly above 100 kilometers (boundary of outer space) but not go orbital. That would take in SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo as well as this proposed rocket ship. And Gaia Two, right? ;-) But not XCOR's Lynx Mark 1, since that isn't designed to crack the 100-kilometer mark.

By the way, it seems to me that this project would compete directly with what Blue Origin has been working on. Blue Origin, backed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, has been under deep cover lately. Might the financial reversals of the past few weeks may have an effect on Blue Origin's funding? If anyone has any updates on what they're up to, I'm sure we'd all dearly love to hear them.

Rocket racers target space

steve smyth — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 15:21:58 GMT

I was just funnin' witcha, Alan...the term seemed kinda Gonzo Oxymoron gone awry...
I believe in 'outer space starts at the ground' myself.
That makes falling leaves spaceships too, eh?
Right now there little red, orange, and yellow spaceships strewn all over the neighborhood...love it!
Don't forget...from the last milennium...
"Here is part of the Universe too...."
Nice to hear from you...Forge Ahead...

Rocket racers target space

Mark Younger — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 16:35:01 GMT

I'm very disappointed with this country now. We should be on Mars by now. So much of our country's wealth has been spent on buying votes, that our country is going to be a third rate space power in 20 years if we don't get back our old attitude. Watch the JFK speech in May 1961 and you will see how much we have wimped out since then. We have a country full of losers and whiners. Imagine someone on a wagon train in the 1800s wanting to sue the government for not protecting them from the risks of nature. Then think about New Orleans now. Imagine Lewis and Clark saying they won't go west because they might get hurt or that the government won't guarantee their safety. You see the problem. How much our spirit has changed.

Rocket racers target space

Frank Glover, Rochester, NY — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 17:17:57 GMT

"not to beat a dead horse, but what is a "sub-orbital spaceship"?"

Uh, one that goes above the altitude you consider 'space' to begin (generally taken to be 100km/62.5mi, but roll your own, if you like), but not making at least one complete pass around the Earth (and Vostok-1 did kind of split a hair on that one).

So, SpaceShipOne was sub-orbital. So was Freedom-7 and Liberty Bell-7, so are the paths ICBMs take. (The Soviet FOBS was technically sub-orbital, as they would have taken the long way around Earth to attack North American targets from the south, but did not constitute a 'space based weapon' that violates the Outer Space Treaty, by not making a full orbit.)

What you see as 'no such thing' has *plenty* of room for plenty of devices, and legal concerns...

Rocket racers target space

Robert Barnes Franklin Pa — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 20:44:01 GMT

Alan there is such a thing called a suborbital space craft. The first being the Mercury program. The last one was called Venture Star program that was scrapped because of price over rides. I worked on that program it was first called the X33 program because it was a prototype. Thank you Robert Barnes

Rocket racers target space

Bill Hensley, Houston, TX — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 22:51:29 GMT

Blue Origin has been very, very quiet lately, haven't they? No flights for 18 months and not a peep. If you can shake loose any news from there, Alan, my hat is off to you! I found out yesterday an old friend of mine went to work for them (from Amazon.com). I'm gonna have to call, but I doubt he'll spill the beans... :-)

Rocket racers target space

Ria J — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 03:39:41 GMT

Thanks for keeping it interesting

Rocket racers target space

Abhishek,delhi,delhi — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 05:08:00 GMT

This photo is just amazing and by the way what is the name of this rocket hi i am ABHISHEK

Rocket racers target space

Thomas Ashby, Calgary — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 21:16:36 GMT

That concept of spacecraft has potential issues relating to vertigo. A 360 deg view at such altitudes could make it only available to certain types of people. Like moutain climber types for instance who are well accustomed to fear of height. Someone could easily panic in such a case and make things quite unpleasant if not downright dangerous.

Gus Grissom was accused of panic when he allegedly "blew the hatch" on his Mercury craft that ended up sinking and he was highly trained !

Rocket racers target space

val stavrev, europe — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:42:09 GMT

Hire is something more about transparent habituated space modules:
http://www.sae.org/technical/papers/2008-01-2025
The transparent bubble for space flight is feasible but Armadillo visualization looks rather naïve.
They are too far from human rated vertical flight I thing.

Rocket racers target space

Michael M — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:55:25 GMT

I am actually worried that Armadillo will beat Virgin Galactic. Not because I care who does it first,but because I'm worried that Armadillo will have to cut corners to do it. Thats a very real risk. Fortunately,at this point I don't think it would derail the whole endeavor like it might have for the X-Prize flights.
If you think about it though, Scaled has a huge head start,and honestly a better more competent team. This is not to say that their competitors are not competent,but Scaled is just a whole different level of resources and talent,even if you don't count the fact that they are owned by Northrop,which potentially gives them access to expertise and technology to crack the occasional tough problem they might encounter. Unless their competition however has a brilliant idea no one has ever thought of before there is just no way for them to get something flying first. So far it does not seem to be the case.
All the basics are pretty well understood,its not a matter of coming up with something completely new,that turns out to be very simple to implement,but instead taking something that is relatively complex,and implementing hardware and making it fly. There are several techniques to get to these altitudes. Scaled has chose the X-15 route,with some interesting twists of their own.(shuttlecock re-entry,hybrid engine,etc) It worked well and many of the problems were discovered years ago. The other ways such as vertical launch from a booster rocket,which were tried have their own set of problems and solutions. Both are not trivial to implement. On the other hand,if you come up with something new,then its even worse,you have to figure out all the problems on your own.

On thing Armadillo seems to do unfortunately is underestimate the difficulty of their task. They did it during the X-Prize and seem to be doing it again. They were constantly talking about winning the X-Prize yet scaled was actually flying hardware while Armadillo didn't even have a working engine. To their credit however,they have tenacity. They are still out there,still building hardware and still trying. Thats not to be overlooked. Going from programmer to rocket science is a pretty big leap. Dont get me wrong,I'm actually impressed with what they have done. They have come farther than I would have thought. Their only real problem is making statements that are unrealistic. No matter how well you do,if you cant meet your own predictions,people get a bad image of you.