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One of the X-Prize competitors had the same idea. http://www.davinciproject.com/

Details I find are always sparse on the website, but here
http://davinciproject.com/news/index.php

Well, I went and looked it up. It seems that EV really does refer to speed rather than the energy required to attain that speed. I can see where you're coming from in (b), but I don't think it's quite right.

For example, take The da Vinchi Project. They will (eventually, possibly :p) use a helium balloon to lift their rocket to a high-altitude before firing its engines. I do not know how much energy is required to fill a helium balloon, but I'm sure that if the rocket was capable of reaching EV, the total energy expended by both balloon and rocket stages would be significantly less than if the rocket launched from the ground.

Lofting with balloons would be a better way to go.

The DaVinci project (one of the Ansari competitors) are going to hoist their rocket out of the thick part of the atmosphere via balloon.

The Canadian Arrow team recently had a successful test firing of their engine. (They are the ones who set up the world's first private astronaut training centre.) The DaVinci team is likely to be the second private team into space.

Space tourism and Extreme space diving are not going to be profitable. The next phase is likely going to be a private satellite launch system. However, I could see a new "X-Prize" for private launch to low earth orbit as the next step.

The problem I have with prizes like the X-Prize and like this one, which have deadlines, is that they encourage people to take risks which they might not otherwise take, in order to hit the deadline.

This is exactly the kind of thinking which caused the Challenger disaster.

Deadlines like those of the X-Prize and this new one create an incentive for unsafe behavior, as is being seen by the Da Vinci Project's insane plan to have their first test flight be a manned prize attempt.

I wish the deadlines would be reconsidered -- competition between teams should be enough to insure urgency.

The Golden Palace.com Space Program Powered by the da Vinci Project announced that it has revised its October 2nd planned flight to space in pursuit of the Ansari X PRIZE.

Given that they changed the name of the project to flatter their new sponsor, I find their flight patch graphic rather appropriate.

...on winning the price ?
Their sponsor is all into gambling, and I am sure that they don't want to make us believe that you can't win with gambling...

So let's play a little craps guys, bluf your way out, grab that one-armed bandit and cash that prize ! ...

I'm glad they are delaying their attempt because the glue gun in this picture has me worried.

DaVinci project and glue gun

They're not the only space-goers to take inflation into account.

As some of you already know, recently an online casino, GoldenPalace.com, put up money to fund the da Vinci project's X-Prize attempt. The project is now known as "The Golden Palace.Com Space Program". It seems that a couple days ago, GoldenPalace.com had some more publicity, with a man in a tutu, with "Golden Palace.com" written across his chest, jumping into the pool during an Olympic diving final.

BBC article link.

I'm concerned about Brian Feeney and his da Vinci Project. Apparently they may be planning to launch with no test flights in order to hit the deadline for the X Prize.

This is extremely risky, and perhaps suicidal. Rockets do, as we've seen, notoriously tend to blow up and otherwise malfunction in their initial testing.

NASA got it right because they tested over and over again and had a big budget to do so.

With the deadline fast approaching, it seems that some teams, like Feeney's, will be tempted to cut corners in order to have a chance of winning the X Prize.

Cutting corners and sticking to a timetable is what caused the Challenger disaster. I hope we don't see other lives lost as a result of this X Prize deadline.

I've been saying this for a while now and I'm telling all my friends... $500k isn't enough for a manned space flight. I love Burt's SpaceShipOne design, but this is a race that the underdog MUST win! The economy of space-travel needs to know that more than government contractors (Burt built up his knowledge and technology through gov't funding) can participate in the spaceflight market!

da Vinci has a donations button (http://www.davinciproject.com/beta/index.html) and they've got some great merchendise on cafepress.com (http://www.cafepress.com/davinciproject/)! I've done my part (bought the Blast-Off-Thong and the Rocket-Mug three weeks ago... Astronaut-Training-Jersey today)

Da Vinci needs resources. They need margin. They need contingency funding. They need pizza. Slashdot and the geek-revolution as a whole can contribute in a big way to making barn-storming space travel a reality. NASA/Boeing/Lockheed/and now Rutan have given us the Rolls-Royce... we need someone to give us the Model-T. I'm sure even a small donation or merch purchase would be put to good use by Da Vinci. Go for it!

Imagine, gambling and strippers in space!

Oops. I'm a web developer and can't form a simple link. :)

here (real link this time)

There's very little new information available from their website Da Vinci, but you can always look to the X-prize site for information about the teams. I personally think that the development of many different ways of reaching your goal is the best way to go -- facilitating as much development of future technology as possible! (Which is probably the whole point of this anyway.)

Nobody considers Armadillo anywhere near close. The other team that's close is Da Vinci project. They are the only other team that's actually got hardware constructed with any amount of testing (photos) done on it. Thier schedule calls for the first sub-orbital test flights in august of this year, and they are the only X-Prize team other than scaled actually planning to fly this summer. they are also the only other team that has minor details like launch permits etc all wrapped up.

It won't be for this launch, or even the next one, but hopefully Canada will soon have companies making launch vehicles:
The da Vinci Project and Canadian Arrow are showing great potential!

I agree. While I love the idea of the X Prize, I believe it has over-shadowed the significance of what was done today.

That being said, go da Vinci Project!!

...using balloons to get up past most of the atmosphere?...I'm sure somebody else has come up with the idea, but is anybody pursuing it?

First done in the 1950's - my memory says Ford Aerospace, but several Google searches turned up no details.

One of the X-Prize contenders from Canada uses this model - The Da Vinci Project

The basic launch configuration is to lift the rocket using a reusable helium balloon to a launch altitude of 24,400 meters (80,000 feet).

--I'm sure somebody else has come up with the idea, but is anybody pursuing it?

Yes the Canadian Team called The da Vinci project

"The da Vinci Project, led by Brian Feeney of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, registered as a contender for the X PRIZE on June 2, 2000. A reusable helium balloon will lift our spacecraft, "Wild Fire" to an altitude of 80,000 feet. This is where Wild Fire's rocket engines will fire and propel the crew to the 100 km altitude goal -- space."

They developed the project in a kind of "open process" way; every people who wants to contribute is invited to join the project and can even open a local club in is university. They accept help from people of all fields: engineering, public relations, marketing etc...

"The all-volunteer da Vinci project is the largest volunteer technology project in Canadian history with upwards of 100,000 man-hours having been spent on the project thus far."

They amased a huge amount of sponsers and are well advanced in the project.

One variation possibility they have not covered possibly is the use as a platform for more conventional launches.

You mean, like the The Da Vinci Project's X Prize attempt?

To quote from their site, "A reusable helium balloon will lift our spacecraft, "Wild Fire" to an altitude of 80,000 feet. This is where Wild Fire's rocket engines will fire and propel the crew to the 100 km altitude goal -- space."

Why do you have to have skills in the matter to really care about it?

I have few skills that would help someone get to space, but I managed to build a website as a volunteer for one of the Ansari X Prize contenders. If I could have done more, I would have. I no longer maintain the site, but I'm hoping one day it will sound really cool when I tell my nephew that I was involved in something so ambitious (and hopefully important to the way we live our lives).

Re: "this continent" Not necessarily: Da Vinci and Canadian Arrow

The XPrize competitor da Vinci Project intends to use this idea. I don't know how feasable their proposal is.

The Davinci Project

And the

Canadian Arrow

I like Davinci Cause I Think Baloon Launch is a neet way around the masive amounts of fuel problem needed by most single stage rockets.

But the Arrow is more turist friendly (who wants to sit in a crampt rocket for hours while you raise to 40,000 feet)

and hey they a both Canadian...:D

Slashdot has reported on the Canadian entry into the XPrize contest. The DeVinci project intends to raise there rocket to high altitudes via baloon and launch from there. Perfect example of the KISS principle well applied.

Good Luck to them.

They have. have a look at The DaVinci Project

movie

some news: Canadian government is preparing itself for a top secret operation code name: "the da Vinci Project" to take over the world. Apparently a hot air baloon, a medium sized air to space and back to Earth missile and a large parachute will be used. The idea is to cover the rest of unpopulated area with large images of red maple leaves thus confusing the beavers into believing that the fall is coming with all the horrible consequences... 95 to 99 percent of population is expected to be eliminated from the face of the planet.
On the lighter note Appeals Court Denies Microsoft Request for Rehearing, more tba later.

I went to the guys site, and the tech is at the very least plausable. The Silver/H2O2 tech has proven itself (rocket powered dragster Sprit Of Australia - 300+ MPH/4.11 second 1/4 mile), and the rest seems not without merit. I think he'll land using the chute on his back - but he'll land.

Yes, he has a good shot at the Darwin Award to be sure, but he might actally be the first to collect the X Prize. What he proposes isn't any sillier than what these inventive people from my country intend to use to collect the $10M US (about $20CDN).

I myself salute his moxy and entrepreneurial spirit. No way I'd hit the button to light that candle.