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We could deal with reentry the same way we do now. Alternatively, with an abundance of fuel, you could perhaps descend very differently. First maneuver to a low orbit. Then cancel out your momentum, and drop like rocket guy.

I don't know the numbers involved, so maybe this isn't practical even with a space elevator feeding you everything you need, but it sure would be nice not to have to worry about burning up in the Earth's atmosphere.

I met Gordo in July 2001 when he visted Rocket Guy. http://www.rocketguy.com/rocket/jul172001.html He was a fasinating person and still had a sparkle in his eye when talking about the old days. Even got to go to lunch with him when the TV crew took him to lunch. I miss the good old days when we had heroes like him.

and comparitively speaking a troll.

Seriously. This topic has been debated so much that I swear that this is some astro turfing by Boeing.

People are clamoring to get into space, and has been pointed out in many areas, even with this limited capability it still even has value for some research programs. This is a bridge builder, not a dead-end technology.

As has been pointed out many times, the flight distance of the original flight of the Wright Flyer was less than the wingspan of a 747. Does that mean it was a dead-end technology? In some ways yes. The flying system of a Wright flyer relied upon wing warping that has not been revisited until very recently, and that only in experimental aircraft. The body shifting a skilled pilot with that aircraft had to do is now really only used with hang-gliders, and even then it is much more refined. Even the later version of the aircraft were really only able to travel about 100 miles, and only under conditions we would call today VFR.

I do believe this is much more than symbolism. This is building infrastructure and bringing back the days of barnstorming, where pilots from WWI wanted to earn a few extra bucks, so they took an airplane (sometimes military surplus as well) and flew it around for "air shows" (usually just a simple demonstration... not the current rather extravagant versions we have now), and occasionally taking on a few passengers. With Spaceship One, this era of flight can be reborn, and it was during that critical era that aircraft technologies matured enough that passenger air service finally occured, ultimately leading to the DC-3 (a fun aircraft that I've actually flown in as a passenger on a regular commercial flight).

Right now, there isn't really anything between the Space Shuttle and the ship currently being built by the "Rocket Guy" Brian Walker And even Mr. Walker, while it may eventually work, still isn't even done.

Finally there is a system in place that can and will approve commercial space flight (as proved by Scaled Composites... they have the permit in hand). Technologies can and will be upgraded, and as just about every participant in the X-prize competition has been proving, you can get to space on less than the most exotic rockets and materials. Let's see where spaceflight can happen when you don't have contractors saying "it doesn't matter what the cost of building it is. Just get it up there." That leads to Shuttle launches that cost 1/2 Billion dollars each. This next flight of the shuttle will cost way over $1 Billion. I know that private companies could do that for considerably cheaper. Indeed, $1 Billion could cover the entire R&D budget, including FAA certification trials, of a whole launch system capable of putting seven astronauts at the ISS with extra cargo room for some expendable supplies. Why wouldn't NASA go that route instead? Just make an x-prize equivalent for the same money, and it will be going well before the shuttle is ready and flight-recertified itself. (Well... maybe, but then you might as well junk the entire shuttle program if an alternative program is close to launching).

If you don't think a $1 billion carrot for orbital characteristics would work, you really havn't been paying attention to the X-prize, have you? And that is money that will more than likely be spend in the the next two years anyway, why not put it to more valuable use?

You are probably thinking Brian "RocketGuy" Walker.
He hasnt made much of a progress as of late, due to personal life interfering.
You can follow all of those developments on HobbySpace RLV News and Space Log

Far cheaper than making it into real space, this rocket guy who'se been interviwed on slashdot before has plans for a 35-mile-high rocket like this for entertainment.

that this guy can do it faster better cheaper....

Yeah, not anybody like RocketGuy. Couldn't have anyone like that.

Well, the Rocket Guy isn't in IT, he's mainly a toy inventor. For that matter, I wouldn't call Carmack or Rutan IT guys, though "nerd" is probably appropriate. Who else are you thinking of as an IT guy trying to go into space?

I assume he could be, but up to now I hadn't even heard of him. I thought everybody's favorite was Brian Walker.

I've always been sceptical of the RocketGuy, but at least he has this part down and is distilling his own peroxide fuel (to 90% purity).

Of course he does have to buy it (at 50% purity), so maybe that's a problem now too.

I've always been sceptical of the RocketGuy, but at least he has this part down and is distilling his own peroxide fuel (to 90% purity).

Of course he does have to buy it (at 50% purity), so maybe that's a problem now too.

Not at all, he's still alive and going well - Check out his website.

What's more, I'm not counting on him blowing himself up. A lot of websites portrayed the guy as a nutbar who was a shoe-in for a Darwin award, but Rocket Guy certainly isn't an idiot. I wish him the best of luck, and I'm not counting out the possibility that he'll go and do it. Prepare for a major paradigm shift when that happens, because this guy will have put the capabilities of backyard tinkering to dizzying new heights (no pun intended)!

It's more than a little cool. Just 20 years ago something this technically sophisticated would have sounded impossible. Heck 20 years ago it might have cost NASA $500K, taken 2 years to develop, had half the features, and suffered a systems failure 17 seconds after launch.

We're jaded. We have no real sense of the size of things anymore. Rocket Guy is still talking about launching himself 30 miles straight up in a home-made rocket. Let's hope he does and he survives. But I'll predict now that the day after the event everyone here will shrug, bitch about his web server being /.ed, and say "it's been done before."

I wonder if this has any affect on Rocket Guy's, AKA Brian Walker, thinking... Bad things can happen.

Okay: Pessimist! Defeatist!

What I want to believe with all my heart is that there are, and will be, generations of hackers to work on such a project "Because We Can"(TM). Back in the cold war days these hackers received a lot of public funding. Right now they are on their own. But that doesn'tstop them from trying.

Maybe he'll run into Rocketguy Brian Walker, and it'll be a 2-for-1 Darwin Award.

I don't see why they didn't just try to convince Rocket Guy to let them borrow the rocket so they could go up pick some lunar rocks of their own! :)

Here's a bunch of recalled toys

Some of the cool ones I saw before I got bored:

• Now your kid can start their own Project Mayhem!
• I guess kids who wanted one of these will have to wait until they get older
• Does Firestone make toys?
• This would have been more ironic had it been a snowman.
• I guess some toy designers in China and Taiwan didn't read this

From my Estes rocket days, I remember the principle behind rocket stability was to have the center for force behind the center of mass.. That way, the rocket tends to 'weathervane' in the presence of a lateral force, such as a crosswind. The downside of course is that larger fins introduce drag, while extra mass reduces acceleration. However, the principle is simple, and fairly easy to simulate.

The more complex approach is to use a control system that aims the thruster to oppose any rotation that might occur in flight. This is much more difficult than using a heavy nose or large fins, because of the extra complexity involved in getting it to work right.

Looking at a rendering of his rocket, it looks like he's taking the simple approach of using large fins, combined with a fairly large/heavy nose section.

Oh...the children...

Congratulations on becoming engaged -- Natasha is beautiful. On what web site did you find her profile?

(Mod this up -- there are thousands of Slashdot readers who'd be very lucky to do as well as Rocket Guy in this department!)

The correct URL is:
http://www.rocketguy.com/rocket/032702_status.html

-Mike_L

Did this guy raid Bill Cosby's sweater closet? Click Here!

Nope. He got married. The so-called editors cannot be bothered to check links.

I was reading your March 2002 update, which tells of your finding love with Natasha, and becoming a father to Sergey.

Has your perspective now changed; do you worry of something going wrong, and have you considered backing out?

I hope RocketGuy makes it there before them.

Once there, they're meet up with Rocket Guy.

They're going to beat the Oregon Rocketguy. That's sad.

Guess it's not really a legend...Yet.

Here's a little inspiration for private efforts at spaceflight.

It's definitely cheap. I'm still holding my breath on the "crew survivability" issue.

Another person building their own spacecraft: THE ROCKETGUY This guy is in the US!

Well, uh, actually...

http://www.rocketguy.com/flash.html

http://www.artbell.com/rocketguy.html

How about a back yard space port?

URL is www.rocketguy.com

After the £7m prize was announced for the first non-commercial person to get into space, it seems there are now several people aiming to win it. Cool.

You make it seem like a new prize... this article is just talking about the same old X-Prize, which has been around since 1996. In fact, almost a year ago there was an article in the BBC discussing several of the contenders, and Bennett was generally talked about as being a crazy risk-taker, and least likely to win. Another (closer to home) competitor is toy-inventor Brian Walker (aka Rocket Guy, about whom there was a Slashdot article, but I can't find it as Slashdot's search is down), as well as famous aircraft designer Bert Rutan and his company Scaled Composites.

There are several other contenders, and lots of cool animations and info to be found at the X-Prize homepage.

1500 meters is dramatically different than the 100 kilometer reward and still significantly less than even Brian Walker's goal of 30 km. Even commercial airliners fly at approximately 9000 meters.

Still, it's nice to see that the guy got things off the ground and was able to rescue (and reuse?) some of the parts at the same time.

Brian Walker is an American who has had a lifelong dream of going into space. He's been working for a long time now to get there on his own. His website is here. His story is very interesting considering what all he's gone through to get this far. His launch date is set for May of 2002.

Not sure if it's been posted yet, but a guy out in Oregon is also working on something related to this.. Goes by RocketGuy

Everything he's worked on and gone through is pretty damn interesting, worth the read if you haven't heard of him.. He's set to launch in May of next year

In related news, Rocketguy is still scheduled for take off in May 2002. His project is even more impressive, in my opinion.

... or doesn't it count when you kill yourself in the process?

ask him to launch their satellite, it would be even cheaper!

Somebody ought to tell Rocketguy! Then, if he incorporated this, he might have a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding...

Ok... enough of that. Just a little joke to relax the people (including me) who are infuriated with the Sklyarov thing.

• Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Don't forget Rocket Guy!

Just hire a bunch of Rocketguys. They'll go up for some free beer and a Hooters gift certificate.

http://www.rocketguy.com/

Rocket Guy has a Web page. This has got to be one of the strangest looking rockets ever.

I've met him, and one of the people who works with him is one of my best friends from high school, who majored in physics and worked with a company at Edwards AFB in California developing experimental aircraft.

I think he'll succeed.

http://rocketguy.com/ is his website.

[RANT MODE ON]: I submitted this story a week ago, how is it that me, who has inside information on the subject, gets rejected, and this guy, who merely saw it on the NYT gets it posted?

2001-04-30 18:01:06 Manned Amateur Rocketry (articles,space) (rejected)

[RANT MODE OFF]

He was fined by the FAA. A decade later, he killed himself.

From The Los Angeles Times, 24 November 1993 (by Myrna Oliver, Times Staff Writer)

Larry Walters, who achieved dubious fame in 1982 when he piloted a lawn chair attached to helium balloons 16,000 feet above Long Beach, has committed suicide at the age of 44.

Walters died Oct. 6 after hiking to a remote spot in Angeles National Forest and shooting himself in the heart, his mother, Hazel Dunham, revealed Monday. She said relatives knew of no motive for the suicide. "It was something I had to do," Walters told The Times after his flight from San Pedro to Long Beach on July 2, 1982. "I had this dream for 20 years, and if I hadn't done it, I would have ended up in the funny farm."

Walters rigged 42 weather balloons to an aluminum lawn chair, pumped them full of helium and had two friends untether the craft, which he had dubbed "Inspiration I."

He took along a large bottle of soda, a parachute and a portable CB radio to alert air traffic to his presence. He also took a camera but later admitted, "I was so amazed by the view I didn't even take one picture."

Walters, a North Hollywood truck driver with no pilot or ballon training, spent about two hours aloft and soared up to 16,000 feet -- three miles -- startling at least two airline pilots and causing one to radio the Federal Aviation Administration.

Shivering in the high altitude, he used a pellet gun to pop balloons to come back to earth. On the way down, his balloons draped over power lines, blacking out a Long Beach neighborhood for 20 minutes.

The stunt earned Walters a $1,500 fine from the FAA, the top prize from the Bonehead Club of Dallas, the altitude record for gas-filled clustered balloons (which could not be officially recorded because he was unlicensed and unsanctioned) and international admiration. He appeared on "The Tonight Show" and was flown to New York to be on "Late Night With David Letterman," which he later described as "the most fun I've ever had."

"I didn't think that by fulfilling my goal in life -- my dream -- that would create such a stir," he later told The Times, "and make people laugh."

Walters abandoned his truck-driving job and went on the lecture circuit, remaining sporadically in demand at motivational seminars. But he said he never made much money from his innovative flight and was glad to keep his simple lifestyle.

He gave his "aircraft" -- the aluminum lawn chair -- to admiring neighborhood children after he landed, later regretting it.

In recent years, Walters hiked the San Gabriel Mountains and did volunteer work for the U.S. Forest Service.

"I love the peace and quiet," he told The Times in 1988. "Nature and I get along real well."

An Army vetern who served in Vietnam, Walters never married and had no children. He is survived by his mother and two sisters.

If something can go wrong, it will. That is why I think RocketGuy won't have a smooth ride, either. I wonder what safety factor he's building into his system?

I'm really hoping he doesn't actually try to store the distilled 90% pure hydrogen peroxide anywhere on his property. He will move from the status of "Local Character" to "Community Menace" very quickly.

I think amateur rocketry is a helluva lot of fun, and properly engineered rockets can even deliver satellite payloads. This guy's efforts are more of the "tinfoil helmet" variety, and shouldn't be confused with what some folks are actually doing to improve actual steam propelled rockets. Check out http://www.erps.org for a few interesting sidenotes on this engine type.