Australians to Build Spaceport on Christmas Island

Saint Aardvark the Carpeted writes: "CNN reports here that they're jumping into the satellite launching business by building a spaceport on Christmas Island. At only 10 degrees from the equator, the location offers cheaper launches for the launch vehicles, which the government has already agreed to buy from Russia in May."

Comments

Costs, international rivalry, crab crushing

[leonbrooks]

$52 million US is not going to buy you a spaceport

Well... the Oz military developed a gadget called a HoveRoc, a missile which you fire from a destroyer to fly off nearby and hover, making destroyerish noises (radio, sonar etc) to attract missiles. This cost them (including the first three operational missiles) something less than a fiftieth of the price for the US military to get asingle prototype hovering (no countermeasures yet, just hovering). Conservatively scaling the $US52M by that factor means you've really got a $2.5G spaceport... (-:

Also, a lot depends on what you mean by ``spaceport.'' $Oz100M can buy a lot of bulldozer time for pushing industrial wastes into pristine lagoons, plus a concrete jetty and a tin shed for the bloke who pushes the button.

To all the ecologists who just stood up, red-faced, to abuse the living daylights out of me, they'll probably really be building the launch pad in a closed bird-poo (phosphate) mine, and lagoons would be most unsuitable targets for landing and recovering inbound gear.

On the subject of the crabs, the gobbledok who proposed little tunnels under the road is invited to stand on one of said roads during the crab season. At this point, I'd like to remind you that these little blighters are so hard and sharp that they puncture modern car tyres.

Crab season only happens for a couple of days each year, but during those days you get many millions of crabs across the road. You'd basically have to build a very low elevated roadway (say, 50cm clear of the ground) to replace practically all of the roads, in order to help noticeably. The $Oz100M for the spaceport probably wouldn't cover that.

Many more crabs would be eaten by gulls or whatever than crushed by cars. Has your sense of proportion kicked in yet?

Re:Exhaust safe?

[PD]

Check out the hypergolic propellants that the proton uses. This is not your typical kerosine or H2 and LOX rocket. The propellants ignite on contact, and produce lots of nitrogen oxides. The exhaust is orange.

BTW, the U.S. Titan ICBM's used this same type of propellant.

Exhaust safe?

[mattr]

Russia is well-known for highly poisonous rocket exhaust, especially from the PROTON rocket. I seem to remember this being used recently. Does anyone know if this is true and whether the launch vehicles Australia purchased might be using something similar?

Re:Exhaust safe?

[GearheadShemTov]

The rocket they are talking about here is the old R7 booster, the rocket that launched the Sputnik and all Russian manned spacecraft (with the exception of their Buran shuttle, which only ever flew unmanned).

The project began in 1950, the design of the ICBM version was frozen in 1954, and the first flight occured in 1956. As of last year over 1,628 had been launched with a success rate of 97.5% for production models, pretty remarkable for a booster design nearing fifty years of service this decade.

The R7 and its derivatives use plain old kerosene and liquid oxygen, so the exhaust would be mostly H2O and CO2. I'm not sure what gas generator fuel it uses for its turbopumps, but that would be the only other exhaust that could possibly be toxic. I'm supposing it uses kerosene and LOX, but it may be using H2O2. In either case the exhaust products are quite benign.

If you are interested in finding out more about boosters and spacecraft of the world, check out astronautix.com.

-RLN

I'm an Alien, I'm an illegal alien...

[smallstepforman]

The term "illegal alien" contrieves a whole new meaning... Now other than Iraqi and Indonesian boat people, we have to deal with International Space Station refugees and political assylum seekers. Oh well, for the first time in Australian history we will be the ones shooting garbage into space rather than having it fall down into our backyards.

what??

[emok]

CNN is building a spaceport?!

Re:Payback

[cthugha]

The Earth rotates in an Easterly direction (Sun rises in the East, sets in the West), so the best launch direction is to the East. So we just might still get junk falling on us from failed launches :(.

Re:Environmental issues

[eXtro]

Actually, the red crabs thrive despite the massive number of them that get whacked every year by vehicular traffic. This suggests that there is some natural predator that normally kept them in check which is no longer present or that the number of them killed by traffic isn't an impact with respect to their birth rate.

The viaducts are a great idea when you're dealing with a population of wildlife that's being adversely affected by humanity. In this case at least from the little bit of information I've seen humanity is just acting as a check. For the individual red crab it may suck getting run over by a car, but statistically it might be the better thing unless other predators are introduced.

It's sort of like the anti-hunting people who complain about shooting bambi. I don't hunt, but I respect the right to hunt (according to laws etc). Since we've killed off most of their natural predators (wolves) deer populations run rampant in some places. This means that they often face starvation as food supplies go scarce. Reducing the population of deer (or more accurately, controlling) through hunting is more humane than just letting herds grow to the point where their food supply can't support them. Again, for the deer that is turned into steaks its a raw deal, but for the herd as a whole its a good thing.

Some of the facts

[spacechicken]

For those with questions;
i) The Aurora rocket being developed will use liquid oxygen/kerosene for all stages so the worst real pollutants will be CO2 and H2O.
ii) The best direction to launch is east.
iii) The project is completely private. The government is simply providing a funding boost to "get it off the ground" in anticipation of job creation/taxes/exports.
iv) See here for more info