Slashdot Mirror
YAPSLP: Yet Another Private Space Launch Plan
rleyton writes: "The BBC is reporting here that UK Rocket enthusiast Steve Bennett of Starchaser Industries is planning on launching himself into space soon. He's unveiling a rocket at a London exhibition. Other Rocket enthusiasts here in the UK are claiming it's "Suicide", but perhaps the momentum for a manned Private Space exploration is building?" First step: buy more D engines.
Yeah, the A-Team could build anything. Oh, wait "a team", not the "A-Team". Nevermind.
(I pity the fool who can't spell "roketier" correctly!)
--
But then again, I could be wrong.
A long, long time ago
:).
I can still remember how the normal people got to space.
They got together with a team,
to fulfil a president's dream,
And be the ones to win the greatest race.
But now this loony makes me worry.
He seems to be in such a hurry.
He have deep enough pockets,
He's buying lots of rockets.
But I agree that if he tries,
To make his way into the sky,
Hop in, light up, and let it fly,
Then he will surely die.
Sing'n bye, bye crazy roketier guy.
Gonna fix a cement mixer to some rockets and fly.
But those who know say 'bennett's gonna die,
And if he does, nobody will cry',
Yeah if he dies, nobody will cry.
Thanks to Don McLean for one of the easiest to rewrite songs ever
Well-put.
I hope the guy makes it too, but I think he's toast.
You kiddies out there who've only watched "nice and slow barely-haul-yourself-off-the-pad" shuttle launches - solid rockets are capable of vicious acceleration.
I'm talking "supersonic by the time it's left the launch rail" vicious. Those of you who have ever seen a surface-to-air missile launch, you've got the right idea. (Those of you into model rocketry, scale up 36 or 72 times - as in, a full-size rocket clearing the launch pad in the same time as your model does! ;)
I don't know what kind of boosters he's using, but I'd sure like to. If someone this crazy is worried about the G forces on launch, I'm putting $5.00 on "The test vehicle launches, but turns him into a puddle of goo in the first second." (I've got another $5.00 on "The test vehicle crash-lands, but it didn't matter because the occupant was already goo before impact.")
On the off chance (maybe 25%) he survives the test flight, I've got $10.00 on "suffocates because he didn't think he had to test the pressure vessel", which I think is a 90%+ probability.
I think it's incredibly cool that he's got the brass ones to build a rocket and fly in it, and I definitely don't think the government should stop him from trying it (as long as he points the damn thing away from populated areas).
But I still don't think he's gonna make it.
Look at it this way, a lot of other private rocketeers are keeping an eye on Bennett and his launch efforts. Whatever happens, success or failure, they will gain from his experience. Bennet is a voluntary guinea pig. It sounds crazy but come to think of it, Christopher Columbus and his crew were willing guinea pigs too. They sure did not have the technology to send a self-piloted ship across the atlantic and back.
b) Steve Bennett is a self-aggrandizing loon.
If website design skills have anything to do with building space craft, these people aren't going to get further then Wales.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.