comcn writes "The BBC have an article about an amateur "rocketeer" trying to send himself into space. 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."
Re:This guy...
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
"...is going to get the title Best Darwin Award Ever."
I hate the so-called "Darwin Awards" for their "HA-HA I'm *so* much smarter than these (often drunken) fools HA-HA"-attitude even though I generally like nasty humor, but I despise the attitude displayed in the above post even more. If the Wright who flew the first plane would have crashed and died, and you would have been there, would you have gloated "It's a good thing that imbecile cleansed himself from the gene pool"? I don't know how well this person has planned his rocket trip or even if he's sane, but I applaud him at attempting something I wouldn't have the guts to do.
Currently (about two nanoseconds after the story was posted) the above post has 3 +funnies, I hope that it goes down to -1 troll. But it probably won't, since joking about risky attempts that push the limits of human experience in the vein "HA-HA this idiot is gonna die HA-HA" is very, very popular on Slashdot.:-(
1500 meters not even close to space.
by
searleb
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
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.
Re:I dont think this is so cool
by
Chairboy
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
So true. Also, no way amateur programmers can equal the programming might of those professionals from Microsoft.
One man shooting himself into outer space wouldn't "kill NASA". Building space stations, going to the moon, getting rovers on Mars...etc is what the NASA teams have done.
People comparing this over-optimistic competition (I'm being generous in my choice of adjectives...it's a holiday) to feats achieved by NASA's scientists do nothing but belittle some of the finest minds in the world.
Commercial Rocketry
by
LazyDawg
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
If only NASA would act as a testbed facility, getting through the FAA red-tape with homebrew rockets instead of laughing at them and generally ignoring the X-prize type competitions.
Then I'd be a lot less worried about these amateurs strapping bombs to their behinds and vying for orbit. After a few failed launches, new laws will be implemented world-wide "for our protection" that prevent anyone but registered governmental space agencies from launching manned missions, and commercial spaceflight will be relegated to satellites and probes forever.
-- "Look at me, I invented the stove!" -- Ben Franklin
At least the thing got off the ground. Remember the old B&W movies (american and german rocketeers) where there are dozens of launches where the rocket falls over and spins crazily on the ground, completely destroying the launch site?
Or what about when it just gets off the ground, and then stalls back into an inferno?
NASA aren't in business. Atleast they aren't supposed to be. But not even billionaires seem to be able to get into the launch business due to NASA. Check out what Mr. Beal said when he left the launch platform business. But the competition from the Russians and other players is immense (they can launch for 1/4 the price of NASA), and NASA shows no sign of being able to compete, and are falling behind the price curve at a tremendous rate.
NASA's proportion of the space pie is shrinking- commercial operators, some of them NASA contractors are growing, and NASA can't grow due to it's fixed budget from the government- it's actually part of the government. That's a good thing in fact. Companies are supposed to grow, Governments can only grow by increasing taxation.
NASA should stick to what it's good at, exploration, not commercial launching.
--
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
Re:IS this really sensible ?
by
Chooker
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Hang on, aren't people getting slightly paranoid here? Have you ever thought that these anthrax scares from Usama (I mean him saying that he had it, not the actual anthrax letters that everyone believed came from him, and yes that is how you spell his name, check out: www.interpol.com/Public/Terrorism/Terrorists/mostw anted.asp ) were only done so that everyone would doubt their safety? Come one, get over it!
--
-- "I feel so cold, on hookers and gin... this mess we're in"
Slashdot Mirror
I hate the so-called "Darwin Awards" for their "HA-HA I'm *so* much smarter than these (often drunken) fools HA-HA"-attitude even though I generally like nasty humor, but I despise the attitude displayed in the above post even more. If the Wright who flew the first plane would have crashed and died, and you would have been there, would you have gloated "It's a good thing that imbecile cleansed himself from the gene pool"? I don't know how well this person has planned his rocket trip or even if he's sane, but I applaud him at attempting something I wouldn't have the guts to do.
Currently (about two nanoseconds after the story was posted) the above post has 3 +funnies, I hope that it goes down to -1 troll. But it probably won't, since joking about risky attempts that push the limits of human experience in the vein "HA-HA this idiot is gonna die HA-HA" is very, very popular on Slashdot. :-(
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.
So true. Also, no way amateur programmers can equal the programming might of those professionals from Microsoft.
One man shooting himself into outer space wouldn't "kill NASA". Building space stations, going to the moon, getting rovers on Mars...etc is what the NASA teams have done.
People comparing this over-optimistic competition (I'm being generous in my choice of adjectives...it's a holiday) to feats achieved by NASA's scientists do nothing but belittle some of the finest minds in the world.
If only NASA would act as a testbed facility, getting through the FAA red-tape with homebrew rockets instead of laughing at them and generally ignoring the X-prize type competitions.
Then I'd be a lot less worried about these amateurs strapping bombs to their behinds and vying for orbit. After a few failed launches, new laws will be implemented world-wide "for our protection" that prevent anyone but registered governmental space agencies from launching manned missions, and commercial spaceflight will be relegated to satellites and probes forever.
"Look at me, I invented the stove!" -- Ben Franklin
At least the thing got off the ground. Remember the old B&W movies (american and german rocketeers) where there are dozens of launches where the rocket falls over and spins crazily on the ground, completely destroying the launch site? Or what about when it just gets off the ground, and then stalls back into an inferno?
NASA aren't in business. Atleast they aren't supposed to be. But not even billionaires seem to be able to get into the launch business due to NASA. Check out what Mr. Beal said when he left the launch platform business. But the competition from the Russians and other players is immense (they can launch for 1/4 the price of NASA), and NASA shows no sign of being able to compete, and are falling behind the price curve at a tremendous rate.
NASA's proportion of the space pie is shrinking- commercial operators, some of them NASA contractors are growing, and NASA can't grow due to it's fixed budget from the government- it's actually part of the government. That's a good thing in fact. Companies are supposed to grow, Governments can only grow by increasing taxation.
NASA should stick to what it's good at, exploration, not commercial launching.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"Hang on, aren't people getting slightly paranoid here? Have you ever thought that these anthrax scares from Usama (I mean him saying that he had it, not the actual anthrax letters that everyone believed came from him, and yes that is how you spell his name, check out: www.interpol.com/Public/Terrorism/Terrorists/mostw anted.asp ) were only done so that everyone would doubt their safety? Come one, get over it!
--
"I feel so cold, on hookers and gin... this mess we're in"