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Starchaser Plans Test Drop
cwalkden writes "Everybody's favourite amateur rocketman, Steve Bennett
has
unveiled his new space capsule that he hopes will get him one step closer to the edge of space. This one is due to undergo a test descent (with Steve inside) in Arizona. Earlier versions of Steve's capsules included one made with a cement mixer and some old joysticks." Our previous story was in 2001.
I think that was the name... anyone else remember that TV series with the home-made rocket where the capsule was made out of a cement truck's mixer?
I think their logo was a vulture... the whole idea was they made money by salvaging space junk (or something like that, I was a kid).
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From http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/ewm/newsletter/e wm302.html (near the bottom):
IMAGINE THE SPACE SHUTTLE BEING CARRIED by a team of men through the streets of New York. Well Hyde rocket man Steve Bennett had to have his team of assistants carry his rocket Starchaser 3a through the streets of Manchester. It had been on show at the Fab cafe theme bar, Portland St, and should have been taken to Salford University for a lecture, but the lorry booked to carry it was delayed, so it had to be transported using leg and shoulder power! Salford University lecturer Steve hopes to make it big through his rocket-building hobby-turned-business, and predicts a glowing future for space travel. Who knows, maybe in a few years time we'll be blasting off in one of Steve's rockets from Ringway to Mars on a late booking.
Anyway, he's been a local minor celebrity for years now, all the best to him.
No, I don't want a free iPod
The High Power rocketry community is fairly amused by Bennet.
A lot of his early tests, some of which were filmed for an X Prize documentary, appeared to be flights of a big model rocket, powered by commercially available rocket motors.
Nothing wrong with that, but you can't really learn anything of value by doing this that would be applicable in making a rocket capable of boosting a capsule to office.
I would be more impressed to see Bennet testing liquid fuel rocket motors. Amatuers on this side of the pond (e.g., the Pacific Rocket Society) have been doing this for YEARS without coming up with a "man rated" motor.
Stefan
Sounds like a darwin award is coming.
I can imagine him saying:
"no planning, no testing, I put my life on the line because I believe in my product."
Not the way to get investment $$.
From the previous BBC article (concerns over safety):
;-)
BBC News Online put these criticisms to Steve Bennett. He responded: "We are not planning any tests such as wind tunnel or vibration tests before we launch it. That is what the test flight is for."
Man this guy has serious balls
On a related note; there was a programme along the lines of ScrapHeap that aired a while back in the UK where 3 teams from the UK, USA and France (I think) were given the task of building aircraft with the eventual goal of competing for maximum distance, and controllability (they had to land on a line). The caveat was that only tools and materials from the Wright brother's era were allowed to build the craft.
Anyway, come the day, the French and US teams had based their craft upon proven designs, whereas the UK entry was just made up out of thin air so nobody knew quite what would happen! The teams took it in turns to test; the French pilot got his plane rolling and practiced a few hops a few feet in the air. The US team did something similar, but with a little more height, and damaged their craft a bit.
Now the UK team went for their "test run". The pilot gave it full throttle and launched himself into orbit (one of the ground crew mentioned the pilot was "a bit of a nutter") - the thing was hundred of feet up, the pilot - big shit-eating grin plastered across his face was throwing it around the sky for several minutes before making a perfect landing in front of the astonished opponents! It was so utterly irresponsible, but cool at the same time - not testing, just give it some welly and see what happens. Brilliant!
Obviously the UK entry won pretty convincingly in the real flight.
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
Nice guy. Too bad he's dooming himself to a hopeless death by crashing in a firey, ill-conceived life's dream of his.
Not a bad way to go really!
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Bad comparisons. Here's a better one.
The year is 1650. We've already made a couple of voyages to the new colonies. Everyone says that if you want to go there on your own, you need to spend a lot of money: building a rather large ship with multiple masts, training a crew of sailors to operate it, filling it with provisions for the journey, etc. Even if you plan ahead and take every precaution, it's still a perilous journey.
Steve Bennett claims that he can get to America on a tiny single-mast vessel made out of cheap wood by himself. If people point out the problems in this -- catching enough wind to move, rowing when there's no wind, lack of room for food, etc. he blows them off as saying that they're afraid of him accomplishing the impossible.
In all likelihood, he's going to end up drowning in the Pacific.
I mean, seriously. The man has never had any astronaut training, never been subjected to high Gs, and his last press frenzy involves him strapping a bunch of rockets to a converted cement mixer and launching himself into the air. That's nearly 12 Gs of acceleration -- we feed high-oxygen air to fighter pilots who experience 3 or 4 Gs at best to keep them from blacking out.
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Enjoy.
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