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Getting Into The Private Space Race

Posted by timothy on from the go-fast-don't-turn-left dept.

powerbarr writes "This article has an excellent description of the issues of getting into the rocket industry without government funding and focuses on one startup that is doing it. Sea Launch is a subsidiary of American, Russian, Ukrainian, and Norwegian companies that has cheaper, more accurate, and more reliable launch system that is trying to compete with all the government sponsored systems that are more expensive and less reliable."

12 of 29 comments (clear)

  1. Let's Slashdot Outer Space by stoborrobots · · Score: 3, Funny

    All us techies can get together, launch in to outer space, and knock the "bad people" out with our open source rockets!!! ;-)

    --
    "Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
    1. Re:Let's Slashdot Outer Space by Dr.+Photo · · Score: 4, Funny

      All us techies can get together, launch in to outer space, and knock the "bad people" out with our open source rockets!!! ;-)

      1. Cramped quarters in space craft.
      2. Stale, recycled oxygen.
      3. Elbow-to-elbow with hundreds of geeks; many having personal hygiene no better than you or I!
      4. Male-to-female ratio: let's just say a rounding error could kill off the species.
      5. "Open source rockets" would be a terrible way to thank the thousands of people who eagerly volunteered to help you pack.

  2. I get it ... by stoborrobots · · Score: 5, Informative
    This is just Boeing trying to edge out Lockheed Martin...

    This private venture is 40% owned by Boeing

    Methinks there might be opportunities for British Aerospace and Concorde to start launching space missions...

    --
    "Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
  3. Repeat competition comments from previous article by stoborrobots · · Score: 3, Funny

    #include "http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/06/ 03/2322221"

    --
    "Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
  4. Rail Gun launches for payload planned ... by Ex-MislTech · · Score: 2, Offtopic

    http://www.totse.com/en/technology/science_technol ogy/railway.html

    quite alot to read to get the meat , but it is there .

    I think a high altitude rail gun suspended from a balloon
    platform at 160,000 ft would be best .

    NASA recently set a balloon record at 161,000 ft.

    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020 82 7063353.htm

    At that altitude it would not have to deal with the friction
    of 99% of the earth's atmosphere .

    At that altitude storms/weather does not affect launches ,
    there is no wind either .

    It would take ALOT of balloon power, but a good size payload
    could be shot into space repeatedly , and it could be powered
    by several different means .

    As hydrogen is light, it might be best as a fuel for the
    rail gun .

    Smaller ballons could carry up more hydrogen cylinders as
    needed .

    From 32 miles up firing at insane multi-mach speeds .

    Firing it once a day to get cargo into the same spot would
    put up so much more , so much faster for so much less than
    what the shuttle is currently doing .

    firing once a day would give you alot of time to charge
    the capacitor banks of the coil system .

    Peace,
    Ex-MislTech

    --
    google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
    1. Re:Rail Gun launches for payload planned ... by GigsVT · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You know about that newton guy right? Had a unit named after him?

      1. You need a balloon that is 100 times bigger to lift the same amount of weight where the atmosphere is 99% thinner.

      2. For every action...

      When you fire this thing, the balloon is going to recoil just as much as the projectile.

      BTW-I thought the files on totse were old BBS files and a lot of really weird stuff.

      --
      I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
    2. Re:Rail Gun launches for payload planned ... by Ex-MislTech · · Score: 2, Informative

      As for the weight differential you are right, it would
      require an enormous amount of lift to pull it off
      even with hydrogen balloons .

      The credits for the information aka references were at
      the bottom of the page .

      Of course you already knew that as you read the whole thing
      real fast and rapid fire responded to me .

      Oh well ...

      As for for the transfer of forces, the ballon platform is
      not capable of moving at mach speeds, and also E=MC(squared)
      so the mass of the platform, MANY tons is greater than
      that of a 450kg projectile like the US is already planning to
      launch from a mountain based rail gun .

      Furthermore planes already fire incredible weapons at
      sutained cyclic rates , like the A10 warthog , and they
      can stall if fired long enough .

      This is going to have one helluva kick for a fraction of a second .

      As you read the entire large article soooo fast you already
      knew that too .

      Peace,
      Ex-MislTech

      --
      google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
    3. Re:Rail Gun launches for payload planned ... by Ex-MislTech · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yes, it is lacking on the theory side , your right .

      Yes, you are correct, none of the articles are
      about balloon launches .

      The ballon raised platform is my own idea .

      But a short burst recoil is not going to move a
      huge multi-ton platform that much and you have to
      consider time constants in equations as well .

      Also the platform is going to have drag against
      the recoil .

      The short time constant, aka firing time, and
      the drag of the platform , ie. converting
      the recoil into acceleration of the huge platform
      has to be figured as well .

      Like firing a machine gun, the last round fired
      kicks the hardest , and recoil absorbers have been
      made .

      In army boot camp that I have not attended they
      fire the m16 off sensitive body parts to demonstrate this .

      Recoil can be dealt with .

      Larger issues are dealt with daily ...

      Peace,
      Ex-MislTech

      --
      google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
  5. This is Hardly a Non-Governmental Operation by kalamazoo904 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sea Launch is a joint project between Boeing, Energiya Ukrainiya, and a Norwegian company that makes oil platforms. All three are private companies, but they are tightly tied to their respective countries' military-industrial complexes. I'll take Elon Musk or Burt Rutan any day of the week and twice on Sunday over these guys. (Check previous Slashdot stories.)

    --
    Your friendly neighborhood nitpicker
    1. Re:This is Hardly a Non-Governmental Operation by powerbarr · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, Boeing is leaving the company out to dry because of how cheap they are. They directly compete with Boeing's much higher cost Delta rockets and Boeing really wants the company to fail. This is because of their merger with Lockheed Martin that got them into the rocket business after Sea Launch was set up.

      I was not aware that Burt Rutan is working on large rocket engines to enable geosynchronous orbit. The article is about the commercialization/privatization of space and how it compares to the airline industry (still heavily government subsidized in some cases) which found cheaper ways to do things in order to bring it down to costs the public could afford.

  6. Kinda cool! by macdaddy357 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does this remind anyone else of S.A.L.V.A.G.E.?

    --
    How ya like dat?
  7. Re:uh... one launch? by powerbarr · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, they've had one failure so far out of eight with another launch to occur on June 10. Still while only a few launches, this is pretty good start considering their competition and their costs are way less. Both XM Radio and Direct TV have used them to launch satellites.

    Here is a link to past launches