Canadian X-Prize Entry Gearing Up

lommer writes "The Globe and Mail has a piece up about the Canadian Da Vinci team which is making a bid for the X-prize. The team has finalized a launch location (Kindersley, Saskatchewan) and will announce a launch date this month. Meanwhile, Burt Rutan and Co. over at Scaled Composites appear to be back on track with a succesful test flight on March 11 after their December crash. One has to wonder, with launch dates being set, will some projects step up and attempt a flight without being fully ready for it?"

Comments

Don't worry too much

[AKAImBatman]

Rutan still has a *long* way to go. His craft has only made it up ~20km. That leaves him with about 80km to go. When he has more km behind him instead than ahead of him, then we'll talk.

Re:Don't worry too much

[pe1rxq]

On the bright side, he is one of the few to have an actuall live size vehicel flying....

Jeroen

Of course!

[Midnight Ryder]

One has to wonder, with launch dates being set, will some projects step up and attempt a flight without being fully ready for it?

Of course - this sort of venture always comes with risk, and one of 'em is pushing your timetable up because the other guy looks like he's about to win. Given what happens when you screw up with space flight, I'd expect to see a fatality or two occur in the next couple o' years.

And one should keep in mind: It's all fun and games until someone gets killed. Then it's a SPORT! :-)

Cue the Thunderbirds theme!

[AndroidCat]

X-Birds are go!

All these various projects gearing up is excellent, hopefully with one successfully taking the prize. (I only hope the rest don't just pack it in when one team wins.) Woohoo!

Launching from Saskatchewan?

[capz loc]

I understand the impracticalities of leaving Canada to launch, but it is my understanding that the reasons that NASA has headquarters in the south of the U.S. (Florida and Texas) is that the rotation of the earth, especially close to the equator, has significant velocity that the shuttles use as a "boost."

To far North for Intra Orbit Trajectory...

[SawChain]

Who picked Saskatchewan as a launch site??

Don't they understand that the closer to the equator they are, the greater the natural velocity of the vessel? By picking a trajectory so far North, they will have to burn more fuel to get the vehicle up to a speed which they would've gotten for free if they started somewhere closer to the equator.

The rotation of the Earth could help 'fling' the craft into the air, but instead, by going so far North, it's just going to help the craft spin (imaging launching a craft from the North pole...the rocket would be naturally spinning as it left the ground).

The question is the risk worth it?

[randall_burns]

I personally feel that a lot of pressing problems would be solved if humanity gets into space in a serious way. Quite simply, existing growth of energy and raw material apprears unlikely to continue without utilization of non-terrestrial materials. IMHO it is also likely that the type of sacrifices necessary to create an economically viable human presence in space is far less than the sacrifices that would be involved if a war is fought to settle the issues here(i.e. given the technological level of weaponry).

I personally see humanities choice as between creating an economically viable presence in space-and gradually moving industry there-as Gerard O'Neill at Princeton proposed-or facing the probability of nuclear war or worse. In light of that, I _do_ think that a lot of risk is warrented to create a human presence in space.

Even if I'm wrong here, people risk their lives for far less worthwhile objectives(i.e. look at the folks that die after drug overdoses, drunk driving accidents or of AIDS).

The folks that say the risk here isn't warrented are generally envious, cowardly whiners that know that noone like them has a shot at ever winning a competition of this nature--and are afraid that if someone else gets a little bit of increases status it will be that much less left for them. Such cowards have taken the earth to the brink of disaster. Playing it safe-and avoiding the search for poritive sum technological solutions to humanity's major problems is a major root of the enormous decimation of species and genocide of entire peoples--folks don't even put sigificant effort into conceiving of truly positive sum approaches to humanity's future they are so stuck in a narrow way of looking at the world.

Re:The question is the risk worth it?

[peacefinder]

Quite simply, existing growth of energy and raw material apprears unlikely to continue without utilization of non-terrestrial materials.

Well, sure. Population growth can't continue indefinitely without running short of raw materials. (And room.)

But what raw materials are we talking about here? If I'm not mistaken, the only materials available in abundance in near space are metals, and we're pretty well set for them. Our future resource shortages are more likely to be along the lines of fresh water than iron ingots.

Given the energy expenditure involved in extracting additional raw materials and bringing them safely to Earth, it seems to me that the same energy would be better spent recycling the contents of our landfills, cleaning up watersheds, and slowing population growth.

(Besides, who said indefinite growth is even desireable? If we end up in a position where population pressure is forcing migration up the gravity well, a few rockets ain't gonna cut the mustard anyway.)

It's not that I'm not a space enthusiast; I am. I hope humanity does colonize off-planet one day. But I don't see how space is a necessary or sufficient component for positive-sum approaches.

Re:The question is the risk worth it?

[mosb1000]

It's true that it'd take a lot of energy to do anything in space using rockets, but that's not really the idea is it? The idea is that this kind of R&D will produce technologies capable of doing space travel efficiently. Moreover, they might lead to technologies that make every day life more efficient. You're right that we don't need infinite growth (population wise) as a species. In fact, as nations become industrialized, their birth rate usually drops (perhaps due to chemicals? work related stress? not wanting kids?). Whatever the reason, in maybe a dozen more decades overpopulation probably won't be an issue and the world's population will level out. Japan and (a lot of) Western Europe are already to the point where they no longer replacing their population (except through immigration). The real point is advancement. Perhaps as we develop space travel it will lead to a greater understanding of nature and the universe in general. More over, hopefully it will inspire people to increase their own understanding of the universe. Most important of all, perhaps it will allow people to put all their insignificant problems in perspective, and allow people to work together toward a better human society rather than merely squabbling about petty differences. Sadly these are all just the pipe dreams of a foolish young idealist, but I can dream, can't I?

Re:The question is the risk worth it?

[uberdave]

Quite simply, existing growth of energy and raw material apprears unlikely to continue without utilization of non-terrestrial materials.

Bunk and Hogwash! We have an entire planetful of resources right under our feet with a "class M" environment surrounding most of it. It will be decades, perhaps centuries, before we import more material from space than we export Space will not economically viable as a source of resources for at least a millennium. By that time we should have proper recycling in place, and have tempered our wasteful ways a little.

Re:Blast off thong

[Feanturi]

I've got to give them credit for creative funding!

Disturbing claim found in your link:

This product is designed to fit juniors.

I've also heard you can get "Porn Star" brand t-shirts in 10 year old sizes. There's something really wrong here.