Slashdot Mirror
SpaceShipOne Completes Second Test Flight
waynegoode writes "According to an article at Space.com, Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne suborbital rocket plane made its second powered flight today. The piloted vehicle was powered by a hybrid rocket motor to over 105,000 feet. The engine burned for 40 seconds, zipping to Mach 2. SpaceShipOne is one of several projects competing for the $10 million X Prize. Slashdot mentioned yesterday that it received a license from the FAA, the first license for a suborbital rocket."
As only a casual X-Prize follower, SpaceShipOne is the only X-Prize contestant team name I can come up with off the top of my head now.
Is there any other team that's anywhere close to keeping SpaceShipOne's pace, or are they now the presumed winner of the X-Prize unless they really stumble?
Drat, someone beat me on the article submission. At least this time, the editors will finally have a decent reason to reject my submission, though.
Unless something goes seriously wrong with Scaled's program, it looks they've got the thing pretty much sewn up. The only serious competitors to Scaled right now are Carmack's Armadillo and those craaazy Canucks on the Da Vinci project. Given that this is almost exactly 1/3 of the way to the X Prize and that they already have broken the red tape barrier, I have trouble seeing anyone catching up to Rutan and crew at this point.
There is a very logical upgrade path from a suborbital to an orbital vehicle.
A manned suborbital vehicle going to 100km altitude needs a reaction control system to orient itself in a vacuum. It needs to be pressurized. And it needs a (small) heat shield.
So it really is a space craft that just does not have enough delta-v to make orbit.
By increasing the available delta-v incrementally you can work out the bugs much easier than if you had to do it all in one big step like they did with the shuttle.
A suborbital craft is also very interesting as a reusable first stage for a microsattelite launch vehicle. For example with the payload of the spaceship one and an expendable upper stage it should be possible to get about 10kg into low earth orbit. This would be very interesting for universities and radio amateurs that can not affor d a large launch vehicle.
The DOD has also shown some interest in microsattelites. This is a nice way to make some money while developing a real reusable orbital space craft.
Private property is the central institution of a free society (David Friedman)
Bah the prudes can rate me into oblivion, but I'm telling ya the average joe going into space is what will change everything.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
According to the rules they only have to have one person actually go up. They have to have accomodation for 3 passengers, but they can substitute an equivalent mass of inert payload instead. Since the ship has to fly twice in two weeks there is a strong incentive for it to make at least the first landing intact.
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
Actually, SpaceShip One is a shirtsleeve environment. The pilots don't wear pressure suits. I believe all the windows are double-paned, each of which would hold pressure by themselves. The environmental controls on the ship are pretty simple, there are scrubbers to remove CO2 and water vapor, and they have an oxygen bottle to bleed some oxygen into the cabin.
Pressure suits are a real pain, and they restrict the pilot's vision, hearing, and motion so much that it's really good if you can avoid them. SpaceShip One is no walk in the park to fly, the pilot really needs all the help he can get to fly it.
Godspeed, Burt.
thad
I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.
The X-Price vehicles itself will not compete with orbital launch vehicles. But they are a good way to learn how to build a real reusable space vehicle instead of just converted ICBMs like we have been doing for the last 50 years.
And there is a commercial rocket in production that is small compared to its competitors and has a reusable first stage. It will be used to launch satellites for the DOD, among others.
There are already plans to scale this vehicle up to a much larger size. And the first stage will still be reusable.
Private property is the central institution of a free society (David Friedman)
My understanding is that the Rutan craft will accelerate to a few times the speed of sound and then coast to 60 kilometers.
Remembering that achieving orbit is a matter of velocity, not altitude, is the Rutan design a dead end? I.e., could this design achieve orbit with the addition of a more powerful engine? (I know the easy answer is "Yes", but I'm asking if this particular design is capable of orbital flight.) If so, would the Rutan's rather unusual reentry approach work in a return from orbit?
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WYIAARS.