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Rutan's SpaceshipOne Hits 200,000 Feet
An anonymous reader writes "Burt Rutan's privately-built SpaceshipOne is one step closer to winning the X-Prize after zooming to what witnesses say was somewhere around 200,000 feet on only its third powered flight. (See also the partial update from Scaled Composites.)"
Nearly 38 miles ... dayam, that's practically low earth orbit ...
zooming to what witnesses say was somewhere around 200,000 feet...
Can you even see Spaceship 1 at 200,000? If I recall, the engine cuts off and Spaceship 1 coasts up the rest of the way, so there is no trail to follow.
Isn't the goal 62.5 miles... that's about 330,000 feet.
They're getting awfully close. I get the distinct feeling this one is going to win it very soon.
Rutan's SpaceshipOne Hits 200,000 Feet
As it launched it turned 90 degrees and skimmed along an inch off the ground through the croud.
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
Chalk up another booming flight of the privately-backed SpaceShipOne
I don't know about everyone else, but I just hate it when my spaceship goes *boom*.
Rutan's SpaceshipOne Hits 200,000 Feet
So, did he make a quarter of the population of Mojave line up along the road and drive over their feet with the truck carrying SpaceShipOne?
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Vomit bags under seat.
BLING BLING. Meet the architecture that's changing everything.
Do the other teams go around hoping it will explode? That the pilot will break a leg? Just what is the socially accepted way to hope your competition fails?
Isn't that the name of the space ship Andy Griffith made to go get the garbage off the moon?
They could sell this Technology to the NKoreans and then they would have a working ICBM.
after zooming to what witnesses say was somewhere around 200,000 feet ...
..."
Witnesses looking up into the sky:
"Wow, that looks like, what, about 100,000
"Nah, looks more like, I'd say 200,000 feet to me."
"Ya, about 200,000 feet looks right."
The chick was hot.
I skimmed the article and didn't catch anything about the re-launch within the given time period. Are they going to try and reuse the vehicle anytime soon? This, IMHO, is one of the most interesting requirements of winning the X-Prize.
Anyone who's ever been on the tours at Kennedy Space Center knows that the space shuttle launches don't begin with the countdown. Rather, they begin when the space shuttle touches down and the crews start preparing the shuttle for re-launch. Given that it takes (took?) NASA a helluva long time to get the shuttles prepped for re-launch, I'm wondering how these teams in pursuit of the X-Prize are doing with their plans to quickly refuel and relaunch the craft(s) within the alloted time period.
-- Stu
/. ID under 2,000. I feel old now.
You've brought back many a memory of model rocketry. Bless the memory of Vern Estes.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Oh, well.
Don't forget to bring a towel!
"How would you like to get higher than you've ever been?"
"Become an astronaut? Sure!"
Well, that's two flights more than most spacecraft achieve.
Actually, the way I heard it, altitude is only 1/25 the trick to orbit. The other 24/25 is speed. I might presume that the kinetic energy necessary for LEO isn't really 24X the potential energy of that altitude, but perhaps that rather reflects hauling the fuel up there to build up the velocity. I need to sit down and do some math on this.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
It wasn't. Paul Allen is no longer of Microsoft, although he lives off the money he made when he still was part of it. Never mind where the money came from. If this takes off (pun intended), scaled up versions of the Rutan plane may one day bring us hypersonic passenger transport. From Amsterdam to New York in one hour, anyone? It'd be nice to see a private venture beat NASA, ESA and every other *SA out there. AND I would be first in line for the first intercontinental sub-orbital flight.
----- One learns to itch where one can scratch.
Keep in mind that this was paid by the Microsoft tax often ridiculed by slashdotters....
Well, the Linux community can do just as well!
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
I really, really want some videos of this or any other of SS1's test flights. Does anybody know if such things are out there to be downloaded?
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
Salvage 1 webpage
.. Blub falls right in the middle of the abstractness continuum. -- Paul Graham
How is John Carmack progressing with Armadillo Aerospace? The only major flights I keep hearing about are Rutan's.
Personally I've been rooting for Carmack, but thats probably because I've just been a long fan of all of his work..
Shotgun... & TheHawke is driving... :)
> Keep in mind that this was paid by the
> Microsoft tax often ridiculed by slashdotters....
Most of Paul Allen's money was from inflated Microsoft stock prices. Not actual money from Microsoft. Money from selling stock comes from investors and not Microsoft customers.
Granted that a lot of the Microsoft stock value comes from Microsofts bank account. However strictly speaking Paul Allen and Bill Gates got most of their fortunes from the investment community who bought shares.
The ratio is going to change with orbit level. Higher orbits require less velocity, so as you get higher the "trick" shifts toward the altitude when you higher, and toward velocity when you go low.
There is no easy way to orbit, in other ways.
Have to launch under it's own power (meaning the whole ship is reuseable)? Or is it ok if it uses external breakaway parts like the Shuttle?
-----
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?
he said 93Miles 150 KM not 93 km. if minimum stable orbit is 350km what is it in miles?
You must work for NASA right?
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Gravitation in LEO area is almost the same as here, on Earth.
By slashdotting? Although, i guess slashdotting is also ridiculed by /.ers, but it won't put you in orbit...
*ducks bad jokes involving burning webservers*
And the l33t shall inherit the 34r7h.
Here are links to the photos from the flight directly off their servers. Shot of earch in background... Apogee
LEO is Low Earth Orbit, so suborbital craft can never reach it.
The amount of this prize was, until recently, $6,000, which by itself would be a remarkable incentive. But thanks to Stargoat, this has been increased by a massive 50% to NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS. (US$)
If you're interested, get going! All it takes to get to Mars is a lot of imagination, thinking outside of the box, pro-active team playing and self-motivation. What are you waiting for?
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Personally, I find this private space race to be very inspiring. There are few things as beautiful and fun to watch as the human mind playing at what it enjoys.
I hope the XPrize is won this year, and that it inspires an interest in aerospace or other sciences amoung youth.
I can't remember if he was involved in XPrize or not, but there was a guy building a ship that used peroxide as his propellant. He was most definitely a back yard builder, he had his two huge tanks for his H202 in his garage. Does anyone remember who he was, or have a link to him? I was really interested in his project a while ago, but I've lost his url.
Th
Here is the actual information release from Scaled:
"Launch conditions were 46,000 feet and 120 knots. Motor light off occurred 10 seconds after release and the vehicle boosted smoothly to 150,000 feet and Mach 2.5. Subsequent coast to apogee of 211,400 feet. During a portion of the boost, the flight director display was inoperative, however the pilot continued the planned trajectory referencing the external horizon. Reaction control authority was as predicted and the vehicle recovered in feather experiencing 1.9M and 3.5G's. Feather oscillations were actively damped by the pilot and the wing was de-feathered starting at 55,000 feet. The onboard avionics was re-booted and a smooth and uneventful landing made to Mojave." - Scaled Composites LLC
So it looks like it went to 211,400 ft. Those witnesses knew what they were talking about.
An interesting component of attaining low orbit is that to attain velocity in a low orbit, you have to go through a lot more atmosphere. Unless you go straight up as far as you can, and try to make a sharp turn.
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
Of course you would. And unless you are incredibly rich, you'd be the first one turned away.
A scaled up SpaceShip one providing hypersonic passenger transport? Have you read what is going on here?
Link to Unicode and its links to Al-Qaeda is a a goatse/old man gay porn browser bomb.
The payload and the range of SpaceShipOne is less then a primitive Scud rocket. It does not have military value.
to ....... Mos Eisley
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
So you're spaceship never breaks the sound barrier? What is the technology you speak of and why haven't you entered the contest?
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Speed: 4520MPH/Mach 6.7 William Knight.
. html
Altitude: 354300 ft (107.9 km, 67.1 mi) Joseph Walker.
IIRC, the x prize contender would not necessarily break the height record, since it would only require an altitude of 100km or 330000 ft. However, the trick is the vehicle must (a) be privately funded, (b) be capable of carrying two passengers in addition to the pilot and (3) repeat the feat within two weeks.
Undoubtedly the X prize contestant will probably go the extra 7 km and break the altitude record for good measure.
FYI: William Knight recently passed away on May 7.
http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-050804a
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Most of Paul Allen's money was from inflated Microsoft stock prices. Not actual money from Microsoft. Money from selling stock comes from investors and not Microsoft customers.
And had Microsoft's practices been more, uh... responsible, their performance in the market wouldn't have been as good, they wouldn't have achieved the same level of dominance they did, and subsequently investors wouldn't have valued Microsoft's stock so high.
So while technically you're correct, the money Paul Allen made from Microsoft is only one or two steps removed from the actual business practices (eg: Microsoft tax) of the corporation.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
No if you're going very a geo sync orbit, which has a very high altitute mind you, but you don't have to get up much horizontal speed. Takes a bit to get up there I assume though..
Seeing as this thing is financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, I wonder if they're using Windows?
And I wonder, do they have a fallback on mechanical steering in case of crashes, like this ship does?
I presume that this is just coincidence, but it turns out that 41 miles is also the altitude for first-stage separation for Saturn V rockets going to the moon)
See the section How Apollo Got to The Moon.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
Two
No, that is from the previous flight. They'll presumably get this flight's pictures up in a day or two. Should be even more spectacular.
Unless you go straight up as far as you can, and try to make a sharp turn.
And have some magical engine capable of thrusting you to 17,000 mph in a short instant (and some kind of dampening field so you wont be killed from the acceleration)
That's why space vehicles curve backwards as they accelerate through the atmosphere so they have plenty of angular velocity once they reach the proper altitude. Maintaining orbit is all about getting to the proper angular speed tangental to the earth.
Orbitting the earth is much more difficult than touching space on a ballistic trajectory. You need way more engine power and heat ablative materials and design to handle the re-entry friction.
-
You're right. My spaceship never breaks the sound barrier because it travels in space where there are not enough particles to propogate a sound wave. Therefore, there is no sound barrier to break.
No if you're going very a geo sync orbit, which has a very high altitute mind you, but you don't have to get up much horizontal speed. Takes a bit to get up there I assume though..
In fact, it takes so many bits to get up there that it ends up being significantly more efficient to achieve LOE, and then perform two burns to effectively trade your horizontal component kenetic energy for "height." The vast majority of the earth's atmosphere is packed in around sea-level; doesn't take much altitude to negate drag effects w.r.t. horizontal acceleration.
As with Gates, most of Paul Allen's money was made in options to buy Microsoft stock. I suspect he still has considerable holdings of MS stock (and possibly options as well), thus his wealth increases as MS stock goes up. So, yeah, his wealth is probably still significantly tied to MS's revenue stream.
From Amsterdam to New York in one hour, anyone?
Man, I've been to Amsterdam. And let me tell you, there are a lot of folks there who think they're going a lot farther and faster than that. Just look for the young tourists in the coffeehouses.
Actually, the way I heard it, altitude is only 1/25 the trick to orbit. The other 24/25 is speed.
Mostly right. If you just put an object 500 miles above the Earthing, it'll start falling. To achieve orbit, you have to have enough velocity perpendicular to the pull of gravity that you move away from the planet as fast as you're falling.
Les Miserables Volume 1 now up with my reading of
Bummer for him, seeing as MS stock is where it was in late 98'. Time , 5-10-04
The world is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy to those who feel.
On April 1, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced it had issued to Scaled Composites the world's first license for a sub-orbital manned rocket flight.
XCOR Aerospace, also of Mojave, California, announced in April it had received a Reusable Launch Vehicle mission license from the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation.
NASA, DOT, FAA...
Forgive me for being cynical, but how many government agencies need to be involved? Do we really need this much agency and departmental overlap for this stuff?
Time to burn the newly minted Karma I guess.
As is mentioned in the parent post here, the X15 rocket plane essentially met the X-prize goals back in the 60's, but it never led to a LEO rocket plane. Granted it provided a lot of data that is used in spacecraft design, but it ended up being essentially a dead end.
I'm all for design of new methods of getting into space, and this doesn't really take up that many tax dollars, but I doubt it will lead directly to a private space plane.
I for one would have curtailed our manned effort (though not completely stopped it) before the ISS. The ISS should have awaited a real advance in getting to orbit, in fact it should have been predicated on it. Instead of making empty political statements about going to Mars, we should be investing in a catapult type infrastructure. A space cannon for bulk supplies like water and fuel. And a maglev assist launcher for manned and unmanned craft to get to mach 2 or 3. Even if we get Scram Jets working, they would benefit from not having to get above mach 2 or 3 with conventional rockets or jets.
This project would me a Mega-Project along the lines of the Panama Canal. A suitable place closer to the equator should be acquired (purchased not leased) and be designed to be brought online in stages, with additional land being reserved for additional (larger) launch slings once the concept proves itself.
Letter To Iran
not just a pair, but some skill too. IANAAE (... aerospace engineer) but AFAIK those tasks are normally handled by computers running very high speed feedback loops. sounds impressive. would the 'plane have been ripped apart if he hadn't damped those oscillations correctly? i've no idea :)
This is my Sig, this is my Gun. One is for Slashdot and one is for Fun.
The next one has to be orbit.
Though I suspect that any insurance companies will be loathe to bet on it.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
I can envision using SpaceShipOne as launch platform for a second unmanned stage that would place a small payload into LEO. The amateur's group booster on here yesterday might be able to do the job (it would go quite a bit faster at altitude as opposed to being launched though earth's atmosphere).
A most interesting titbit in that article that I don't see anyone else has mentioned is that they've applied for a licence to allow Mojave airport to also become an inland commercial spaceport.
;)
Like an airport.. but FOR SPACE! Wow!
This is amazingly cool news and almost could be straight out of the pages of a science fiction book. Perhaps in a few years it will be major center for space traffic and commerce?
Here's an idea on re-entry:
Thrust up and away from your current vector. If you can reduce your angular velocity with minimal encounter of atmosphere during the process, you can reduce your dependence on heat shielding.
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
> If this takes off (pun intended), scaled up versions of the Rutan plane may one day bring us hypersonic passenger transport. From Amsterdam to New York in one hour, anyone?
Ummmm, an hour? Try 2 hours of going through security while they check your underwear for large implements that you could attack someone with (no, really, I AM glad to see you!), an hour to get through immigration (shouldn't it be EMIgration on that end?), an hour taxi-ing around the airport (never flown through Amsterdam, but if it is even 1/2 of Heathrow...), an hour or two taxi-ing around JFK, an hour to get your luggage, another hour to clear customs/immigration (if you are lucky), and then who knows how the heck long for an expensive as heck taxi ride to anywhere.
If it wasn't for all that water in the way, might be more efficient to get in the Thrust SSC and bypass all the hassle.
The speed of sound is not affected by pressure. As long as you're not in a perfect vaccum, the temperature and composition of the material that you're in - however sparse - will have a sound barrier. In space, you're probably going faster than it. You're arguing that it won't propagate far. That is quite true. :)
"She was out of her depth in a shallow pool." -- Peggy Noonan on Sarah Palin
The reason why the X-15 didn't get any further was strictly political, not technological.
By the time the X-15 was doing its stuff, NASA was already gearing up for the Apollo program, and the ballistic missile guys (primarily lead by Von Braun, but it did involve others) were trying to push a competing program. It should be obvious who won that debate.
The Space Shuttle should have (and in a small part did) been a technological decendant of the X-15 project, but instead most of its design technologies came from the Saturn V program and its predecessors.
The promise of the X-15 was to have routine reusable aircraft for travel into space. The pilots of the X-15 were finally granted astronaut wings, but politcally even that wasn't really appreciated by the guys at NASA. The prep crew for the X-15 was just a dozen or so people, compared to the hundreds it took even for Alan Shepard to do his sub-orbital flight. It is indeed too bad that this research wasn't followed, but not because it was a technological dead-end. It wasn't followed simply because Congress in their infinite wisdom decided that programs of this nature should be cut. And it was almost impossible to get a follow-on project to go this route.
Space Ship One really is the heir apparent now of the X-15 flights, and you had better believe that Burt Rutan knows just about all there is to know about the X-15 flights... probabally a world-class expert on the subject.
Other X-class projects have been done since the X-15 (Notably the X-33) and they have all suffered with political problems coming from folks at NASA thinking they (the X-projects) are mussling into their turf. The X-prize was even named that in honor of these X-class planes and the potential they could have had if they hadn't been abandoned.
The inspiring thing is that this ship goes higher and higher, pushing the materials and seeking refinements on what they already have.
Finally, remember the saying of Robert A. Heinlein: "Low-earth orbit is half-way to the rest of the entire solar system."
That sums up the importance of these flights. If refinements of materials and general ship design gradually lead to something that goes into orbit or even can leave the earth's gravity (like the Apollo missions), the age of manned planetary exploration will truly begin. Eventually, if you keep getting higher and higher, you are going to run out of altitude to the point that it really doesn't matter any more. You will be in orbit regardless.
Gravity has a non linier drop off there actually IS less gravity further away, even if you're not falling, ie orbiting.
And while I'm at it. You can orbit 2" off the ground if you're going fast enough, just you'll hit something, even air and slow down and crash and die.
mmm vacume of space
Hey, did you touch my bum?
typo perhaps?
350km is 217 miles. why would you need to work for nasa to figure that out?
Scale'd launch journal puts it at 211,400 feet at apogee. I would imagine this is from the craft, not from "witnesses". Why the original story didn't link to this and use this number, is beyond me...
Technically, that's wrong. The speed of sound, as you've correctly mentioned, is related to gas constants and the temperature of the gas. However, a simple substitution using the equation of state demonstrates the relationship between the speed of sound and the ambient pressure. Regardless, the speed of sound is affected by pressure.
Now, at extremely high altitude (p ~ a few mb) the speed of sound is remarkably slow. Perhaps more interestingly, the idea of what exactly constitutes a gas at this altitude makes the notion of a speed of sound in space somewhat muddled, which is probably what grandparent poster was thinking about.
But what does my opinion matter, I just vote here. It's not like I have any money or anything.
Don't you mean the Ansari X Prize?
Would that make it all OK?
So, now, can I go rob a 7/11, donate the proceeds ( see how I hide robbery in nice business terms... ) to charity? No police coming for me?
emt 377 emt 4
google it. You "must work for NASA" (make that Lockheed Martin) if you get your units wrong.
Six score characters.
Brevity being wit's soul
I have enough space.
Cole's Axiom: The sum of the intelligence on the planet is a constant. The population is growing.
From Amsterdam to New York in one hour, anyone?
Reminds me of that commercial where it shows two guys rocketing across Interstate 15 from Los Angeles to Vegas all ready to party and then it cuts to them 30 minutes later, driving back from Vegas with their hair standing straight up, sun and smoke burned and that permanent look of surprise stuck on their faces.
ma = mv^2/r
F = GMm/r^2 so v^2 = GMm/r
So kinetic energy K = m/2 GM/r
Potential energy, though, is defined as the integral from an infinite distance to the current radius:
U = GMm/r
Oddly enough, this means that the kinetic energy is always half the potential energy for a circular orbit (2K = U)
Also, note that if your kinetic energy equals or exceeds your potential, then you're at or above escape velocity and aren't in orbit any more (Vescape^2 = GM/r).
"There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
I'm not sure what you meant by "a simple substitution using the equation of state demonstrates the relationship between the speed of sound and the ambient pressure". I should have been more clear and specified "in an ideal gas" (which air is close to, although not exactly), but you know what I meant. The formula for the speed of sound is sqrt(kRT), where k is the adiabatic index, R is the gas constant, and T is the temperature in kelvins. The adiabatic constant for an ideal gas is fixed, R is fixed, and we've declared T to be constant, so the speed of sound is constant.
In higher altitudes in the troposphere, the speed of sound slows down because of lower temperature. Outside of it, temperature really varies depending where in space you are, as you have different compositions of gasses, and, as you mentioned, it's hard to say just what is a gas, so it really varies.
"She was out of her depth in a shallow pool." -- Peggy Noonan on Sarah Palin
Achieving this goal makes it more apparent that the barriers are not as high as ones thinking makes them.
Before this prize is won, conventional wisdom was ( is ) that it takes Governmental levels of investment of money, time, etc, etc.. After, the psychological barriers will be lower. It will be "thinkable", where before it was not.
*That* is where this prize is important. That and getting the ball rolling, however weakly.
emt 377 emt 4
At least that's better than when it goes "Hiss"
SS1 doesnt have heat shields for reentry. It's basic aerodynamic design doesn't really take re-entry into account.
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To put this in perspective, the amount of energy you need to expend to get sufficient horizontal velocity (about 7 miles per second), if expended going straight up (like the X-Prize people are doing), would take you 700 miles high.
In simple terms, going 50 miles straight up is dealing with about one fourteenth the amount of energy you'd need to deal with to attain orbit.
In order to do that, you have to carry almost as much propellant with you to deorbit as it took to get you into orbit in the first place. Every extra kilo of propellant you carry up is one less kilo of payload you don't.
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
Do you know how much energy would be required to move an *asteroid* from its orbit?
Even a very small asteroid would require hundreds, perhaps thousands, of megatons of nuclear detonations to nudge it a degree or two.
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The second line should read, "200,000 feet in US". Get it right.
sure, and how are you going to aim it?
how many nukes is this (small) spaceship
carrying not even a tiny fraction of the distance to this hypothetical asteroid of yours? in a pathetic attempt to deflect the asteroid
if SS1, or its like could reach an asteroid, its allready within seconds of hitting the earth, and if it could deflect it, its too small to worry about anyway.
Actually some of the first experiments in computer music were done by a public-university funded computer here at the Univeristy of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - the ILLIAC-I, and occured around 1957-8 or so.
Check it out!
White Knight, the carrier is N318SL.
SS1, the spacecraft is N328KF.
Note below that SS1 is a model 316 and WK is model 318.
Makes you wonder what they have lurking as model 317!!!
[begin FAA registry querry results]
N318SL is Assigned
Aircraft Description
Serial Number 001 Type Registration Corporation
Manufacturer Name SCALED COMPOSITES LLC Certificate Issue Date 07/05/2002
Model 318 Status Valid
Type Aircraft Fixed Wing Multi-Engine Type Engine Turbo-Jet
Pending Number Change None Dealer No
Date Change Authorized None Mode S Code 50663044
MFR Year 2002 Fractional Owner NO
Registered Owner
Name SCALED COMPOSITES LLC
Street 1624 FLIGHT LINE
City MOJAVE State CALIFORNIA Zip Code 93501-1663
County KERN
Country UNITED STATES
Airworthiness
Engine Manufacturer AMA/EXPR Classification Experimental
Engine Model UNKNOWN ENG Category Research and Development
A/W Date 07/01/2003
Other Owner Names
None
Temporary Certificate
Certificate Number T024366 Issue Date 07/05/2002 Expiration Date 08/04/2002
Fuel Modifications
None
N328KF is Assigned
Assigned/Registered Aircraft
Aircraft Description
Serial Number 001 Type Registration Corporation
Manufacturer Name SCALED COMPOSITES LLC Certificate Issue Date 03/20/2003
Model 316 Status Valid
Type Aircraft Glider Type Engine None
Pending Number Change None Dealer No
Date Change Authorized None Mode S Code 50706357
MFR Year 2003 Fractional Owner NO
Registered Owner
Name SCALED COMPOSITES LLC
Street 1624 FLIGHTLINE HANGAR 78
City MOJAVE State CALIFORNIA Zip Code 93501
County KERN
Country UNITED STATES
Airworthiness
Engine Manufacturer NONE Classification Experimental
Engine Model NONE Category Research and Development
A/W Date 12/09/2003
Other Owner Names
None
Temporary Certificate
None
Fuel Modifications
None
Since redirecting asteroids away from Earth is easy as redirecting it towards (easier, really, since you don't have to aim) if we reach the point where "anyone" could do so, the governments / major corporations of the world could easily prevent such actions. It's not like you can *sneak* a major asteroid around.
it's only still images taken from video footage.
there's no video footage to download from the page though.
At the expense of having to carry much more fuel. Recall the lower stage of the Lunar Lander, larger and probably heavier than the command module. And that's for rocket braking in 1/6th g.
Bah, thought this was a going to be a story about the Sontarans' deadly enemies testing their latest weapon on Earth which cripples their foes by giving everyone a sore big toe.
Rutans and Sontarans
R Tape loading error, 0:1
I assume you're referring to this sentence:
Its stock price has stalled at 1998 levels.
That statment is technically true, in that MSFT stock was trading in the mid 20s in 1998, and is trading in the mid 20s right now. Then again, if you consider there have been 3 2:1 splits since Febuary of 1998, the stock is actually worth 8 times as much. That's an increase of over 100% per year... hardly a bummer.
I always like to describe orbit as falling at the Earth, but missing.
Be glad life is unfair, otherwise we'd deserve all this.
I'm fairly certain that it's not pressure, but the density of the transmission medium. Please remember that sound will also propagate through solids and liquids.
Burt is a diehard Mac fan, or at least he was the last time I spoke with him.
Admittedly, that was about 8 years ago so he could have changed in between. His "Boomerang" asymmetric twin had a bit of computer monitoring equipment. IIRC most of it was specialty computers (think industrial embedded type boards)but it was headed by a Mac.
{begin small product plug}
If anyone is interested, at Burt Rutan's request, a business partner and I produced a set of CD-ROMs with the collection of plans and errata-newsletters for Burt's general avation aircraft. (all 5 designs; VariEZE, LongEZ, etc.)
At the time he wanted a way for people to get back-copies/replacements of the information, without having to bug him for it.
more information is available at www.terf.com
{end plug}
McFly777
- - -
"What do people mean when they say the computer went down on them?" -Marilyn Pittman
They noted that the glass cockpit computer crashed during the boost phase. Someone should have told them not to use Windows CE...
This thing burns solid rubber and hydrogen peroxide, I imangine it smells FAR worse then feet.
Dieter Wulf's article in The Atlantic Magazine shows a picture (not on the web) of a Wunderwaffen or Nazi "miracle weapon" that looks exactly like the White Knight Space Ship One combo. Not to knock Burt Rutan or anything, but it goes to show the German war machine did some serious thought. What's interesting is that they current thoery on the plane was to fly it into US buildings.
Sure, sure, to reply to this (and the poster below) you can substitute using the ideal gas law for T in the relationship for the speed of sound, e.g.
:)
p = rho * R_star * T (for a mass-weighted gas)
In other words, we're all three of us right - c_sound depends on gas constants (including the adiabatic index) and the equation of state, be it temperature, pressure, or density. In the extreme upper atmosphere (well above the troposphere) the easiest thing to measure is probably the density, followed by the pressure, and then the temperature.
Anyways, this is getting OT, but you see my point I hope.
But what does my opinion matter, I just vote here. It's not like I have any money or anything.
The numbers don't work out.
An ablative heatshield needs 6-9 percent of the re-entering mass to protect you from LEO entry speeds, depending on material and trajectory and the capsule's lift and entry corridor details (and a few lower order effects which don't matter for this discussion).
9 percent of the vehicle's mass in liquid hydrogen/oxygen rocket fuel will change your velocity only about 420 meters/sec out of 7,200 m/s orbital velocity. That saves about 12% of the thermal energy load, but that's only about 1% of the heatshield mass saved...
Use the atmosphere to brake. The atmosphere is your friend.
Rubber and Nitrous Oxide: It doesn't smell but even your bad jokes are funny.
Plus, there aren't many noses at 45,000 to smell anything.