Slashdot Mirror
Amateur Rocket Reaches Space
PatMouser writes "An amateur rocket carrying a ham radio avionics package reached the edge of space May 17. Launched from Nevada's Black Rock Desert, the 21-foot Civilian Space Xploration Team (CSXT) GoFast rocket quickly attained the 100 km altitude to make Amateur Radio and amateur rocketry history. Two earlier CSXT attempts to reach space--the last almost two years ago--were unsuccessful. A jubilant Avionics Team Leader Eric Knight, KB1EHE, called the successful launch 'a phenomenal experience.' The full ARRL article can be read here. There's nothing on CSXT's site yet..." (See this pre-launch story for more details.)
Does this mean it is in orbit, or just went into space and fell back down.
I was part of a Super-Loki rocket team in WI a few years back that went sub-orbital. (I was a camera systems specialist=ohhh, pretty pictures, look!!) It was an Amatur rocket, so does that count?
--sig fault--
I dont get it. I mean, I understand the concept of "Amateur Radio", and "Amateur Rocketry" right, but theres got to be a point when your mad scientest project gets out of the garage and into, say, space, and all of the sudden like pair of twin torpedos slaming into the death star your Amateur project gets a slashdotting and its pro.
Hell, I can go pro by buying an $8,000 digital SLR camera, why is it that shooting a home brew satelite into space is amateur? (j/k)
Its not like some homies duct taped an 8-track to an upside down trash can and stuck some dinomite under it, right? Please, for the love of god, come up with a better classification than this!#!
Hell, even in soviet russia amateur rockets launch you.
Come on, you know you were thinking it too
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
Classifications other than amateur:
When you can do it reliably, it becomes "private space travel".
When you do it for money, it becomes "commercial space travel".
While both 1337 spe4k and ham are dialects of hackish, they are not directly decended from each other. l33t is, if anything, decended from ham, as ham predates l33t. Most hackish linguists feel that the gamerz weren't especially aware of ham when l33t was developed. The similarities arise from the similar circumstances of origion of the two dialects. Both are designed to be extremely terse, due to limited available "bandwidth." In the case of l33t, any time spent of the numpad detracts from game play, while with ham, you need to key out each letter with multiple strokes.
Thats not even close to being correct. While in orbit, the craft is completely under the influence of our gravity. Its just that its centrifugal force is equal to gravity and hence keeping it in orbit.
In Soviet Russia the insensitive clod is YOU!
Scaled Composites, which is a company founded to develop and design experimental aircraft obtained the world's first license for a sub-orbital manned rocket flight in early April, for their Ansari X Prize entry.
I don't know about laws relating to private rockets but I'm sure there are regulations in place and the team behind GoFast have been responsible in abiding by what rules exist, especially as its made amateur rocketry history and is a controversial area in law right now.
What with terrorism and 9/11 the enforcing of the law in this area would probably become more strict, even if they can potentially be used as weapons and have the ability to shoot down aircraft (despite the fact that this isn't very likely as guidance systems are exceedingly difficult to design).
Amateur doesn't mean you don't get paid to do it. It means you can't survive JUST doing it.
1. Amateur radio may be sponcered but they guy/girl still has a day job.
2. Amateur ballroom dancing may get paid to dance but can't survive just painting.
3. Amateur painters can sell their work but if it doesn't bring in enough to live it's still just a hobbie.
As you can see Amateur doesn't mean you don't get paid it just means you don't get paid ENOUGH to just do X without having another job.
So answering the question when does it stop being amateur? When it pays enough money so they don't have to do anything else.
Well another bioterrorist option would be to insert pig genes into popular breeds of kosher/halal[1] animals (chicken, cattle, sheep). Leave for a few generations (a few years) and then announce it.
Something similar but already done though not as effective IMO.
[1] halal = muslim equivalent of kosher.
Achieving orbit means that the craft is actually a craft capable of flight outside the influence of our gravity.
No it just means the craft has enough angular velocity tangental to the earth that it essentially outruns the earth's ballistic gravitational pull. Gravity still definiately has an effect though as it pulls the craft around the earth.
While achieving orbital velocity is an order of magnitude more difficult than reaching space and coming back down ballistically, reaching escape velocity to break orbit is even harder. Hence the massive 'moon rocket' Saturn V's that propelled the moon craft to over 24,000 mph (orbital velocity is closer to 17,000). The moon craft actually re-entered earth's atmosphere at over 30,000 mph!
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Slim chance-- The problem is you have to equip your rocket with a guidence system. However most countries will not let you build rockets w/ guidence systems under the reasoning that these rockets could be turned into guided bombs. This said, certain educational/non profit orgs can file (at least in the US) for the privilidge to build guided rockets.
That's not even close to being correct. Gravitational force is a myth. Nothing is pulling the orbiting body invards. A body in orbit is essentially following the shortest path in space-time curvature.
So what would be your answers to these questions?
- What shouldn't go into space?
- How should things go into space?
- Who can go into space?
I ask these questions because I wonder what you're really worried about. After all, there's nothing really dangerous getting lauched into space at the moment. So why do we need laws now? My answers to the above questions.1) We already have regulations for dealing with terrorist attacks and other means of deliberately inflicting harm. Further, the history of using rockets for terrorist attacks is pretty ineffective. Military grade rockets are relatively easy to come by. The sole exception to this rule appears to be Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They seem relatively insistent on building the Qassem rocket. Note that these terrorist activities are already illegal.
The US already requires lauchers to purchase insurance against third party harm seems to fix the other problems with what can be launched from Earth. If it's too dangerous, then the launcher won't be able to afford the insurance.
2) We don't need to regulate "how" things get into space. Physical law does a more than adequate job here.
3) I don't get why we need to regulate who gets into space.