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Mike Melvill Chosen To Fly SpaceShipOne
ansimon writes "Mike Melvill is chosen to fly SpaceShipOne to the outer limits of this rock that we call earth. Mike will be the first to earn his astronaut wings with a privately-developed aeroplane/rocket. A new era of space exploration is about to begin! Godspeed and come back safe, so the rest of us can go too..."
For one who's done a lot of reading of both science fiction as well as cosmology, the stars seem so far out of reach for my short lifetime.
Getting into space isn't exactly reaching the stars, but it's the first step on the journey. I hope the mission goes smoothly and its success is a sign of things to come.
So far, I have seen some people posting stuff related to Melville dying. This is poor taste.
I honestly hope that Melville completes this first trip unharmed. Not only for his sake, but for our sake. If he dies, the government will more than likely shut the whole private space exploration business down and set humanity back by an untold amount of years.
Why would anyone wish harm upon someone trying to pave the waqy for the rest of us?
I think that says it all...
It's "no one," not "noone." Who the hell is noone anyway?
First manned vehicle.
moberry (756963) sez: "If I am not mistaken this will be the first vehicle launched in the USA since the Columbia accident. That alone is something to celebrate. The USA is back in busness. :p"
The USA is NOT back in business. Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites is in business. The distinction is far more important than a simple correction, and is the whole point of the X-Prize. The USA deserves and gets no points for this one. In fact it should shame the USA that a few people and $20M can do what the USA can't.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
that Cats doesn't decide to show up...
We need to start NOW if we want to have 40 million people on the moon by 2371...
I am guessing your math doesn't include any births on the moon, so it would be done sooner. Besides, you put just 50 men and women in low g, several are going to at least be curious about sex.
On another note...It will be very expensive to go into space as a passenger for a while, but I think they need to focus on their market: Rich internet dot.commers who want to have sex in space. Just like VCRs, the Internet, and video cameras, the first people who want to go into space have to be doing it for some reason tied to sex, and willing to pay full price, making it cheaper for the rest of us eventually.
I'm not completely sure how this will work, but just about any new technology is always paid for by people wanting pr0n/sexchat/etc so why would this be any different? Would you pay $100,000 to get a bj in zero gravity?
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
What, you mean like down-sizing itself and leaving us alone?
The Philosophy of Liberty | lewrockwell.com
That would be a hell of a lot more likely if he were going up in the shuttle. I'd take my luck going into space (though this is just a suborbital flight) with a ship designed by Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites over something built by NASA whose design decisions have more to do with red tape and beaurocracy than technical merit.
Is that really fair to say? Sure, NASA has had its share of red-tape screwups, and some tragic erros, but don't overlook what they *have* done.
Bod,
p.s.
I think I will reread the "Man Who Sold the Moon" by Robert A. Heinlein" tonight.
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
That is NOT funny. Not at all.
The United States is, when it works, an environment in which the individual can excel and accomplish great things. The state exists of and for the people only to foster that environment. The phrase "it should shame the USA that a few people and $20M can do what the USA can't" is nonsensical in that the USA *is* the people, and the accomplishments of the people are the accomplishments of the USA.
--
Evan "...all failures too.."
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
I'm guessing sex in low g might not be all it's cracked up to be. Imagine spinning around and around and around, not exactly the best time to be getting motion sickness eh? ::)
-- taking over the world, we are.
It's a great day for libertarian values for the private sector to budge into what was only the government's territory.
-I am an elective eunuch.
Fair to the brilliant engineers and scientists that work at NASA? No. Fair to the organization? Yes. If things like this flight and the X-Prize can jump start affordable commercial space flight, then just imagine what some of those folks at NASA could do working elsewhere, where their ideas and innovation wouldn't be stiffled by the lack of budget and inefficient use of the budget they do have. "Too many chefs", as they say...
Being dead serious for a minute, if this guy fails--ie dies--it could very well mark the end of a very short lived experiment in private space exploration. Not because the American spirit will be dampened by it--on the contrary, I can see the Yanks trying harder than ever to make it work. On the other hand, I can already see the handwringers on CNN asking "Why isn't there a law?"
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Oh, please. Get over yourself. Half of the reason it was only 20 million was because they didn't have to pioneer the system that had nailed down nearly 50 years of successful spaceflight. Ok, so it's civilan flight. Whoopdeeshit. As great as it is, these people are standing on the shoulders of giants to even get close to where they are today. No freakin chance this would be $20M if they had to R&D and fabricate a space program from the ground up.
And yes, the USA is back and buisness and it is a reason to celebrate. Beyond the petty fact that there is a distinct lack of foreign competition in this sector, the event is a milestone in civilian rocketry worldwide. Whose market was this entire effort born from again...? Yeah, it sounds pigheaded as hell, but then so does dismissing this entire project as nothing more than a invidiual/corporate victory when it's a victory for the entire country whose very way of life made such impossible dreams a possible and whose economic environment could support such flights of fancy, something for which the entire world will look upon and follow.
Damn right it's a reason to celebrate.
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all this stuff about being innovative and this being privately funded...blah.
the craft itself looks like a ripoff of the bell x-1, 1950's technology.
note that i said "bell". not nasa. pls. remember that the apollo series, shuttles, etc might have been funded by nasa, the government, taxes, etc. but were all designed and built by private industry.
okay, scaled composites is cool and all, but they could not have done this on their own.
it took a billionaire, one who made his money by a stroke of luck, one who made billions off selling the government and many busineses and people crappy software, using illegal business practices--people who wouldn't be billionaires if the USA wasn't so inept at enforcing their own laws.
so in effect, this was paid for by the microsoft tax. it might not have gone through the government first, but the money certainly flew out of the people's wallets in much the same fashion.
finally, in closing, yay. i agree that there is no way the government could have done this for $20 million. there is just too much overhead in everything the government does.
it's not unusual to see one overhead person (manager, supervisor, secretary, etc) for every engineer/technician/"worker" that the government funds. sickening.
so overall this is a good thing.
- Virgil I. Grissom
- Edwin Aldrin
- Wallace Shirra
- ... ?
I suspect the names you listed are "dramatic sounding" because of what they've done and not the other way around. I'm pretty sure there was an issue about "astronauts are not named Gus" regarding a press conference with Grissom.::jafomatic
Uh, did you click the single link?
He's a professional test pilot, and is being paid money to ride this thing into space.
And he hopes he won't have to do much, but I'd guess that he's much more able to pilot a space glider back to Earth than anyone here......
Fellowship 9/11
If these folks built this thing for peanuts (compared to NASA budgets), NASA will seem ridiculously ineffective. Like a giant corporation where no one gives a crap about what they're doing and comes to work every day not to do something to change the world, but to collect the paycheck every two weeks.
It's not like they deserve this kind of treatment, but the question will be raised for sure.
You mean the way the've thrown every obsticle in the way of civillian spaceflight? The way the've frozen their operation on the obsolete shuttle in order to keep the 25,000 people it takes to launch one employed? Oh, you mean what NASA did over thirty years ago back when they actually were active in pioneering spaceflight instead of sitting on their laurels.
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I've never been all that excited about the space program; I missed those years by a decade. I worked for a PhD that was part of the Apollo program; he left NASA when he realized that he would never get to fly in space. He was right, so long as it was being run by governments - only the elite of the elite would ever have that honour, and even then, only while there was political interest.
Looking at pictures taken from the edge of space make my spine tingle - especially when they're taken by what amounts to a shoestring budget done by private enterprise. Pictures are one thing; tomorrow if all goes to plan, private enterprise will have put a man up there at the edge of space. Maybe not in orbit; I'm sure that will come in time.
I can't imagine what it must feel like to look up and see black, then look down and see the glowing blue curvature of the earth.
If you're reading this Mike, and everyone at Scaled Composites, you did a damn good job and we'll be waiting for your safe landing!
..don't panic
How did Paul Allen make that $20M ? Answer? from "the people", where did Paul Allen learn what he needed to make $20M, from "the people", where did Burt Rutan learn everything from? "the people". Everything is built upon the work of other people, so with out the people, you acheive nothing, with them, we all acheive advancement of humanity.
I use Linux and have zero problem with someone doing well and making money. What I and many of have a problem with is the way money becomes power and then that power is outrageously abused. As I posted earlier today, MS is not only competing on quality of product and service. They are also competing with smear campaigns and lawyers. Remember that Brazilian minister who is getting sued for criticism of MS' marketing tactics? Yes, they disavow it now but MS fund AdTI and AdTI wrote a very "unhelpful distraction". They called it that once it become clear the mud was going to stick to them.
We are by no means a united group of "commie hippies" out to undermine capitalism. Some of us even own businesses and would take exception to being collectivized. All most of us are trying to say is that making money is not an excuse to throw ethics and morals out the window. There is no problem with having a lot if money if you a) earned it honestly and b) don't use it to buy fake journalists and politicians.
Oh and remember this: "DOS ain't done until 123 won't run." This isn't jealously at the success of another. We are expressing moral outrage at behaivor that should not be acceptable to anybody. Even megacapitalists.
Most importantly the largest nation on earth pioneered the principles that Space Ship One will rely on. If you think this project even compares to the achievements of the Russian space program you are either very ignorent or very stupid.
I am not Russian or anything but I am sick of morons that can't tell the difference between launching a Cosmonaut for two round trips of the planet 43 years ago with the aid of possibly a single computer (not on board), primitive materials and theoretical equasions and flying a plane at a sub-orbital altitude with the aid of 40 years of space research to build from. Oh, and also the morons that can't tell the difference between putting people on the moon and "winning".
I of cause wish the Space Ship One Team luck, but they can never achieve such a victory for the human race as Gargarin did that day when he left the planet for the first time ever.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
Paul Allen has had cancer and survived. As a result he has re-organized his priorities, such as enjoying life a little bit more, giving away things he doesn't need, giving others a chance, etc.
Why does it takes cancer to come to this view of life is beyond me, but kudos all the same.
While they are huge and a lot of money is no doubt wasted internally, they're doing "one of a kind" and "state of the art" stuff, and this is always expensive.
It's not exactly easy to quantify their impact on our daily lives, but if you watch TV, use cell phone and/or pager, or GPS you see your tax dollars at work pretty much. None of these things would be easy or even possible without NASA.
Saying that NASA is too expensive is like saying that Wright brothers had wasted too much money on their first crappy airplane. Sure they did, but it was the FIRST working airplane. These days any fool can build a working airplane out of readily available parts. Back then it was state of the art.
It sure did cost billions to send rovers to Mars, too. And it's not something anyone else will be able to achieve within the next decade.
This costs a lot. Can NASA be improved? No doubt. Is the cost justified even given the current inefficiencies? It sure as heck is.
Sometimes, I see something so mind-bogglingly stupid posted here that I have to wonder if it's a joke.
/. when Rutan or Carmack actually collects the prize.
Only so I can say "You prize thieves!" or something similar!
If I were present, and you did so, I'd slap you silly for showing such disrepect to the people who had cracked the government space flight monopoly.
I'm going to proceed on the assumption that you meant what you wrote above.
First, the purpose of offering the prize is to get people to spend money on winning the prize. Paul Allen has spent a great deal of money to win that prize, and the result of the money that he's spent is that a viable private spacecraft now exists.
Likewise, John Carmack has also spent a lot of money in this endeavor, and so now we have *two* ground-breaking spacecraft designs coming together.
Now, let's suppose that the prize were limited to just those people you find acceptably impoverished. Would Carmack or Rutan's spacecraft exist? If not, what benefit would the world gain from that lack of invention?
If you think that StarChaser has such a clever design that they *deserve* (whatever that means) to win, then put your money where your mouth is, and fork over some cash. It might be a little more helpful to them than some silly little socialistic git snivelling on their behalf on
Here's something else for you to chew on: EVERY prize is bought. It's bought with hard work, thoughtful planning, and in some cases, with a great deal of funding.
There is a long and proud history of prizes in the Aerospace industry, from the prize that Louis Bleriot won for flying across the English channel, to the Schneider trophy, the Collier trophy, and now, the X-prize. The effect of each prize has been to cause a great deal of attention and investment in the field to occur, and we *all* benefit from the developments of people who were trying to "buy the prize".
If you don't like it, TFB. Your approval is neither sought nor required.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
cute.. however, he's not going high or fast enough to experience significant heat on "re-entry". Have a look at the Scaled site where they show the minimal heat shielding on SS-1.
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
Define Irony: all Slashdotters cheering for a company taht was (almost) fully funded by blood money of Evil Empire of Micro$oft.
P.S. best of luck and successful flight to Mike and SS1 people.
-DVK
"The right to figure things out for yourself is the only true freedom everyone shares. Go use it"-R.A.Heinlein
What's the significance of the first black guy in space? Seriously?
We note the first Chinese guy in space, but not the first East-Asian in space. Do you know who the first blonde person in space was? The first person with green eyes?
The reason your country has such an issue with racism STILL is that you create such significance in skin colour, where really there should be none.
Score:-1, Funny
I don't think everyone should be too hasty to knock NASA I'll grant you they're no where near as efficient as they should be. However ask yourself how they got that way, if the government came along and started messing up scaled composites plans saying "Hmm needs to be bigger I want to put a spy satellite in space". And put in their own managers to 'oversee' the project and added committee meetings etc. etc. how long do you think it would take them? And how much do you think it would cost? Its actually amazing NASA ever did anything.
That's why we should never be discouraged from attempting something like this. A Government has its strengths such as
Can open up political doors
Revise laws (to allow spaceports etc.)
Afford large R&D projects
However a small commercial venture has different advantages
Not hamstrung by red tape and management
Much quicker development cycle
More efficient with funds (sometimes less money is a blessing makes you think up innovative cheaper solutions).
Less hampered by safety restrictions
Not having to cater to external parties.
I think Scaled is a brilliant example of what can be achieved by a wealthy benefactor with vision and a very talented engineering team. Long may it continue
Because, of course, racism is not a problem anywhere else.
The problem isn't just distinctions based on skin color, ancestry, religion, or anything else.
The problem is that people want to hate each other, and they will find any necessary excuse to do so. Skin color is just extremely convenient, because you can tell what color someone's skin is by looking at them. Even if you make it unacceptable to discriminate based on skin color, the root problem still exists. People want to hate. And they do.
The reason our country still has a problem with racism is because our people still want to hate. And instead of solving the root problem (hate), we're putting bandages on it by trying to eliminate the symptoms (racism, discrimination) with laws and manipulation.
I agree with your main point, but your statement about racism is just plain wrong. Racism isn't a disease you can cure with some sort of vaccine or magic treatment. People truly, deeply hate each other.
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();
Space flight has always been an argument against the free market:
a)'duh, who is going to pay millions of dollars just to visit space'
b)'yeah, but it will get cheaper with time, as companys put huge investments into it to archieve the profits that can be realized when spaceflight has truly become a consumer good'
a)'hahahahaha, look at how much NASA has to spend, going to space will always be expensive and dangerous, even the government hasn't managed it yet'
b)'no, its expensive and dangerous *because* the government is doing it not despite.'
a)'yeah right, thats what you always say, I'll believe that when I see it'
___
No power in the 'verse can stop me
All too true. But not everyone hates people because of their race. Also, for extended periods this hatred is countermanded by other -- more positive human tendencies -- such as tolerance, inclusiveness, solidarity based on other parts of our common humanity, and basic human decency. The challenge is to create situations where these other more positive aspects of human nature assert themselves over our baser instincts.
ELITISM: It's always lonely at the top. Uninvited company is rarely welcome.
Rutan will be speaking at Airventure at the end of July. Questions for you:
1) Will he have won the X-Prize by then?
2) Will he bring SpaceShipOne and/or White Knight?
3) Could he get clearance to win it at Oshkosh?
4) Is there a reason not to if he could?
If you think that's bigoted, you need to consider what the word means. Being bigoted is obstinately and intolerantly not accepting another viewpoint than your own.
I wasn't being obstinate or intolerant, I was just stating a fairly reasonable position.
So, lets check that position again.
China modified a Russian rocket and rented a facility in another country to launch one of their own men. Meaning, they made no new equipment, prepared no new facilities, and went nowhere new. Guess what, that really isn't very important, no matter who-the-fuck does it.
And, in case you're wondering, "When the country with most of the worlds population starts to move its shit into LEO," I'll be saying, "Wow, that's damn impressive, but I still don't give a shit who the first Chinese man in space was, because that really didn't matter very much."
Idiot.