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Romanian Team Entering X-Prize competition
cripkd writes "Although two days passed already I am proud to announce that a Romanian team launched a sub-orbital unmanned flight. Demonstrator 2 is a prototype to the actual shuttle they will enter in the X-Prize competition, build with 30,000 USD, pocket money, as they say, compared to the other projects. The project's home site is here and an article about the launch can be found here.
PS. And it's all ecological as they produce oxygen and water vapours :)"
With only 4 months to go before the deadline, and Scaled inevitably winning before then, how does someone just entering now have any chance?
How come its not ANSARI X PRIZE anymore ? Arent you forgetting something ? He is a BIG contributor to the prize pool, be nice and dont forget about him.
Go grab those torrents.
Perhaps, but bear in mind that not everyone's primary motivation is to win the prize, nor is the prize the only pot of gold at the end of the spacebow.
Cheers to this new attempt by the Romanian team.
I had a Romanian great grandfather, so I'll give a cheer to the old home team, but, yeah, I admit it, my money was on Burt from the start and don't exactly see any reason not to let it ride.
KFG
Yes, because I really want to send myself into a frozen vacuum inside a craft that cost less than most boats...
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
-Arthur C. Clarke
That is the part that I find most amazing about the competition: Before the competition, there seemed to be very little activity. Then it came, and suddenly we have around 20 teams working on it, even though many of them know they won't win anything, since it will be won soon or run out at the end of the year. Still they keep going because it is not really the competition that is the goal, getting into space is the goal.
Hey, they need it. I don't think anyone except Burt Rutan's outfit have a snowballs chance in hell.
/. fare)
But,it isn't about *winning* this prize. Even Burt doesn't really care about that. If in the 70 or so years you get on this planet you get to fulfil your dream (and create many others in younger minds) then
consider yourself a worthy citizen (of the world)
Losing isn't fun, but unless you try you'll never win.
(Had to post this as an antidote to all the crass
stupidity that claims to be typical
So mod me down ok?
They can't all compete with 20 million dollars. I think it's pretty cool they're making the effort. Besides, for all we know SS1 could blow themselves up and eliminate themselves from the competition.
The goal of x-prize is to reach a height of 100,000 m - about 100 times higher than what the Romanians achieved in their test flight. The flight has to be manned as well. They have a long way to go.
Suborbital isn't very interesting, except for lobbing nuclear bombs. Commercially, there's no real point, since it can't compete with air travel on cost (even at $30K/launch, assuming the dang thing can actually support 3 people at that price without some safety mishap killing everyone), and satellites have to be inserted into orbit. So, no, $30K/launch isn't a very interesting price point. On the other hand, that's the construction cost for their whole vehicle, so refueling costs are probably a small fraction of that (assuming their vehicle is reusable). They probably used a lot of scrap, though, so building a fleet would probably cost more.