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Burt Rutan On his Upcoming X-Prize Attempt
dkleinsc writes "The BBC is running an article about Burt Rutan, the head of Scaled Composites and creator of SpaceShip One. He talks about his motivation (besides fame and a big pile of cash) for the project."
Do you know how well "Have you ever had sex in outer space?" works as a pick-up line?
Reading this story, I am remided of the movie October Sky. For wannabe rocket scientists, this is one of the most inspirational movies.
It's based on a true story. The protagonist is now in a very high position in NASA.
If you lost your job today, don't despair. You may die tomorrow anyway.
I was under the impression that more money was being spent than he'd win on the X-Prize.
It must be like that joke: I made a small fortune on the stock market. Problem is, I started with a large one.
Putting dreams into actions - gotta love the guy!
Energy: time to change the picture.
The Gates foundation has donated Billions to Global Health care issues.
Lucky me, I have cool boss. ;-)
"The most sensible request of government we make is not, "Do something!" But "Quit it!"
You can't but like Paul Allen sometimes just because of how insane he is. Watching an old Windows 1.0 "commercial" he did, it almost seems like a parody of a computer commercial. It might be, but I cannot tell ;)
They talk a lot about space tourism in the article, but I believe that is a long, long way off still. The first thing that would happen is private launch of payloads, but that already happens..
Even so, even something like $20,000 is cheap for a ticket and right now you'd only get a 10 second ride in space, and back down ya go.
X-prize => Priviate citizen's in space => tourist's in space => priviate "space resort" => Advertisements in space => advertisements visible from earth in space => coca cola constlation / starbucks galaxy? Serriously, if we have tourists in space, they are gonna want to spend time up there, so we will need long term staff in space... Space tourourism (sp) is not a feasible buisness for many years to come imo.
In nature, there are neither rewards or punishments, there are only consequences.
The X-Prize is a 10 million dollar privately funded prize, not a 1 million dollar government program. NASA, the FAA, and any other agency of any government have nothing to do with it other than issuing launch waivers.
It has everything to do with kickstarting private, commercial space flight.
This
The description of the reentry strategy includes none of the bazillion tiles stuck all over the shuttlecraft. This seems like a better approach --- very simple and apparently a lot less heat. Did anyone notice that a Canadian team is also competing for the prize? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3539018.stm
I'm laughing at clouds.
It's a sad reflection of the /. bias that everything has to be turned into a bash Microsoft topic.
This is another newest story about the topic. http://mirror.metamenu.com/news.bbc.co.uk/3676312. stm
he's going to cue up Steppenwolf before takeoff and ushering in a new era of peaceful space exploration and mini-skirts?
I'm laughing at clouds.
Probably never even heard of the Xprize. Nasa doesn't want competition, the government doesn't want lots of rockets taking off without control over them, large corporations don't want satellites to become cheap enough for smaller companies to get into the game (and the government tends to help the larger ones out a tad more..)
You just here for the karma?
Say what you want about Microsoft's lack of fair competitive practices.
But you will be hard pressed to find any corporation their size that give as much back to global education AND global health care. Free PCs for entire school systems, money for AIDS research. How much do you think your friends at Google gave of their IPO profits?
Oh...
The X-prize isn't a government program. Why would the government spend $1 million on private research when they can spend $1 billion slobbing pork-fat all over the pockets of Halliburton and other government contractors, and projects in every district.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Rutan attacks US policy of striving to keep space access limited to military superpowers, which he believes is evidence of the smothering of commercial activities in near earth space.
How much do you think your friends at Google gave of their IPO profits?
;-)
Hey, some free web searches for all the school kids, maybe? Or (wait!) for teens, and adults, and seniors as well? As in YOU and ME?..
And somehow they managed to do that even BEFORE their IPO! Must be sure that $$ are coming their way...
Paul B.
Orbital craft need to travel fast enough to orbit the earth. Fast enough to travel all the way around the planet in 90 minutes. That's why they come back in so fast.
This craft is going to straight up, and fall back down. Much slower.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Why is it that we, as a society, have been so obsessed with the absurd idea that the height of technology in advertising will be the giant orbiting billboard?
.. If the ads were from Playboy or Spice TV, I may even consider opting in. I probably wouldn't even mind drinking Starbucks in that ad--but please, keep Carrot Top out of this.
It would make much more sense to just beam advertisements straight to my dreaming mind.
Every thing that MS does is tied to getting MS sales. Do not pretend that it is purely out of generosity. Google is busing helping in the OSS world and making contributions to the real world without any ties of any kinds.
Likewise, Paul Allen does the same (paul is not MS). Most, if not all, of his contributions do not have strings.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Well, it is my birthday...
" But, he says, ask the same question of Nasa now and the answer is the same as 30 years ago. Nasa is working on it and it will be affordable in 30 years' time."
Yeah tell me about it, on the 27th NASA is going to do a dress rehearsal for the X-43 flight in October. Next month they are going for a new world record in the fastest jet powered aircraft in the world. The X-43 could have led to an airplane that can "fly into space" like Rutan mentioned as wanting to do in the article. However, from what I understand, NASA decided to cancel the successor of the X-43. Which is a shame because it is a very solid concept for finding a cheap way into orbit.
This reminds me of the X-20? The successor of the X-15, that was planned to go into orbit. If Rutan, can succeed with a spacecraft that resembles the X-15 and enter orbit, I think that would show that NASA, in all it's wisdom, has held us back as far as manned space travel is concerned.
As many already know, Scaled Composite's "SpaceShipOne" is set to fly on Sept 29th, 2004 in the early-morning hours (Pacific-time) in it's first attempt to fulfill the requirements to win the Ansari X-Prize. Chat will again be available for the flight and the following flights as well.
We had a VERY sucessful chat-session during the previous flight on June 21st and expect to have a good round this time for the X-Prize flights. The channel is open to all (we prefer you register/identify your nicks but is not a requirement for this channel). IF any 'over-flow' occurs, a back-up channel will automatically re-direct those as needed. A !news bot (Space.com) and !countdown bot is available.
We also set another 'special' channel ( #SS1-FltData ) to record/display near 'real-time' Flight-Data from SS1 but the final decision is still not complete and not expected for the first flight-attempt. In any case, we expect to still have some limited data/info available. This channel is to monitor only, no chatting there, unless you are 'voiced'. The #SpaceShipOne channel is for that. ;) You MUST be a registered nick and identified in order to join this channel. There is no cost to register.
The chat-server is located on the Freenode.net series. Point your chat-client to:
-- Server: irc.freenode.net
-- Channels: #SpaceShipOne and #SS1-FltData
Hope to see you back there for the flights. ;)
b>John B. -("Pandelirium")SpaceShipOne Admin/Ops/Moderator
For other 'space-related' chat on Freenode, goto:
- #space (general-combined channel)
- #maestro (Mars Rover/SAP/Maestro Planning Software)
- #cassini (Cassini/Huygens to Saturn)
- #messenger (Probe to Mercury)
- #celestia (3D Space/Solar-System Simulation)
- #roverware (NexGen Rover/Planning Software development)
Rutan's accomplishments pale in comparison to those of the late great Zefram Cochrane. Sure, Rutan will have fame and fortune, but will he ever get his own statue in Bozeman that looks to the very location in the sky where he made first contact? I think not.
But he will get to see black sky during daytime. So maybe he can die happy.
I don't think Microsoft is giving much money for global health care. I think that it is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that is doing that. I think it's a big mistake to confuse the Microsoft Corporation with the Gates family. I appreciate the choices the Gates family has made for the disposal of their fortune, but it doesn't make me forgive Microsoft.
From Wired magazine:
"sweet dreams are made of this..."
Recently, one of the folks from Vulcan Ventures came to Microsoft to give a presentation about their space program. (Vulcan Ventures is the VC firm funding the program, and is owned by Paul Allen, co-founder of MS, which is why we got this special presentation.)
We saw an amazing video: a 20-minute presentation showing their first space flight from beginning to end. Lots of tiny clips have been shown on the news, but in the video we saw, the entire space portion of the flight (from rocket fire to atmospheric re-entry) was not time-compressed. We heard every radio transmission, saw every moment of the acutal space time.
It was amazing. Brought tears to my eyes. (Embarassing, when you're sitting with 80 other researchers.)
There was a long Q&A session afterwards. They answered everything from techno-nerd questions about the details of some aerodynamics problem to visionary questions about the future of their program and what this means for humanity.
It was the most moving and inspiring presentation I've seen in a long while.
Don't get me wrong - the X-43 is a fantastic engineering achievement. It may pave the way for things like a mach 10 airbreathing cruise missile or possibly even a hypersonic jet transport. But it has nothing to do with access to space.
A space launch is a short acceleration mission. You spend very little time at any particular speed. A scramjet is good for efficient and sustained cruising at a certain range of speeds. It's not effective for takeoff. It's not effective for accelaration to supersonic speed. It's not effective for acceleration from supersonic to low hypersonic. It's not effective for accelerating from its top hypersonic speed up to orbital velocity. It's only good for a specific range of hypersonic velocities.
Current plans are talking about using at least three different types of engines to make a single vehicle that can make it all the way to space. This is an enormous penalty in weight, vehicle shape and configuration. It's doubtful if a single vehicle can be designed for all these different flight regimes and still be light enough to make it into space at all. But even if it can be done there is absolutely no way it can be cheaper. The development and operational costs of such a complex system will be staggering.
In short, saying that scramjets are the way to cheaper access to space is a big fat lie and just an excuse for robbing the taxpayers.
Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
Point being, if you've got fuck loads of cash, then you can afford to pay £20,000 for 10 seconds in space. Space tourism just requires the public to be able to buy tickets to get into space - it's not far off, at all, IMHO.
Think about it - if Rutan succeeds, then he's proved that his vehicle is reusable. This shows that that he can take people into space and all it takes from there is for him to take someone from the public into space.
Space tourism isn't about taking people to the moon - that's definitely a long way off. The first bit is just getting people into space, and people will pay for it.
im in ur
Answering my own question the Ansari X-Prize webiste has a link to a September 29th live webcast of the launch. The link is in the top, right hand corner.
Currently, that link has videos of the other launches made by Scaled Composites. It looks like there is an external camera, a wing camera, and a cockpit camera. Hopefully they have all three rolling on Wednesday =)
This really just demonstrates the successful strategy of the prize. It's imperative that the momentum isn't completely lost when/if Scaled Composites take the prize.
That means a new, bigger, harder target next with a bigger prize.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
As for ET? Rutan hopes there is local life on other planets, because it would be fun to do what holidaymakers do: "interface them". -
We have failed to uphold Brannigan's law; however, I did make it with a hot alien babe, and in the end is that not what man has dreamt since first he looked up at the stars?
You can't handle the truth.
The only way I see NASA TV carrying coverage of the X-Prize competition is if there is a horrendous failure. Then they'll replay the disaster over and over, with the reminder that "we told you so."
Rutan's already made many public statements about the liability that the NASA culture has become. NASA used to be the premiere space program, but degenerated into a self-serving bureaucracy.
We can't expect substantial innovation out of NASA until something changes. Rutan's thrown down the gauntlet, and given them the big "you're Number One!" If he's successful, the budget-minded politicians are going to start asking "why are we funding NASA when the commercial entities are doing a better job?" As soon as the budget's on the line, NASA will be forced to change. But until then, expect the same lackluster performance out of NASA.
Go Burt!
btw, I checked the NASA TV Event Schedule, and there's a conspicuous gap between 27 September and 1 October. On the 29th, you'll be able to watch regurgitated videos of the ISS and other NASA programs.
The BBC article this slashdot story references explains that Rutan says he was misquoted in that article. He doesn't believe aliens made them. He says merely that we haven't discovered the technology used to buid the pyramids yet. He doesn't believe it has to be alien technology.