Slashdot Mirror
Wanna Buy a Reusable Rocket for 19k USD?
Anonymous Coward writes with story from the Mainchi Daily News: "'Earlier this month,
Hokkaido University started putting its Camui rockets on the open market. Camui rockets are true rockets, being 1.6 meters long, flying at 300 meters per second and parachuting slowly to the ground after reaching heights of up to 1 kilometer.' The Camui use a mixture of fixed fuel acrylic and liquid oxygen."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"Not recommended for use near airports or presidential motorcades."
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Feh. If I only had some faster-than-light propulsion I would have got first post, but all I've got are these *damned* slow rockets. :-(
This seems much more of a WMD than the Iraqi aluminum tubes. When does the bombing start?
Well, bonfire night in the UK is less than a month away. I wonder what the shipping time is on these. :)
I don't want to start a holy war here, but what is the deal with you Camui rocket fanatics? I've been sitting here at my freelance gig in front of a Camui rocket (a 300m/s w/1km altitude max) for about 20 minutes now while it attempts to copy a 17 Meg file from one folder on the hard drive to another folder. 20 minutes. At home, on my Titan IV running 150m/s, which by all standards should be a lot slower than this Camui, the same operation would take about 2 minutes. If that.
In addition, during this file transfer, the guidance system will not work. And everything else has ground to a halt. Even GPS is straining to keep up as I type this.
I won't bore you with the laundry list of other problems that I've encountered while working on various Camuis, but suffice it to say there have been many, not the least of which is I've never seen a Camui that has run faster than its Boeing counterpart, despite the Camui's faster propellant architecture. My hobby kit model rocket with helicopter nose cose runs faster than this 300m/s rocket at times. From a productivity standpoint, I don't get how people can claim that the Camui is a superior machine.
Camui addicts, flame me if you'd like, but I'd rather hear some intelligent reasons why anyone would choose to use a Camui over other faster, cheaper, more stable systems.
Can anybody buy his/her own rocket and launch it from the backyard?
l ?tid=137
With so much airtraffic is not a danger?
Can be this technology used for making weapons? I remember the article of someone building cruise missiles: http://slashdot.org/articles/03/12/09/205252.shtm
Seems very nice, but I would not like a plane shot down because a rich kid was playing with one of this toys.
No, Not really.
time is a perception of a being's consciousness
time is your 6th sense, the wierd ones are 7+
a km? I made a solid fuel estes when I was in Jr. High that would go to 3000ft (more or less a km) and it required none of that other crap. It was about a meter tall, had three stages, and used three solid fuel engines that, all combined, cost about ten bucks.
Why is this a story? Someone deisgned and constructed an overpriced, hard to use, liquid fuel rocket that can be outperformed by a twenty year old Estes and is offering copies of it for sale, but no one has been stupid enough to buy one yet. This is news?
Everyone should be allowed to protect their own backyard from overflying airtraffic...
Less, actually. Nearer 0.9 km.
But you have a good point.
19k big firework that you need some liquid oxygen to launch. Hm... Sounds like a bargain, what's the catch?
can we turn this into a "which is the better platform: crack or crystal meth" thread?
When do we get to buy nukes?
Linux/Open Source/Anti Microsoft News
Whilst 19k sounds like an "ok" (hah) price, imagine the 'on road' costs of running this thing. That fuel isn't cheap, no matter where you are..
The Bush administration has found evidence of a massive WMD missile facility in your backyard.
or else!
Is there a section for a cat or do you strap it externally? Do they provide a tiny helmet?
http://www.h2orocket.com/
there's some pics here. and a cnn story here.
Mongrel News all the news that fits and froths
Make place for one person in the rocket and launch it with a person. :-)
I guess there would be a lot of people wanting to ride such a thing...
The real significance of this project is that it's probably about the last time anyone names anything in Ainu, the old language of Japan...
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
With the surplus decommissioned missile silo I picked up for a pittance. Next step: declaring my fully armed and operational missile silo sovereign territory. Surviving relatives of Randy Weaver, Ted Kaczinsky and David Koresh are welcome to stay with me.
I Googled for "Camui rockets", to see if the whole "1 km" deal was true. From what I read, this article was taken from an AP article, which originally read:
"The Camui-50P rocket was developed by a team from Hokkaido University and can fly as high as one kilometer (0.6 mile) within three seconds after take off"
Dunno if that means "that's as high as it gets" or "that's how high it can get within that short amount of time"; for $19,000, though, let's hope it's the second one...at 300 meters per second. A little over 3 seconds worth of blast. Hey, lasts longer than me, honey.
Rocket science is easy. Neurosurgery, now *that's* difficult.
I can buy my own reusable real rocket for 19 USD at the local hardware store. It's a tube 12" long that uses a solid fuel engine and parachutes back to the ground after reaching a height of hundreds of meters.
I have hybrid engine models (acrylic / NO2) that are larger and go higher. Heck, I had refillable solid engine models that were considerably more powerful -- though with new regulations, getting the refills has become too much of a hassle. I don't see anything to this that wasn't available in dozens, if not hundreds, of High Power Rocketry models available ten years ago. Standing next to me at the moment (in two pieces, because it's too tall to be assembled indoors) is a 11' tall model on 5.5" tubing (at base, step down to 4" at top). Hybrid engine in the "L" range. It's made half a dozen flights on hybrid power, and a couple before that with solids. Easily clears a mile. Next to it is a LOC Magnum, a standard kit available for nearly a decade, with what has to be a good twenty flights to better than a kilometer on a "J" class hybrid. What makes these any less "true rockets?"
Obligatory Alan Cox quote
RFC1925
I need them for teh "Hamster X-prize".
"Kerry argues against the war..."
Then votes for it.
Will they ship to addresses in North Korea? Because the North Koreans can send them right back to the return address, but at least about 10-15Kg heavier.
--
make install -not war
No and ill tell you why, Hobby stores sell a reusable rocket with a paracute and using solid based cheap fuels that can reach a thousad meters for twenty quid. Although the one i bought turn itself into a missile shortly after take off. Skimming the heads of passers by and embedding itself into a tree. So im sure the one for 19k is a bit safer!!
My new
Star-struck space lovers can now buy their own bona fide rockets, thanks to a Hokkaido University aiming for the stars, according to Weekly Playboy (10/26).
?? So I am not the only one who reads the articles?
Lets think seriously:
1: When does linux get installed
2: What kind of imaging can we expect
3: Some more money than sense geek gonna hack us up a nice GPS tracking and imaging softwqare with gyro compass and GIS based ground sensing auto navigation?
Neat.
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
One kilometer?? DEBI was a real rocket. [pictures] About 30 feet long, two stage solid fuel. With 40 G's acceleration it reached mach 10 in a little under 30 seconds (below 40km altitude) and sailed to a apogee of about 800km. Since the rocket had a ballistic trajectory we needed clearance through the pentagon to circumvent the anti-ballistic missle treaty.
Even little baby Loki Dart's will reach 50km on a good day.
Too bad that they're not taking orders...DOH!
Just another day in Paradise
Here is a CNN article w/ a picturee t.ap/
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/10/05/explorers.rock
I can think of a certain Jrock star who definitely has a Camui rocket in his pants.
Yes, I am very interested in buying one of these rockets. Tell me, what size warhe.. er.. payload does it carry?
Osama
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
1. Buy rocket.
2. Threaten to launch rocket into Mt. St. Helens, starting hot magma reaction that would end up destroying Microsoft.
Profit!
I would imagine that there is a huge market for these things in North Korea.
Oh, I kid, I kid.
what are the, er, "payload" options?
--- Asking inconvenient questions for over 30 years...
When you program a ballistic missilie you need target lattitude, longitude and altitude even if it is not an air burst.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
the "Hot Topics from the Weeklies" on the side bar seem more interesting.
the "Hot Topics from the Weeklies" seem more interesting.
My ultralight will get you to 1 km, stay there for hours and then gently fly back to the ground, carrying a payload of 200 kg... And it's fully reusable! And you can have it for 10k only.
These guys talk say that "We want to use the technologies we've developed by making our small, hybrid fuel rockets to create new rocket markets."
In another article today on Burt Rutan (link), he talked about how "Lockheed and Boeing will be making very low-cost access to space hardware within 20 years. They just don't know it yet...because they're going to have to."
We're just starting down the path where lower costs allow new users into a market, which increases sales volumes, which further reduces prices by greater efficiencies and amortizing costs over longer prodction runs, which opens up new markets at lower price points, etc...
Looks good to me!
I have problems with people being able to buy such equipment. Ready made rockets. While making a rocket is not the most difficult thing in the world, lets slow the process for terrorists or would-be-terrorists by not making things like this available (which i am shocked in our day and age someone can buy these)
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
My only question about these things is whether or not I'm able to strap one to the roof of my Chevy Impala? :)
I mean, it's not a JATO unit, but it would still be one hell of a ride before I hit that canyon wall
We fear what we don't understand.
People live on the ground. If a terrorist wanted to kill a bunch of people, a much better way would be to buy a plain truck, fill it with explosives, and drive it into a crowd of people. Even without the explosives, the truck would still kill a bunch of people. How many people do you really think a small rocket will kill?
It's all about sensationalism in the news. If one of these rockets killed 5 people, it would be all over the news and these would be quickly banned. But if someone plowed their car into a crowd and killed 10 people, it would barely make it into the newspaper. I guess the public just doesn't find it very "exciting" to hear about deaths due to more conventional means.
The first movie from their 2nd launch shows a burn time of ~3 secs, and apogee @ ~12 secs. http://mech-me.eng.hokudai.ac.jp/~spacesystem/camu i/2nd_e.html
Big whoop, I can do that on my hybrid motors every month for $50.
I bet Edward Elric would love to hear about this.
With all the past things people have done to hamsters (no Richard Gere jokes please), it's only a matter of time before one takes a ride on a personal rocket.
When the new police station/courthouse opened in town, it had one of those air-delivery mail systems, like your bank's drive-up teller window. Within two weeks, the newspaper printed an article that some people had been disciplined for sending a hamster all around the building!
kM
-- You can't drink all day. (Unless you start in the morning...)
since the BATFE is now regulating even model rockets (the propellant, anyway), what's the liklihood that purchasing one of these puppies won't get you a vacation in Gitmo?
being anal i guess
I am level 2 certified through the National Association of Rocketry and Tripoli Rocketry Association. I have rockets, built from kits purchased for under $200 and propelled by solid fuel motors for around $200 or hybrid motors for about $100 that can carry a 0.5 pound payload far higher than one kilometer. Anybody on this list who is willing to take a few evenings to build a rocket kit, spend the money to join NAR or TRA, and join the nearest high power rocketry club will be able to launch a small TV transmitter with telemetry over one km and save $18,000 over the Japanese liquid rocket. And if you are really into liquid fuels, you can even find amateurs working with those.
from the CNN article: "can fly as high as one kilometer (0.6 mile) within three seconds after take off"
That would suggest 1 km is NOT its max altitude.
Imagine - a home-built SpaceShipOne!
"And you're going to do WHAT with that tanker truck full of NO2 and those old tires in your backyard?"
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
That's lame, to say the least. There are much more capable homemade rockets capable of reaching a mile or more.
...and don't even get me started on the Flying Tiger (48,000 ft.).
One kilometer is 3280 feet. I've taken my homebuilt airplane (RV-7) to 18,000 ft (5.48 kilometers, the highest allowed in VFR flight) several times still showing 500 fpm climb and other RV builders with setups similar to mine have made it to 25,900 ft. (7.59 kilometers)
This rocket costs 2.1 million Yen is $20,000 US dollars. A finished RV will cost you about twice that but it'll get you a lot higher! And that's the key...it gets you a lot higher.
If they could get these rockets to say, 50,000 ft. or more...then it would get interesting.
... or to meet US Homeland Security and FBI officers personally...
Ted kazinksy wasnt a seperatist.
Akira: Yes, you have very lucky dishes, Mr. Simpson. This soap is from the sacred forests of Hokkaido, renowned for its countless soap factories.
Homer: [thoughtfully] Hokkaido, eh?
-- Is "Sig" copyrighted by www.sig.com?