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X Prize Founder Launches Rocket Racing League
David Rosen writes "MSNBC reports a 'Rocket Racing League' is launching today. The man behind the $10 million X Prize for private spaceflight is joining forces with a venture capitalist who is also an Indy car backer to establish a NASCAR-like racing league for rocket-powered aircraft." The Rocket Racing League also has an official website which outlines some of the specifics behind the program.
Went to Michigan International Speedway this year and seats on the outside across from the pits were $80/each. What I found incredibly cool was you could bring in whatever food/drink you could fit into a softside cooler. The added entertainment of some of the spectators was well worth the $80 alone.
Honda makes a diesel that'll do 130 MPH, and get 92 MPG (not at the same time, mind you, but in the exact same vehicle though). It's not an overly-expensive interior-space-lacking hybrid, just a regular diesel, with an Accord body (looks like a normal car, not stupid-futuristic like a lot of "concepts" are). At the end of the quarter mile, the car is doing a dreadfully slow 54.198 MPH though. Acceleration isn't everything, but being able to get the hell out of the way of oncoming traffic and merge with a fast-moving freeway is necessary in many parts of the world. This would be on the dangerous end of slow acceleration for real-life driving.
-Jesse
Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
These things are not "Minivans". (At least, not as they're defined in the US.) They're "mini-vehicles", period. And yes, they're on sale in the US. No, I seriously doubt they'll catch on.
Not sure where you got the Ford or GM connection.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
They are also joining forces with the organizers of the annual Reno Air Races that were held just a couple weeks ago. Similar to grand prix road races, there are several classes of air racers, the biggest and fastest being the piston-powered Unlimiteds (mostly stripped and re-engined WWII-era fighters). Courses are low to the ground and marked by giant pylons. From the article, it seems the rocket racers are planning more vertical courses so it will be intersting the see how those are plotted. Maybe GPS and a virtual track shown on a heads-up display?
For those pointing out that some people watch NASCAR mostly for the crashes, crashes at Reno usually involve a distant thud, a cloud of smoke and little good news. Everybody maintains a healthy distance between aircraft, crowd others out of the course and you get grounded, do it too often (as in more than once or twice), and you get banned.
That's because that is what they are.
"Research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing." -- Wernher von Braun
Not "overly expensive"? Lets see... a quick search shows an unequipped accord ctdi sport costing over $30,000. Hybrids aren't even that expensive; not all hybrids are small, either - the Ford Escape Hybrid, Mercury Mariner Hybrid, the Lexus RX400h, the Toyota Highlander, and - you guessed it - the Honda Accord Hybrid (only 3k more than the EV6 V6 Accord, and gets the same milage as a V4 Civic), just to list larger ones currently on the market. In fact, I'd say that they average about the size of the accord.
:) The problem with diesels is the pressure. The high internal pressure generally means either a very heavy engine or an engine made with expensive materials/manufacturing techniques. When you scale up to large freight-hauling vehicles, the penalty becomes less severe. Trying to make a small diesel vehicle, however, means that you have a lot of mass that you have to get moving. Furthermore, diesels have high torque but low max RPM. The net effect on a small vehicle is slow acceleration. They can also be inconvenient (cold weather starting difficulties/delays, noise and vibration, etc). Again, to be fair, the aforementioned Accord has been rated quite well for a diesel on the typical diesel shortcomings.
Not that the ctdi sport's numbers aren't outright great, mind you, even if they are for perfectly controlled conditions (which seldom materialize in real-world tests)
So, apart from that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?
I think it's funny that the PROPELLOR powerered aircraft (modified P-51 fighters and such) that I watched at the Reno airraces 15 years ago, were considerably faster than the proposed rocket planes for this sport.
"The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
Laserbeam-powered
;) Not to mention that the wallplug efficiency of lasers with good coherence over a long range is typically less than one percent.
:) People try to keep staging to a minimum to reduce costs. While a tow stage, for example, isn't very complex, high-speed explosive separation from powerful boosters can be. It also makes setup and reuse more complicated.
;) Being a monoprop isn't really the big deal - people would love to use H2/O3 rockets, for example. The reason that the known exotic fuels aren't being used is because they're problematic; they tend to either be poisonous and corrosive (containing, say, beryllium or fluorine), explosive (say, O3), impossible to synthesize thusfar (say, N12), or a combination of the above. The drive for such fuels is quite understandable, of course - some of the ISPs blow the mind (for example, spin polarized triplet helium, at 2800-3150 sec - but it's "half-life" of two hours, and incredibly low density after containment (as well as containment difficulties - magnetic containment and laser cooling for a rocket fuel??) are greatly problematic). Research still is warranted, at least on the chemicals whose main problem is no known synthesis route, and those which might possibly be stabilized; alane (stabilized aluminum hydride) research is well underway, as an example.
Good luck getting that sort of laser power
the case of staging
Already done
meta-stable fuels
Everyone wants them; nobody has them
So, apart from that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?