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.

Comments

Non-chemical rockets

[biryokumaru]

I hope this doesn't hopelessly ground us in chemical rockets the way car racing stuck us with internal combustion engines.

Re:Non-chemical rockets

[P3NIS_CLEAVER]

How is this insightful? Nothing except for nuclear is going to surpass the energy densities of chemical rockets. Are you saying we should be working on nuclear engines? Yeah in the future fusion energy might be used to create the fuel for the rocket, but the rocket will be the same.

Re:Non-chemical rockets

[Total_Wimp]

I hope this doesn't hopelessly ground us in chemical rockets the way car racing stuck us with internal combustion engines.

Better to be "grounded" in a working technology that can be improved, refined and used than to attempt nothing while we wait around for something better to come along.

A bird in the hand...

TW

Re:Non-chemical rockets

[heavy snowfall]

I doubt they'll get approval for racing around in nuclear rockets above the Mojave desert though... :)

--
Use your bluetooth phone as a modem for Linux

In the words of Howard Hugues...

[sherlocktk]

From the movie the aviator when Howard Hughes is trying to make his movie "Hells Angles" He had a problem showing the speed of the aircraft when in the air. It was determined he needed coulds to show it. I don't think this will work because the planes will not look fast on TV because there will be nothing behind them to show there speed.

SO many thoughts go through my head

[bloodstar]

I almost have to laugh at the number of peanut gallery comments I could make on this subject, but I won't (yeah, I'm no fun).

The idea seems sound and having the FAA at least sound like it's giving some sort of approval to the idea tells me that they've got some of the basic kinks worked out to the point that it's not total crack smoking.

of course, the safety issues are going to be brutal to tackle. They can keep drivers safe from some spectacular crashes, but plane crashses have an amazing tendency to be lethal. Add in the whole idea that you would push your vehicle to the limit to get an edge, I suspect you'll see all sorts of liability issues. Let alone the first plane that crashes into the spectators....

We need new propulsion methods

[phorm]

What we really need is a new form of energy and/or propulsion, period. With the way fossil-fuels are going, we need something akin to an X-prize for a vehicle than can match today's cars, but with a method of power that is long-term available/renewable. I'm sure there are lots of eggheads out there that might be able to come up with something amazing and wonderful, for the right incentive. It's hard enough getting by nowadays, but if there were the incentive of a massive cash prize based on various criteria... perhaps we could come up with some a vehicle that would be either road/sky friendly, or both.

Re:We need new propulsion methods

[Blind_Io_42]

Deisels are the next logical step. Although they produce more pollutants by weight per gallon than gasoline, they are not the same hydrocarbons that come from petrol engines. Deisels burn at higher temps and pressures, meaning you strip more of the hydrogen atoms off the carbon strains, meaning you have a more effecient engine. The black smoke from a deisel is mostly carbon.

Someone should tell California, New York and Maine (Who have outlawed the sale of new deisel cars) that deisels actually get better milage than real-world hybrid ratings without loosing much in the way of performance (most drivers just need to get used to the different power curve of deisel engines). What we should be doing is finding a way to clean up the deisel fuel so it contains fewer contaminants, like sulfur, while working on synthetic bio-deisel for large scale applications. Then everyone gets to keep their high-powered SUVs and luxury cars while we develop a new renewable energy source using existing technology.

That Honda deisel may be slow, but with a minor change to the displacement and the addition of a turbo it would probably be enough for the typical driver. The other thing is that you have to change the gear ratios when moving from a petrol to deisel engine. Deisels don't have as high a horsepower rating as gasoline, for the most part, but they have alot of torque. If you gear everything higher you can make up for a lack of high-end horsepower by making use of the inherent torqiness of the motor. Slap on a turbo and you have slow initial accelleration until the RPMs get up enough for the turbo to build pressure, but then some deisels can out accellerate some petrol cars. I loved driving our '83 Mercedes 300D Turbo (inline 5 cyl turbo deisel), once I hit 25 mph the turbo kicked in and it was like god grabbing you by the seat of your pants and taking you for a ride.

Might be boring

[doctor_no]

The Sky is a pretty empty place, mostly blue during the day, sometimes with clouds. It's going to be very difficult to keep track of what is going on. Most sports, have markers, and visual cues that tell the audience of the position and events of each player. From looking at the concept pictures and reading the idea it seems that they will have a reletively complicated preset course that they will be flying in the air. I'm not sure how the spectator or the audience are suppose to follow the race, any tactics involving overtaking, technique, etc etc will be entirely lost.

Conceptually, it sounds incredibly exciting, but I'm scared that I will be watching a plane fly around against a blue backgroud for a couple of hours.

Re:NHRA on steroids

[poopdeville]

This isn't flamebait. The logistics necessary for interesting camera work are going to be impossible. Would you really watch a show featuring two shrinking dots? I personally wouldn't care enough to be interested in which one shrinks the fastest.

Re:Indeed

[everphilski]

Ramjets need to be supersonic. As the course is built for a subsonic racer it would probably not fare well (it would pull excessive G-forces in maneuvers)

Plus it would no longer fit the criteria, what not being a rocket.

-everphilski-

Interesting concept, but will flop...

[Amigori]

I can't help but think of the airplane racing in The Rocketeer, but not near as exciting. Also of an old game called "Slipstream 5000."

NASCAR, Indy, and F1 are all technologically advance machines driven for extended amounts of time at high speeds along exciting circuits capabale of seating hundreds of thousands of fans during all kinds of weather and track conditions. All teams command a multitude of sponsors from various industries and include a manufacturer of core equipment, like Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Honda, Toyota, McLaren, Ferrari, etc. The core manufacturer uses technology derived from their respective racing teams and eventually use it in products they sell to customers.

Which is where the problem comes in...
Commercially, this is not viable because:

1. Airframe, Powerplant, and other suppliers are not going to sell this technolgoy at some point to consumers, at least within the next 50 years.
2. Where are people going to watch this from? Auto racing packs in the crowds because people can get close to the racing, even though they might not see much of the track.
3. Seriously, 3-4 laps of glide time and 4 min of available thrust between 5-10 minute pit stops?? BOOOOORING!!! Especially versus 30-50 laps between less than 15 second pit stops...and not to mention 300-500+ mile races!
4. Most people cannot relate to a "rocket racer" because they don't own a rocket plane. Its very easy to relate to a race car driver because you own a car.
5. $$$$....To own a basic pro-circuit auto racing team, its millions of dollars in costs. A rocket racing team would have extremely high upfront costs, high maintenance costs, and probably low payout. Poor ROI.

I'm not trying to bash the Rocket Racing League idea, as I think its a neat concept, especially concerning space technology development. I just strongly believe it not to be commercially viable and will not be very popular. Good Luck anyways.
Amigori

Re:Reminds me of Air Racing, except

[gekman]

Actually, if you had RTFA, you'd know that these things are only designed to do about 320 mph, and the plan is to race over land (admittedly, a LOT of land) and will follow a winding course.

Re:Reminds me of Air Racing, except

[john82]

These planes are going to be traveling at multiple times the speed of sound. Which means they can't race over populated areas because the sonic booms would disturb, shock and in some cases injur the inhabitants.

Say what? What spec are you reading? From the official website:

The first-generation of Mark-1 X-Racers will reach maximum speeds of more than 320 mph.

What exactly is the speed of sound? Let's consider today's conditions in Las Vegas, Nevada: 85F, 11% humidity. That would equate to 780 mph.

So the jets in question are doing less than half the speed of sound. Definitely not Mach 3.