Slashdot Mirror
Cape Breton Enters Space Race
thatguywhoiam writes "A private deal has been put into place to construct a large space facility in Cape Breton. The Toronto Star says '...that Nova Scotia has signed a "team agreement" to provide 300 acres of land — and perhaps even some funding — for a massive orbital launch facility that will involve industry giants and could eventually be on scale with huge NASA operations. "We're basically building a private manned space program for Canada," says Chicago's Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, chairman of the PlanetSpace firm that lit the fuse for this deal. "The facility will see orbital flights, similar to the Kennedy Space Center."'"
I hope that the Canadian government doesn't present too many miles of red tape. Won't there be negative impact to launching from a high latitude? I know that other spaceports boast about how close to the equator they are.
The biggest difference between this facility and other proposals is the larger scope of this project. Instead of $20mil a shot tourists, the Canadians are playing catch up with the Americans, Russians, Europeans, etc. to have a real non-commercial space program. From TFA:
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
Well, it's aboot time!
If it's anywhere near this place, it should be very popular. If you're ever in Mabou, be sure and stop in.
"The deep-fried Mars bar is a symptom of a wider crisis." -- Nutritionist Ann Ralph, on the Scottish diet
WTF
I've been to Nova Scotia several times. Am I correct in stating that the job market is pretty poor in the Maritimes? Do you think this will help the local Nova Scotia economy greatly, not much, or not at all?
This would be great, but there is NO infrastructure here to support this kind of endeavour. There is no city here. There is little university support, with the nearest school granting engineering degrees over 4 hours away. The airport service is limited, there isn't even a double divided highway from the nearest major center.
Amazing, shocking news if it were to happen. I just can't see it.
..don't panic
First.. a spaceport! Then I shall take over the worrrrld!
..don't panic
One reason why NASA put its launch facility at Cape Canaveral (and the missile range at Vandberg AFB) is that it is usually advantageous to launch as close to the equator as possible. Because the Earth's rotation, being at the equator means you have a greater starting velocity than if you launched from, say, the north pole. The rotation of the Earth, in radians per second, is the same for everyone, but your tangential velocity increases the farther you get from the axis of rotation. (It's easier to draw or demonstrate with a ball it is to describe)
This is why the ESA has a major launch facility in French Guiana, at just 5 degrees latitude.
A craft launching from Cape Breton, which lies at about 45 degrees north latitude, would only have about 70% of the initial velocity, and so only 1/2 the kinetic energy, as a craft that starts from the equator. The only way to get that extra energy you'll need to reach orbit is by burning more fuel.
Somebody might want to let these guys know they're at Latitude 46N, which means they have a tangential velocity of 720ft/s, or just over half of Cape Canaveral's. But hey, it's their fuel.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
I could see Cape Breton being the site of a major launch facility. I always figured that the Maritimes would have a high-tech boom sooner or later, and other provinces already have other areas of science and technology nailed down. With the low employment rate, lots of highly educated people, and a government that isn't tied to legacy industries, the Maritimes are bubbling over with potential.
..no, but instead your launch window is basically eliminated by 1/4 the year. You'd have a hell of a time finding a suitable launch date anywhere from Dec - April in Cape Breton, or anywhere else in the maritimes for that matter. The weather around here in winter is totall yunpredictable, they can forecast for sunny days on Monday for Wednesday, and when Wednesday gets here, it's a huge blizzard.
I mean, it snows every 3-4 days. It's hard to schedule a luanch in weather like that , having to de-ice constantly as well, etc.
Wonder if this means they're going back to the Gerald Bull type of space cannon for launching...
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
Honestly, this is a good thing. The more and more we compete to accomplish exploration feats, the better! I personaly would like to see us personally travel to other planets before I die.
Music, my drug; dance, my ecstasy.
The orbit of the ISS was chosen based on the latitude of Baikonur. In that respect, the Cape Breton latitude is OK, in that it matches Baikonur, and therefore matches ISS. To claim that this is a good latitude for launches that do anything other than match LEO stuff launched from Baikonur is overstating it.
Also, the TFA says
They provided some land rights, nothing more. No money, no personnel, no new roads or other infrastructure. This is pretty vaporous.
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain
...you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.
;-)
That's what we say in Halifax.
It would be exactly the same. Think of the cannon spinning around a ball at the equator; the explosive force is added to the initial velocity of the actual cannon itself.
Since when is 300 acres "massive"? Kennedy Space Center is 219 square miles -- nearly 500 times larger. Granted, most of that land is a wild-life refuge, but the developed area is still around 1500 acres. And that doesn't count the Air Force base where there are some more launch facilities.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
What the fuck are they going to do with 300 acres? Build a Wal-Mart? That's less then half a square mile. Massive orbital launch facility, my ass.
My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells by the seashore.
Eastern Canada is known for having friendlier people, but living several km from Cape Breton, I have to say: hick meet egghead - it should be an interesting development. Reality TV anyone?
Right...and I bet because of the points you made, land values aren't very high. 300 acres amounts to chump change. I guess they figured as long as they aren't using the land, they might as well look good while getting it off their hands. The only thing this place has going for it is a similar latitude to Baikanor, where the Russians launch their rockets from. Along the same vein, I've got a microwave I don't use anymore. Are there any universities that might want it for electromagnetics research?
As you hang around Slashdot longer, you will eventually learn how to distinguish between genuine news and overhyped press releases from clever venture capitalists picking up investments from gullible people. Not only is there nothing out there to support the facility, I don't think there's even a sustainable market for launches from there. No company has yet launched a privately developed rocket into orbit, so there's also not much in the way of products. The closest, SpaceX, already has invested a significant amount in launch facilities at White Sands and the Kwajalein Atoll, and no one on their current list of customers is interested in a high inclination orbit anyway. Boeing and Lockheed are pretty much tied down by their infrastructure and regulation to their established facilities.
See the entry for more details on how we butcher verbal communication. I think about it in a similar way to perl.
Am I open minded towards open source, or closed minded towards closed source?