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Nova Scotia to Build Space Tourist Launchpad
Identity Missing writes "Lockheed Martin is planning on building a commercial spaceport in Nova Scotia Canada. The details are a bit shaky, but apparently the project is serious enough to attract 45 million dollars from the Federal government. The launch pad will specifically be built in Cape Breton, a mostly rural island characterized by low employment, thick colloquial accents, and kitchen fiddle parties. A PDF is available with pictures and a description of the planned orbital glider, the 'Silver Dart,' somewhat lacking the aesthetics of the X Prize winner."
I hope they serve Alexander Keith's on those space flights!
The last time I drove around Cape Breton - it was early October and the colors finally made me understand the red maple leaf on the flag - it was a lovely afternoon. We pitched a small campsite in a place with a name something like "Killmychickencluck," and had a lovely evening. We woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of a bull moose roaming around the camp, and barely fell back asleep. When we woke up again, there was a roughly 2-inch layer of spikey frost on everything. It was spectacular. We tried to talk to the locals about it, but We're Not From Around There, and they didn't take to us very well, I'm afraid. But we were able to gather that the weather just gets more interesting from then until, say, May. Wouldn't it make more sense to park this sort of thing somewhere with a bit more year-round opportunity for doing business, climate-wise? It's a bit of a drive down to Halifax, but there was a lovely Italian place for dinner, and a Holiday Inn with a clean pool. And, men in kilts working the tourist stops. But they had entirely the wrong accent for that, thus producing a sort of Highland Dissonance Syndrome that counteracted all tourist spending urges. Perhaps adding rocket ships to the mix will fix that.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Stupid Feds. Put my tax dollars into libraries, bike paths and food inspection agents who are trained to say "No" to hormone laden milk and GMO crops. Thank you.
-FL
Canaveral was a logical space port choice for two reasons. The built in kinetic energy of an object on the earths surface is due to its tangential velocity WRT the earths CG. That decreases as cos(latitude) when you move from equator to pole. As far south in the continental us as you can find a chunk of govt-owned eastern shore is ideal because at 28 north latitude, it has 88% of the KE of an object launched from equator, providing you pitch it into an eastward revolving orbit. That second reason? Since you have to tilt east, your boost trajectory goes safely over unpopulated ocean. Nova Scotia, at an average latitude of 45n only has 70% of the maximum possible KE...you need more fuel to orbit an equal weight of payload than they do in FL. NS only has the shore going for it. Did someone sell the Province the brooklyn bridge too?
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
Born and raised here. Yes. Really.
#1. It's not that foggy, in fact it's pretty nice. As well, our climate seems to be shifting closer to what they have in BC, but without the rain, at least for 10 months out of the year.
#2. Cape Breton is indeed beautiful. Tourists coming to go into space could see what they're leaving behind. I don't believe it's a unique beauty..the coast of California (especially Big Sur) feels very similar to me, but the combination is interesting.
#3. Unemployment isn't that high. It USED to be, after the natural resource industries collapsed (like they all do), but the population levels have evened out, and it's a pretty big destination for call centers these days. Why? #4.
#4. Friendly, intelligent (if not college educated) people. You could man such a spaceport with people from the area, not have to pay outlandish wages and still have a good experience for the tourists.
Southernmost part of Cape Breton is at approximately 45.5 degrees north latitute.
Southernmost part of Ontario is at approximately 42 degrees north latitude.
There are *lots* of places further south in Canada than Cape Breton!
Look at the tomato! Isn't it sad? He can't dance! Poor tomato!
Say what? I've never heard of reduced gravity as being an advantage of launching near the equator. It's all about the Earth's rotation - you pick up about 1,000 mph relative to launching from the poles. That's 1,000 mph less delta V you need to get out of your propulsion system to reach orbit. That's why you'll never see a satellite orbiting east to west.
And it's not like the exact center of the Earth is the source of its gravity. All of the Earth's mass contributes to the gravity field at any given point on the surface.
Also, launching from anywhere but the equator means that you've got to make a plane change if you want to take up a geosynchronous orbit, and that's a rather expensive maneuver in terms of delta V.
The low latitude of French Guiana makes it more costly to launch for an inclined orbit. Getting to a polar orbit would require more fuel. There's a reason why they want to launch from Nova Scotia and not French Guiana.