Inventor to Launch Pop Bottle Rocket into Space

DrButts writes "An inventor in British Columbia wants to be the first to launch a pop bottle rocket into space. 'This could be impossible, but the CEO of AntiGravity Research already holds the altitude record for boosting an elongated plastic pop bottle — propelled by a bicycle pump, water and a bit of soap — into the air. Firing the ubiquitous, two-litre plastic container usually consigned to the recycle bin into space might create a whole new definition for space junk, but the dream keeps Schellenberg going.'"

Comments

But what if...

[CRCulver]

What if the bottle rocket eventually encounters an advanced civilization, who enhance it and sent it back to Earth on a mission of death and destruction? Hasn't this fool learned anything from what happened to Voyager/VGER?

Re:But what if...

[SQLGuru]

Or better yet, it falls from the sky and they start worshiping it..... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080801/

Layne

sounds like a defense contract

[circletimessquare]

he could get $2 billion for this project from the pentagon if he words the application right and he donates $10K to his senator's reelection fund

Re:sounds like a defense contract

[Rob_Ogilvie]

I don't think his Canadian senator has much pull with the Pentagon.

Maybe after Canada becomes the 52nd State (right after Mexico and before Northern California - AKA Lincoln) he could give it a shot.

Re:sounds like a defense contract

[CaligarisDesk]

I hear the pentagon is using it to shoot down their malfunctioning spy satellite.

Just needs...

[lobiusmoop]

a Coke-and-Mentos second-stage booster and he should be set.

Re:Volume

[Wandering Wombat]

Excellent use of the Gmail "Word Of The Day"...

I don't know how he expects to reach space

[Melbourne Pete]

He's not using any mentos at all.

Re:Uh.... right.

[Wandering Wombat]

He's from British Columbia... they don't need jet fuel to fly. Hell, they smoke anything out there... I even hear tell they smoke salmon.

Seriously, though, I've met this guy before, and the definition of "space" might be a little loose, but crazy wins over reality, every time.

Extrapolating the data points...

[giminy]

Schellenberg's two-stage model is easily capable of reaching altitudes of well over 200 metres.

Several years ago, one of his "toy" rockets - actually a Kevlar-reinforced, experimental, single-stage missile pressurized with compressed nitrogen and packing high-tech instruments - flew to just under 379 metres.

Based on that research, Schellenberg is now convinced that it will be possible to put a bottle rocket into orbit.

Wow, 379 meters. With just a few more improvements, he could eek out the other 159,621 meters to Low Earth Orbit with no problem!

Reid

Re:Extrapolating the data points...

[jollyreaper]

To actually achieve orbit, not only does it need to reach this altitude, but also move horizontally at probably over 20,000 miles per hours once it gets there. The plan is to loft the rocket into the orbital plane of an intersecting object and perform what is colloquially known as the "bugsplat-windshield assist."

ah silly canadians

[circletimessquare]

blissfully unawares that they are just unincorporated us territory

Re:ah silly canadians

[Wandering Wombat]

*obligatory "We're Bigger And We're On Top, Bitch" post*

Re:ah silly canadians

[Real1tyCzech]

Big words from America's Hat...

Re:ah silly canadians

[bjorniac]

And the US has Bush and Dick?

I can hear Nasa now

[Frigga's Ring]

We don't dump our satellites in your recycling bin, please don't shoot your pop bottles into our space.

Quote from the man.

[gardyloo]

"I got side tracked off what I should have been doing, which is electrical engineering," said the red-headed, 49-year-old father of five. Yeah, you're letting down slashdotters everywhere by making children.

Re:Quote from the man.

[mikiN]

Many Slashdotters don't often $ make children, they fork() parent processes.

Perhaps managing IPC and dealing with zombies comes more naturally to them than dealing with tantrums and changing diapers.

Re:Volume

[Wandering Wombat]

It might be sine, 'cos it tan't sin...

Re:Volume

[Anonymous Coward]

It may be "sin qua non" when talking about the volumes involved during a sin (such as, in certain US states, fisting - which requires a stretch and increase in volume similar to what the OP is describing for a coke bottle, although certainly not orders of magnitude). So maybe sin would be correct when dealing with something defined by theists as sinful? Not being a theist, I wouldn't be sure.

Re:Volume

[brian0918]

I hate to be a pestiferous virago and contradict your amative mien, but in my opinion the aberrant misspelling of said "word of the day" was not copacetic. It may be ineffectual, but some day I hope to overcome this perdurable ennui...

MythBusters . . .

[arizwebfoot]

He needs to get with the mythbusters team, tie five bottles together and see if they can life Jamie off the ground.

Re:Volume

[JustOK]

I laffed so hard I dropped a log

His company motto says it all

[damn_registrars]

AntiGravity's motto is: "Ongoing research projects of little or no gravity."
(Straight from TFA...)

Re:said "wandering wombat"?

[Wandering Wombat]

When you learn to capitalize, you should learn to read the usernames of ALL posters. I know you replied to me... I am entirely unaffiliated with Australia. However, I will take your example, and assume that, based on your username, you are a two-dimensional shape, and thus unable to type. Color me impressed.

Re:Volume

[Anonymous Coward]

"sine qua non" is correct; you will not be liquidated.

Re:said "wandering wombat"?

[Scaba]

For a Canadian, you sure are uptight. I didn't think it needed explaining, but it seems the OP was also trying to be funny by assuming you were, in fact, a wombat.

Re:Hey, 200 Meters ain't bad for a pop bottle rock

[cthulu_mt]

I was this close to a snarky comment about you not killing yourself doing that stupid shit.

Then I remembered doing the same sort of shit. Good times...good times.

Re:Volume

[wall0159]

Gosh mate - if you're gonna be all clever with a dictionary, at lease use an English dictionary!

Re:Volume

[Daimanta]

Let me guess, you're canadian(from the log thing)?

Are you going to bake a pi now, e?

Don't discount him yet

[EmbeddedJanitor]

He stretches the bottles. This is a very important point that you have missed. So far he has only stretched them slightly but if he stretches them to be 100km long then he's made it.

Re:Volume

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a word I bet you don't understand:

VAGINA

Team up with Japan!!!

[jameskojiro]

This sounds the perfect rocket motor for the Japanese origami paper airplane.

Re:Volume

[eat here_get gas]

re:
"...
sent scurrying to a dictionary
..."

you were at your computer...is Google broken?

Re:Volume

[morgan_greywolf]

I wish I had mod points for you, very few times have I been sent scurrying to a dictionary just to figure out what it was that I was reading. I must not have such an expansive lexicon as I once thought. Install the 'Dictionary.com word of the day' into your iGoogle page. If you had, you'd know he just used the words of the day from the last few days very successfully. :-D

Pop? Soda? Pop? Coke?

[ettlz]

"It's 'soda', not 'pop'."

"It's 'coke', not 'pop'."

"It's 'pop', not 'soda' or 'coke'."

Fuck you lot, it's 'fizzy drink' and you know it.

Re:Volume

[popmaker]

Come on now, be rational!

Re:Volume

[History's Coming To]

J'm not jojnjng jn wjth any of thjs nonsense, J'm an engjneer........

Re:Volume

[Trogre]

Well in that case, let me offer my heartiest contrafibularities.

Re:So then, really...

[B Nesson]

"Inventor jokingly suggests launching a soda bottle into space; Slashdot gets all huffy."

Re:Volume

[3vi1]

>> At the bottom would be a layer of mercury with some depleted uranium dissolved in it. Next is the water layer.

Is that before or after he dumps the Coke out?

Re:Volume

[Paradise Pete]

I must not have such an expansive lexicon as I once thought.

There are pills for that now. Didn't you get the email?