Slashdot Mirror
A Grand Day Out For British Rocketman
Instine writes "Salford University, in the UK, is showing an article suggesting that Britain's biggest ever rocket has been unveiled, by an academic planning a space tourism offering by 2013. 'Nova 2 qualifies as the biggest rocket ever created and flown from the UK mainland,' says Steve Bennett, Head of Salford's Space Technology Laboratory
The current offering is said to amount to 20 minutes 'flight' and 3-4 mins floating. I'm not sure how much, but I'd pay for that."
We need a a bigger rocket for space tourism? Since when are African elephants interested in space tourism? And I'm quite sure I've recently heard of some rocket that could already carry the whole elephant family, up to the grand-grand parents...
Burning out his fuse out there! I'm not the man they say I am at home! Oh no, no, no! I'm an Anonymous Coward! Anon-y-mous!
It might the biggest but it's not the best, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwIhEDq6tdY
Just enough time for a nice cup of tea.
But seriously, its cool to see progress from all these small/private space companies.. onward and upward!
.
How many kids does it take to reach escape velocity??
The new rocket is for the whales...
"World's 5th richest enters poverty this week after purchasing a 20 minute flight in space. Fox asks this man, as he cries on the corner. 'was it worth it?'"
Defective Logic
The FUSE Grommet, you forgot to light the fuse!!!
of launching rockets from the UK Mainland?
If you want to get into orbit, you need to launch as close to the equator as possible. That's why we launch from Florida, and the Europeans from Africa.
This is like talking about the biggest rocket to be launched from Vermont. Guess that's not too big, either!
thanks for nothing subby!
Bennett went on to say that he is not the man they think he is at home, and that he will be burning up his fuse up there alone.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
Quoth TFA: "Steve Bennett who heads up the University's Space Technology Laboratory, will be presenting his 58ft Nova 2 rocket at the University and will discuss how his company, Starchaser Industries plans to launch it in September 2009 with the help of school pupils from across the UK."
There is something so British about that statement. I almost expected the guy to say, "well, I knocked it up in my garden shed at weekends with a friend of mine who is a keen amateur astronomer. We thought of getting some of the local schoolchildren to help out which would be good for their Scout's badges."
I miss the old country sometimes even if we are often portrayed as a nation of lovable middle-class eccentrics.
bang goes my karma... again...
Is it bad that I heard British rocketman, and immediately thought Soldier?
This is the third or fourth summary today with an absolute disregard for the usage of the comma and/or proper grammar. That is all.
Consider:
"58ft Nova 2 rocket"
"They will travel at 3,500 miles per hour and receive intensive safety training* in advance of the flights."
I knew we'd beat those pesky pretentious trash-cans somehow - not even Daleks can trundle along that fast :-)
-cheers!
[* 'cos Daleks are dangerous, obviously!]
the descriptions today? Most perfect sphere? Biggest ever rocket?
You'd think the people here would be able to come up with more better adjectives
These are the people that tried to launch a Robin Reliant as part of a Top Gear episode last year. If anyone in the UK can do it, then these are probably the guys. Makes me proud to live in Salford.
Original post opined "I'm not sure how much, but I'd pay for that."
From the Starchaser website (http://www.starchaser.co.uk):
"The price of a sub-orbital spaceflight aboard a Starchaser vehicle is currently expected to be £98,000."
(i.e. about $193k)
Nova 2 qualifies as the biggest rocket ever created and flown from the UK mainland
It's because Britain used to have a rocket program in the 50s and 60s. All the launches of the large rockets were done from Woomera in the Australian outback. The biggest of these was Blue Streak developed as an ICBM. There are some pictures here
Eddie Izzard got it just about right, we should go to the moon on foot.
If he's the Walrus then can I be a penguin please?
That the UK government had a ban on manned spaceflight. Does this only apply to UK government funded projects or to private ventures as well? Anyone?
I've got your sig, right here.
First let me say I'm always excited to see progress in the effort to more easily put humans in space. With that being said, am I the only one who sees a bit of a correlation between early exploration of the earth and the current climate regarding space exploration?
It's currently so expensive to get into space (real space guys, not sub-orbital space) that it's almost exclusively a government endeavor. I know we're striving to change that, but that seems to be the case as of the present.
Which then brings up the thought, are we really over our colonial ambitions, and all the behaviors that go along with them? And will the colonization of space simply be a rehashing of the unpleasantness that has passed before, or will we be able to rise above petty human weakness?
Sadly, I can't say I'm optimistic.
As nice as this is to see, it is shocking how far behind we are. I'm at Leicester University, and the pinnacle of British commercial rocket techology (A Skylark, a small payload sounding rocket) sits in the middle of our foyer. Meanwhile, the French with a similar sized population and a similar sized economy (and coming from a similar state of total-fucked-upness after the war) have a commercially successful 20t launcher flying regularly.
Tory fanboys perpetually bleat that what Thatcher did to our heavy industry was a necessary evil - but it wasn't necessary for the frogs and they were in as bad a state as we were in the 1970s. We voluntarily gave up our capacity to engage in any project on a larger scale than a new shopping mall.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
This is the same guy who ran Starchaser Industries, claimed all sorts of records and pissed off a lot of amateur rocket people in Britain. He crops up every couple of years with another "NEW AND EXCITING DEVELOPMENT IN ROCKETRY". Never produced anything.
Oh, not the real British Rocketman, Elton John. Very misleading title.
H*ll, that rocket would take another 999 YEARS to haul enough nuclear waste out to the far side of the moon!
"Get me rewrite!"
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
Well the obvious malfunction that comes to my mind requires the ejection system to be able to eject passengers faster than the shockwave of an exploding fireball. Out of curiosity - how many astronauts have been saved by the ejection systems on their vehicles?
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Unfortunately the UK government see no economic value in an independent space program. All projects since the 1960's are now either killed at birth, dumped shortly thereafter, or gradually strangled in early-life through lack of proper funding. Ever heard of any of the following embarrassments?
HOTOL
Beagle 2
If you want to do any serious space research or engineering first move to a somewhere that sees value in it US, or even China?!
A little known, slightly less ambitious project (more reasonable, really),
whose announcement was plagiarized by John F. Kennedy:
It is our goal... goal... goal... (echo)
Before the decade is out... out... out...
To send a carrier pigeon to West Staines and return him safely to Slough.
Having read more about this man and his previous 'efforts' to break altitude records that had already been broken and to showcase part of a cement mixer as a space capsule... I feel that Wallace and Gromit are a more serious prospect for commercial space flight in this country.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
"...20 minutes 'flight' and 3-4 mins floating..."
A similar experience can be had on the Vomit Comet, probably for substantially less and for a longer total duration. Although with the cost of aircraft fuel quickly approaching the cost of rocket fuel, I may be mistaken.
The sad fact is that in the UK we get into projects that are too difficult, under-fund and mismanage them while wasting money in corruption aka unexpected expenses, and then whine when they prove completely impracticable. This happened with the British ICBM project, it will happen with the Olympics. It will probably happen if we replace Trident, though at least our all-British submarine is likely to be built by the French with American missiles.
Paradoxically it took Richard Noble and Andy Green to go supersonic on land while everybody rubbished them, including British Aerospace (aka BAe, aka Saudi Graft Inc.) who missed out on some rare good publicity by refusing to help them. But that was because, in fact, they stuck with tested and proven conventional technology.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
The size of a booster isn't all that important. The Brits put a satellite up in 1971 with a homebrew booster. The UK's small footprint in space is the result of policy decisions, not capabilities.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
"Which then brings up the thought, are we really over our colonial ambitions, and all the behaviors that go along with them? And will the colonization of space simply be a rehashing of the unpleasantness that has passed before, or will we be able to rise above petty human weakness?
Sadly, I can't say I'm optimistic."
I'm not sure that I can be optimistic unless there crops up some reason (probably catastrophic) for the Earth's nations can adopt a kinder and more cooperative relationship. As it stands now, it is much too a cutthroat, backstabbiing, 'hooray for me and fsck you' environment today for off world colonization to be anything more than scifi.
Due to the technological, engineering, political(yes, unfortunately this will be a factor), and financial hurdles to overcome to be ready to even think about any off world colonization, I feel that the answers are still decades if not centuries away. (well maybe a century or so)
My opinion is that it will take a lot of cooperation to do this, and that is not presently possible the way the world is now setup.
Maybe it comes from reading too much scifi, but to galvanize Earth (collectively) to achieve something of this magnitude may require some global disaster that changes our perception, or the 'proverbial' alien invasion. Or just lots and lots of time.
We have the capacity and the potential, but not the willingness at present.
I do however think that once we get to the point of off world colonization, we may see a marked reduction in nationalization with an increase in globalization, thus will encounter some entirely different colony based problems.
Conclusion: I think your pessimism is justified, but for different reasons. Yet there is no doubt that you have been 'paying attention' and have some knowledge of 'human nature'.
BTW, I hope to be dis proven and overly pessimistic, but I'll not wager against my views. And this is only my opinion-not subject to being correct nor relevant.
As for this:
"First let me say I'm always excited to see progress in the effort to more easily put humans in space. With that being said, am I the only one who sees a bit of a correlation between early exploration of the earth and the current climate regarding space exploration?
It's currently so expensive to get into space (real space guys, not sub-orbital space) that it's almost exclusively a government endeavor. I know we're striving to change that, but that seems to be the case as of the present."
I love that part, and wholeheartedly agree with you.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Then let's fund Wallace and Gromit[sic] and then turn them loose!
Come on! Where's your sense of adventure?!?!?!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
come on Brit guys, stop crying in your beer and give the middle class eccentrics some support !
http://www.nebula-prize.com/index.asp