Slashdot Mirror
Non-Profit Space Rocket Launching In a Week
Plammox writes "A non-profit suborbital space endeavor lead by Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen is trying to put a man in space. The first test of the boosters and space craft in combination with the sea launch platform will take place this week. The catch? All of this is a non-profit project based on voluntary labor and sponsors. How will they get the launch platform out in the middle of the Baltic sea to perform the test? With the founder's home-built submarine pushing it, of course."
If you build it properly does it matter where you build it?
It matters where you test it - and how willing are you to break N custom-built pieces to ensure N+1 and onwards won't crack under pressure.
Say what you want about greedy manufacturers trying to lower costs, but proper QA requires economies of scale - there is a reason prototypes ended up in museums and not flying to the moon.
Just noted this:
If they want to put a man into space, how can they avoid biological payloads?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Considering they are launching it from a sea launch platform they built, which will be towed to sea with the submarine they built, I'd say this is several orders of magnitude more awesome than what anybody else ever did.
Let's see, how many orders of magnitude harder things have you ever done? Links, please.
Why do so many people have a grasp of rocketry as "stuff other people have already done". When you think about learning guitar do you ever find yourself saying "nah, they already did that in the '50s".
How we know is more important than what we know.
Because they are doing it the way true pioneers do. Not by requesting grants from some big government and untangling miles of red tape. Not by licking some politicians ass helping him get a few votes subcontracting some part to a company in his district.
Why? Why would a hobbyist's dream worry you more than some dictator's nightmare?
Better live in a society where people have constructive hobbies like this than in a society where the only encouraged activity is to memorize some long dead prophet's words.