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Ugandan Seeks To Build Backyard Space Shuttle
An anonymous reader writes "Who says that only big, militaristic states are capable of manned space flight? The BBC reports on an attempt by Chris Nsamba to build what he hopes would be the first crewed spacecraft designed and built in Africa. Not that Nsamba, the Ugandan founder of the self-styled African Space Research Program, doesn't have any good role models. NASA's first African American flight director, Kwatsi Alibaruho, traces his roots to Uganda." Hopefully the press will help Nsamba's cause. I sincerely hope he makes it into space one day.
A lack of local facilities is hampering the project and I asked Chris Nsamba how he plans to simulate zero gravity, for example, in Kampala.
"Easy" he said. "I've got a jet engine on order so I'm planning to build a tunnel, put the engine at one end and when I throw a guy in he'll float in a similar way to how he would in space."
an adorable sidekick, like a bonobo or a kitten or something.
Then he can easily get the popularity and funding to make this happen.
These guys already beat him to it...
No sig today...
Test pilot!
I have no doubt they have the ability to make a "spacecraft".
Actually getting that in to space, particularly with squishy meat bags on board that don't want to go "pop", is another story.
he'll make Captain.
I hope they do it and then years from now I can watch about it in movie form, it will be the spiritual sequel to the movie Cool Runnings.
Are you just automatically assuming that, because they are in Africa, they have no chance?
Almost seems insulting.
If you looked at the pic of the "shuttle" in TFA you'd understand. I want the guy to succeed too, but...just look at that sorry thing...
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
When I was a kid, I used to build shuttles in my living room all the time.
I know it is bad form to RTFA, you're only supposed to look at the pictures, but reading the captions at least seems acceptable.
The pictured craft is not the space shuttle, it is an airplane being built for engineering practice.
That said, WTF is with said picture being where the category picture is supposed to be? The Big Taco is gone for one day and they've already trashed the place. If they think this is a news site, I've got news for them; it's a dreadful one!
Reminds me of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troposphere_(rocket_family)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR97o_FuX-c
-- perl -e'print pack"H*","6e656d6f406d38792e6f7267"'
I'll admit I didn't finish RTFAing. If it's a glider then it looks sufficient.
I'm racist you say? LOL
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
If you had read TFA you would have realized that the picture was of a standard airplane they are building to test their skills. They can't do any worse than this http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078681/
Maybe they'll beat NASA back to space?
http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/space-robin
and getting it back safely to Earth is another. I wish 'em luck.
No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!
Gravity. That's who.
FROM: Mr. Chris Nsamba
TO: Dear Sirs
Madam:
I have been requested by the African Space Research Programme to contact you for assistance in resolving a matter. The Programme has recently finalized a large number of contracts for space exploration, in time producing moneys equalling US$40,000,000. However, because of certain regulations of the Ugandan Government, it is unable to move these funds to another region.
You assistance is requested as a non-Ugandan citizen in moving these funds out of Uganda. If the funds can be transferred to your name, in your United States account, then you can forward the funds as directed by the African Space Research Programme. In exchange for your accomodating services, you will to retain 10%, or US$4 million of this amount.
Please call me at your earliest convenience. Time is of the essence in this matter; very quickly the Ugandan Government will realize that the Programme will be maintaining this amount on deposit, and attempt to levy certain depository taxes on it.
Yours truly, etc. and so forth.
Chris Nsamba
Who says Uganda is small & peaceful?
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
I can't help but feel this will end up something like Zambia's space programme from the 60's.
Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
They won't get there with paint brushes and sandpaper. Space is a long way. They've not even built a working rocket engine yet, and a small team of engineering students? and he thinks he can do it in 6 years? I'm wishing it was possible too but it isn't.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
This whole endeavor seems a bit like a cargo cult to me. I see no signs of actual scientific rigour, and instead just a "let's build things that superficially look like things we've seen before" attitude.
I am a proud traitor to my species in alliance with my mother the Earth in opposition to those who would destroy her.
That they've retained Billy Bob Thornton as a consultant.
They were covertly funding a space program!
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
The bad part is I understood exactly what he was talking about.
Build it, and they will come.
Exactly! There is nothing wrong with what they are doing. The air plane is not for going in to space. It's how they will sharpen their skills. Then they will move on. This clean slate method can work. I don't know how long it will take and at some point they will need to procure a lot of fuel and materials but the project is in its planning stage. Good luck to them.
It isn't a shuttle. It's a proof of concept aircraft, aka, a glider, to show they can get the aerodynamics right.
Looks absolutely like what it should look like, for what it is. People build backyard gliders all the time.
You're just racist, and refuse to read.
Well, he isn't even close for aerodynamics. Look at that thing and look at your classic glider. See a few differences? If you're looking for something that might have some sort of horizontal movement if dropped off a B52, it's remotely possible that it would not drop straight out of the sky, but I doubt it.
I also don't see the DC3 they're planning on using as the drop ship. Yeah, it's nice to dream, but those acetone fumes are a real bitch.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
It's far from complete, there's still no engine...
Bah! Details, details.
he's been teaching them how to calculate the distance between planets for example
Why? This thing will be lucky to not fall apart before it reaches the upper atmosphere, let alone travel to another planet.
I asked Chris how he plans to simulate zero gravity: "Easy" he said. "I've got a jet engine on order so I'm planning to build a tunnel, put the engine at one end and when I throw a guy in he'll float in a similar way to how he would in space."
Except for the small fact that you have high velocity air screaming at you and every small movement will change your attitude, direction, etc. due to that wind. And this is the guy in charge.
Constructing an imitation of an existing craft (Scaled Composites): check
No engineering, or even basic science, experience: check
No budget: check
No materials: check
Friends of the guy pretending to do work for the reporter: check
It's just a typical African publicity prank/scam, just more ambitious in premise than usual.
Please help metamoderate.
While this may seem a bit far fetched, there is a precedent for a small but determined group of people who I think will eventually be able to get some vehicles above the Kármán line and perhaps even eventually into orbital spaceflight. While not mentioned in the article, these groups have been able to do some impressive things.
The groups I'd compare to this effort include:
My point here is that a small group with limited finances can put stuff together if they care, provided that they make the effort, experiment a whole bunch, and keep working at the issues. The nice thing about all of the above groups is that they've been around for a few years, seem to be pretty stable, and have all flown vehicles of various kinds to prove they are legitimate. These are not groups with pretty power point presentations, but rather folks that have more than a couple smoking craters from experiments gone bad as well as some amazing success stories too. I expect every one of these groups to be above the Kármán line within this next decade, and quite possibly one or two of them could achieve orbit in the next 20-40 years if they stay persistent with their business plans.
I certainly see nothing special about these groups, and it is entirely possible that a group in Uganda could join their ranks in their quest to build a cheap but quality rocket. There are some amazing resources to draw upon as well as a whole bunch of experience. Besides, Uganda doesn't have to deal with ITAR restrictions, so there may even be an advantage for them over some of their competitors.
A cargo cult is a religious practice that has appeared in many traditional pre-industrial tribal societies in the wake of interaction with technologically advanced cultures.
This has nothing to do with cargo cult. They are not stupid, uneducated savages. They are people with vision and BIG ideas (something what our western culture is lacking in the last couple of decades)
In love, war and slashdot discussions, everything is allowed.
This is just scary" I asked Chris how he plans to simulate zero gravity, for example, in Kampala.
"Easy" he said. "I've got a jet engine on order so I'm planning to build a tunnel, put the engine at one end and when I throw a guy in he'll float in a similar way to how he would in space.""
And come out well done .
Hey if they where trying to launch a satilltite that would be one thing. Build a manned spacecraft like Mercury, maybe. A shuttle? They are out of their minds.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
As long as he's better at flying than his countrymen are at special effects....
Are you just automatically assuming that, because they are in Africa, they have no chance?
Sir, you are a mind reader! How do you do it?
Building things can be difficult. At least it is for me. My variable power source I built out of a kit does work. The scanner I tried to build from parts never did work. "The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind" http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/williamkamkwamba/book.html is an excellent account of What Can Happen If You Try. This attempted shuttle is just sad. They could build a nice glider with what they have to work with, perhaps. A glider would be a fine thing to have built.