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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.
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.
I was assuming the engine will be above/after the "skydiving area" with a grate to keep people out, and it would draw in fresh air from outside. That could work. But it's still not a zero-G simulator, it's a falling at terminal velocity simulator.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
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!
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
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.
Sounds like he's building something like a "skydiving tunnel" but that's not exactly a zero-G simulator...
Yeah. As any skydiver will tell you, what we call "free fall" is not the same physicists call free fall. We're definitely not at zero-g (we don't feel like we're falling, just like there's a lot of wind), and we most certainly don't move in the same way astronauts would move at zero-g. It's more akin to how a plane flies...you change your body position in relation to the relative wind, and that causes the wind to turn / move you. That training wouldn't help at all.
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.
No. Completely different. Not even similar. What he's talking about is a wind tunnel that's turned up on its side, so that it's blowing upward rather than sideways. This way, people "float" around. It's nothing like a zero-G simulator. It's a skydiving simulator. NASA's vomit comet actually takes people up in in the body of a jet, and then goes into a calculated free-fall for a few seconds so that the plane, the pocket of air inside the plane and the people inside are all falling at the same rate, opposite the acceleration of gravity. This is what happens when a spacecraft is in orbit around Earth, except they can fall almost indefinitely because they fall at the same rate as the curvature of the earth.
-Arthur
Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
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.