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Designing the World's Tiniest Manned Suborbital Vehicle

cylonlover writes, quoting Gizmag: "Generally speaking, companies developing suborbital manned vehicles brag about how much elbow room their spacecraft will provide passengers. They say there will be plenty of room to float around during the weightless portion of the flight, that there will be no fighting for windows, that passengers will comfortably endure the high-g portions of the flight ... and then there's Copenhagen Suborbitals' Tycho Brahe. CS's Tycho Brahe is a one-passenger capsule intended for a purely ballistic flight to a peak altitude approaching 100 miles. The passenger is just along for the ride, with no mechanism to steer or otherwise pilot the capsule."

24 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. You WILL watch... by icebike · · Score: 5, Funny

    Looks so small you haven't even got room to put you hands up to cover your eyes, let alone wipe your breakfast off the glass.
    One can only hope the canopy is made of Peril Sensitive glass, and you get the option of editing any inflight videos so your friends don't get to see you screaming like a schoolgirl.
    I hope they subcontract with Depends, because you know someone's going to need them, especially since the parachute is at the bottom, and the final descent should be sufficiently terrifying that you wouldn't want anything else floating around your screaming mouth.

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    1. Re:You WILL watch... by Moheeheeko · · Score: 5, Funny

      On this weeks episode of "Who Wants to be a Human Cruise Missile...."

    2. Re:You WILL watch... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      I may be misreading the schematics, but it appears the the parachute is stowed at the feet, but the anchor point is at the head. So when you descend, you'll be (gently?) flipped back over by the drag, then fall feet-first.

    3. Re:You WILL watch... by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 2

      I have to say this doesn't look like a good idea.

    4. Re:You WILL watch... by ZaskarX · · Score: 2

      Incorrect, a cruise missile generates lift like an airplane, dipshit.

  2. Tycho Brahe? by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2

    One can only hope that the next one will be named "John Gabriel".

  3. "ballistic" by Tifer · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think I'd be too caught up with the "human projectile" aspect of the flight to ride this myself. Science!

  4. Americans need not apply by vlm · · Score: 2, Funny

    an average adult male build and a weight of 70 kg (154 lbs)

    Americans need not apply. This is "SMART CAR" sized not "SUV" sized.

    --
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    1. Re:Americans need not apply by icebike · · Score: 2

      The smart car has better engineering.

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    2. Re:Americans need not apply by Jeng · · Score: 2

      Also just about anyone who works out on a regular basis.

      Just because someone is heavy, that doesn't mean that they are fat.

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    3. Re:Americans need not apply by BradleyUffner · · Score: 3, Insightful

      an average adult male build and a weight of 70 kg (154 lbs)

      Americans need not apply. This is "SMART CAR" sized not "SUV" sized.

      That's "average"? Last time I had a physical my doctor said I was UNDER weight at 165lbs. Maybe the average weight of an adult male midget.

    4. Re:Americans need not apply by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 2

      You are honestly going to claim more people are on the high end of the weight scale because they exercise so much?

      71kg+ is too much for this rocket.

      But 71kg+ isn't especially heavy as humans go - I'm 188 cm tall, and haven't massed as little as 70 kg in close to 40 years.

      And no, I'm not overweight as such things are measured these days....

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    5. Re:Americans need not apply by Jeng · · Score: 2

      No, but it is a significant amount of the population.

      I haven't weighed less than 160 lbs since sophomore year of high school. I've never been described as fat, most people guess my weight around 20-35 lbs less than I actually weigh.

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    6. Re:Americans need not apply by element-o.p. · · Score: 3, Insightful

      BMI is a horrible way to determine fitness. Muscle mass is more dense than fat, and therefore, athletes tend to have more weight per unit of volume than the typical couch potato. BMI does not take that into account.

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  5. Re:So basically. by mhajicek · · Score: 2

    You'd have to add at least a booster stage; this one will only get you to the ocean.

  6. 2001 by SJHillman · · Score: 2

    "The passenger is just along for the ride, with no mechanism to steer or otherwise pilot the capsule."

    For here
      Am I sitting in a tin can
      Far above the world
      Planet Earth is blue
      And there's nothing I can do

    1. Re:2001 by berashith · · Score: 2

      or ... planet earth is hurtling at me very very quickly and there is nothing I can do

  7. alpha testing by tverbeek · · Score: 4, Funny

    From the web site, about an unmanned test flight last year:

    Due to trajectory anomaly the spacecraft was separated and the parachutes had to be deployed during great speed in order to save it. The parachutes were not able to deploy correctly due to the speed but even with a "knot" of parachutes we had a low enough impact on water to recover Tycho Brahe as one piece.

    I think I'll wait until a few more "successful" test flights have been performed.

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  8. Re:Dr. Strangelove? by Ashenkase · · Score: 2

    If someone wants to go sub-orbital or into orbit, "riding a bomb" is the only way to get there. When it comes down to it, it's just a controlled explosion, no matter which rocket on the market you pick.

  9. Cleverly named... by Un+pobre+guey · · Score: 4, Funny

    .. after the largest crater on the moon.

  10. Re:I'll wait for the Iron man suit. by gstoddart · · Score: 2

    Dude, it's done something like $1 billion in box office revenue, and this is Slashdot ... do you really think anybody needs a link to know who the hell Iron Man is? ;-)

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  11. I dunno by Cornwallis · · Score: 2

    Looking at the drawing I can't help but wonder what that "Aero Spike" will feel like as it drives into my skull.

  12. Re:So basically. by hey! · · Score: 2

    It's not as roomy as a coffin. It's more like a straightjacket, which is ironic.

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  13. Tycho Brahe by Kupfernigk · · Score: 2

    Worse. Named after an astronomer who made very accurate observations but whose celestial mechanics were comprehensively wrong (he thought that the sun with all the planets orbited the Earth.) Do you want to travel in a space vehicle named after someone who got space wrong?

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