Launch Escape System To Be Tested For Apollo-Like Capsule In the Baltic Sea

An anonymous reader writes "The Danish amateur rocket group Copenhagen Suborbitals are readying to test their Launch Escape System for the Tycho Deep Space capsule in the Baltic Sea east of the island Bornholm Sunday 12th August. Live coverage can be found at rocketfriends.org, livestream.com, Wired's Rocket Shop and raketvenner.dk. Live transmissions are expected from 8 am localtime (UTC+2). Live transmissions, audio commentary as well as VHF audio are expected to be available. The Tycho Deep Space is the intended capsule for a later planned suborbital shoot to the edge of Space led by Peter Madsen and Christian von Bengtson."

Comments

Lauch?

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't anyone proofread anymore?

Re:Lauch?

[camperdave]

Trust me. If there's anything you want to escape from, it's a hungry lauch.

Re:Lauch?

[Meshach]

Maybe it is referring to the senator?

Re:Lauch?

[nogginthenog]

I think it's supposed to read 'Lunch'.

Re:Lauch?

[camperdave]

Lauch?

Yes, Lauch. It is a vegetable and is to be avoided much like spinach and broccoli.

Re:Lauch?

[oodaloop]

It's a Scottish lake.

Re:Lauch?

[Sipper]

It's a Scottish lake.

.... "many miles aaaawaaaaaay"

I love that song by The Police.

Re:Lauch?

[Legion303]

Meh, that's just a typo. The glaringly terrible grammar of the headline is much worse. I don't know why they're using an Apollo-like capsule in the Baltic sea when a submarine would be better suited for the job, nor why this sea capsule would need a "launch escape system."

SchwartzgerÃt

[Iskender]

Anyone else read Gravity's Rainbow and think what they're doing is eerily familiar?

I giggle every time I hear about these guys, since they remind me of all that absurdity.

Re:SchwartzgerÃt

[khallow]

Anyone else read Gravity's Rainbow and think what they're doing is eerily familiar?

I giggle every time I hear about these guys, since they remind me of all that absurdity.

Well, I haven't read the book, but I understand that Gravity's Rainbow is loosely based around development of the V-2 rocket, which was very successful, perhaps not at developing a decisive weapon, but it certainly made a lot of rockets and launched them. I think most rocketry programs since have borrowed elements of the V-2 development strategy or perhaps come up with them independently.

So I don't think it's all that surprising to see a modern development program resemble the V-2 program in some sense, and by that connection resemble the plot, such as it may be, of Gravity's Rainbow.

Re:SchwartzgerÃt

[Iskender]

It goes much further than the V-2 connection. But I don't want to spoil it all so let's leave it at that.

Re:SchwartzgerÃt

[Iskender]

Ah, thank you AC.

But maybe the part about the radio is just what they want us to think?

Apollo-like?

[Anonymous Coward]

Apollo-like? Not particularly. I'd say it has far more in common with Mercury than anything later. Single-manned, uncontrollable, standing-crew - nothing even slightly like Apollo.

Re:Apollo-like?

[Megane]

Mercury-like? More like a torpedo with a front windshield.

Re:Apollo-like?

[bbn]

It is still single-manned, but now it has active control, the pilot is lying down, the capsule looks like a downsized Apollo capsule and it has a launch escape system.

The rocket was also changed from a solid hybrid to fluid fuelled (LOX+alcohol).

Last month they launched a two stage rocket. The official plan is for a suborbital flight but they are getting close to hardware that could do orbital.

Comparing this to Apollo is silly and I think it was only meant to illustrate the basic shape of the capsule.

The government of the USA could not afford to redo Apollo. Yet it is fascinating what these guys are managing to do in their spare time. Even if it is nothing like the pride of USA.

Re:Apollo-like?

[khallow]

Comparing this to Apollo is silly and I think it was only meant to illustrate the basic shape of the capsule.

The government of the USA could not afford to redo Apollo.

The Orion spacecraft is larger than the Apollo capsule and can launch on existing US rockets. So effectively, they are redoing that part of Apollo.

Re:Apollo-like?

[ThreeKelvin]

That was the last capsule they designed. This one looks a bit more like we're used to. Which incidentally is also why they call it "apollo-like".

Re:Apollo-like?

[Teancum]

Buzz Aldrin wrote about a proposed "Apollo II" (read that as "Apollo Two") capsule that was kicked around the office inside of the NASA astronaut corps for a little while. That basic idea is pretty much what Orion has turned into, although the original proposal was to merely expand the Apollo capsule that could still fit on top of an Apollo service module.

The one impressive thing with Copenhagen Suborbital isn't necessarily the cutting edge technology, but rather the incredible low-cost approach they are taking for its development and using largely donations and donated labor to build everything. The comparison is much better made against Armadillo Aerospace, other than the fact they don't have a fairy god-millionaire who is helping them out to sponsor their vehicle development. But they do have Kickstarter and a huge fan base that kind of makes up for that missing part of the picture.

Regardless of anything else you may think about this rocket, they are "bending metal" and sending stuff into the air as well as the fact they already have several launches under their belt to demonstrate at least some level of competence for sending stuff up with this technology. It isn't necessarily what Copenhagen Suborbital has done in terms of being compared to national space programs, but rather that they are doing anything at all and certainly in comparison to other amateur/semi-professional groups working on a shoestring budget they are as far along doing real spaceflight as anybody else in the world.

There are a few retired NASA (and apparently ESA) engineers working in Copenhagen Suborbital as well, so the technical skill of those involved is pretty high and they do know what they are doing.

Re:Apollo-like?

[khallow]

The one impressive thing with Copenhagen Suborbital isn't necessarily the cutting edge technology, but rather the incredible low-cost approach they are taking for its development and using largely donations and donated labor to build everything. The comparison is much better made against Armadillo Aerospace, other than the fact they don't have a fairy god-millionaire who is helping them out to sponsor their vehicle development. But they do have Kickstarter and a huge fan base that kind of makes up for that missing part of the picture.

It is remarkable how many zeros you get out of those sorts of efficiencies. I work off and on with a similar group doing high altitude balloon research (and the occasional rocket launch). At one point, we did a project (high altitude airship) that was about three orders of magnitude cheaper than a similar DoD project. It was a bit less capable, but it reached considerably higher altitude.

And we occasionally suffer from Armadillo envy too.

utf8

[dmbasso]

from the launch-scrub-til-søndag dept.

For fuck sake, implement the damn utf8 thing already! [It even appears correct in the preview!]

Re:utf8

[dmbasso]

Not only in the preview. :p
But this doesn't work: a test (kore ha a test desu)

Everything looks great

[ModernGeek]

Everything so far looks great, and the progress is phenomenal. This is looking so much better than the Intel engineer that is trying to make a space plane.

I wish them all the best.

Re:Everything looks great

[Teancum]

I presume you are talking about Jeff Greason and the Lynx rocketplane? I would dare say they are at about the same level of projects as Copenhagen Suborbital, along with Armadillo Aerospace and if I dare say Richard Branson and Spaceship Two (definitely more money is getting put onto that spacecraft).

There are a number of companies who are preparing vehicles for flight into space at various regimes and price points, but I wouldn't hold any particular group with derision over another. Some have succeeded and others have failed, but that is the nature of human progress. I certainly wouldn't deride the Lynx because you may think Greason lacks credentials in aerospace engineering, because he sure knows engineering management. The Lynx is progressing along just fine too.

Re:Hmm, this is odd

[Svippy]

'Deep Space' means something different in Danish. I will not tell you.

launch video (danish)

[Anonymous Coward]

http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/article.php/id-52976253:amat%C3%B8rraket-affyret-i-%C3%B8sters%C3%B8en.html?nidk

And experts saying something about that the preferred direction is up.

Re:Asperger's orgy

[Zontar The Mindless]

Your ersatz GNAA fails it. Totally.