Slashdot Mirror
Flat Earther Plans To Launch Homemade Manned Rocket (apnews.com)
walterbyrd shares an Associated Press report: Self-taught rocket scientist "Mad" Mike Hughes is a 61-year-old limo driver who's spent the last few years building a steam-powered rocket out of salvage parts in his garage. His project has cost him $20,000, which includes Rust-Oleum paint to fancy it up and a motor home he bought on Craigslist that he converted into a ramp. His first test of the rocket will also be the launch date -- Saturday, when he straps into his homemade contraption and attempts to hurtle over the ghost town of Amboy, California. He will travel about a mile at a speed of roughly 500 mph. "I don't believe in science," said Hughes, whose main sponsor for the rocket is Research Flat Earth. "I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the air, about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust. But that's not science, that's just a formula. There's no difference between science and science fiction."
UPDATE (11/25/17): His first launch atttempt had to be cancelled after his homemade launcher broke down in his driveway.
UPDATE (11/25/17): His first launch atttempt had to be cancelled after his homemade launcher broke down in his driveway.
TFA says that he plans to open two parachutes, and presumably float to safety. For those old enough to remember, this is not very different from what Evil Knievel did when jumping the Snake River canyon. EK had to know that there was no way he'd land it on 2 wheels. The difference was that EK made a lot of money with his "failed" stunt.
No. Von Braun learnt from Ley and Oberth, and did a PhD in physics specializing in rocketry at Friedrich-Wilhelm University.