Space Ship One Sept. 29th Flight

[arobie]

One month to go. Can't Wait!! <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" />

 

[shuttle_rtf]

Links etc. to help would be great. Thanks.

 

[omegamogo]

I have to do yoga exercises every day to prevent myself from going insane from joy/excitement/impatience!

 

[mikejz]

I wounder what they are doing with SS1 Right now....

 

[arobie]

Ok, here are some links:<br /><br /> Ansari X-Prize Home Page<br /><br /> Space.com Article:The Next Great Space Race: SpaceShipOne and Wild Fire to Go For the Gold<br /><br />X-Prize Forums<br /><br />Scaled Composites Team Info<br /><br />Da Vince Team Info<br /><br />These are a some links that I can think of right now. If anybody knows of anymore please post them. <br /><br />It looks like there will be a live webcast for Space Ship One's Sept. 29th flight at the X-prize website. <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" />

 

[arobie]

Oh yeah, John Carmack leader of Armadillo Aerospace (also know for Doom 3) posts on the X-Prize forums. He has a Q&A in the "Who's going to win the race to space?" forum. Very Intersting to read.

 

[jcdenton]

Hey Arobie, you wouldn't happen to be referring to this thread, would you?<br /><br />Anyway I'm hoping for Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites to complete this competition so a new one can finally begin, a competition with the objective of making it in to orbit!<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[arobie]

LoL, yes. that's funny. I just finished replying to you in another thread to tell you about it. LoL.

 

[jcdenton]

No sweat Arobie! <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> I visit that site often. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[meteo]

Ideally SS1 completes the requirements of the x-prize then Wildfire follows shortly after...or at least doesn't blow up. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[lunatic133]

This is very exciting! I've got my fingers and toes crossed. We need for private enterprise to fully enter space because time and again it has been proven that relying on government funding alone is unrelyable at best and long term projects cannot be sustained. With private industry in the running, we won't have congress to answer to, and humanity becoming a spacefaring race will be all the easier. Go SS-1 and DaVinci!

 

[arobie]

It's expected yet still erie not hearing any news about Space Ship One or Da Vinci during the month time period before a huge flight. I guess I will have to get used to this with private industry coming about and being secretive while doing so.

 

[halman]

Arobie,<br /><br />Actions speak louder than words.<br /><br />What could Scaled Composites say, other than "We are going to fly Sep. 29."?<br /><br />They are not trying to sell anything, so they are not seeking publicity. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> The secret to peace of mind is a short attention span. </div>

 

[arobie]

halman,<br /><br />I know and understand why they are staying quiet, it just seems wierd. <br /><br />No-one is talking about it either, but I figured thats because with what little information we know, we've discussed all that can be discussed. <br /><br />It's just erie with how close we are to a historical landmark, and nothing is being said about it, that's all.

 

[jcdenton]

The SS1 flight in the summer stole all the thunder I guess.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[omegamogo]

Arobie,<br /><br />I think Burt Rutan and his team are trying to keep a low profile before there X Prize run in case (god forbids) they crash or fail on it, If that happens people would be extremely disappointed with Scaled Composites and lose a lot of faith in them. I think Scaled intends to eventually start a space related business (Tourism, Satellite launching etc...) a failure would seriously hurt there plans.

 

[mrmorris]

<font color="yellow">"No-one is talking about it either, but I figured thats because with what little information we know, we've discussed all that can be discussed. "</font><br /><br />As you say -- we've already pounced on every scrap of information and soundbite that has been released and discussed them to death. I've scoured Scaled's and Davinci's websites looking for hints of what's happening, or any changes that might provide clues. Zilch-Nada-Nothing. I've found nothing on SS1 that anyone here might have missed -- they made a few changes/repairs designed to resolve the issues from the June flight. They may be carrying one or more (unspecified) items of interest in lieu of 100% dummy ballast. DARPA and three other unnamed organizations have expressed interest according to Rutan.<br /><br />For Davinci -- the only things I haven't seen discussed here are:<br />- They are supposedly building their own hybrid engine, not using one from an outside contractor (discussion starts about 2/3 of the way down the thread on that page).<br /><br />- They are still waiting on approval from the Canadian government for the flight -- in large part because they are also trying to get insurance for it. Even on August 27th when the Wired article was written, the Launch Safety Office wasn't guaranteeing that the paperwork would be complete by October second.<br />

 

[arobie]

Thank you mrmorris for the links. The only thing that I've found on Burt Rutan was quote about tourism, but we already new about this. I enjoyed reading it though.<br /><br />"I think within the next two to three years there will be tickets available for sub-orbital flights," proclaimed Burt Rutan, the designer of SpaceShipOne, at a recent lecture at Edinburgh University. According to The Scotsman newspaper, Rutan also told the audience, "In 12 or 15 years, there will be routine, affordable space tourism not just in the US but in a lot of countries… When you come back from your vacation, instead of having pictures of snorkelling and hiking, you will actually be the next astronaut. For quite a while that is going to be a very prestigious thing to be."<br />--Burt Rutan<br /><br />That makes me wonder whether he plans to start suborbital tourism. I had always thought that he wanted to just be the pioneer and let others do the tourism part, but I don't know. Do y'all think Burt will start suborbital tourism? <br /><br />Got the quote from the X-Prize website.

 

[halman]

Arobie,<br /><br />Considering that Burt Rutan gets to actually TALK with Paul Allan, he may be in the know about a venture that Allan is considering. What seems a likely scenario to me is that Scaled Composites would be the prime contractor for production of tourist sub-orbital vehicles and support equipment, but would not be the operating agency. This would enable S. C. to reap the benefits of their reserach without the distractions of day-to-day operations, legal entangelments, etcetera.<br /><br />This would provide S. C. with a revenue stream to begin development of an orbital vehicle, which is what Burt is really after, I think. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> The secret to peace of mind is a short attention span. </div>

 

[kdavis007]

Finally!!!

 

[ew72]

I ADORE Scaled Composites for everything they've achieved. Honestly, dollar for dollar, they're cleaning NASA's clocks. Of course, NASA's job is not to send 7 men and women into space, but to gainfully employ 100,000 people down here.<br /><br />I do wish them the very best, but I think that with the passenger load of 3 people as opposed to one, that thing is going to go into the biggest hypersonic spin the world has seen since Major Mike Adams had his unfortunate final flight in X-15 #3. I think greed has gotten the best of this group, because they're after $10,000,000 in some X-Prize, when they should abandon that effort and stick to what they can achieve with one person. With one pilot, they had problems that should be seen as a shot across the bow, barely reaching chamber thrust to meet the altitude targets. Trying to do that with 3 people - unless they all weigh 40 pounds, seems like something that even the world's best risk-takers at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center would never contemplate - not for a million bucks (or ten stacks) and not in a thousand years. <br /><br />But, as I say, I have unending respect for Scaled Composites. They are doing great things in the big picture, but in a plane like that, it is the little things that will count. They will have to significantly modify their vehicle to safely repeat what was done with 1 pilot to handle the mass of 3. Trust me on this one.<br />

 

[nacnud]

Do you know that the two passengers for the xprise flight can be simulated just by the addition of extra mass to the vehicle. They don't have to carry three real people to win the xprise.

 

[ew72]

Thus the rub. This simulation was not employed in mass loading, or in "weight and center" calculations with the one-person flight. Extra mass means extra thrust to reach the target altitude. I don't think they're going to be able to do it, given the struggle it took with just one person with that rocket engine to reach the target altitude - we think.<br />

 

[nacnud]

Well it went off course on the first suborbital hop and lost 30kf in altitude. Also how do we know that the fuel load for the upcoming flight is the same as the fuel load for the first suborbital hop, I trust Burt to get his sums right in this case.

 

[ew72]

The "fuel load" of SpaceShip One is a bottle rocket. Sure, you can make it sound like a Prat & Whitney Afterburner, but it is a modified version of the Shuttle SRB concept. <br /><br />I concede the point about the initial trajectory problems that may have played a point in the problems with the first flight.<br /><br />I do trust Burt Rutan to have everything together. But of course, 19 years ago, I also trusted Morton Thiokol when they said, for constraints of time and political expediency, that they had everything together, too.<br /><br />Time will tell.<br /><br />Again, I do wish for the best, but I'm not really confident about this one.