Space Ship One

[pljames]

Yesterday I saw on the science channel Rutan Space Ship One. Interesting, he is the public private sector. The government will never share there expertise with Rutan. If they do they will control him and his ship. Any thoughts here?

pljames

[flyboy]

they dont need to

he got to space by himself without nasa or any help from the gov

besides his ship is goin to the smithosnian air and space museum after they go to oshkosh this year

[calbiterol]

His company, Scaled Composites, is actually (in some ways) just as secretive as the government. His facilities have more security than a fair amount of the world's enriched uranium. Not that that's saying anything, but...

[flyboy]

saying that he doesnt need help from the gov

he did somthing the gov or nasa couldnt do

[ydoaPs]

he did? suborbital flight, woo hoo.

[calbiterol]

Actaully, he did do something the government couldn't do. He did it in under 10 years, for under umpteen trillion dollars. I forget the figure of what it cost his company, but he did it for less than $100 mil US, IIRC, and that's a lot cheaper than what the gov't spends, even for suborbital. The way he did it was also an engineering feat - he used a hybrid nitrous oxide / rubber motor, and a drop from a high altitude plane. He's (from what I hear) planning to make orbital craft next. His design, by the way, is completely scalable, IIRC.

[calbiterol]

Oh, and there's other companies doing this as well - or, are about to - there was a $10 million (US) prize for the first group to privately get to suborbital space. There's bunches more out there, even NASA prizes, some have to do with the moon, others orbital craft, other space stations, but all privately funded.

[ydoaPs]

spend $100 million to get $10 million...hmm...

[flyboy]

he also got his ship through reentry without a thick heat shield

calbiterol u forgot that

[abeefaria]

Rutan's ship's payload was humans only (and fuel). It makes perfect sense that he didn't have to spend as much money as the development of some of NASA's vehicles.

[flyboy]

so simple that nasa could do it

but they didnt all the other space agencies are trying complex advanced designs when they could go with somthin simple

[calbiterol]

spend $100 million to get $10 million...hmm...

 

That's wasn't the idea. He had sponsors. AFAIK, Rutan got the 10 million, and the sponsors will get back their money through commercial flights to space.

[pljames]

If there are others who can make a public industry work better than the government what don't they? Look at the money we woulkd save the people.

pljames

How did he make a reentry without a heat shield?

[flyboy]

the other ppl are just too stupid to actually go and try to attempt to get to space like rutan did and are using all the money on scientific and aerodynamic research planes

 

 

with the heat shield he actually didnt leave the atmosphere just to the edge of space, but if he does continue his work he should be able to get to orbit

his spaceship one flights were far from orbit but with more tweaking he could do it

[calbiterol]

He did it without a heat shield by using a special technique that has been dubbed "feathering" the wing. Note that even though he didn't get out of the atmosphere, if he was going fast enough, he'd need a heat shield. He just prevents the craft from going that fast on the way down.

 

The other groups are going to do test flights, it's just Rutan is always 2 steps ahead of them. There are a couple who are(? have? I don't remember) scheduling test flights of their own craft. They just haven't gotten to the actual flight stage yet.

[atinymonkey]

http://www.virgingalactic.com/en/

[calbiterol]

Good call. Unfortunately they havent had any news updates since the X-Prize (the $10 million) was won.

 

It's rather enteratining to read these things in two different languages. You can tell really, really fast if they used a translation program or if they had someone type it out in the other language. Virgin Galactic is of the latter, more professional kind, at least for German. It kind of surprises me, just in that not many people bother. A pat on the back for that.