Of Freemasons, Flat Earth and Steampunk

[factotum]

Also, if you are going to build and launch a $500 million communications satellite, would you rather spend an additional $10 million for a launch vehicle with a 85% chance of success, or $100 million for a 99.9999% (theoretical, never achieved!) chance of success? Guess which one your insurance company wants/requires you to use?

Conversely, though, if you have a nice cheap launch vehicle then it gives you a possibility to launch cheap satellites as well. There's no point using a $100 million launch vehicle to put a $1 million set of cube sats into orbit, for instance.

[Necroticplague]

That may have been what he wanted. But other people thought Iraq might have other ideas besides just launching a satellite. As a satirist said of Wernher Von Braun, "I aim at the stars (But sometimes I hit London)."

Respectfully,

Brian P.

“Other people” likely including the Iraq head of state at the time , given their not exactly spotless record when it comes to similar matters.

[khadgar567]

even it made in America that tech probably become problem but if it made in America or Russia it probably become breakthrough in space tech<snark> instead of another attempt to start world war health where bunch of big wigs tries to solve cancer and try to improve the lives of people</snark>

[JoshL]

Junkyard One is go!

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/22...fornia-sky.htm

[Vinyadan]

Spoiler

Show

[Knaight]

Junkyard One is go!

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/22...fornia-sky.htm

Sounds like it went poorly though. For all the "minor back injury" reporting there's also a fair amount of "Yeah. I guess. I'll feel it in the morning. I won't be able to get out of bed." (exact quote from Mike Hughes), along with this sort of thing:
https://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/newsc...0.fit-560w.jpg

Fortunately he didn't get hurt worse. Unfortunately, not getting hurt worse is apparently enough incentive to try this again.

[pendell]

Junkyard One is go!

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/22...fornia-sky.htm

Incredible! He did it? He actually managed to go off and not kill himself coming back down? Wow.

Of course, he says that he didn't use science but followed a cookbook, not realizing how much brilliance, money, and talent went into the science to write that cookbook in the first place.



Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Keltest]

Incredible! He did it? He actually managed to go off and not kill himself coming back down? Wow.

Of course, he says that he didn't use science but followed a cookbook, not realizing how much brilliance, money, and talent went into the science to write that cookbook in the first place.



Respectfully,

Brian P.

To say nothing of the fact that cooking is, itself, largely chemistry.

[factotum]

Incredible! He did it? He actually managed to go off and not kill himself coming back down?

Well, coming back down without killing himself is a fair step away from "coming back safely", since he appears to have sustained enough harm to require shipping out in an ambulance...

[wumpus]

The rocket in question hit 1875 feet, or had a delta-v of 108m/s. From memory, I think you need ~1,000m/s to get into space and ~10,000m/s to get into orbit.

The catch is that equation the "Tsiolkovsky rocket equation" isn't linear, but logarithmic. He doesn't need "ten times the steam" to get into space, he needs "10 more zeros on the amount of steam". You aren't getting anywhere on steam (don't tell Gabe).

Actually I think you can see the curvature of the Earth at 60k-70k feet (U2 pilots see it), which may be in range of a [hydrogen] balloon [with spacesuits and oxygen].

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Actually I think you can see the curvature of the Earth at 60k-70k feet (U2 pilots see it), which may be in range of a [hydrogen] balloon [with spacesuits and oxygen].

It is definitely in range of a helium balloon, since this guy got his up to 39km ("128000 feet" for those who like their units not easily convertible when the number of 0s gets a bit silly)



GW

[LordEntrails]

At least at this time in history, my thoughts on this has changed a little bit. I'm actually kind of glad he launched and lived. Perhaps only because it's encouraging to see someone bring a dream of their to fruition, if 1,835 ft is fruition.

[Vinyadan]

At least at this time in history, my thoughts on this has changed a little bit. I'm actually kind of glad he launched and lived. Perhaps only because it's encouraging to see someone bring a dream of their to fruition, if 1,835 ft is fruition.

I guess he listens to Man on the Moon for motivation.

[Eldan]

I honestly do kinda admire this guy. He made his dream work. A very complicated, difficult and dangerous dream, too.