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Ned Potter is the science correspondent for ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson." He has reported on such topics as space exploration, the human genome and climate change.
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This Space for Rent
October 29, 2007 4:28 PM
There's an old bit of snarkiness that comes up whenever some entrepreneur talks of challenging NASA for the heavens: "The way to make a small fortune in space is to spend a large one."
John Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace is the latest to have the experience. Carmack made his fortune in videogames--"Quake" and "Doom" are his--and over the last few years he's been trying to launch suborbital rockets. "The team currently consists of a bunch of guys, a girl, and an armadillo named Widget," says his website playfully.
But on Sunday his latest invention--a prototype lunar lander--crashed in flames in New Mexico. "Today is officially a bad day," was the quote he gave. Our friends at Wired have a picture HERE. (Picture credit: Chris Jonas.)
Elon Musk, the inventor of PayPal, has been spending some of his millions too, on a satellite-launching company called SpaceX. He's found the going rough too. Their first test rocket exploded 25 seconds after launch last year; the upper stage on their second test shut down a minute early.
Burt Rutan, the iconoclastic, inventive father of SpaceShipOne, has been the most successful so far, having flown 100 km above the ground three times in 2004. But if you go to the homepage of his firm, Scaled Composites, you'll find a sad tribute to three workers who died and three who were injured in an accident on the ground this summer.
There's a good perspective piece HERE. Turns out it really is rocket science after all.
One winner in all this is NASA. They, and various aerospace giants, have been offering cash prizes to see if outsiders have outside-the-box ideas. (After all, argue proponents, Charles Lindbergh was chasing a prize.) On Sunday, John Carmack's team was hoping to win $350,000. Instead, they have a heap of wreckage--and the prize-offerers have barely spent anything.
October 29, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (7)
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It's not the first privately funded rocket to end up this way.
Posted by: jade02008 | Oct 29, 2007 10:15:12 PM
It won't be the last, either. But, that's how research goes. One man's failure is another's goad to action. There's always someone who thinks he can do it better. The end result is a lot of ideas float around out there until someone puts together a cogent plan and is successful. I wish them all good luck. It's how we progress as a species.
Posted by: Andy | Oct 30, 2007 9:12:49 AM
In "rocket science" it is not an easy thing to stabilize whatever it is that you are trying to fly because the speed is not there so there is not enough air to hold on to. The result is a high level of instability. That has always been a problem. Also consistency is a major issue. At times the power is there and then it is not and then there is too much power. Then there are problems of the equipment itself whether or not it is able to handle the forces being used. For years, people have tried and failed to make some kind of hovering craft because the stability is not there. Stability is a major issue.
Posted by: Daleri | Oct 30, 2007 11:35:39 AM
Several years ago, The McDonnell-Douglas DCX made several successful flights. It could take off, move to a designated location and land vertically. The stability was very good and the concept was pretty well proven. The project crashed because of lack of funding.
Posted by: Andy | Oct 30, 2007 1:41:31 PM
Hey Andy, the good news is that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos seems to have picked up the DC-X's torch. His company "Blue Origin" has test flown a rather large vehicle with many of the same characteristics as the DC-X. It's refreshing to see that people like Bezos and Carmack are able to fund their own endeavors. With so many throwing their hats in, odds are at least a few will succeed. I was at the show this weekend, and have posted some photos of Armadillo's rockets, as well as those of their future competitors...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/musematt11/sets/72157602795784583/
Posted by: Matt Falk | Oct 30, 2007 4:45:08 PM
Well, Matt, maybe the idle rich can have productive uses, after all. It was Paul Allen that helped fund Burt Rutan's victory in the X-Prize competition, and now Richard Branson is jumping in, too. We might see some real progress in privately-funded space work. Personally, I'm quivering with anticipation. After years of reading Science Fiction, I'm finally seeing the dreams come true! Hot Dog!
Posted by: Andy | Oct 31, 2007 8:59:06 AM
Hey Daleri, the good people of this world HAVE in fact had a hovering craft for quite some time. They're called helicopters. Trust me, I flew them, they hover with great stability.
Posted by: Lawrence | Nov 2, 2007 5:08:53 PM
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