Europe's Biggest Amateur Rocket Completes Test-Firing 153
Michael Eriksen writes "The Danish amateur rocket group Copenhagen Suborbitals has successfully test fired their rocket (article in Danish). It is a 90,000 kW monster delivering a total of 140,000 N. According to the group, this is by far the biggest amateur rocket ever fired in Europe. The final goal is a manned (!) low-orbital flight."
Rocket fuel for thought... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Rocket fuel for thought... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Rocket fuel for thought... (Score:5, Insightful)
quit trolling...
but i'll bite.
When amateurs do things like this, they do it out of interest, and the development is quite open.
When North Korea launches, we're reminded that they've tried detonating nuclear weapons.
The difference is what we hope space is used for.
these people hope space is used for "cool things", hence this piques our curiosity.
Ummm (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Rocket fuel for thought... (Score:4, Insightful)
Why is this cute and interesting when done by a group of European amateurs and a global threat when done in North Korea?
Inexplicably, the European amateurs don't have a nuclear warhead development programme.
Re:And so what... (Score:5, Insightful)
Pfft, when was the last time America nuked a neighboring nation?
Oh.. wait :/
Re:And so what... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Rocket fuel for thought... (Score:1, Insightful)
X have a stock of chemical, biological and possible a few nuclear weapons, a historical grudge against a southern neighbor and totalitarian government, [so they are a global threat].
This always struck me as 1. being completely unfair and 2. being incredibly arrogant. To not sound like an insult, I will explain why:
1. Having something dangerous, does not mean that they will use it. Mostly because they are not stupid. They know they would be stomped in the ground in the second they tried it.
2. It is always coming from countries, that themselves have a historical grudge against them, hoard (one of) the largest collection(s) of chemical, biological and not only possible but real nuclear weapons. And they actually used them on foreign countries.
It's like the main school bully calling others bullies, when they buy the same knife that he has used on their friends. ;)
So to jump to the end: It's the crazy bullies in power, that want to stop the rising crazy bullies from taking their power away.
Strangely, it never happens, that one of them is not a crazy bully. :\
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Funny side-note: They always like to drop in the logic trap of
If they say they build nukes, then we must attack them now!
Any if they deny building nukes, they must hide them, so let's attack them, before it's too late!
Watch for it.
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Please don't parrot such propaganda. Thou shall always... Thou shall always, think for themselves. ;)
Re:Rocket fuel for thought... (Score:3, Insightful)
Why is this cute and interesting when done by a group of European amateurs and a global threat when done in North Korea?
Inexplicably, the European amateurs don't have a nuclear warhead development programme.
That's because European governments already have had nuclear programmes and indeed warheads for the last 50 years.
We DO have *several* nuclear programmes in Europe... who else made those two nuclear submarines carrying ballistic missiles that collided in the Atlantic a couple of weeks ago? (Perhaps the Americans did, I'm not sure).
The reason why this is cute is that the Danish army doesn't need these rockets, since they probably already have decent rockets that can do the job, and if not, then surely the French, English, Italian (etc) allies.
You can bet that the moment that these rockets become better than anything the army has, the "cuteness" is gone, and it will be classified, forbidden and of interest to the generals.
Re:Lets hope it doesn't go wrong (bad taste warnin (Score:0, Insightful)
The first guy to climb onboard and lift off won't see anything because the capsule is badly designed. Who's the loserboy nerd who drew it? The crew standing upright, and getting their blood drained from their brain because of the acceleration during the boost phase. Smart. Real smart. No g-suit is going to keep the blood where it belongs.
Mandatory: grab them by their scrawny necks/beat them up/bang their heads against the locker door until they faint/stick them heads down into an unflushed toilet/shit on their faces.
Re:Rocket fuel for thought... (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps you ought to lose some of those illusions.
When an amateur group, Danish or otherwise, develops a rocket capable of carrying a nuclear warhead across the Pacific, as opposed to carrying a mouse across a pasture, you can believe it will attract all kinds of attention.
Also, the Danes aren't poised to invade northern Germany, aren't out of touch with reality, don't issue regular threats against their neighbors, don't have a multi-million strong military, don't kidnap their neighbors' citizens, don't starve their citizens, etc., etc.
Re:As I have a Danish surname and live in UK (Score:3, Insightful)