New SpaceShip One Photos Online 49
Alex Edwards writes "Scaled now have the latest photos from their last 200,000-ft. trip online.
The earth curvature on this one shows just how close they got to space."
Let's organize this thing and take all the fun out of it.
Wonderful! (Score:5, Insightful)
THIS is news, this will be written in history books under our accomplishments. How little perspective we have at any given time...
Anyway, congrats to the Scaled team.
Re:Wonderful! (Score:1)
Let's see...to be technical, Earth is "in space". Therefore, as an Earthling, I have been "in space" since I was born. Therefore, I should qualify for the prize. (snicker).
Don't forget to say the Shepard's prayer. (Score:5, Funny)
"Oh Lord, Please don't let me fuck up."
Earth curvature my ass (Score:5, Insightful)
Right, so I guess they were just really really close to the ground on this one, as it curves the other way!
http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/New_Inde
Of course what you are really seeing is just wide/narrow angle lenses on the cameras being used, unless the earth shrank a lot while I wasn't looking.
Re:Earth curvature my ass (Score:2)
Also notice, the sky isnt blue on that photo.
I can't wait for Rutan to finally snatch the Xprize... almost looks like a fait-accompli.
Re:Earth curvature my ass (Score:5, Informative)
If I do the math correctly, the distance of the airplane from the (geometric) plane containing the cirle of the horizon is 75.4 miles, and the radius of the circle in the plane is 544 miles. So you would get a roughly equivalent view of circle on the ground that has a radius that is 7.2 times the distance of your eyes above the ground (7.2 = 544/75.4). This works out to about 39 feet for me (12 meters). So, yes, I think you could see the curvature.
Re:Earth curvature my ass (Score:2)
Yeah! What could possibly go wrong?
Wait. I don't think I should have said that.
Re:Earth curvature my ass (Score:2)
Whoa. (Score:3, Interesting)
I bet that transition stage at the top of the curve is one -hell- of a ride. When those wings move around and suddenly you're faced back -at- the ground, and coming down
Hope I get a chance to ride this thing in my life time! You figure it'll be available for 'normal public' within 5 to 10 years time, maybe
Re:Whoa. (Score:2)
Re:Whoa. (Score:3, Informative)
-Burt Rutan April 18th 2003
I thought I saw him say on the site somewhere he expected it to cost 5-10k per a ticket, which would get you 5 minutes of weightlessness, but I can not fin
Re:Whoa. (Score:1)
Yeah, I'm not really speaking literally, either
Medieval science meets 21st century (Score:1)
Re:Medieval science meets 21st century (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Medieval science meets 21st century (Score:2, Informative)
More specifically, they are there to show how the air is moving across the surface as the tail rotates. If they're doing anything besides lying flat, you've got a problem.
200000 feet = 38 miles up (Score:5, Informative)
Edge of Space = 75 miles.
Space Shuttle orbit ~200 miles (typical)
International Space Station = 228 miles
Re:200000 feet = 38 miles up (Score:2)
Re:200000 feet = 38 miles up (Score:2)
You are correct. Apogee on their May 13 flight was 211,400 feet, or about 64.4km. In order to win the X-prize, they must reach 100km and do it twice in two weeks.
Re:200000 feet = 38 miles up (Score:5, Informative)
Re:200000 feet = 38 miles up (Score:3, Interesting)
Here is more info on it: http://aeroweb.lucia.it/~agretch/RAFAQ/MiG-25.htm
Anyway, here is a link to a gallery of photos from inside a MiG-25 at close to that altitude:
http://www.spaceadventures.it/25.htm
Paul.
Re:200000 feet = 38 miles up (Score:1)
Visions from Space (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Visions from Space (Score:5, Funny)
Later, he told the two guards to make sure Space Ship One doesn't leave. Unfortunately, the White Knight later showed up and slaughtered the reporters and attempted a rescue, in it's own.... oh... oh... uhm... idiom.
Amazing (Score:3, Insightful)
I just wanted to say, "You're doing an amazing job!"
Re:Amazing (Score:3, Insightful)
Keep up the good work! And why is this not front page? I mean even on /.. Why is this stuck on the Science page, and not with the main stuff? THIS is news for nerds, and it definately matters.
Re:Amazing (Score:1)
Also, if Scaled is reading this, it would be an incredible PR stunt if you could get Chuck Yeager on the second X-Prize flight. Considering how royally he was ripped off by NASA (he was considered by most of his colleagues to be the best among them, but wasn't selected for the space program because he didn't
Re:Bribe? (Score:3, Funny)
Random Thoughts (Score:5, Interesting)
First, I'm rather amused by the 'N' number on the side of spaceshipone's fuselage. It somehow feels odd that some FAA inspector has to come out to scaled & inspect & signoff on a spacecraft. I'd love to see a pic of the required word EXPERIMENTAL in the cockpit.
Regarding the rather unconventional 'feathering' control surfaces on spaceshipone, I recall coverage some years ago of Burt examining a project called 'freewing [freewing.com]'. I wonder how much influence that project had on the resulting design of ss1?
Re:Random Thoughts (Score:1, Funny)
N328KF: Approach control, 328 kilo fox, requesting flight level 1000.
Approach: 328 kilo fox, approach, did you say FL one *thousand*?
N328KF: Approach control, 328 kilo fox, that would be an affirmative.
Approach: 328 kilo fox, approach, err, request approved, FL 1000 if able (snicker)
N328KF: Roger, *descending* to FL 1000.
Re:Random Thoughts (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Random Thoughts (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Random Thoughts (Score:1)
So no guessing anymore for you I think
Check out the shuttle-cocking of the wings (Score:5, Interesting)
GREAT job Scaled Folks - next stop is 100 Kilometers up! ;-)
P.S. While they are up there, can you take some more some pictures of my house! ;-) [komar.org]
Wing feathering the coolest part (Score:5, Informative)
A third way had been proposed by Max Faget for the "DC-3" straight-wing Shuttle proposal. The idea was to fly such a high angle of attack on reentry that one pretty much "pancaked" into the atmosphere. The straight wing approach was criticized for being unstable at hypersonic speeds, but my understanding of the idea was that by coming in belly first, the Faget orbiter was pretty much a blunt body with a cookie-cutter shape (the orbiter bottom and wings were like taking a cookier cutter to a blunt-body heat shield), and as such, it would be as stable and as controllable as an Apollo CM. The scary part of the Faget DC-3 was that having reentered the atmosphere, one had to do some kind of transition maneuver from the "full stall" reentry to start flying subsonicaly on those wings.
What is so innovative about the feathering is that they make a pancake reentry in the fashion of the "DC-3", but they have a workable way of making the transition to normal flight.
Anybody else notice the B5 resemblance? (Score:1)
Re:Anybody else notice the B5 resemblance? (Score:2, Insightful)
WOW!!! (Score:2)
The 200,000ft shots of the curvature of the Earth sure are sweet. Almost feel dizzy looking at them
Well done to Scaled Composites.
-psy
Video (Score:1, Interesting)
Thanks for the help.
now THIS is news (Score:2)
I WANT TO GO!!!
Can't agree more with a previous poster. This should be on the front page of every paper in the U.S., if not the world.
WOW! (Score:1)
I NEED one of those Polos (Score:2)
Check out this pic. [scaled.com] Message to Burt Rutan: Wanna offset some costs? Start selling those shirts and hats with that logo on it baby. There's gotta be one ride's worth of hydrazine in that market at least.
rise of the machines (Score:1)
does this scream "SENTINEL" to anyone else?