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Space Science Hardware

New SpaceShip One Photos Online 49

Posted by timothy from the with-a-fisheye-lens-I'm-in-space-now dept.
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."
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New SpaceShip One Photos Online More

New SpaceShip One Photos Online

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  • Wonderful! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by NetRanger ( 5584 ) * on Wednesday May 19, 2004 @10:02AM (#9194855) Homepage
    It's really sad to see such great news as this smothered beneath the noise that the mainstream press calls "news".

    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.
    • The earth curvature on this one shows just how close they got to space.
      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)

    by Picass0 ( 147474 ) on Wednesday May 19, 2004 @10:09AM (#9194913) Homepage Journal
    Alan Shepard - before the flight of Freedom 7:

    "Oh Lord, Please don't let me fuck up."

  • Earth curvature my ass (Score:5, Insightful)

    by zakalwe ( 79677 ) on Wednesday May 19, 2004 @10:14AM (#9194965)
    The earth curvature on this one shows just how close they got to space.

    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_Index /p hotos/images/video/for_dave.jpg

    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.
    • I think the earth curvature is still there, albeit exaggerated by the fisheye lens...

      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)

        by NearlyHeadless ( 110901 ) on Wednesday May 19, 2004 @11:43AM (#9195723)
        I think the earth curvature is still there, albeit exaggerated by the fisheye lens...
        The distance to the horizon is 549 miles =sqrt(2*r*h+h*h). Or, approximately 546 miles along the surface of the Eath =r*acos(r/(r+h)).

        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.

      • "I can't wait for Rutan to finally snatch the Xprize... almost looks like a fait-accompli."

        Yeah! What could possibly go wrong?

        Wait. I don't think I should have said that.
      • It's all fake! Where are my stars! As we didn't go to the moon, we didn't reach the space either!

  • Whoa. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by torpor ( 458 ) <ibisum AT gmail DOT com> on Wednesday May 19, 2004 @10:22AM (#9195017) Homepage Journal
    Was it just me, or did anyone else get that "WHOA!" stomach-sinking feeling from that curvature pic?

    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 ... wow. I bet that is one hell of a rush.

    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)

      by El ( 94934 )
      ou figure it'll be available for 'normal public' within 5 to 10 years time, maybe ... ? Sure, to any members of the 'normal public' that have 10 to 20 million dollars burning a hole in their back pocket... better start that internet porn site now!

    • Re:Whoa. (Score:3, Informative)

      by glitchvern ( 468940 )
      From scaled.com [scaled.com], We look to the future, hopefully within ten years, when ordinary people, for the cost of a luxury cruise, can experience a rocket flight into the black sky above the earth's atmosphere, enjoy a few minutes of weightless excitement, then feel the thunderous deceleration of the aerodynamic drag on entry.
      -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

      • Yeah, I'm not really speaking literally, either ... I figure in 10 years time, if folks like Rolls Royce are allowed to start mass-producing with access to that sort of technology, it might be finally time to invest in a ride ... or at least, my first 'space ship'.

  • 200000 feet = 38 miles up (Score:5, Informative)

    by Picass0 ( 147474 ) on Wednesday May 19, 2004 @10:32AM (#9195105) Homepage Journal
    Mt. Everest = 6 miles
    Edge of Space = 75 miles.
    Space Shuttle orbit ~200 miles (typical)
    International Space Station = 228 miles
    • so they're more than halfway there!
      • so they're more than halfway there!

        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)

      by PurpleFloyd ( 149812 ) <zeno20@@@attbi...com> on Wednesday May 19, 2004 @11:23AM (#9195549) Homepage
      Another few figures of interest:
      • MiG-25 [wikipedia.org] (high speed, high altitude interceptor): ~90,000 feet, and the highest most civilians can go. A few entrepreneurs bought these interceptors from ex-Soviet republics hard up for money. If you've got the money, they'll take you up to about 17 miles and Mach 3.
      • U-2 [wikipedia.org] (spy plane): The US military won't say anything but 'greater than 90,000 feet.' I've personally heard from fairly reliable sources that the real figure is between 90,000 and 95,000 feet.
      • North American X-15 [wikipedia.org] (research/rocket plane): 354,200 ft. Same mission as the X-2. Still holds the altitude record for a piloted aircraft (although I have a feeling that will be broken soon). This plane actually broke the US Air Force's 50-mile definition of space 12 times and the international FAI (Federation Aeronautique Internationale) definition of 100 km twice. It is the closest thing the Space Shuttle has to a direct ancestor.
      I don't know where you got your definition of 75 miles for the edge of space. The USAF awards astronaut wings to any pilot who goes past 50 miles, and the FAA, the FAI, and most importantly the X-Prize backers consider space to start at 100 km, or roughly 62 miles. While Spaceship One does have a good long ways to go, it's not quite as long as you describe it.
      • I am pretty sure MiG-25 (Ye-266M) still holds the record for absolute altitude of 123,492 ft.
        Here is more info on it: http://aeroweb.lucia.it/~agretch/RAFAQ/MiG-25.html

        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.

    • Edge of space is actually 100Km or ~62.5 Stat. Miles.

  • Visions from Space (Score:5, Funny)

    by TALlama ( 462873 ) on Wednesday May 19, 2004 @10:59AM (#9195321) Homepage
    Their success has driven them mad; here's the pilot afterwards explaining that "I saw a woman up there with huge breasts! [scaled.com]"

  • Amazing (Score:3, Insightful)

    by lazuli42 ( 219080 ) on Wednesday May 19, 2004 @11:34AM (#9195635) Homepage Journal
    I know that sometimes the Scaled guys drop by slashdot.

    I just wanted to say, "You're doing an amazing job!"

    • Re:Amazing (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Sgt York ( 591446 )
      Just wanted to second the sentiment. This is great stuff, I was floored looking at those pictures. Amazing. Simply amazing.

      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.

    • "Amazing job" is an understatement. When I see that picture of the N-number (civilian) on the aircraft as it ascends to levels that only governments could achive not 40 years ago, it simply floors me.

      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

  • Random Thoughts (Score:5, Interesting)

    by at_kernel_99 ( 659988 ) on Wednesday May 19, 2004 @11:49AM (#9195779) Homepage

    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)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Thought the same thing as well (that the plane had a N number, like any ordinary Cessna would). To paraphrase an old aviation joke:

      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)

        by MemoryAid ( 675811 )
        The original joke (as I heard it) was about the SR-71 requesting flight level 600. Although it emphasizes the additional altitude of Spaceship One to request FL1000 in the joke, class A airspace only goes up to FL600, so there really aren't flight levels above that. Sure, there's plenty of altitude up there, but flight levels have a specific meaning only between FL180 and FL600.

    • Re:Random Thoughts (Score:3, Interesting)

      by _mythdraug_ ( 27158 )
      Even more amusing than seeing the N number... Looking it up in the FAA registry.
      Type Aircraft Glider
      Type Engine None

      Engine Manufacturer NONE
      Classification Experimental
      Engine Model NONE
      Category Research and Development

      A/W Date 12/09/2003
    • If you are still wondering just look at their partners page: http://www.freewing.com/jointventure.html (hint top right)

      So no guessing anymore for you I think :p

  • Check out the shuttle-cocking of the wings (Score:5, Interesting)

    by xmas2003 ( 739875 ) on Wednesday May 19, 2004 @11:57AM (#9195844) Homepage
    In addition to the curvature of the earth (yes, magnified by the wide-angle lens), check out the shuttle-cocking of the wings in mentioned picture. [scaled.com] You can read more about how they are using this high drag approach for their re-entry in their FAQ. [scaled.com]

    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)

      by Latent Heat ( 558884 ) on Wednesday May 19, 2004 @12:13PM (#9195962)
      THe wing feathering is the coolest part. Until now, there have been two approaches to reentry. One is a high drag, high G-force blunt body, although you can mitigate the G's and give some steering control by putting the weight off-center to give it some life. The other is a winged vehicle flown at a very high angle of attack during the reentry.

      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.

  • These guys are making some seriously cool progress. Seems to be very professionally handled, too.

    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)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Some of the pictures mention they come from video. Has the video been posted anywhere? I looked through the whole scaled composites site and couldn't find it.

    Thanks for the help.
  • This is awesome! Fuck! (seriously, words fail me, that's all I can say) Fuck!!!

    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.
  • WOOOW! Sure, it a long,long way from orbital velocity, and orders of magnitude from Mars and the Outer Solar Neighborhood, but DANG ALMIGHTY! What a great view from an outfit operating as independent entrepreneurs. Come on U.S.S. Enterprise One!

  • 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.

  • http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/New_Index/p hotos/images/800/WK%20head%20on%20800.jpg

    does this scream "SENTINEL" to anyone else?

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