Flat Earther Plans To Launch Homemade Manned Rocket (apnews.com) 555
walterbyrd shares an Associated Press report: Self-taught rocket scientist "Mad" Mike Hughes is a 61-year-old limo driver who's spent the last few years building a steam-powered rocket out of salvage parts in his garage. His project has cost him $20,000, which includes Rust-Oleum paint to fancy it up and a motor home he bought on Craigslist that he converted into a ramp. His first test of the rocket will also be the launch date -- Saturday, when he straps into his homemade contraption and attempts to hurtle over the ghost town of Amboy, California. He will travel about a mile at a speed of roughly 500 mph. "I don't believe in science," said Hughes, whose main sponsor for the rocket is Research Flat Earth. "I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the air, about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust. But that's not science, that's just a formula. There's no difference between science and science fiction."
UPDATE (11/25/17): His first launch atttempt had to be cancelled after his homemade launcher broke down in his driveway.
UPDATE (11/25/17): His first launch atttempt had to be cancelled after his homemade launcher broke down in his driveway.
OMG (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:OMG (Score:5, Insightful)
To what end? At this point he's jut a waste of space.
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It's a ghost town, ever heard of "sky burial?"
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That "someone else" has a good paying job cleaning up gory messes. Why would you wish unemployment on someone you've never even met?
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Space space wanna go to space yes please space. Space space...
SpaaaaaaAAaaaaaaAaaaace!
On a more serious note, never forget Hanlon's razor, and feel free to let the willfully ignorant thin out their own herd, as long as they don't hurt anyone else in their quest to shuffle their mortal coil.
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I don't think he'll make it to the moon. ;)
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If it turns out that the moon is a flat disk attached to a black ceiling several thousand feet overhead, then he's got a pretty good chance of getting there. The tricky part will be the moon landing -- turning the rocket upside down (while simultaneously grappling it to the moon's surface so as not to fall back to Earth) won't be easy.
Re:OMG (Score:5, Informative)
He will bounce off the transparent dome that keeps all the air in first long before he reaches the moon.
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He might injure someone else in the attempt.
Re:OMG (Score:5, Funny)
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Steam rockets are still rockets. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re:OMG (Score:5, Funny)
If he changes the water for 100% hydrogen peroxide he might get high enough to see the edge. The real problem is when your up that high, the mind controll rays are real strong; if your not wearing at least 3 layers of tin foil they'll get through and all you'll remember is seeing round not flat!
Re:OMG (Score:4, Funny)
That isn’t going to make him any dumber...
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The project itself has nothing to do with flat earth.
Actually it sounds just like something one of those nuts would come up with.
Re:OMG (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:OMG (Score:5, Informative)
TFA says that he plans to open two parachutes, and presumably float to safety. For those old enough to remember, this is not very different from what Evil Knievel did when jumping the Snake River canyon. EK had to know that there was no way he'd land it on 2 wheels. The difference was that EK made a lot of money with his "failed" stunt.
Way cool, but needs a better chute! [Re:OMGQ] (Score:5, Informative)
I wonder if the mechanics of landing are just formulas or "science fiction"
TFA says that he plans to open two parachutes, and presumably float to safety.
Yeah. Take a look at the chute on his first launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Definitely needs some rethinking, and, yes, a second chute is a really good idea.
With that said, though: this is really cool!
another yootoob, this one with still pictures from a test a few months later. You definitely did not want to land inside THAT rocket! https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
For those old enough to remember, this is not very different from what Evil Knievel did when jumping the Snake River canyon.
Strike "what Evil Knievel did". Substitute "what Evil Knievel tried to do.
Re:OMG (Score:5, Funny)
Stop him, hell. I just donated to his kickstarter.
Re:OMG (Score:5, Insightful)
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And the person he lands on? Is that Darwinism at work?
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And the person he lands on? Is that Darwinism at work?
If he lands on the guy who decided not to stop him because it's Darwinism at work then yes
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...the guy who decided not to stop him...
I'm guessing that guy is you, me, and pretty well everyone else.
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If you're gonna make an omelette, you have crack a few skulls.
...or something like that. I just remember he smashed a porcelain mask when he said it.
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And the person he lands on? Is that Darwinism at work?
This reminded me of the advice that when hiring people, you should divide the CVs into two piles and throw one of them away. Because you don't wan't to hire people with bad luck, of course. You want people with bad luck to live?
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But I have a financial interest in him! He's going to kill himself and I want to cash in on that, if that isn't a financial interest in someone, then what is?
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Why? Let fate sort it out. What I want to know is how this is going to prove anything. If only there were some sort of method or process by where he could express a theory and then test that theory and refine it until he could make a reproducible conclusion.
Society shouldn't stop him (Score:3)
The guy is 61 years old, seems to be holding down a job from which he is able to save for his hobby. He likes to make grandiose statements but if he's applying the "formulas" (rather than the "science") correctly, he should succeed which means that he's not trying to commit suicide publicly.
I don't think anybody can give odds on his success (especially from the article) but I think, as a society, we've become too risk averse and we need to encourage people like "Mad" Mike to go out there. Maybe there's so
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If only we had the science to figure out if steam boosters could launch things into space economically or even at all.
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See, this is what we call "a hypothesis". It says: Mike Hughes dies as result of his experiment. It's a fine hypothesis. Testable. I suggest to perform the experiment and then test whether the hypothesis matches the observed result.
Re: OMG (Score:2)
My personal favorite theory is if we take all the people who believe apollo was faked to the moon, would they actually walk outside without a space suit?
I really want to test that one and one other.
How fast do bodies breakdown on the lunar surface in the Sun? It is cold but solar radiation will chemically break down the bodies in a given time frame.
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I don't see the logic in your theory.
Do you think that people who believe the moon landing was faked think there is oxygen on the moon? There's no correlation here.
Re: OMG (Score:4, Interesting)
One person would walk out and die.
The second would be confused for a few minutes, then realise that the entire set has been built as a giant vacuum chamber to trick them - it's probably inside a huge cave underground, with spotlights on the ceiling. He'll tell the others, and no more venture outside.
Conspiracy theories will adapt to counter any evidence presented.
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Nahh,, lets just go ahead and nominate him for a Darwin
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He may believe the Earth is flat, but his flight will help convince the rest of us about Darwin.
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Why exactly?
Sorry, I'm done with trying to make the world a better place. All I want to do now is watch it fall apart on YouTube.
Re:OMG (Score:5, Funny)
Oh look. Three more words that will never be in my obituary, "home made rocket."
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You can't know that yet. Someone like this guy might land on you while you are sitting in rush hour traffic on the freeway. Or while you sleep in your bed at night. Who knows! Home made rockets could become popular next week. Or not.
his troll-fu is weak (Score:5, Insightful)
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Then why differentiate? Just watch and enjoy the fallout. Either from a troll making someone blow a gasket or from an idiot blowing himself up, it's all good.
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Baleet asked:
Why? Everyone has a right to go to hell in his own way.
Unfortunately, that's not true.
I'm a very strong advocate of individual liberty. In my view, adult humans ought to have the fundamental right to engage in any behavior they choose, so long as no higher animal or other human who has not explicitly agreed in advance to participate is harmed in the process.
That includes the right to kill yourself in elaborate, expensive fashion; sell your body for sex, science, food, or any other purpose; appear naked in public; or vote for the most loathsome cand
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http://mentalhealthdaily.com/2... [mentalhealthdaily.com]
United States: In the past, many states had laws that regarded the act of suicide as a felony, but these laws were seldom enforced. In the 1980s, 30 out of 50 United States has no laws opposing suicide or attempting suicide. With that said, all 50 states had laws stating that assisted suicide is a felony. Currently there is no law against the act of committing suicide in the United States.
Additionally, physician assisted suicide is wider spread than just Oregon... they were simply the first. http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/26/... [cnn.com]
Only in portions of Nevada is prostitution legal, not the entirety of the state.
Public nudity is more widely accepted (legally) than you've limited it too, but here each city can have it's own ordinances, so listing them would need a staggering amount of space, and
I can't even this morning (Score:5, Funny)
I can't.. I was going to quote some stuff and then comment on some other.. but, I can't..
Even Wile E Coyote wasn't that stupid.
Re:I can't even this morning (Score:5, Insightful)
Wile E. Coyote is actually a pretty diametral example. A lot of his failures were due to cartoon physics not being real physics. This joker here has it kinda backwards ;).
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Wile E. Coyote is actually a pretty diametral example. A lot of his failures were due to cartoon physics not being real physics. This joker here has it kinda backwards ;).
Wile E actually believed in science.. He was just carrying it out poorly..
This joker doesn't even believe in science.
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Well at least he is trying to prove his hypothesis, vs just sitting there and being grumpy about it.
Perhaps after a few failures, he may need to read up on some of physics involved. Then try again, perhaps he could actually put a device in orbit...
Who am I kidding, it is going to fail, and because his rocket failed, it proved that going to space and in orbit is impossible, because the earth is flat.
Proof by laziness.
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Well at least he is trying to prove his hypothesis
He claims not to believe in science, so... It's not at all clear what he is doing.
TFA suggests that he isn't trying to go up to space though, more sideways at very high speed. Apparently he has made one flight already, this is just a longer one.
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Well at least he is trying to prove his hypothesis
He claims not to believe in science, so... It's not at all clear what he is doing.
You don't need a belief in science to be a good engineer - most engineers are pretty damn useless at science. He says he's got the math worked out and I'm inclined to believe him.
After all, the attack on the twin towers (9/11) was planned and executed by engineers, not scientists.
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WTF.
The math used by engineers IS science.
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WTF.
The math used by engineers IS science.
Nice snippage there, avoiding all the context... Why did you ignore this bit:
After all, the attack on the twin towers (9/11) was planned and executed by engineers, not scientists.
???
Significant numbers of terrorist attacks are performed by engineers. Almost none are performed by scientists.
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I meant the "prove his hypothesis" bit. If he doesn't believe in science then why would he be using the scientific method of proposing a hypothesis and then trying to prove it?
You are right though, he does seem to be focused more on engineering. TFA doesn't really convey that very well.
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A good engineer may not be a good scientist, but they need to understand and respect the information that the scientist provide to them.
Material A will have a melting point of X degrees, is useful information to know, so your rocket will not be made from a material that will melt from its rockets.
Now I don't expect an engineer to take a bunch of materials and cook them at different temperatures to see what their melting point is, however they will reference material made by the scientists who did the study,
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I don't understand this reasoning. Science is not something to believe in, it is not a religion. It is like saying you don't need to believe in dough to be a good pastry chef. As an engineer you are building on science. If you are building a rocket that can go 500 MpH, you are definately using science.
He's not conjuring up a rocket out of thin air is he? He's building something, predicting the what it will do, testing and evaluating the results, improve and repeat. Science.
Furthermore, he is questioning the
Re: I can't even this morning (Score:3)
He isn't going get nearly high enough to see the curvature of the Earth ... That'd be about 35000 feet, or about 10km. He's planning to travel a mile or so downrange, which assuming most of the flight is ballistic means he'll achieve less than a half km altitude.
And "ballistic" is a key point. It's not clear whether he's built an actual rocket or a rocket shaped projectile fired out of a steam cannon, but given the enormous weight of a steam pressure vessel I'm guessing it's a projectile. You wouldn't lau
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According to the article, this will be his second rocket launch. He survived his first failure and was stuck in bed for three days.
Let's hope... (Score:3, Insightful)
Let's hope his test on Saturday goes well and that he proves Darwin's theory of evolution.
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The problem is if he survives, then he is going to complain shortly that he doesn't have enough money for his retirement. Because he spend 20k on a junk rocket and probably burned his house down too.
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Nah, jokes on him. The sky is flat too, it's all over when he crashes into the ceiling.
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It would be a confirmation of his life-view: that there's no difference between science and science fiction.
Appropriate SF quote:
-- Oath of Fealty, Niven/Pournelle
Darwin Award in the making (Score:2)
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While technically possible, I think he's a bit old to be considered for Darwin awards. Especially if he's already procreated. Let's hope he has not.
Pass the popcorn (Score:5, Funny)
"Self-taught rocket scientist..."
This is gonna be good.
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I wouldn't say it's going to be good, but at least it's going to be better than watching a self-taught brain surgeon working on himself.
Re:Pass the popcorn (Score:5, Informative)
No. Von Braun learnt from Ley and Oberth, and did a PhD in physics specializing in rocketry at Friedrich-Wilhelm University.
Doesn't believe in science... (Score:5, Interesting)
...so does some science!
He believes the Earth is flat, and wants to build a rocket so that he can go up and take a look for himself.
So he has an hypothesis and is going to build and experiment to either prove or disprove it...
Maybe his definition of science is a bit different from mine, though...
Re: Doesn't believe in science... (Score:2)
Re: Doesn't believe in science... (Score:2)
For much less money, he could launch a weather balloon with a camera on board. The curvature of the earth is obvious at an altitude of 100,000 feet.
I suspect he is more interested in the media attention heâ(TM)s getting from building his rocket.
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How would you tell the curvature of the sphere from the edge of the disk?
I mean, we are talking about people that are utterly convinced there is an edge, yet somehow afraid to go there and stare into the abyss. If through some miracle he survives, he will be sure to tell us we all got it wrong and the earth is indeed flat. And since he has been "in space", he will count as an expert.
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The real question (Score:4, Insightful)
Is how we can encourage this behavior. Encourage everyone who doesn't "believe" in science to take themselves out. It could only help the species.
Of course, we'd lose most of our politicians....so it's really a win/win.
Breaking news! (Score:3, Insightful)
Rocket scientist trolls entire world by building a rocket out of garbage while claiming not to be a scientist. Plans to adhere to the scientific method while claiming not to believe in science.
Godspeed, you mad scientist. Onward for science!
Re:Breaking news! (Score:5, Insightful)
Ah, someone gets it!
This guy is attempting one of the biggest trolls I've ever seen! The best part is his underlying message, which is pure science: "I don't believe you, and I'm going to check for myself." How much more Aristotelian can you get?
Good idea? (Score:2)
(Grabs popcorn)
Okay, you can proceed now.
Darwin Award Winner 2017 (Score:2)
Calling it now.
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Is there different categories of awards?
This would surely win "Most expensive Darwin Award".
This is going to end well (Score:2)
Not for him though.
let's get this straight (Score:2)
Mock him all you want (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh sure, he mocks the terms - but I interpret that as mocking the orthodoxy. "You can't do that - y'all aint got no degree and learnin!".
More accurate headline (Score:2)
Man publicly announces suicide attempt due to his refusal to accept reality.
This ought to be good (Score:2)
He did a quarter mile test jump already, so the vehicle functions. At least marginally.
A mile-long rocket-boosted jump isn't that much of a difference from what he already achieved. I'm thinking there's a decent chance of success.
BUT
He also wants to go to space in the future. That is a huge leap in difficulty and risk. Plus, being a flat earther precludes him from having a full understanding of orbital dynamics. I don't understand how he could plan any kind of trajectory. What physics is he working with?
So,
Making Earth Flat Again (Score:5, Funny)
I think Trump may have found his new director of NASA.
Hold on... (Score:3)
Is it named the Vulture? His goal is the moon!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt00... [imdb.com]
Wat (Score:4, Funny)
I don't believe in science...I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the air, about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust. But that's not science, that's just a formula.
You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.
There are cheaper ways... (Score:3)
Let's not misunderstand what he's doing here; it has nothing whatsoever to do with attempting to prove or disprove anything at all. The whole flat-earth thing is just an excuse to get someone with deep enough pockets to fund his stunt rocket. The reality is, it would be so much cheaper (and safer!) to exceed the altitude he's going to reach by just chartering a flight on most any airline; they routinely achieve altitudes of 35,000 feet, (6.6 miles) and tickets for the flight wouldn't come even remotely near to the cost of his $20K publicity stunt.
Which, by the way, is all that this is, in the end... because you can't readily see the curvature of the earth until you reach at least 50,000 feet. (Modern airlines don't generally reach that high, since they grounded the Concorde.)
Re: Total flamebait article (Score:5, Insightful)
Can you not please try and speak for the rest of us? Itâ(TM)s a science article about home made rockets , this is a geek site. Itâ(TM)s exactly what the site is about and has always been about , and Iâ(TM)ve been here since the nineties
Re: Total flamebait article (Score:5, Funny)
It's a geek site, and yet you're either trademarking a bunch of a's with little hats or they still haven't figured out Unicode 20 years in.
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Didn't I see you in the YouTube comments section?
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The laser we routinely bounce of the mirror we put ON THE MOON
Photos
The International Space Station
Navigation, that works
Satellites
Eclipses
The position of the stars
The fact that everything based on physics, which requires the earth to be round and the solar system to be heliocentric to work....works.
Facts, provable, replicable, testable science. Just...stop. it's so...damn...sad.
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Not a single person standing up to actually show any evidence that the earth is "round" and instead you all rely on insults and bullshit. For slashdot, belief in a round earth is just RELIGION, like belief in evolution and global warming.
High school kids with weather balloons take pictures of its roundness every day. If religion were this easy to prove, we'd all be theologians.
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This.
Scot Kelly said that if the earth was flat, the edge would be the coolest place for people to visit. People would go there on vacation to look over the edge.
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he clearly says outrageous things to market himself; he's already done better than 9 out of 10 marketing wanks
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It sure will be. But shouldn't your post title be "Hughes success"?
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Well, it's a big-ass rocket that will probably ends with an explosion...
Somebody should call mythbusters to do a special episode on this guy.