Biofuel-Powered Rocket Makes Historic Launch in Maine (pressherald.com) 54
Despite bad weather and early technical difficulties, employee-owned bluShift Aerospace "made history Sunday afternoon when it launched its prototype rocket, Stardust 1.0," reports Maine's Portland Press Herald:
The company became the first in Maine to launch a commercial rocket and the first in the world to launch a rocket using bio-derived fuel... It carried three payloads, two commercial and one, free of charge, from Falmouth High School... The rocket and payloads returned to the ground under a parachute shortly after launch and were retrieved by a team of snowmobilers. The rocket is intended to be reusable and environmentally friendly.
While the components of the biofuel remain a company secret, bluShift CEO Sascha Deri said it is solid, non-toxic and carbon neutral. "I can tell you this much, I discovered it with a friend of mine on my brothers farm here in Maine," he said. The company describes its business model as the Uber of space, where they will target a specific customer who wishes to send their payload into a particular orbit.
"We are targeting people that want to go to a specific orbit, they want to have control of their launches, they want to be the primary payload even though their payload is very small," Deri said.
The rocket is roughly 20 feet tall and 14 inches in diameter, the newspaper reports — noting that an earlier launch planned for January 15th had to be called off due to bad weather. "It turns out launching rockets is complicated, apparently it's rocket science," CEO Deri told them.
"We did learn a lot from that failed launch. We learned, first and foremost, that you can't rely upon weather websites, you really need to use a professional meteorologist."
The Associated Press also reports the rocket carried "a Dutch dessert called stroopwafel, in an homage to its Amsterdam-based parent company. Organizers of the launch said the items were included to demonstrate the inclusion of a small payload."
While the components of the biofuel remain a company secret, bluShift CEO Sascha Deri said it is solid, non-toxic and carbon neutral. "I can tell you this much, I discovered it with a friend of mine on my brothers farm here in Maine," he said. The company describes its business model as the Uber of space, where they will target a specific customer who wishes to send their payload into a particular orbit.
"We are targeting people that want to go to a specific orbit, they want to have control of their launches, they want to be the primary payload even though their payload is very small," Deri said.
The rocket is roughly 20 feet tall and 14 inches in diameter, the newspaper reports — noting that an earlier launch planned for January 15th had to be called off due to bad weather. "It turns out launching rockets is complicated, apparently it's rocket science," CEO Deri told them.
"We did learn a lot from that failed launch. We learned, first and foremost, that you can't rely upon weather websites, you really need to use a professional meteorologist."
The Associated Press also reports the rocket carried "a Dutch dessert called stroopwafel, in an homage to its Amsterdam-based parent company. Organizers of the launch said the items were included to demonstrate the inclusion of a small payload."
What fuel is it? (Score:2)
"I can tell you this much, I discovered it with a friend of mine on my brothers farm here in Maine," he said.
Farts.
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Man
For these "editors"
It needs to be ladyfarts
D'oh
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"For these "editors"
It needs to be ladyfarts"
Cows are ladies.
Re: What fuel is it? (Score:2)
They certainly are! Around here ...
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Promoting your company that makes a rocket that runs on bio-derived fuel, and naming it a close approximation of bluShit Aerospace is a bit like calling your daughter Candy or your son X AE A-XII... you're unnecessarily complicating things for them for years down the road.
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I've made the acquaintance of two women named Candy. One would cut you for disrespect. The other would have you jailed. Yes, she would. She has.
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"Solid, non-toxic, and carbon neutral"
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"Solid, non-toxic, and carbon neutral"
Charcoal.
Re: What fuel is it? (Score:2)
I hate that the article somehow insinuates that a regular Hydrogen - LOX mixture is a carbon emitter.
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They did say 'solid'. I suspect that's something you ordinarily step in.
It's a sounding rocket. (Score:2)
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure all involved deserved their stroopwafel, but it's not really historic unless they exceed the Karman line at 100km; and it's not *particularly* historic unless they put something into orbit.
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"Stardust is a single-stage reusable prototype with 8 kg (18 lb) payload capacity that can reach maximum altitudes of up to 2 km (6500 ft)." In this case it made it to 5000 feet.
I can carry a payload of 18 lbs to altitudes higher than 6500 feet, so perhaps I'm an innovative biorocket.
They do have distant future plans for an orbital rocket for smallsats. Looks like it'll be a while, because their next step is Stardust 2.0 (Karman line), then Starless Rogue (250 km), then Brown Dwarf (still suborbital), then
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I don't want to take away from what they've accomplished, but it's not historic. Not yet. Sugar motor rockets have gotten to 12 km, and that's also non-fossil carbon.
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Just 'cause you can fart...
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They should call it (Score:2)
Salvage 1 [imdb.com].
H2 + O2 is also pretty "carbon neutral"... (Score:2)
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Re: H2 + O2 is also pretty "carbon neutral"... (Score:2)
Most of icelands hydrogen cars are fueled off their geothermal vents. While volcanic magma is not exactly carbon free, mother nature gets a carbon neutral free pass.
Re: H2 + O2 is also pretty "carbon neutral"... (Score:2)
Nuclear reactor?? Proudly wasting money *while* polluting the environment? Why do I hear Confederate music?
Jus use solar cells like a normal person. It's not like you *needed* that rocket fuel before dusk! It *is* your battery.
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Alcohol is a biofuel (Score:2)
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"The German V2 and Chuck Yaeger's X-1 both ran on alcohol and liquid oxygen, "
Well he said he discovered it on a farm, so it must have been peepaw's whiskey and meemaw's oxygen.
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Re: Oil does not come from animals? (Score:2)
And what do animals use to renew themselves?
That's right! The sun, you dumb fuck!
"biofuel"??? (Score:5, Informative)
Pay attention, when someone hides what something really is, it's likely just buzzwords hiding a scam to suck up federal dollars.
Re: "biofuel"??? (Score:2)
Unles you are Maxwell's demon, *EVERYTHING* takes more energy than it puts out.
I rather suspect you are Exxon's demon. Begone!
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Ethanol is "biofuel" but it takes more energy than it puts out - it's a tax scam.
No it doesn't, and it hasn't for years. What's wrong with ethanol fuel is not that it isn't energy-positive (because it is) but that it is grown continuously (without crop rotation) and it depletes topsoil. It's selling out the future of food for profit today.
So you burning trees - the very things that filter the air converting c02-->o2 and just making c02 ... another tax scam.
It can be done sustainably, although it's very hard to do cleanly because burning wood produces dioxin and soot.
"biodiesel" is diesel with processed used fryer fat.. it took energy to make in the first place, it took energy to process, and you still have to mix it with diesel.. and when you do, the diesel engine is less efficient then pure petro-diesel, so it burns more to go the same distance or perform the same work.
Biodiesel is diesel made from waste lipids, not fuel with fat. Fat is fuel! If you do nothing but filter and dewater oil you can mix it in w
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Ethanol wouldn't be piped for its full journey, because farms are so distributed. At best a pipeline would only be used for a part of the transport. But in general, we need to stop using liquid fuels anyway. Pipelines and rail transport both result in spills.
Cars/trucks do not run on pure ethanol in most cases, E85 is all but dead. I can't remember the last time I saw a fueling station with it. It has been supplanted by CNG/LNG for fleet use, which unlike ethanol or E85 can be run in engines with no interna
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I always transport my ethanol in glass bottles, generally mixed with some sugar and fruit juice.
Discovered on a farm? (Score:2)
Re: Discovered on a farm? (Score:2)
Cows produce a lot of methane!
But yeah, probably that.
Is it sugar? (Score:2)
Sugar has been used as rocket fuel for decades. If you use a liquid oxidizer, you can even control the power output. Not full control, but over a range.
The home recipe is powdered sugar and potassium nitrate in a tube made of brown paper packing tape (the pre-gummed stuff that you wet with a sponge). The advanced version uses a shell of vacuum formed fiber/resin composite (like glass, carbon fiber or kevlar) instead of paper.
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Grant Random showed off sugar engines made in PVC tubes. I have the video saved around here somewhere...
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Oh, sugar beets...
no dessert (Score:4, Informative)
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Re: no dessert (Score:2)
That's what some include in the broad category of "dessert", subgroup of "candy", subgroup of "edible thrash", subgroup of "slow poisons" and "simple drugs".
Re: no dessert (Score:2)
No such thing as "biofuel" (Score:2)
You could call it "(synthetic) fuel from non-fossilized direct-processed lifeforms" , but the correct term is "stolen food".
So keep your newspeak to yourself.
Bio-fuel not get Mars, nuclear fission fuel will (Score:2)
Bio-fuels are burning our seed corn. We need crops for food, fiber, and shelter. Civilizations that burn plants for fuel put themselves on the path to being extinction or being conquered by those that don't burn food for fuel.
We did not send humans to the Moon until we had the technology to put on the lunar landers power packs able to keep their electronics from freezing during a lunar night. Every manned mission to the Moon carried a radio-thermaal power pack. NASA was desperate fro this material, a ma
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We need civilian nuclear fission power
Even if we did, and we don't, you would have completely failed to show that here. All your proposed uses can be done with solar.
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You have failed to show we can get Mars on solar power alone.
My intent was not to show it is impossible to get to Mars any other way. My intent was to warn everyone that without nuclear power we will drive our economy into the ground trying and failing to get to Mars. Once people embrace nuclear fission power is when we will send people to other celestial bodies to colonize them. This is a prediction, a warning, not a how-to guide.
How did the staff get to the launch site ? (Score:1)
If they didn't go there in electric cars, they're pointing out what a pointless exercise this was.
How can they be the "Uber of Space"... (Score:1)
Surely, to be the Uber of space, they would have to:
-- rely on a workforce of independent contractors each of whom own their own rockets and can be fired (ahem) at any moment for any reason;
-- spend gazillions of dollars spreading disinformation and rewriting any laws they don't like to suit their business model;
-- speak out against regulation, but then, after losing money hand over fist year after year, come crawling back to the government looking for a handout t
SpaceX (Score:1)
Ya know, the one that went boom when it was trying to return to the launch pad?