DangerZone
Well-Known Member
There seems to be some hype lately about Nolan's last movie Interstellar which shows an aircraft capable of reaching orbit and docking to a space station. It has a Space-Shuttle-like re-entry flying mode without wings and seems to be working on rocket power.
Ok, it's a SF movie, yet we can notice lately that there are numerous aircraft projets which share this idea. Some of these projects even claim to be supported by NASA, there were youtube videos posted on this New Technology subgroup about these ideas. Has there been some major new technology breakthrough that we homebuilders missed somehow? Let's skip the blackhole/wormhole/whateverhole fantasies and concentrate on the reaching orbit and re-entry part. You know, stuff like Rutan and Branson, Spaceship one two three kind of aircraft/spacecraft, they have made some brave achievements. There was also a video about Elon Musk who will compete with Boeing for funds to develop such an idea, so apparently this is a global thing.
What's going on? A few years back a father from NYC reached 100 thousand feet into Space with a camera for his kid. He wanted to show his kid what Space looked like, so he put a helium baloon on a camera in a foam pack. There was another guy who launched a small rocket into high altitude with a camera, it landed with a parachute. My girlfriend is also working on an interesting idea of reaching high altitudes and returning back to base with minimal cost. It seems the time has come for the era of a small homebuilt spacecraft, in a way that there is a market for such a thing. So, how would you do it and which new technology would you use?
Ok, it's a SF movie, yet we can notice lately that there are numerous aircraft projets which share this idea. Some of these projects even claim to be supported by NASA, there were youtube videos posted on this New Technology subgroup about these ideas. Has there been some major new technology breakthrough that we homebuilders missed somehow? Let's skip the blackhole/wormhole/whateverhole fantasies and concentrate on the reaching orbit and re-entry part. You know, stuff like Rutan and Branson, Spaceship one two three kind of aircraft/spacecraft, they have made some brave achievements. There was also a video about Elon Musk who will compete with Boeing for funds to develop such an idea, so apparently this is a global thing.
What's going on? A few years back a father from NYC reached 100 thousand feet into Space with a camera for his kid. He wanted to show his kid what Space looked like, so he put a helium baloon on a camera in a foam pack. There was another guy who launched a small rocket into high altitude with a camera, it landed with a parachute. My girlfriend is also working on an interesting idea of reaching high altitudes and returning back to base with minimal cost. It seems the time has come for the era of a small homebuilt spacecraft, in a way that there is a market for such a thing. So, how would you do it and which new technology would you use?
