You're saying that something so big that they make you fire it from the "away" pads way out back is most likely gonna just barely be able make it all the way back to the flight line if things go exactly wrong?
oops...
-dave w
Just remember to take your little Wiley Coyote parasol. ; )
Randy
With a target painted on the top.
Eventually.
I'd be more worried about being downrange, as far as I can tell this is an unguided, manned rocket, using LOX and Kersone as fuel....sounds like the sort of thing I wouldn't want coming down in my back garden! I believe Woomera was the planned launch location, but on the X-Prize website there's mention of them moving to New Mexico....
Also scary, was the claim on their site that: "Far from launching three people to 100 km the craft we were about to build would actually be capable of propelling six people into space."
As regards safe distances, I think the safest is somewhere outside the maximum ballistic range of the thing!
-- Niall Oswald ========= UKRA 1345 L0 EARS 1151 MARS
"Gravity assisted pieces of the rocket raining from the sky should be avoided. It is also financially undesirable."
-Portland State Aerospace Society
To add to my previous post:
The STARCHASER 5 booster is currently passively stabilised, i.e no gambling. This is predominantly to keep things nice and simple for the X PRIZE flight.
We have designed the CHURCHILL Mk3 to allow the engine to be gimballed at a later date.
Developing active guidance is a major task and requires many test flights. We intend to progress to active guidance in the future but at present we will use fin stabilisation.
And a few posts down:
Fin stabilisation works by using the air moving across the surface of the fins. In order for this to work sufficient air needs to be passing across the fins. The launch tower will provide stabilisation via the use of launch guide rails, these will stabilise the rocket until it is moving fast enough for fin stabilisation to take over.
You are correct in saying that the higher up you go the less air there is. However the rocket will be moving significantly fast enough for the reduce number of air molecules to provide fin stabilisation.
Hmmm.....
-- Niall Oswald ========= UKRA 1345 L0 EARS 1151 MARS
"Gravity assisted pieces of the rocket raining from the sky should be avoided. It is also financially undesirable."
-Portland State Aerospace Society
I'm just glad they have guidance experts and aerodynamic experts on the job!
:)
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.