A Silly but possible idea...

[joeybigO]

I can see where both of you have a beef, however as there was a thread long ago about private spaceflight and legal ramifications.


FAA is overall in charge of spaceflight from United States, Flights from Wallops Island are still regulated by the FAA, just as a complimentary regulatory agency.

Because whatever the last agency did, was NOT regulated, therefore they did not seek approval from NASA, nor FAA.

However legal/illegal that is, depends on where you are going.

If your going to about 50M short of the ISS, I would say, "Houston, we have a problem".

Antarctica is about a retarded site, if you ask me. It would be the MOST inefficient site to launch from. Some other islands out of US territories would serve well.

Just getting certified to fly is very hard, and would take quite a bit of money from private sources. Those private sources would like to see a return on their investment, such as everyones favorite receipt, CASH.
R & D up to an un-manned mission would be in the neighborhood of about 5-10 Million, yes that Million with an M. Certification, Regulation and Fuel would raise costs through the roof as well, your not looking to just go into air, your looking to go into space.

 

[SpaceCowboy]

"Antarctica is about a retarded site, if you ask me. It would be the MOST inefficient site to launch from. Some other islands out of US territories would serve well."

Yeah, you would go very little help from the earth's rotation.

 

[TSPenguin]

If you at some point manage to finance a moon mission with advertising, you have my deepest respect.
For that to happen you'd have to raise public interest for space flight at least at high as in the 60s to make it worthwhile for advertisers to spend that kind of money for this project. And that is something I don't see happening.
Good Luck

 

[Woo482]

Antarctica is about a retarded site, if you ask me. It would be the MOST inefficient site to launch from. Some other islands out of US territories would serve well

you do all know I said that Antarctica thing as a joke don't you ?

 

[SpaceCowboy]

TSPenguin Thank you.

woo482 - Yeah, I kinda figured. I was just trying to see what would be needed if you were to launch from there. I think the only reason I can see right off that I would launch from there would be because I could not anywhere else.

 

[Deke]

you do all know I said that Antarctica thing as a joke don't you ?

Yes we did, but one person here thought you were actually serious and trying to give ideas. :rofl:

 

[SpaceCowboy]

I think he means me!

hey, well it is always fun trying to come up with solutions to hard problems.

 

[Star explorer]

Yes we did, but one person here thought you were actually serious and trying to give ideas. :rofl:

i dont know if you mean space cowboy or not but if you mean me about building it there i was joking to

 

[Deke]

i dont know if you mean space cowboy or not but if you mean me about building it there i was joking to

No no, I know you were joking.

Okay and SpaceCowboy... HOW is LAUNCHING from ANTARTICA, a GOOD SOLUTION to the idea of going to the MOON in FOUR YEARS?

Seriously?

 

[Star explorer]

i have an idea why don't you two place a wager if space cowboy gets to the moon within at least 7 years (not by much but it is a tiny bit more realistic at 7 years even thought he won't be able to most likely do it at all anywase) you have to post a video on youtube and orbiter forum and state that you were wrong space cowboy was right and he has bragging rights. If spac cowboy doesent make it to the moon within 7 years then he has to do the same thing as you would have to do if you lost and you have bragging rights sound fair

 

[JamesG]

"north to Antarctica"

Antarctica is south of just about everywhere.

Ah, but the beauty of a globe is that if you keep going North, you are eventually going to go South.

Not a very efficient way to get there, but then neither is launching anything from there either. Kind of appropriate don't you think?

If you at some point manage to finance a moon mission with advertising, you have my deepest respect.

Just ring up Sir Richard Branson.

I am quite disappointed by the negativity of the responses on this board of all places.
If there was anywhere that a decentralized, collaborative aerospace concept could take root, you would think it would be here.

 

[RisingFury]

Ermmm... I think it'd be best if you all tone it down just a tad, before this turns into a big name calling thread...

It's always nice to read ideas and a good discussion, as long as it doesn't turn into sarcastic mocking of other people's ideas.

 

[lennartsmit]

What about an African country as a launch-site. What about Namibia, no war, little corruption and less rules.

 

[JamesG]

That's pretty far south, as far south as KSC is North. An equatorial African or South American country (or Indonesia?) with an eastern coast would be better. If it weren't for the weather and political instability that is.

Either way, financially it would be good. Cheap labor costs would help for site and facilities construction and you can forget about any bureaucratic roadblocks, so long as you paint their flag on the side and pay the requisite "fees".

 

[adamb193]

I have a more reasonable plan, okay we need to hijack an aircraft carrier this will be team 1 about 37 people preferably with a lot of Military or Call of Duty experience and 3 people with no experience at all, then team 2 will steal an ICBM, and load it into a truck and smuggle it across the US, then team 3 will steal an Apollo capsule and a Lunar Lander from the Smithsonian, and load them on to a flatbed, teams 2 and 3 will meet in an the abandoned Navel base the Mythbusters use, With crowbars and hacksaws we will remove the warhead from the ICBM, sell it on EBay of course. Then attach the Apollo casual and Lunar Lander and a pickup truck with some straps and Gaffer's tape, we will then load the rocket onto the Aircraft carrier, and take it to the equator, to launch. Me and two other volunteers will then take the whole thing to the moon and make history. We will do our landings with Space suits we made ourselves.

 

[Star explorer]

LOL :LOL!:

 

[Torgo]

Given enough time and money, nothing is impossible.

Of course what is being proposed here would require much more than what all of us here could contribute.

 

[JamesG]

You don't know that. There might be a billionaire or two lurking on this board.

 

[RisingFury]

You don't know that. There might be a billionaire or two lurking on this board.

Well, hopefully they make a bit of a contribution to the board then

 

[Dr Pepper]

The only real impractical thing I see with this is getting the board users together in one spot at a specific time. Otherwise, building a rocket is totally possible. However, aiming way too high (both literally and figuratively)...

For the first part, before you get started at all, you're going to need a source of income (and thus, a job) and a lot of patience. Without a steady source of income, the project wouldn't ever leave the ground (dang puns again!).

Next, you need a basic education in physics, chemistry, and rocketry if you want to get the project done effectively and efficiently. While a college education would be best, no doubt you could learn quite a bit through some serious reading and research.

Then you may want to move on to engines. Assuming you're going to make a home-made one, you should first simply try to get an operational, scaled prototype. I would suggest liquid fuels (propane, methane, or some liquid hydrogen would make quite good fuels, and LOX is easy to get as well) simply because of the fact that most are very easy to obtain, and don't require tons of red-tape to hack through to use.

Once you've got the engine running, you could then attempt to pack that into a container (the rocket's body, with all the fins and stuff) and begin to perform highly-controlled flight tests; that is, setting the rocket off in the middle of nowhere with you a hell of a distance away.

If things work out, you could then start scaling up, slowly but steadily reaching your goal of 100km.

That's how I would approach such a project, anyway.