Launch News MSC Tycho Brahe on Copenhagen Suborbitals HAET1X, Baltic Sea launch

[Jarvitä]

The micro spacecraft (MSC) Tycho Brahe-1 is the payload of the HEAT booster. It is a pressurized volume providing support for one upright standing/half-sitting person, with a full view through a polymer plexiglas-dome to experience the entire ballistic ride. Based on the expected flight data and future test-flights, g-force loads and rocket orientation, we will determine the seating construction and necessary support to ensure a safe human travel.

The MSC will have additional pressurized space, around and behind the astronaut, available for several other systems necessary for the flight procedure, and to support additional scientific and commercial projects.

Interior payload systems:
- Seating and support for astronaut,
- Environmental control and life support system (ECLSS),
- Automatic and manual override control of booster seperation and parachute systems,
- Scientific instrumentation,
- Commercial goods.

The Hybrid Exo Atmospheric Transporter or HEAT, is a real scale rocket with a 640 mm diameter tube that will function as the final rocket and carrier of the one person spacecraft. The oxydizer for the HATV will be liquid oxygen (LOX). The HEAT booster will finally serve as the transportation vehicle for the man rated spacecraft.

The HEAT booster will burn for about 60 seconds, providing 40kN of thrust, resulting in less than 3-g making the trip feasible for humans to endure in an upright position.

Today, before a small crowd of people we lowered the twin-pontoon catamaran launch vehicle (with the whole rocket stack on it,) into water. The whole thing is 12 meters wide and 14 meters tall, and kind of top heavy.

Launch countdown and more info on http://www.copenhagensuborbitals.com/index.php

 

[Urwumpe]

Finally... We expect the worst, but a whole lot of fun to watch it.

 

[astrosammy]

I forgot to follow this project in the last months, and thought that it is cancelled :facepalm:. But now they are launching! Amazing! :thumbup:

 

[Urwumpe]

Well, no surprise how they got the funding:

http://www.cafepress.com/copsub.420466161

 

[Jarvitä]

Is that a submarine towing their launch platform? :blink:

Oh, here's a map of the launch zone:

 

[Urwumpe]

Is that a submarine towing their launch platform? :blink:

No, but they seem to be using the submarine base as their home port.

 

[Jarvitä]

No, but they seem to be using the submarine base as their home port.

In the image above, what appears to be a mini-sub is clearly tethered to the launch platform. Here's a closer image

 

[RisingFury]

My name for this thing would have been OUCH, but whatever works for ya...

 

[Urwumpe]

In the image above, what appears to be a mini-sub is clearly tethered to the launch platform. Here's a closer image

Yes... but it makes no sense...they would need weeks to get to their launch location that way, such a submarine isn't very fast and not really stable at the surface.

 

[Jarvitä]

Apparently, it's a mini-sub they've constructed themselves, on an unrelated hobby project. (source)

The submarine Nautilus was mated to the "Sputnik" MLP and readied for towing it to the launch site. We figure it will take about 36 hours of sailing.

edit: [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UC3_Nautilus"]UC3 Nautilus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

 

[Urwumpe]

Yeah... 36 hours is a good figure for the distance... 3 knots.

 

[steph]

Whoever climbs into that thing can only be called a human warhead :blink:

 

[Graham2001]

Is that a submarine towing their launch platform? :blink:

This is scary, the more I look at it the more I think of the 1960's thriller 'Hunter-Killer' by Geoffrey Jenkins. It climaxes with the launch of one man into orbit atop a modified Polaris missile!

 

[Izack]

Whoever climbs into that thing can only be called a human warhead :blink:

So we finally have something more deserving of the name "Missile with a Man in it" than the ol' F-104. :lol:

This really does remind me of some crazy stunt the USAF would have tried back in the '60's...

 

[SiberianTiger]

Any info on azimuth and distance to be covered by the capsule after launch? Are they going to land it at sea or at land?

 

[Jarvitä]

Any info on azimuth and distance to be covered by the capsule after launch? Are they going to land it at sea or at land?

Target altitude 90 000 feet, water landing and recovery by boat. Azimuth and distance are more or less random, the spacecraft has no guidance systems and is being launched in the general "up" direction.

The flight configuration being loaded now is a "short stack" with the crash test dummy strapped in to the Tycho Brahe spacecraft in its current form with the completed heat shield, glass dome and aerospike. The spacecraft is attached to its own parachute module beneath it, which is mated loosely (for in-flight retro-rocket assisted separation) to the nearly identical parachute module of the booster stack which consists of a half-length oxidizer and pressurization tank assembly (newly built - thanks gypsy scrap thieves you're really helping you know) on top of the modified booster which has 4 fins with rollerons. We'll have two downlink video streams and two-way data to both booster and spaceship.

With the launch we're about to perform, we expect a quite low peak altitude for the spacecraft, with only about 15 seconds of active thrust. The goal is to test and validate engine performance, telemetry and radio systems, pyros, chutes, recovery and as many aspects of the whole thing as possible.

If all goes well, the plan and hope is that by next summer we should be able to fly the long stack with a full-length and fully loaded oxidizer tank (with hydrogen peroxide instead of LOX) and some Scud- or V2-like graphite or carbon-carbon steerable baffles in the exhaust stream for active guidance, and a gas-powered RCS system in the Tycho Brahe parachute module.

Tycho Brahe has been found to be too small to probably ever fly with real people. For one thing, the head of our poor crash test dummy can't fit in there with his helmet on. On top of the Heat-E1 which is the first plausibly man-rated booster in our schedule, we'll need to put a ø800mm spacecraft instead of the current ø640mm design. It'll still only support a nearly vertical crew posture but hopefully slightly less so. Everything we learn from flying Tycho Brahe will go into building the real man-rated spacecraft.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Target altitude 90 000 feet, water landing and recovery by boat.

So the alt is a bit exaggerated in their chart I pasted above. But how come 90 000 feet can be considered a suborbital flight, while it's not even moving beyond stratosphere? I too can hop and claim it was a suborbital ballistic flight.

Too bad they aren't going launching people on their current rocket. What are they going to test on the current 'spacecraft' then?

 

[Jarvitä]

Too bad they aren't going launching people on their current rocket. What are they going to test on the current 'spacecraft' then?

Booster and spacecraft design, launch procedure and recovery. Size is pretty much the only difference.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Do they have a consistent data sheet for their rocket designs? I don't find the handful of numbers they have at http://www.copenhagensuborbitals.com/boosters.php sufficient for estimations.

 

[Jarvitä]

Not on the internet, by the looks of it.

edit: And their site got slashdotted too, anyway.