Space, the Final Frontier

Success! This photo quickens my pulse.

Gene Nowaczyk’s rocket captured video during its record-setting launch at BALLS in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada. This is a frame grab from apogee (posted with permission). The readings are in meters, so this sensor indicated an altitude of ~ 100K ft. The atmosphere ends at 55K ft at this latitude. On-board avionics indicate that the rocket broke Mach 3.5

This launch was a highlight of the weekend, as celebrated yesterday on the cover of the New York Times.

The nosecone is now cooling from a peak of 425° during the ascent. The thermal expansion and contraction of the electronic leads led to a loss of power soon after apogee. But the rocket was recovered in good shape, with just the paint burned off the nose cone.

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Comments

BenODen says:

*shivver* Wow. owo wow. That would land a long way away from the pad.
Posted 33 months ago. ( permalink )

andyi says:

Ditto on the shivers.

Do you ever get the electric sensation from imagining the effect that information like this would have on someone from the beginning of our own lifetimes? That a rocket was sent up and took a photo of the horizon from space and millions of people were able to look at it...not because any of this was a mandate from a government agency, but chiefly because a bunch of private individuals thought it'd be wicked cool?
Posted 33 months ago. ( permalink )

drona says:

Blown away...awesome!
Posted 33 months ago. ( permalink )

jzawodn says:

Holy crap!

I want to quit this whole web business and help make space vehicles!

This is serously cool. And, at the same time, it's a reminder of how our country has really dropped the ball on space exploration. How long has it been since man set foot on the moon? :-(
Posted 33 months ago. ( permalink )

thepretenda says:

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahoooooooooooooooooooooo! !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted 33 months ago. ( permalink )

jurvetson says:

Andyi: well put. technological progress perpetually pierces the presumptions of our intuition... (a la Kurzweil). I say this as I'm surfin' by satellite somewhere over the Pacifc en route to ShenZhen.

Doing cool stuff is a big motivator. I have to imagine it's part of what drives Elon Musk and the bigger projects...

jzawodn: Go for it! Some discussion on your points also here:

Old Skool
Posted 33 months ago. ( permalink )

oklo says:

to slip the surly bonds of Earth...
Posted 33 months ago. ( permalink )

_sarchi says:

supa dupa crazy
Posted 33 months ago. ( permalink )

Todd Huffman says:

How do you find them when they come down? I've been to the Playa, and it is a *really* big place. Does everyone just keep their eyes open? Or do you have a high-tech solution?
Posted 33 months ago. ( permalink )

benjiman says:

That really is some heart pounding stuff.
Posted 33 months ago. ( permalink )

jurvetson says:

I love the enthusiasm in the comments.

Oddwick: There are several methods. Victor offers an excellent summary here. =)

For the high altitude launches, like this one, there are on-board tracking and telemetry systems (e.g., BigRedBee). You can see the ground antenna for this rocket in the pickup:

Posted 33 months ago. ( permalink )

Todd Huffman says:

Why does NASA get all the cool toys??? Not that an aircraft carrier would do much good in the middle of the desert, but still...

Maybe you could borrow this boat, it seems to run Ok in the desert.
static.flickr.com/31/40537887_4e3fbe54e4.jpg? v=0
Posted 33 months ago. ( permalink )

benjiman says:

For more mind blowing orbital shots, take a look at these launch shots....

I need to book my trip on a Virgin Galactic flight soon!
Posted 33 months ago. ( permalink )

j_silla says:

tie me to it :)
Posted 33 months ago. ( permalink )

CherokeeJ says:

ix_silver says:
tie me to it :)

You'd die. At 7 G's, you feel a lot of pain. At 9 G's, you pass out. At 13 G's, you die. At the 30+ G's that this flight pulled, your body turns inside out, and your head comes out through your butt. Not pretty.

Read more about Gene's little project at www.aeroconsystems.com/
Posted 31 months ago. ( permalink )

spincycle says:

Not to be too nitpicky, because this is seriously cool, but the atmosphere doesn't "end" at 55k...it just keeps getting thinner and thinner, faster and faster.

In fact, the Sun's "atmosphere" (as opposed to the photosphere mor chromosphere mostly human/arbitrary boundaries) extends pretty much halfway to the nearest star. Likewise, the Earth's atmosphere extends a great distance, enough so that satellites much, much higher than 55k have to consider the (admittedly small) effect ofair resistance when dealing wth orbital calculations.
Posted 24 months ago. ( permalink )

BlackBirdCD says:

Oh wow. I was at Balls 15, but this is the first time I've seen this picture. Just astounding!
Posted 22 months ago. ( permalink )

sbove says:

Great Balls...what a view...

A question:

What is the minimum altitude at which one can see black "space" clearly differentiated from blue atmosphere? I would have thought it to be much higher than only 100k feet...but this picture clearly shows otherwise...

As for where the atmosphere ends...here's another interesting perspective on the difference between aeronautics and astronomics:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_space

"There is no clear boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space as the density of the atmosphere gradually decreases as the altitude increases. Nevertheless, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale has established the Kármán line at an altitude of 100 km (62 miles) as a working definition for the boundary between aeronautics and astronautics. This is used because above an altitude of roughly 100 km, as Theodore von Kármán calculated, a vehicle would have to travel faster than orbital velocity in order to derive sufficient aerodynamic lift from the atmosphere to support itself. The United States designates people who travel above an altitude of 80 km (50 statute miles) as astronauts. During re-entry, roughly 120 km (75 miles) marks the boundary where atmospheric drag becomes noticeable, depending on the ballistic coefficient of the vehicle."

PS: my new goal -- to one day own a personal-travel vehicle with an advertised "ballistic coefficient" ;-)
Posted 22 months ago. ( permalink )

cosmosjon says:

This ain't your father's Estes Rocket!

INCREDIBLE shot. (Haven't seen any Flat Earth Society members commenting.... they're strangely silent here!) ;-)
Posted 22 months ago. ( permalink )

kite man says:

Wow! That'e sure getting up there. I am not a model rocket person as all of my aerial photos are done with kites. I like the sharp aerial photos captured by kites but these high altitude shots are amazing as well.

You may also enjoy some of the KAP flickr sites wich show photos taken from kites. You may even want to check out one of my other groups called Giant Kites as it also contains some aerial shots of giant kites.

Thanks for posting this shot on our Unmannes Aerial Photos photo gallery.

Thanks again,

Eric
Posted 18 months ago. ( permalink )

Craig in Orkney says:

I also take aerial photos with my camera attached to kites and found this photograph amazing.

Regards from The Orkney Islands,

Craig.
Posted 18 months ago. ( permalink )

madrigar says:

Awesome!

re: Cherokee - I don't feel pain at 7 G's... I used to do rapid onset (15 seconds at 5 G's, then 15 seconds at 9 G's, then back to 5) in centrifuges. My resting G tolerance was just under 5 G's and it is common to do 9 G's in tests using proper breathing techique and using a G suit.
Posted 12 months ago. ( permalink )

AndyM_ says:

My dad used to throw me higher than that when I was a kid.
Posted 12 months ago. ( permalink )

spaceguy says:

Wow!
Posted 12 months ago. ( permalink )

PLC.Doctor says:

I think the correct altitude for this photo is 104,364 feet. The display is showing meters. I've flown on commercial airline flights at 36,000 feet and have never seen the curvature of the earth. Very impressive flight.
Posted 12 months ago. ( permalink )

jurvetson says:

Yes.... I just rounded to ~100K ft. in the caption. Even more interesting, note that it is still supersonic at this point.... =)
Posted 12 months ago. ( permalink )

RocketGuy says:

Although, at that altitude supersonic is much slower. What units for velocity 320? Meters/Sec? That's a good clip...
Posted 10 months ago. ( permalink )

jurvetson says:

exactly... yes, all metric...
Posted 10 months ago. ( permalink )

jurvetson says:

WIRED issue 16.11 has a cool story and diagram of this rocket.
.
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

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Taken on October 16, 2006

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Space, the Final Frontier

Comments

BenODen says:

andyi says:

drona says:

jzawodn says:

thepretenda says:

jurvetson says:

oklo says:

_sarchi says:

Todd Huffman says:

benjiman says:

jurvetson says:

Todd Huffman says:

benjiman says:

j_silla says:

CherokeeJ says:

spincycle says:

BlackBirdCD says:

sbove says:

cosmosjon says:

kite man says:

Craig in Orkney says:

madrigar says:

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spaceguy says:

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