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#31
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![]() Herb Schaltegger wrote: Good points; on the other hand, don't the two passengers sit side-by-side behind the center/forward pilot's seat? I assume that's the case; you wouldn't want the passengers interfering with his field-of-view out all the circular windows. The NO2 tank, however, appears to be situated very damn nearly at the center of lift of the wing or perhaps a bit forward of that point, probably right at the CG as well. It would make sense if the whole oxidizer tank/ fuel cylinder assembly was as close to the CG as possible, so that propellant depletion wouldn't shift the CG at all during ascent; since the oxidizer tank is in front; I assumed the cylinder full of the fuel material would be mounted in back of the CG to keep the propellant weights consumed during motor burn in front and back of the CG similer...if it was going to be off-balence, then you would want it nose-heavy during ascent, to add to it's "arrow stability" as it accelerates toward the supersonic regime; once it goes supersonic, the center of lift should move aft of the CG, and stability increase. snip Thus, if they have a rocket failure of some type and terminate boost, the CG won't change too much. Note that Scaled has already demonstrated cold-flowing the oxidizer in-flight; I would suspect that with the tank where it is, it has little impact on vehicle stability either full or empty. I also see from Scaled's data sheet that in addition to elevators on the tail for pitch and roll control, the entire horizontal tail surface is electro-servo actuated for supersonic flight control and overall vehicle trim. I would suspect that that control surface, as far back as it is, can do very well at trimming out the effects of two passengers (total weight of what? 350 pounds?) just a few feet forward of the CG. You could certainly do this; but you are going to pay a price for it- this means keeping the horizontal control surfaces at a angle of attack different from the wing, and that's going to generate drag (you are also going to have to adjust the angle that they are at at varying speeds). During the early non-powered Spaceship One tests it once tumbled out of control during a test drop at full aft CG limit; this was probably related to the pilot only/pilot-passengers flight profile options- I assume the design was optimized to fly with the pilot and weight of passengers as it's normal flight condition, as that is what is needed to win the prize. Hmmmm . . . this very much sounds like something for Mary to comment on. You know what _she'll_ want to know.....'Does it have extensible "Dog Peckers" on it?' Pat |
#32
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Derek Lyons wrote:
From http://xprize.com/teams/guidelines.html : 6. Entrants must specify and provide the ANSARI X PRIZE Rules Committee with their take-off and landing location, and the date of their launch, not less than 30 days prior to any flight attempt. So, unless the X-Prize commitee has kept the notification secret, they don't meet the requirements. Also, the press release does not mention whether or not ballast will be carried as required by the rules. Also, the press release states that "Based on the success of the June space flight attempt, SpaceShipOne will later compete for the Ansari X Prize,", leading me to conclude that this flight is not part of the competition. That settles it then, it's not an X-Prize flight. My mistake. |
#33
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Herb Schaltegger writes:
the risk to reputation and career is being borne by Burt Rutan (who's already soiled it somewhat by publicly stating his beliefs that the Pyramids of Egypt are somehow connected with extraterrestrials) Sounds nutty indeed, but I think it's perfectly OK to have a few silly beliefs when they aren't directly connected with one's field; everybody needs to spaz out occasionally. God knows there seem to always be scientists that do brilliant while at the same time professing to be the reincarnation of Zorg the Conqueror... :-/ -Miles -- Run away! Run away! |
#34
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Hop David wrote in message ...
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches...te_040602.html Regarding X-Prize requirements to post the attempt date 30 days in advance, and the statement regarding this as a "pre X-prize test flight", and the historical importance of this event, I will propose the following: The first attemp at X-Prize will be made on July 20th 2004, on the 35th anniversary of landing a man on the moon. I'd bet a 100 on this date... If all goes well on June 21st, they announce right there and now that they'll launch -exactly- 30 days later... My 2 cents (actualy, $100.02) |
#35
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![]() Joann Evans wrote: But if they asked me to be one of the passenger 'masses,' I'd chance it... Some ejection capsule tests back in the 1950's were done with live adolescent black bears; let's stick a couple of those on board, just to give the pilot some _real_ excitement during the flight. :-) Pat |
#36
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On Fri, 04 Jun 2004 01:03:07 -0500, Pat Flannery
wrote: Some ejection capsule tests back in the 1950's were done with live adolescent black bears; "G-g-gee, P-p-Pooh! D-d'ya think this plane of M-m-mr. Rutan's is safe?" "Oh bother..." OM -- "No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society - General George S. Patton, Jr |
#37
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Hot damn! The X-Prize will be won in less than three weeks.
Or they will be dead. Riding a chemical rocket is always dangerous and should not be viewed as a fun project. BTW, X-prize has little to do with space. First the altitiude is a little low, 100 km instead of 110 km and they only have 5% of orbital energy. |
#38
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#39
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In article ,
Bruce Hoult wrote: That make a certain amount of sense .. but I think equally plausable is that the first flight of the two required is this June 21 one... No, the required notification has not been given, and in any case Rutan has explicitly stated that this is *not* a prize flight. -- "Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend." | Henry Spencer -- George Herbert | |
#40
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In article ,
Tamas Feher wrote: BTW, X-prize has little to do with space. First the altitiude is a little low, 100 km instead of 110 km... 100km is the international definition of the beginning of space, subscribed to by essentially everyone except the US government. and they only have 5% of orbital energy. "Space" and "orbit" are two different things. -- "Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend." | Henry Spencer -- George Herbert | |
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