A Set-Up Day...
Today was a relatively slow day for X-Prize Cup events so
instead of giving it heavy coverage, we took advantage of the
opportunity to interview some of the movers and shakers that events
have brought together here in New Mexico.
It's quite remarkable to see a hunk of ramp of a normal GA
airport transformed, in the space of a few hours, into a show
venue. "Walls" were created with stacked shipping containers, which
at showtime are covered with banners created by the show sponsors.
Some will talk of the X-Prize and X-Prize Cup; some will promote
New Mexico (the state was a major sponsor of the show); some will
recount space and rocketry history. A lot of these last are
sponsored by NASA.
You could actually get a basic education on the history of space
exploration, at least of American space exploration, by walking
around and reading these signs. But overall, the emptiness of the
ramp is the most striking feature. The stage and Jumbotron are in
place, and tomorrow's presentations are being rehearsed, polished,
and timed with precision (you don't think a show like this just
"happens," do you?)
And then there are the spacecraft. Some of the spacecraft are
real (like the daVinci Project's) and some are mockups (like
Rocketplane) and, obviously, SpaceShipOne. Many, both real and
mockup, arrived a hair less than show-ready and need some last
minute attention. The daVinci Project ship was freshly painted in
homely green primer (it won't get its final coat till it's back
home in Canada).
Participants of interest included Armadillo Aerospace, Canadian
Arrow, Golden Palace/DaVinci Project, Rocketplane, Starchaser,
t/Space, and amateur rocketeers Tripoli. It's a good time to get
pictures of the craft, with so few people around.
Armadillo Aerospace
The small Armadillo Aerospace team was, according to Burt Rutan,
his closest competitor for the X-Prize. Team members fondly
remember a lunch with him shortly after the X-Prize was won, where
he said, "it was a mistake for you guys to put all your information
on the Web. Because it kept me motivated."
But this young team has always been open and accessible, eager
and willing to share information. They have explored several
different propulsion concepts, starting with a
High-Test-Peroxide/catalytic monopropellant engine and passing
through two generations of bipropellant, the current engine will
use an improvised chamber because the manufactured ones are having
burn-through problems -- as a display of ruined engine parts
testifies.
The most fascinating technology developed by Armadillo has to be
their automatic guidance, stability and control system which
functions by gimballing the main engine nozzle. I've watched them
flying on their webpage, now I want to see it for real.
Canadian Arrow/Planetspace
Canadian Arrow is the rocket team, and Planetspace the operating
organization that hopes to send tourists to suborbital space in
2007. The Arrow is based upon the V-2 of World War II notoriety,
although the Canadians have improved many of the original's shakier
subsystems in the interests of producing man-rated reliability.
GoldenPalace.com/DaVinci Project
Dav1d Grossman (yes, the "1" is actually in his name, which is
pronounced the same as numberless "Davids") of the daVinci Project
told me that they had had a lot of paperwork to do to comply with
ITAR regulations. Of course, any suborbital spacecraft is by
definition a potential ballistic missile, and therefore "dual use
technology" subject to international regulations.
This creates a barrier, although obviously not an insuperable
one, to foreign firms looking to display their spacecraft in the
USA (and, presumably, vice versa).
The GoldenPalace.com/daVinci Project craft has some unusual
features. The recovery parachutes are normal BRS softpacks,
concealed behind circular doors on the cheeks of the capsule. The
pilot sits in the center seat, into which the team obligingly
installed a dummy (in real pilot Brian Feeney's real pressure
suit). After the ship is proven inflight, the side seats will carry
passengers. "The center seat is mine," Feeney says.
There was to be a drop demonstration at the show, but that
depended on a drop test being conducted in time. The drop test slid
to November, and the show organizers, while enthusiastic about
demonstrations, didn't want actual tests taking place here in front
of the public.
Rocketplane
Rocketplane will fly from Oklahoma, where authorities are
building a spaceport to specialize in normal horizontal take-off
and landing craft, such as the XCOR Xerus or the OK Spaceport's
launch customer, Rocketplane. In this case the name pretty well
describes the concept. The "plane" is a retired Learjet, to which
Rocketplane adds modified wings, a new tail, and a large rocket
engine in the tailcone. At the Personal Spaceflight Expo, there was
a mockup of the Rocketplane vehicle.
Starchaser
This British company has offices here in New Mexico, and plans a
vertical launch of its Thunderstar vehicle. Starchaser has the best
names for its gear; its main rocket motor, of which Thunderstar
uses two in the first stage, is the Churchill MK III. This comes of
Starchaser's founder, Steve Bennett, being a Gerry Anderson fan
(Thunderbirds - Fireball XL5 -- Supermarionation).
There were three components of the Starchaser display. A booth
where the usual T-shirts, etc., were hawked; a capsule mock-up,
which had a set of stairs, and a burn of the Churchill MkII
engine. A ten second burn of this lox/kerosene baby brother to the
MkII was conducted on Saturday with no problems, making us look
forward to Sunday's planned one-minute burn.
t/Space
Transformational Aerospace, or t/Space, set up an enormous full
sized mockup of their CXV (Crew Transfer Vehicle) design for NASA.
This is intended to be a safer and more economical delivery and
recovery system for ISS crews than the present systems, the
complicated Shuttle Transportation System and the venerable Russian
Soyuz capsule. The mock-up had a fully finished interior.
Tripoli
This amateur rocket organization was planning to launch several
rockets on Sunday, including a 30,000 foot high-altitude flight, a
large rocket decorated with US flag colors, and a 1/3 scale V-2,
which was painted in the yellow and black of the first V-2 fired
(unsuccessfully!) at White Sands.
Virgin Group
Had a mockup of SpaceShipOne on hand.
XCOR Aerospace
Like Starchaser, XCOR had a multivalent approach to the Prize.
The core of their effort was with the EZ-Rocket, and we had been
privileged to watch test pilot Rick Searfoss fly it -- and discover
some glitches --on Friday. Saturday the team worked hard at
resolving some of the snags that troubled the Friday flight. Would
they succeed?
They also had a booth where they would be running XCOR's
original "teacart" engine, a small rocket engine that the company's
engineers developed in the earliest days. This was always popular
whenever XCOR's techs lit it up -- usually at informal bashes in
the company's hangar home. Would it still draw attention with all
these things for the crowds to see?
X-Prize Foundation
The Foundation has a trailer that folds out to form a mobile
theater, in which they show a short film about the X-Prize flights
of SpaceShipOne on October 29 and November 4, 2004. They also spent
the day, as Starchaser and many others did, setting up and
rehearsing their Sunday show.
As The Day Ended...
There were other exhibitors, notably including governmental
entities like Sandia, White Sands, and NASA. But as the sun grew
low in the sky, most of the teams were as ready as they could be
for the morning.
What they weren't ready for was the weather. A planned joint
appearance by Governor Bill Richardson and X-Prize Founder and CEO
Dr Peter Diamandis at an NMSU Aggies football game went down the
tubes as a blustery rainstorm came in, defying New Mexico's desert
status and pouring down in big cold droplets for hours.
The X-Prize theater trailer, the "Box That Rocks" mobile radio
station from KVLC Oldies 101, and the comely NMSU cheerleaders (who
were hired to pass out brochures) had done their promotional best
at a pregame party in the tailgate area. Would the crowd turn out?
Would the rain stop in time, or would the whole event be rained
out?
We didn't know the answers to any of these questions when we did
our best to dry out and get some sleep. Many of the Countdown To
The X-Prize Cup key personnel were equally cranky, tired, wet --
and nervous. Exhibitor personnel, some of them, were up late into
the night seeing to their exhibits, lashing them down against the
rain and wind.
Actors have a superstition that a bad rehearsal leads to a good
show --and vice versa. But the rehearsal was "OK, with some
glitches." It was the weather trends that were unfavorable, and the
turnout that was unknown.
Luckily, pilots aren't superstitious like that. Are we?
(To Be Continued...)