Riiiiiiiiiiiiight. 8<)

Is there really any engineering in that project? Really?

Why did you entice me to read that article IRStuff?
Do you have some secret belief that you need to confess?

STF

A Darwin award in the making?

Dik

Yes, I've been following this guy's progress for a week or so. I can't help but think that this is just some prank that he's pulling on the press and the rest of us.

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There can be no Engineering in this because he does not believe in science. It must therefore be done with magic.

Regards
Ashtree
"Any water can be made potable if you filter it through enough money"

I was waiting to see some details of the "steam powered rocket" https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/22...

from the video it looks like it wouldn't make 18 ft never mind 1,800...

Unreal

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

ashtree: Engineering is to Science as Magic is to Religion.

Dik

LI: High enough to maybe hurt him... I was hoping for a Darwin award (not really, I wouldn't wish that on anyone, even those deserving)...

Dik

I read a little bit more about this guy and best I can tell he doesn't actually believe in a "flat earth", he's only using it to drum up financial support from internet idiots. I'd guess he's just an adrenaline junkie.

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Hilarious.

"the rocket launcher he had built out of a used motor home "broke down in the driveway" on Wednesday"

Why does Larry the Cable Guy suddenly pop into my mind!

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

On a (somewhat) practical note, I am wondering how far "up" he would have to go to recognize that "No, I am wrong. The horizon is visibly curved and I am actually seeing it because I am here. Therefore, my theory of a flat earth is wrong."

Now, of course, this is a "religious" matter. A matter of obsession if you will, so he will be very, very unlikely to be "converted" from his obsession. Also, the standard of disproof is much, much higher than the standard of proof. (It takes much more objective evidence to change a convicted person's mind than it takes to reinforce a conviction already present. Hysterical hysteresis if you will.)

Nevertheless, how far would you have to go to actually see a curved horizon?

According to military recon and surveillance pilots I've talked to it begins to become readily discernible at 55 to 60,000 feet.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

100,000 feet

Here is Felix Baumgartner's view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvbN-cWe0A0

STF

LittleInch, this is his second try, and his first one got off the ground. Apparently, he needed a walker for a few weeks after the "landing." Looking at the second-hand parachute he uses, I'm not surprised.

Of course, the idea of an amateur playing with that much steam pressure is rather scary.

https://youtu.be/fp2q_dKuc-c

I think that it's precisely because he eschews science that makes it an engineering disaster, because there is none. Even though he believes in formulas, he's obviously made no calculations on how high he needs to be to confirm the non-flat Earth, so at any height he actually achieves with his underpowered approach, he can declare that he saw no evidence of the curved Earth. Of course, he's at least an order of magnitude too low to see much of anything.

I just think it's fascinating how badly some people's brains are wired, that they believe something, even when confronted with a myriad of evidence that they're not even remotely close to the correct answer. I guess that applies even to presidents...

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wonder if that vessel is "stamped" (ASME Code)

IRstuff: This is just a proof of concept before he makes the attempt at a higher elevation *shrug*

If we want to catalog things as "engineering failures", let's chalk the internet up as a societal engineering failure.

As great of a tool a limitless library with unfettered access to the wealth of information within could be; it is instead being leveraged with great effect to corrupt and misguide people.

You don't have to definitively prove your case to get people to question the validity of a principle (scientific or otherwise). All you have to do is plant a seed of doubt.

I suspect that first launch in the video wasn't actually manned, so I don't have high hopes that the second will be any more convincing.

I imagine the parachute was in reasonable nick before the launch - the problem is the way it was deployed. Canopy-first deployment with no reefing is usually reserved for fast opening in low airflow. Using it for a high-speed deployment is a recipe for the burst panels you can see in the video. The fact that there's no obvious means of control of the lines as they deploy (and the canopy is allowed to start inflating before line-stretch is achieved) very nearly allowed the canopy to turn inside-out which is why there's severed lines all over the place.

If the rest of the rocket is assembled to the same standards, I'd like to be a long way away from it all.

A.

It occurs to me that a hydrogen-peroxide rocket could reasonably be called a "steam powered rocket".

But, that would require SCIENCE, which he doesn't believe in...

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@Dik (and others):

"A Darwin award in the making?"

I've always felt that there should be some sort of Darwin "Encouragement Award" or "Lifetime Achievement Award", to be given to people who make persistent and repeated efforts to remove themselves from the gene pool, but have (so far) failed to do so. A Darwin Award can only be granted when the "applicant" is finally successful.

http://julianh72.blogspot.com

This is a screen shot from the video. There is a glove and what looks like pvc pipe right there by the launch, and that gives me the impression that this is a small rocket launch slowed down.

Quote (jhardy)

I've always felt that there should be some sort of Darwin "Encouragement Award" or "Lifetime Achievement Award", to be given to people who make persistent and repeated efforts to remove themselves from the gene pool,

I think there are enough plausible candidates without encouraging them...

Dik

zuesfaber - I tend to agree, but if you watch the video closely I think the parachute is actually a drag chute they use on drag racing. The lines all come into a single central point and it just doesn't look big enough to allow someone to "float" down to the ground, never mind the weight of the "rocket". Also all manner of shite goes flying into the drogue and looks to me why it gets shredded.

Anyway the guy is an absolute loon as are all the flat earthers - How anyone manages to convince themselves of this is the bigger mystery here.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

Unfortunately many of our politicians are so scientifically naive i think the fact that the earth is a sphere would be a surprise. There are plenty of these type out there.

Mind you the man could be a genius. Think of all the free publicity he is getting. Probably run for president in future.

My grandmother who passed away in the 70's was one of the flat earth club. She had the complete logic.
The earth is flat. Any fool can see that.
Man did not go to the moon. Everyone knows that you cant live in space. Walking on the moon was a lie.
Besides if the earth is flat you cannot orbit it in a space ship so that proves its all a lie.

Regards
Ashtree
"Any water can be made potable if you filter it through enough money"

@littleinch - could be its just a fraction of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti monster (atheists having fun/mocking religion)?

How do they answer the question that when at sea, where the surface is super flat, you still can't see anything more than 20-30 miles away on the clearest day in history??

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

Even if a flat-earther made it to the moon, they'd probably just look back and say "yep, it's a flat, round disc". I think a more interesting experiment would be an expedition to go find the edge of the world.

Don't have to mount an expedition for that, just have to do around the world cruises and air flights on a flat Earth.

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Quote (LI)

How do they answer the question that when at sea, where the surface is super flat, you still can't see anything more than 20-30 miles away on the clearest day in history??

Easy... the horizon looks flat...

When we were in grade school one of the things that Columbus proved was that the world was round... they forgot to mention that the Greeks had determined the diameter of it several thousand years earlier...

With apologies to the Limelighters Chad Mitchell Trio, their take on the John Birch Society could be applicable to the Flat Earthers..."...to get this movement started, we need lots of tools and cranks..."

Dik

Quote (dik)

When we were in grade school one of the things that Columbus proved was that the world was round... they forgot to mention that the Greeks had determined the diameter of it several thousand years earlier...

I hope you're being deliberately ironic because Columbus (and most people of his time) knew the world was round.

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While he may be credited (at least by some) with "proving that the world was round", that was NOT what Columbus set-out to do. Rather he was looking for a shorter route to the Far East, which of course would only have been possible IF the world was indeed round. And the reality was that contrary to the romantic idea of exploration and looking for a 'New World', Columbus was part of a purely commercial venture funded by the Spanish, who were looking for an alternative route to the Spice Islands in the hope of breaking the spice trade monopoly then held by Portugal.

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TME: In all seriousness... we were taught that one of the things that Columbus did was to prove the world was round... I wouldn't make something like that up... we knew nothing of the Greeks and wells and things...

Dik

[quote]How do they answer the question that when at sea, where the surface is super flat, you still can't see anything more than 20-30 miles away on the clearest day in history??[/qoute]

I was told that in Saskatchewan, if you look carefully enough into the distance, you can see the back of your head.

dik, gotta laugh at some of the stuff that makes it into history textbooks (the alternative is be depressed at the state of our education). It bugs me to no end how poorly history is taught when it really should be one of the more interesting classes.

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Found more videos, haven't had time to peruse them all for details:

Mike Hawkins
Published on Nov 1, 2015
Mike Hughes flew in his home built rocket at Winkelman, Arizona, in January 2014. It flew a quarter mile! The second rocket he built flew 6/10 of a mile, which is over a half mile and on minimum steam pressure. If it flew at full capacity, it would have flown over a mile! The next flight is targeted to do that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jU_forLM_s

This video is Mad Mike Hughes Rockets #1 and #2. The first one flew manned with Mike and the second flew without him. The next flight is scheduled in about a week 3 miles from Amboy, California. This video is copyright (c) 2014-2017 Michael Hawkins. All rights reserved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AVX1mjJQu8

This video is about Mad' Mike Hughes Manned Rocket Flight which took place on January 30, 2014. Mike Hawkins placed a GoPro Onboard Camera at the rear of the rocket, propelled by steam. It went a quarter mile. The second rocket Mike Hughes built went over a half mile. The next flight is slated to place in Oregon 2016. Visit MadMikeHughes.com for further details.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp2q_dKuc-c

If the people in Columbus' time really thought the world was flat, there would have have been no way in hell to get enough bodies to man 3 ships. The risk, that those in charge were concerned about, was about the uncharted waters that Columbus wanted to sail into. Their agreement was all about gaining islands and mainlands http://college.cengage.com/history/primary_sources... The biggest error was that the Greeks grossly underestimated the diameter of the Earth.

"How do they answer the question that when at sea, where the surface is super flat, you still can't see anything more than 20-30 miles away on the clearest day in history??"

Didn't a certain ex-governor claim that she could see Russia from her living room?

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IRS: I suspect that, back then, they had different means of recruitment. It may be that the more enlightened knew the world was an oblate spheroid... perhaps not... I don't recall ever seeing this written in a text... only that the teacher stated that he wanted to prove it...

Dik

I think that if there was any hint of a doubt of the actual existence of a westward path to Asia, the royals would not have funded three ships. They clearly expected the ships to bring back goodies, which is what actually happened, eventually, with the gold that the Spaniards pillaged from the South America. Ironically, Spain managed to squander all the wealth anyway.

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@IRstuff:
"The biggest error was that the Greeks grossly underestimated the diameter of the Earth."

Actually, Eratosthenes did a remarkably good job of calculating the circumference of the Earth in the third century BC:

... Taking the Earth as spherical, and knowing both the distance and direction of Syene, he concluded that the Earth's circumference was fifty times that distance.
His knowledge of the size of Egypt was founded on the work of many generations of surveying trips. Pharaonic bookkeepers gave a distance between Syene and Alexandria of 5,000 stadia (a figure that was checked yearly).
...
Some claim Eratosthenes used the Olympic stade of 176.4 m, which would imply a circumference of 44,100 km, an error of 10%,but the 184.8 m Italian stade became (300 years later) the most commonly accepted value for the length of the stade, which implies a circumference of 46,100 km, an error of 15%.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes#Measure...

http://julianh72.blogspot.com

Yes, but, if the Spaniards really knew this, they would not have funded Columbus, since westward distance from Spain to China was over 22,000 km, for which the ships that sailed had nowhere near sufficient rations and water. They had barely enough provisions to get to the Caribbean, which was not even 7000 km.

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Quote (IRstuff)

Ironically, Spain managed to squander all the wealth anyway.

Easy come, easy go?

Quote (LittleInch)

How do they answer the question that when at sea, where the surface is super flat spherical [FIFY], you still can't see anything more than 20-30 miles away on the clearest day in history??

...don't need an ocean, on any decent sized lake, e.g. Lake Winnipeg, any of the Great Lakes or any of the larger lakes around the world, the curvature of the horizon is evident, as is the recedence of land or floating bodies near and beyond the horizon.

"Schiefgehen wird, was schiefgehen kann" - das Murphygesetz

IRstuff,

The problem was that in the 1400s, estimates of longitude were not very good, Estimates for the longitude of East Asia had it quite a lot further east than the real figure, Columbus was also using an under-eastimate for the circumference of the Earth - he really did believe he could sail to Japan, but as luck would have it, he found the Caribbean islands just when he expected to reach Asia.

There's a good succinct account here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_flat_Ear...

http://julianh72.blogspot.com

I've been on Lake Winnipeg often and have viewed Lake Superior often. I have never noticed the 'curvature'... looked pretty flat, but, then wasn't looking for the curvature. Wave 'set-up' may have obscured that.

Dik

dik, I assumed the above posts are not talking about curvature of the horizon but rather that you can't see ships or other objects over the horizon.

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the class room story I recall was that Columbus observed the ship gradually disappear while the mast and sails remain visible for some time after, thus observing the curvature as objects went over the horizon.

Julian, that was my point exactly, the sailing speed of his largest ship was around 90 miles per day, so if the Europeans knew the correct circumference within 15%, they would have expected a minimum of 154 days of sailing from Spain, not the 49 days sailing distance to the Caribbean they wound up with. They, Columbus, immediately assumed that they arrived in India, when they made landfall in the Caribbean.

So, either the Europeans misinterpreted the Greeks' Earth circumference, or the Greeks made a mistake.

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My eyesight has never been good enough to distinguish between a boat and the mast and sails in a distance... once out of sight, I just assume they have 'dropped off'.

Dik

"The issue in the 1490s was not the shape of the Earth, but its size, and the position of the east coast of Asia, as Irving in fact points out. Historical estimates from Ptolemy onwards placed the coast of Asia about 180° east of the Canary Islands. Columbus adopted an earlier (and rejected) distance of 225°, added 28° (based on Marco Polo's travels), and then placed Japan another 30° further east. Starting from Cape St. Vincent in Portugal, Columbus made Eurasia stretch 283° to the east, leaving the Atlantic as only 77° wide. Since he planned to leave from the Canaries (9° further west), his trip to Japan would only have to cover 68° of longitude.
Columbus mistakenly assumed that the mile referred to in the Arabic estimate of 56⅔ miles for the size of a degree was the same as the actually much shorter Italian mile of 1,480 metres (0.92 mi). His estimate for the size of the degree and for the circumference of the Earth was therefore about 25% too small. The combined effect of these mistakes was that Columbus estimated the distance to Japan to be only about 5,000 km (or only to the eastern edge of the Caribbean) while the true figure is about 20,000 km."
Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_flat_Ear...

http://julianh72.blogspot.com

Seems odd to me that Ferdinand wouldn't have had his own naval experts check Columbus' math, particularly for a rather expensive and risky (even without falling off the edge of the Earth) venture.

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Christopher Columbus mission cost was probably under $1M USD. The ships were rentals, not purpose built. Then there were the crews and provisions costs. Conversions are very difficult because the currency and relative values of the various portions have changed such that scaling no longer works. Also, Columbus seems to have contributed 1/3 of the funding through other sources and the Crown didn't finance the entirety of the rest.

He scored the big contributions when he returned with evidence of finding a new place.

https://www.cluteinstitute.com/ojs/index.php/JABR/... has an accounting view of the voyage but doesn't suggest a converted value.

CONCLUSION
It has been reported that Columbus may have been one of the best dealmakers in history. He really did not know where he was going, and even after four voyages, he never really got there. He convinced others to finance his adventure into the unknown, and when he got there, he did not know where he was. Yet, when he returned to Spain, he was able to obtain monies to finance a second trip with 17 ships and over 1200 people.

According to this: https://todaslascosasdeanthony.com/2012/07/03/erat... Columbus actually didn't use Eratosthenes' measurement, he used Posidonius' which was grossly in error, and then Columbus used an incorrect value for the mile in Pierre d’Ailly's translation of the Greek writings. Net result, Eratosthenes' successors did measure the circumference incorrectly, which was what Columbus used, coupled with an incorrect value for the Arabian mile, resulted in a substantially shorter distance to Asia. So, it's possible that others using the same source wound up with similar estimated distances to Asia.

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The Brit's actually tried very hard to measure the earth's curvature using the "absolute flat" water in their longest-straightest canal possible back in the early Industrial Revolution period. Depending on the test, they were either able to prove it was flat, or prove it was round. The instruments available and the lengths of the canal sections were simply not able to generate enough precision to overcome the prejudices of each different judge and each different circumstance.

They were attempting to use the same principle as watching a boat's mast disappear: Measure the height of a marker on the boat as it moved away from the observer down the calm water of the canal. Today, with a laser line from a gravity-balanced level and today's telescopes and mounts, could the experiment be tried again successfully?

Just to illustrate the importance of side effects, Columbus also calculated the food supplies based on the estimation of the journey. Where's that, "half of the way", that was the question.

So, after launching that rocket it is just common sense to demand that it gets the passenger back on the ground in one piece. Else we're ripe for gladiator games (again). Such handling of reality as one of many alternative facts will harm, hurt or worse, one day or other.

Roland Heilmann
Lpz FRG

Well, I'll add my 2 cents to the divergence this thread has taken from the OP. The Norse were visiting the actual North American continent ~500 years prior to CC making it almost there. I don't know what all of the fuss is about. We'd have stayed and settled longer, but the skraelings were a very unfriendly lot.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

ornery: What do you mean, almost there... we had Viking settlements in Newfoundland...

Dik

and even Minnesota, or thereabouts, if you believe certain people...

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dik, please re-read my post. Absolutely there were settlements on the mainland. It was Christopher Columbus (CC) that almost made it to the North American continent. The Norse, in fact, were there 500 years prior. IRstuff, they did, in fact, make it to Minnesota in the 14th century. I'm 100 miles south of where the Kensington Runestone was originally found. It's a genuine artifact. The debunkers have been debunked many times. Linguists have affirmed that the subtle intricacies of the runic characters inscribed on the stone weren't known in the timeframe that the stone was unearthed. A forgery using the characters as they were known in the 1890's would have had tell-tale differences to expose it, were it faked.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

It was the almost there that threw me... who are the skraelings? Is that the morsemen? or the inhabitants they were invading.

Dik

"An Inuit or other indigenous inhabitant of Greenland or Vinland (on the north-eastern coast of North America) at the time of early Norse settlement."

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Thanks IRS:
So, they were the unfriendly invaded inhabitants...

Dik

And there's always a surplus of those...

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"And there's always a surplus of those... "

LOL, very true. One would think the human race could figure it out after millennia of history to draw upon.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

So.... getting this thread back on track this post http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id... reckons it all steam up for Saturday. I like the bit that says it takes two days to raise the launcher....

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

Quote:

"I'm a daredevil. I'm not much for authority or rules."

Insert your own word for daredevil.

I'll start: Dumba$$

My contribution: "Dodo"
Soon to be extinct

STF

Well, the guy's an adult. If he is risking only his own neck, spending only his own (or freely given) money and has permission of the land owner, let him have at it.

Regards,

Mike

The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand

I have no issues with self-chlorination of the gene pool, either...

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Wow.

"Hughes , who transported his rocket to Amboy late last week, with his vehicle breaking down numerous times during the 100-mile trek."

He can't even get his "launch pad" to drive 100 miles without breaking down and he's going to launch himself 1 mile high? Why does't he just book a commercial airline flight, they fly far higher than that?

----------------------------------------

The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

^ that was my favorite cartoon show!

As for just hopping on a commercial aircraft ... There is no talking sense into idiots. I say let Darwin take its course.

"Why doesn't he just book a commercial airline flight, they fly far higher than that?"

Well, he doesn't believe in science, so how is he going to believe that planes fly higher than he can launch himself?

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Keep in mind that he was doing the rocket stuff prior to the flat-earth stuff.

Here's you a steam rocket video. Actual launch is at 3:30.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0cQBTgG908

I suspect that he is just using the Flat Earthers for funding. He's an Adrenalin junkie and is using the Flat Earth society to help pay for his Adrenalin fix.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

Let's hope the launch IS a success and he proves to himself the Earth ISN'T flat.

Then it's a matter of convincing his sponsors... and, I hope he doesn't take the truth to the grave.

Dik

Quote (and, I hope he doesn't take the truth to the grave.)

Amen to that Dik.

BB... they might be happier, not knowing... as they say, ignorance is bliss...

Either way, "flatness" will be at the end of this story:
- his ship fails, and his launch attempt "falls flat",
- his ship launches, and his landing "falls flat",
- his ship launches, and he sees for himself the earth is flat.
In all cases, the result is a foregone conclusion.

STF

Quote (Sparweb)

- his ship launches, and he sees for himself the earth is flat.

but, doesn't live long enough to tell anyone... so, the rest of us still think the world is round...

Dik

another delay....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfUvGlWErY4
I didn't watch the hold thing once I heard not today!

this one is a little latter
https://youtu.be/U2zQ4hSCgbc
maybe SuperBowl weekend now!

Quote (SparWeb)

- his ship launches, and his landing "falls flat",

In the sense of "strawberry jam"?

A.

Yup

STF

Don't know what going on as both videos are error and one account has been closed?

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

This seems to say that nothing is happening soon.

btw, I saw a Youtube interview of another believer. He seemed pretty well educated insofar as the arguments go; he was wrong, but it was interesting listening to the rationale.

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SparWeb - So you're saying the landing could flattening, but his new nickname might not be flattering?

"Flat Mike Hughes"

STF

Oooooh nooooo, Mr. Bill!!!

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoCQe9vaGpE

Short story: He's taking his rocket home, repair and repaint it, hopes to launch sometime between now and Super Bowl Sunday.

So, once you are "up there", you don't see a sphere but only the 2D projection of it.
So, wouldn't the only conclusion he draws be that he lives in the exact middele of the flat earth?
And on top of that, even if he drove another 1000 miles (lets say he could, seing the problems he had merely leaving his driveway), and he tried the same thing, he'd be again in the middle of the flat earth.
Thereby practically proving that the earth rotates around him...

I'd do it for that as well, ending up in a walker is just collateral damage having proved you're the centre of the universe.

---
http://be.linkedin.com/in/fusionpoint

Quote (https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a16...)

Flat Earther Rocket Flight Delayed Yet Again

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

Should have hitched a ride with SpaceX.

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such a moh-ron; he could have gotten higher sooner with a weather balloon, which would be substantially less risky to boot.

Of course, Felix Baumgarten must also be part of the conspiracy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHtvDA0W34I, but he at least claims to have jumped from 100 times the altitude this pea-brain is attempting to get to.

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Well, "Flat Earth" truther, "Mad" Mike Hughes, finally launched his steam-powered rocket, and he managed to avoid killing himself in the process:

Self-taught rocket scientist finally blasts off into California sky

"I'm tired of people saying I chickened out and didn't build a rocket. I'm tired of that stuff. I manned up and did it."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/self-taught-r...

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

Quote (IRstuff)

such a moh-ron; he could have gotten higher sooner with a weather balloon, which would be substantially less risky to boot.

That will be his next venture, maybe.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

"That's his project for down the road. He wants to build a "Rockoon," a rocket that is carried into the atmosphere by a gas-filled balloon, then separated from the balloon and lit. This rocket would take Hughes about 68 miles up."

About time...

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Well I must say that is fairly impressive for a complete amateur. That would have been a hell of s ride 🚀

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

Here's a video of the launch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UAHORcbvvQ

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And another a bit closer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uih7nLaL0u4

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He was inside that thing? I have more problems believing that than that man has set foot on the moon (i actually think that's true)!

BTW, in a steam powered rocket - do you have water also like a bottle rocket? Is there anything on the G force experienced?

If you actually find the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uih7nLaL0u4 you can see him straight after landing.

There are some longer ones also there - search for noiZe tTV along with MMH.

The lack of landing cushioning, other than break off of the nose cone, looks pretty brutal and I can't begin to imagine what the G loads are on launch....

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

to bad he couldn't get "RedBull" to sponsor him. then there would have been a lot more coverage

"The lack of landing cushioning, other than break off of the nose cone, looks pretty brutal and I can't begin to imagine what the G loads are on launch...."

It looked to me like he ran out of steam about halfway up. Neglecting air resistance and assuming constant acceleration would give him +1g (above gravity) up to the halfway point and -1g from there to the peak. So potentially not bad on acceleration going up. Although his seat position doesn't look comfortable for a vertical flight.

I'd compare this to going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Some people have done it with pretty minimal planning and survived, others didn't. Kind of a roll of the dice.

I'd have two concerns flying that thing. One, that the parachutes just wouldn't open for whatever reason. Two, that the control system, if any, would fail and let me just do a big rainbow arc into the ground at full speed.

@Littleinch, would still be easy to fake this (putting him into the capsule after the rocket had landed). However, i don't doubt that his hunger for attention made him crawl into that thing. However, when you look at the videos posted claming to be from the launch - you see obvious differences (at least in the beginning e.g. children and a car)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UAHORcbvvQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uih7nLaL0u4

It looks like he sat so that he was head up when the pod laded/crashed. That fits with him being lifted out of the pod looking rather much in pain. Hopefully he didnt break his legs

I'm not so sure about the children and the car- I think that may be from using a long telephoto that's compressing the apparent distance between them. If you notice, when the rocket launches, there's a brief interval before the kids look around, so I think they're a good ways back from it. In the distance shots, at the very bottom of the screen, you can see a whole line of cars along a road there. I'm also seeing some heat-wave type distortion, which is typical with long telephotos.

Yes, I got the same impression, that we were seeing a shot from a distance using a very long lens. And the delayed reaction of the people in the foreground appears to confirm that.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

I'm amused at engineers debunking video of a whackaloon trying to debunk science... something very complete-the-circle about it all

Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

Evidence from sea level strongly suggests it's curved along at least one axis.

No evidence of earthen curvature there, only parabolic flight.

Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

Well, there's some reverse curvature from the fisheye lens. :)

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I still think there should be a Darwin Award for Lifetime Achievement...

Dik

Generally speaking, most 'Darwin Awards' are given posthumously since the whole point of the 'Darwin Award' was to honor those who were unfit enough to have removed themselves from the human gene-pool before contaminating it any further.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

Don't be hasty, John. Sounds like Mike is still in contention. Stay tuned...

STF

Most don't work as hard as Mad Mike for a Darwin award.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

It may be to late if he's got children.

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Quote (waross)

Most don't work as hard as Mad Mike for a Darwin award.

No, most just get lucky on their first (sometimes second) try...

Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

Here's some worrisome survey results which has a tangential relationship to the original topic of this thread:

A Third Of Millennials Aren’t Sure The Earth Is Round, Survey Finds

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2018/04/05/millenni...

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

Well the earth isn’t round. It is spherical.

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JAE,
You're still wrong. It's an oblate solid ellipsoid.

STF

SW, you mean a geoid?

SparWeb - better yet!

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Aw.
That's the problem with being a smart-ass. There's always someone smarter-asser than you.

STF

Quote (SparWeb)

There's always someone smarter-asser than you.

I'm up for that game! Who's to say that geoids aren't flat?

A.

Quote (J Baker)

Here's some worrisome survey results

Hm. A British survey of British utes...the same crew that likely comprised the majority of online votes for "Boaty McBoatface"?

I do also like the further commentary in that link, which shows that income correlates negatively to dis-belief in 3d globule-shaped earth forms. I think (well, want to believe) the causation is likely the opposite (belief in wacko theories reduces your income earning potential); I would certainly add it to a possible list of interview questions.

Quote (SparWeb)

JAE,
You're still wrong. It's an oblate solid ellipsoid.

Wrong again. It has a crunchy outside with a runny middle.
Would probably make a tasty snack for certain planet-consuming entities out there (and they ARE out there).

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts."

You mean like the Vogons...

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

So does the Vogon see the earth as a nice flat cookie? Or a juicy pear?

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Actually they saw the Earth as unwanted detritus that had be removed as part of an 'infrastructure' project.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

You mean like a hyper bypass perhaps? The plans have been on display for the past 50 years.

Maybe the Dr. will save us again.

That is a lot of work when a weather balloon and cellphone will get you video of the earth at 100,000 ft. A plane ticket will get him further in his scientific studies than his silly rocket.

I am though impressed with anyone building anything that launches him or her 2,000 ft into the air and doesn't kill them.

Especially sitting next to a pressure vessel of unknown design or strength....

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

Woot has a T-shirt on sale today for all the 'Flat-Earthers' out there:



And if you want one, go to:

https://shirt.woot.com/offers/flat-solar-system?re...

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

Too funny!

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Surely though the moon (our moon) should be a vertical disc because we can see it going round??

Otherwise quite amusing.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

I initially thought the same thing, LI... but then I realized the moon goes overhead, so it must move from below the Earth-disc to above the Earth-disc, not around the circumference.

Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

I was just about to say that myself

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

That is rather good.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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Oh good, they didn't forget Pluto.
I've noticed a lot of astronomy publications omitting that planet, recently.
It's nice to see astronomical references like these striving for impeccable accuracy.

STF

Well, Pluto is a DWARF planet, and since Eris is known to be larger, it should likewise be included, if Pluto is.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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Mine will be delivered today.

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