Comments on: Video of NASA rocket failure

By: Torbjörn Larsson, OM

Torbjörn Larsson, OM — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:54:47 +0000

@ Thomas Siefert:

If you where to build a maglev catapult up the side of Mount Everest, you would have to do all your acceleration before you leave the mountain.

Um, I wasn’t arguing catapults, only commenting (or correcting) a comment. But to make another correction: abandoning The Chemists design criteria (no propellant), we can get around that as well. [Added at submit: this was also proposed in the thread,]

Btw, if you want to maximize altitude change “to do all your acceleration” alone, shouldn’t you sink a tube alongside the Hawaii island inclination? But I assume some of the design consideration goes into absolute altitude and absolute decreased air resistance, in which case your characterization of the system and its results is incomplete.

@ Gary Ansorge:

Thanks, that is interesting. Maybe I should argue catapults, if they are so feasible.

By: August: A Lousy Month for Space Exploration | Discoblog | Discover Magazine

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:33:24 +0000

[...] 21: More than two miles up, a NASA rocket begins to veer off course, causing alarmed mission controllers to hit the abort button in case the stray rocket endangered [...]

By: Dave Hall

Dave Hall — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:11:02 +0000

Its a matter of timing–Edison was most prolific between about 1876 and 1890, although he kept pretty busy until he died in the 1930s.
Sarnoff was at his peak with RCA and RKO from about 1919 through the late 1960s.
Guess there is one for every generation or so.

By: Dave Hall

Dave Hall — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:59:37 +0000

Moral: Bill Gates ain’t so special after all:)

By: Charles

Charles — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:32:31 +0000

“Edison was one of the greatest when it came to getting inventions out to the public. He was the Bill Gates of his day”

I would say that David Sarnoff was the Bill Gates of his day, considering he created the RCA radio monopoly and nearly did the same for television but was interrupted by WWII. People to this day think Marconi invented radio, and that Zworykin invented electronic television (surely news to Tesla and to Farnsworth, considering they held the radio and electronic TV patents respectively) and those misconceptions came from Sarnoff and RCA’s marketing arm.

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:25:31 +0000

TomR Says: August 23rd, 2008 at 5:37 pm Why, was breaking in half and falling flaming into the ocean not part of the plan?

From the Universe Today link:

The rocket's planned flight wouldn't have taken it into orbit and was set to last about 11 minutes, with the rocket coming down far out in the Atlantic Ocean, said Bryce Hallowell, an ATK spokesman.

So, it was supposed to stay in one piece and fall flaming into the ocean.

By: Johnny Vector

Johnny Vector — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:59:39 +0000

There are a lot of sparkly bits in the exhaust plume early on. I don’t think that’s good. To my eye, it looks very similar to what we saw on the launch of Astro-E on a Japanese M-V back in ought-thousand. In that case it was bits of the graphite nozzle lining coming out. Which then allows the hot gasses to burn through the nozzle and take out the control system, causing the rocket to go off course. I wonder if something like that happened here.