Race to Space
(AKA Rocket Men)
Published Summer 2005 in UMM Magazine
It's been a long time coming. After nearly 50 years of launching satellites and astronauts from other countries, Canada is now set to enter the arena as a space faring nation. And what a ride it's going to be. From taking passengers into space to extreme sports in the form of space diving (yes, skydiving from 60 miles up), we're set to make some extreme records. Man + rockets = serious fun.
The dream began in 1996 with the creation of the $10 million Ansari X-Prize, a private race into space which was won last year. This race was created to encourage private groups to develop cost-effective rockets which allow us, the average Joe (with some serious money) to get into space. While the prize was won by Burt Rutan and SpaceShip One, many of the other teams are still pressing onwards to become pioneers in the new fledgling industry. The real benefits are still to come to those that have invested time and money in the venture, as well as the potential consumers.
For Brian Feeney, the dream is still there. As team leader of the first of two Canadian entries, the da Vinci crew is set to become the second private group to launch individuals into space. This isn’t just for people that train for years through government astronaut training centres, or for multi-millionaires that want to indulge on the latest whim.
“I began making my own rockets and fuels from grade 6 up,” Brian says. “It’s been a life long dream. I was in the aerospace sector with a life-support systems company in the 80’s.” And then in May of 96, the X-Prize competition was announced. “I began work on it the same week of the announcement.”
While typical rockets are launched from the surface, this uses a lot of fuel. In fact, the majority of the fuel is used to get the thing moving. Remember physics? Things at rest just don’t want to move (much like you on a Saturday morning). The problem with this launch method is that you have to move both yourself and the fuel. This costs money, and has another problem, as you will see, as a launch is one large controlled explosion...