CSSHEGEWISCHNow did this joker really believe in a flat earth or was it part of a publicity stunt for his rocket launch?
Everyone now apparently has their own take on developing the 'myth' and it will probably be impossible to discern any kind of 'truth' in no more than a few more weeks.
The impression I had was that he wanted to 'prove or disprove' the flat-Earth model by seeing with his own eyes from an altitude he himself could confirm as real. That makes a good Leonardo-esque story ... but there are a number of sources who say now that this was just a 'cover story' or excuse for building moar rockets with moar power.
The real problem here is that, of course, there's no way he'd come within an order of magnitude of the altitude he announced with any propellant system he ever considered -- let alone a construction that didn't involve, say, using a water heater for his monopropellant. So I really don't know what he thought was 'meaningful' about it, in meaningful terms.
Mythbusters episode told any 'thinking' human being what they needed to know about a steam powered 'rocket'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bU-I2ZiML0
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACDMythbusters episode told any 'thinking' human being what they needed to know about a steam powered 'rocket'.
To be honest, that's a completely different 'thing'.
To my knowledge he wasn't using his 'Craigslist' water heater as a steam generator -- he was using it as a storage tank for his (catalyzed monopropropellant) hydrogen peroxide. That's a whole 'nother set of thermodynamics about how to make pressure for impulse.
"Steam rockets" are a thing; albeit not always a thing that works well (remember Evel Knievel at the Snake River Canyon) but one that can produce reasonable Isp for not too much complicated cost. I suspect he scaled the design up to the fuel mass he thought he'd need without thinking too carefully about actual achievable efficiency, judging by how high he actually got in his testing. That is, assuming he actually used a reasonable amount of rocket science in his detail design...
Overmod"Steam rockets" are a thing; albeit not always a thing that works well (remember Evel Knievel at the Snake River Canyon)
IIRC the big problem with the Snake River jump was that the parachute that was supposed to be opened when the rocket reached it's peak height deployed basically on the launch pad, slowing the ascent of the rocket and causing it to peak at a much lower altitude than necessary to make it to the other side.
We shouldn't forget that the same concept was successful there in 2016.
That was too cool for words!
Steam rules!
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.