Racing Rockets
Published on Oct 17, 2008 at 10:23 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under aeronautics.
In one of the early episodes of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace we see a young Anakin Skywalker racing his pod racer in what seemed to me to be a part of the movie designed just to show off the special effects. The technology used for the pods in the movie is not clear. Though it resembles a jet engine, it doesn’t work the same way, and it is clearly not a rocket. Still, I thought that it was a good way to start my post. But, the idea of rockets being used in races has been a part of science fiction for some time. And, that is pretty natural. Mankind has had transportation races since we’ve had transportation. There have been horse races, chariot races, boat races, automobile races, and airplane races. Many of these forms of racing are still done today.
Racing automobiles started soon after the automobile became fairly commonplace. Likewise, aircraft races go back to not long after World War I. But, rockets have, until recently, been primarily something that the government did, and they weren’t so interested in racing themselves. Early in the Twentieth Century, rockets were securely in the domain of private individuals who experimented with rocketry. Being a rocket scientist, though, took on a whole new meaning when World War II came. Rockets were turned back into military weapons, which is pretty much how they started out with the Chinese centuries ago. Serious rocket research then became government oriented. Sure, many private companies were involved, but these were mostly defense contractors or companies developing rockets for NASA or other government space agencies. But, today we have a host of rocketry companies working purely in the private sector to develop rockets for purely civilian purposes. There are private companies launching satellites for other private companies. And, private companies are working to develop their own manned spacecraft. So, it is a natural progression that rocket racers should develop. And, thus the Rocket Racing League was formed in 2005 to promote just such a thing.
Now, the FAA has approved rocket racers for public exhibition flights according to a story from Space.com. Pictured above is the Bridenstine DKNY sponsored rocket racer. As you can see, this is an atmospheric vehicle, not a racer designed for outer space. But, you can bet that if private space enterprises keep going the way they are, by the end of the century there will likely be racers in space, too! The rocket racer approved by the FAA, similar to that shown here, is a rocket driven aircraft powered by alcohol and oxygen engines produced by Armadillo Aerospace. Production of engines for aircraft is a departure from Armadillo’s activities of the past, but it is an important step for them. This means that they have a product with commercial appeal. There may be other customers down the road, and this could perhaps generate more money for them to do what they want to do in building bigger and better rockets that go higher, eventually going into space. So, this is exciting news.
I am looking forward to one day seeing one of these rocket racers doing its thing. Until then, I’ll have to just watch them on Youtube.
-Astroprof
Image: Rocket Racing League’s flickr photostream
Mike on October 17, 2008 at 1:18 pm: 1
picture is XCOR LOX Kerosene engine
Astroprof on October 17, 2008 at 2:13 pm: 2
Thanks for catching that, Mike.