Self taught "rocket scientist" plans to launch himself........

[MaxQ]

"I’m a walking reality show.”
The daredevil/limo driver has been called a little bit of everything over his career — eccentric, quirky, foolhardy. Doesn’t bother him. He believes what he believes, including that the earth is flat.

He knows this thought is a conundrum, given that he’s about to launch himself into the atmosphere.
Down the road, he’s intending to build a rocket that takes him to space, so he can snap a picture and see with his own eyes.
“I don’t believe in science,” said Hughes, whose main sponsor for the rocket is Research Flat Earth.

“I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the area, about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust.
But that’s not science, that’s just a formula.

There’s no difference between science and science fiction.”

https://apnews.com/9d8e5e8e9245412a...ket-scientist-plans-to-launch-over-ghost-town
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Get The Darwin Award ready.

 

[Cl(VII)]

I thought this sounded familiar. https://www.newschannel10.com/story/31963919/mad-mike-hughes-palo-duro-canyon-jump-canceled

We were hiking in Palo Duro canyon last year (highly recommended incidentally), and were wondering what the crowds gathered just outside the park were. We were told that some guy was going to jump the canyon in his homemade rocket. We left because I didn't want my kids to witness someone commit suicide by wanton stupidity. Turns out he was spared that day by some kind of "problem" with his rocket.

 

[Nick@JET]

Wow pretty cool , R.I.P. Mad Mike


Sent from my iPhone using Rocketry Forum

 

[rstaff3]

Last year a team of stuntman Eddie Braun and Scott Truax succeed to jump the Snake River. Scott is the son of Bob Truax, who built the engine for Evel's attempt and was an actual rocket scientist. So, the jump is possible. But I bet Scott believed in both science and those mysterious equations that Mad Mike referred to.

What are the chances that the not believing in science bit is PR to appease some flat earth group that is sponsoring him?

 

[hcmbanjo]

Hey, he uses Rustoleum paints . . . just like us!

 

[PhlAsh]

Pfft.
I don't "believe" in science either.
Science isn't a belief system. Faith and any-such other opinions are irrelevant.

 

[MaxQ]

Last year a team of stuntman Eddie Braun and Scott Truax succeed to jump the Snake River. Scott is the son of Bob Truax, who built the engine for Evel's attempt and was an actual rocket scientist. So, the jump is possible. But I bet Scott believed in both science and those mysterious equations that Mad Mike referred to.

What are the chances that the not believing in science bit is PR to appease some flat earth group that is sponsoring him?

My thought exactly....no bucks...no Buck Rodgers.

 

[neil_w]

“I don’t believe in science,” said Hughes, whose main sponsor for the rocket is Research Flat Earth.

“I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the area, about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust.
But that’s not science, that’s just a formula."

I don't even.

 

[Bat-mite]

This is a duplicate thread, no?

 

[Zeus-cat]

...
"
There’s no difference between science and science fiction.”

I read that quote and thought of one of my own for this guy. "There’s no difference between dead and deceased." I think mine will most likely apply by next Sunday.

 

[Exactimator]

I hope he moves that gas can before he launches the rocket. Safety first!

 

[MaxQ]

This is a duplicate thread, no?

It got posted in "LDRS General Discussion" this morning as well.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...ket-scientist-plans-to-launch-over-ghost-town

 

[MClark]

Look up the guy who is helping him, Waldo. He makes Mad Mike look sane. He has a project with an X-15 motor on ice

 

[GrouchoDuke]

You don’t have to believe in science for it to be true. Hopefully someone can talk him out of this before he kills himself or someone else.

 

[georgegassaway]

This is a duplicate thread, no?

It's also a new update on OLD NEWS. He was going to do this last April, then had some sort of technical problem days before the scheduled flight and no news update until recently. See this link to a different thread earlier this year:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?132995-Amateur-Manned-Rocketry&p=1564661#post1564661

In that message, I include a link to a short video claiming he already flew onboard a rocket during a private test flight in 2014. They show the rocket launch. But not ONE frame or photo showing him IN IT at launch. Only some handheld video supposedly showing him being removed from the rocket after it landed. So either faked (that he was in it for this test), or he's an idiot for not documenting he was REALLY onboard when it launched.


[video=youtube;3feaiPcv6yE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=3feaiPcv6yE[/video]

 

[solid_fuel]

Anyone have a kit for a downscale?

 

[djs]

Anyone have a kit for a downscale?

 

[Cl(VII)]

This won the internet for today.

 

[K'Tesh]

I know I'm still in China, so I'll let Ellen say it for me...

[video=youtube;EPa5oVG-nII]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPa5oVG-nII[/video]

 

[Rex R]

guess you have been away too long ...that would be Lt. Ellen Ripley.
Rex

 

[K'Tesh]

guess you have been away too long ...that would be Lt. Ellen Ripley.
Rex

Corrected...

 

[Charles_McG]

Corrected...

But correct.

So, can Darwin awards be given out based on kin selection? Off 3 brothers, or 9 cousins? (My math may be off - but it isn't rocket science, after all)

 

[Nathan]

If his plan is to somehow prove that the earth is flat by talking photos from 1800 ft altitude, then wouldn't it be easier to just use an airplane?

 

[cvanc]

If his plan is to somehow prove that the earth is flat by talking photos from 1800 ft altitude, then wouldn't it be easier to just use an airplane?

LOL, there you go bringing logic and reason into it. WE'LL HAVE NONE OF THAT HERE, MISTER :rofl:

The guy's a friggin' idiot. Darwin is waiting in the wings (or fins, in this case)...

 

[viciouspeanut]

If his plan is to somehow prove that the earth is flat by talking photos from 1800 ft altitude, then wouldn't it be easier to just use an airplane?

Well he certainly wouldn't use a commercial airliner since 35,000 feet shows some curvature and we wouldn't want that! I fail to see what a whole 1800 feet is going to accomplish anyways lol. :fly:

 

[boatgeek]

Well he certainly wouldn't use a commercial airliner since 35,000 feet shows some curvature and we wouldn't want that! I fail to see what a whole 1800 feet is going to accomplish anyways lol. :fly:

Reading another article, it's clear that 1800 feet gets him another round of funding from the flat earthers. He wasn't a flat earther until a few years ago, when he was hoping to fly his rocket again and didn't have sponsors. A sudden conversion then led to a few thousand bucks from the flat earth community. If he can demonstrate this flight, he'll go back for another round to try to get to the next level. I'm not saying he's an unprincipled opportunist, but he's making a good case for that himself.

Back to rocketry, I have a couple of questions:
Steam-powered, really? Is this actually hydrogen peroxide decomposing to steam (a la Komet) or is he really toting around a steam pressure vessel?

Is that rocket stable? It looks like the fins come way too far forward and the body is too short to be stable in my mindsim, especially is he's running it 1885 locomotive style with a boiler.

 

[rstaff3]

Reading another article, it's clear that 1800 feet gets him another round of funding from the flat earthers. He wasn't a flat earther until a few years ago, when he was hoping to fly his rocket again and didn't have sponsors. A sudden conversion then led to a few thousand bucks from the flat earth community. If he can demonstrate this flight, he'll go back for another round to try to get to the next level. I'm not saying he's an unprincipled opportunist, but he's making a good case for that himself.

Back to rocketry, I have a couple of questions:
Steam-powered, really? Is this actually hydrogen peroxide decomposing to steam (a la Komet) or is he really toting around a steam pressure vessel?

Is that rocket stable? It looks like the fins come way too far forward and the body is too short to be stable in my mindsim, especially is he's running it 1885 locomotive style with a boiler.

I thought I saw that is actually steam. This is an offshoot of hit attempt to recreate Evel's Snake River jump and that would have been steam. His rocket is sure to be stable because he knows equations LOL. I personally hope he is at least partially successful as I don't like seeing Darwin awards handed out, even when they are deserved.

 

[dr wogz]

Surely if steam can catapult a multi-million dollar fighter (or transport, or observation platform) off the deck of a carrier, repeatedly, then surely it can launch one mane in an aluminum can into space! (or whatever it's perceived to be..)

Surely steam (over) # in a fighter wing vs. steam (over) 1 man is a greater force.. or is that "times the root"...

 

[rstaff3]

Surely if steam can catapult a multi-million dollar fighter (or transport, or observation platform) off the deck of a carrier, repeatedly, then surely it can launch one mane in an aluminum can into space! (or whatever it's perceived to be..)

Surely steam (over) # in a fighter wing vs. steam (over) 1 man is a greater force.. or is that "times the root"...

It worked for Scott Truax's jump.

 

[DAllen]

Hughes = Attention whore