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Secret Plans for Irish Spaceship Revealed
Ananova ^ | Thursday 1st January 2004

Posted on 01/01/2004 3:04:23 PM PST by anymouse

Secret plans to build and launch a spaceship in Ireland were put to the Government by US astronauts, according to newly-released classified documents.

A team of experienced scientists, including "at least one astronaut who had walked on the moon" planned to use the Republic as its base for the ground-breaking project.

The details are contained in Government papers released under the 30-year rule reveal. A letter setting out the proposals was sent to the Irish Government of the day by the US-based Consulate General of Ireland.

American scientist Dr Gary Hudson, who claimed to have worked for Nasa, submitted his plans for the space flight project on behalf of an alleged team including British astronomer Sir Frederick Hoyle.

He had chosen Ireland because it was a neutral country and was not affiliated to any other space programme. In a 16-page letter to the Department of Foreign Affairs, vice consul Sean Farrell described the plans to build a space station on Inishnabra, the middle island in the Blaskets.

He detailed Dr Hudson's claims that Inishnabra had a number of advantages including isolation but with a source of raw fuel at hand. A launch from the Blaskets would not risk civilian lives, he said. Dr Hudson said he had been taken to the island by the tourist board in Kerry, which had been enthusiastic about the project.

Fears were expressed about the economic viability of the project, particularly as the US space programme was "in ruins because of escalating costs" and the joint European space venture had so far failed due to enormous costs.

But Dr Hudson claimed to have £140,000 (200,000 euro) behind him for the project. He estimated that the total cost of building, fuelling and firing a rocket would not exceed £1.7m (2.4m euro) and that he would charge around £3.4m (4.8m euro) per launching - starting in 1976 or 1977.

He proposed to lease the island from the Government. Almost all of the necessary materials were to be purchased locally in Ireland, he said. The project would have involved an initial work force of 1000.

Government sanctions were needed as the UN convention stated that the country from which a rocket was launched had responsibility for any damage caused. But any Irish hopes of making history were dashed when a Government reply was sent back condemning the scheme as "science fiction." It was suggested that the whole thing was a "gigantic leg-pull".


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Technical; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: goliath; ireland; patrickfitzwilliam; rocket; space; willamfitzpatrick
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Besides the source, one clue that this is a bogus article is that rocket pioneer, Gary Hudson does not possess a Doctorate (I'm not even sure that he ever received his Bachelors degree, even though he is sharper than most Ph.D.s.
1 posted on 01/01/2004 3:04:24 PM PST by anymouse
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To: *Space; KevinDavis
space ping.
2 posted on 01/01/2004 3:04:53 PM PST by anymouse
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To: anymouse
Secret Plans for Irish Spaceship Revealed

lol

3 posted on 01/01/2004 3:05:27 PM PST by the invisib1e hand (do not remove this tag under penalty of law.)
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To: anymouse
Somehow I am inescapably reminded of the Pilot's Written Exam (Irish), a little bit of persiflage directed more or less at the inhabitants of that island . . . wish I could find it on the net, it's a hoot. I still have a copy somewhere.
4 posted on 01/01/2004 3:07:36 PM PST by AnAmericanMother (. . . sed, ut scis, quis homines huiusmodi intellegere potest?. . .)
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To: the invisib1e hand
All I can think of is that d***ed Lucky Charms commercial..
5 posted on 01/01/2004 3:07:37 PM PST by OpusatFR (Al Dean and Howard Gore, separated at birth)
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To: anymouse
Is the spaceship fueled by liquid whiskey?
6 posted on 01/01/2004 3:08:17 PM PST by RoughDobermann (Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.)
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To: anymouse
Actually, the Irish have considerable experience in the area: "An Irishman is not drunk if he can hang onto a blade of grass with both hands and not fall off the face of the earth."
7 posted on 01/01/2004 3:09:49 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: the invisib1e hand
I want them to build spacecraft based on the The "Medusa" design. Be able to get to Mars in a few weeks and take hundreds of passengers, then we would accomplish something.
8 posted on 01/01/2004 3:10:24 PM PST by BushCountry (To the last, I will grapple with Democrats. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at Liberals.)
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To: RoughDobermann
Pelleted Bush Mills.
9 posted on 01/01/2004 3:11:26 PM PST by CWOJackson
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To: RoughDobermann
Is the spaceship fueled by liquid whiskey?

No, potatoes.

10 posted on 01/01/2004 3:12:43 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (Chilling Effect-1, Global Warming-0)
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To: CWOJackson
LOL!
11 posted on 01/01/2004 3:13:19 PM PST by RoughDobermann (Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.)
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Comment #12 Removed by Moderator

To: Jeff Chandler
No, potatoes.

Cool. Vodka rocket fuel.

13 posted on 01/01/2004 3:14:16 PM PST by RoughDobermann (Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.)
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To: AnAmericanMother
Please: if You should ever locate it, I would be interested in reading it. Thank You.
14 posted on 01/01/2004 3:16:40 PM PST by solitas (sleep well, gentle reader; but remember there ARE such things...)
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To: anymouse
Just what wwe need: Drunk spaceship drivers!
15 posted on 01/01/2004 3:21:42 PM PST by Az Joe
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To: Happygal
Ping.
16 posted on 01/01/2004 3:22:58 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (Chilling Effect-1, Global Warming-0)
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To: anymouse
This is hilarious.
17 posted on 01/01/2004 3:26:49 PM PST by RexRichard
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To: anymouse
As Paul Harvey is fond of saying, "now for the rest of the story."

------

From Gary Hudson:

Even though I should know better, I am still surprised by the ability of reporters (and apparently government officials) to turn an hour-long visit into “ Secret Proposals” and “Plans.” Case in point is the preceding article from Ananova news service. I realize they are not Aviation Week, but good grief…

Just to set the record straight, yes, in 1973 I did inquire of the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) of Ireland regarding the possibility of setting up a launch firm in the country and launching a partly-expendable vehicle from Inishnabro (misspelled in the article). I never visited the island as was claimed, but did vacation in Kilarney for two days. I have pleasant memories of the place, and drank a fair amount of excellent Guinness Stout. (But, even so, I rather doubt that I told them that 1000 people would be working on rockets – that’s not the path to cheap launch. They may have been hoping for a sort of “multiplier effect” on local employment.) And I don’t think that anyone who knows me would believe that I represented myself as having worked for NASA! (This is symptomatic of the “Space Program” mythos in general: one has to be promoted to “Dr.” and be from NASA in order to speak on the subject. To be fair to them, however, this was all happening 30 years ago at the end of the Apollo program. The mythos was ascendant.)

The whole thing began when Prof. Fred Hoyle and I were having a cup of tea in his Cambridge office the year before in England. Sir Fred had considered the desirability of setting up a launch site on one of the Great Blasket islands, and encouraged me to have a look. Since I had never visited Ireland, it sounded like a good idea (even with the limited range of inclinations available), and I went the next year. At the time, the IDA had a deal they offered to outside investors. Build a plant in Ireland and all your export sales were tax-free for twenty years. The purpose of my inquiry was to determine if they would consider a launch as an export and they did. (We of the emerging space business community have struggled for years to get tax breaks for commercial space in the US and have largely failed. Here was a ready-made opportunity.) Being a European company would have also opened up the European launch market, this in the waning days of ELDO and before the real rise of the Ariane program.

Of course, the idea was twenty years ahead of its time and investment was not available. But even with money, in the end, of course, European (or US) politics would have killed it anyway. At least I got to taste that Guinness from the tap. (And no, the fuel was not going to be alcohol, but LOX-hydrogen!)

Gary C Hudson

18 posted on 01/01/2004 3:26:55 PM PST by anymouse
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To: AnAmericanMother
I found only one question from it:

Draw the shortest route between the following two points. You may ask for more paper if necessary.

x

x

19 posted on 01/01/2004 3:31:41 PM PST by mrsmith
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To: anymouse
However the "Yellow Submarine" did get off the ground. Hic
20 posted on 01/01/2004 3:40:38 PM PST by Waco
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