Posted on 10/23/2005 12:31:33 PM PDT by KevinDavis
MADISON, Wis., Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Wisconsin legislators are promoting a plan to create a spaceport in the country's top cheese-making state.
The proposal would set up a nine-member Wisconsin Aerospace Authority to promote the state among private entrepreneurs planning to go extraterrestrial, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. Sheboygan would be the state's Houston, allowing failed rockets to fall into Lake Michigan.
Bob Cook, head of the Wisconsin Transportation Development Association, thinks the plan has some lift.
"As long as there's not much state money involved, I think it makes sense," Cook said. "There's an industry out there that's growing and it's smart to do what we can to try to take advantage."
He said the federal government appears to have lost interest in NASA, creating space, as it were, for the private sector.
If Wisconsin's only selling point is a place for failed launches to have a place to fall back to earth, then they're in deep poop with their marketing strategy.
Blessed are the cheese makers.
FWIW - weather there doesn't seem to be conducive for a space program. Then again, look at Russia.
No way. Wisconsin knows cheese, and of course the moon is made of cheese, so they totally have the inside track for lunar missions.
Sheboygan, we've got a problem...
"..and of course the moon is made of cheese,..."
A recently proven fact! Check Google moon -- zoom right in to see the proof.
http://moon.google.com/
Normally launch facilities are located on a coast to prevent a malfunctioning rocket from exploding over inhabited areas. On the other hand you could launch them over Canada. Another problem with Wisconsin is it is located too close the the north pole. The minimum orbital inclination obtainable from a particular launch site is the lattitude north or south of the equator. To get a lower inclination requires fuel burns for plane changes which decreases the available payload from a launch vehicle. It is no coincidence that the Arianne launch site is locate just 5° north of the equator in French Guyana which is a more efficient location than Cape Canaveral (about 27° north). About the only useful satellites that could be launched from Wisconsin are spy satellites and some communications satellites that would be launched into polar orbits. The US already has a launch facility at Vandenberg Air Force base on the southern California coast for launching payloads into polar orbits, and it doesn't require overflying inhabited areas. Notice that French Guyana is one of the few places on land in the world that can be used for launching rockets into both equitorial and polar orbits without having to overfly inhabited areas.
Somebody is thinking they have a comedy career....with that line.
Silly me! What was I thinking?? :-)
Unless the colonization of other planets where the happen, A spaceport would be useless to everyone. No capitalist would even invest a dime in such a project. Tne fact that unless trading and space tourism it would come of some utility
I can see the appeal, but Wisconsin is more "aero" than "space." There's a fair amount going on around here with avionics and parts, with a number of specialty manufacturers in Milwaukee and the EAA in Oshkosh, but there are technical impediments to space at this latitude as others have mentioned. About the only real selling point is the uninhabited lake to the East providing a spashdown area.
LOL. Has a certain ring to it.
Alaska has two rocket launch ports. One is in Fairbanks, although that is used mostly for auroral sounding rockets. The other is in Kodiak, I think, and could be used for polar orbit launches as well as ABM tests. There would be no advantage in polar launches by using an equatorial site versus an Alaskan site.
Hey, I was in Sheboygan just last month! My girlfriend's husband is director of public utilities there. I'll have to ask him the scoop, if there is one. They are very conservative about such stuff back there. Their big all-out event 2 years ago was having the PGA visit the area.
The shuttle landing in Lake Michigan seems feasible, doesn't it? It's a big deep lake! I wonder, though, if the shuttle landed in the Lake, if it would create a big splash? Or if the alewife and lamprey would be upset. LOL!
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/water/fhp/fish/lakemich/Sea%20Lamprey%20and%20Alewifes.htm
(chortle!)
I don't know exactly why this strikes me as so funny, but it does. Hint: Maybe it's the weather.
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