Wisconsin may open private spaceport

UPI ^ | 10/21/05

[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.

[olde north church]

It's the perfect solution for to access the ISS. Don't you sort of think they are using such vehicles already? High Earth/Low space orbit?

[Porterville]

I can't believe that google has proof of the cheese on the moon. Incredible. No wonder the company is worth kazillion dollars.

[inquest]

Do you give up a certain amount of control by launching from aircraft versus from the ground? I'm thinking of sideways air drag in particular. But then, I'm not an aeronautical engineer, so take all this for whatever it's worth.

[phantomworker]

I think it is the boost from the original rocket that propels it supersonic. Otherwise it would need too much fuel to accelerate it past mach 1.

[inquest]

Oh, so it's a speed advantage rather than a height advantage. I was thinking in the wrong terms. So crossing the sound barrier takes up quite a bit of energy on its own?

[phantomworker]

Oh, so it's a speed advantage rather than a height advantage. I was thinking in the wrong terms. So crossing the sound barrier takes up quite a bit of energy on its own?

Think of the acceleration needed to get a vehicle flying faster than the speed of sound! If it had to carry the necessary fuel as payload, it would be too heavy. There are also a lot of other variables in play as well.

[Kryptonite]

The Bob Cook I once worked for was an aviation pioneer - he flew test flights alongside guys like Chuck Yeager. Wonder if it's the same guy....

[Kryptonite]

Makes perfect sense to me - with my knowledge being limited to having invested in XM Satellite Radio back when their Rock and Roll satellites were being launched near the equator.

[inquest]

If Mach 1 is just an arbitrary numerical speed value, then we're not talking about a huge amount of energy relative to the amount needed to go into space. The kinetic energy of an object moving at the speed of sound is roughly 55 megajoules per ton of the object's mass. The potential energy from being 100,000 meters above the surface (the "official" boundary of space) is 980 MJ/ton. And that's nothing compared to the difference in energy between the speed of sound and orbital speed, if the intent is for the craft to ring the earth.

Unless there are other factors I'm not considering (which is entirely possible), it just seems like quite an elaborate effort to save such a comparatively small amount of rocket fuel.

[robomurph]

I'm a Fondy guy (MS Aeronautilce Engineering , Princeton), but I can commute.

I'll meet you at Seibken's in Elkhart Lake to hoist one,

[bigsigh]

If the next generation vehicles are reusable and will take off and land, how about Edwards AF base?

[Americanwolf]

I cannot believe this... :)

I grew up and sheboygan, and the only thing I think we were ever successful in launching was a couple of bottle rockets... :)

seriously... is this for real?

[inquest]

Are you referring to the aerospace plane? I think we still have aways to go on that.

[bigsigh]

We will need a space port for reusable aircraft. I don't know when that will be, but I would think there's time and space available at Edwards. Plus I have land in California City. : )

[metathuselah]

I've just joined a group called the *Sheboygan Space Society*, which is a chapter of the *National Space Society*. Their website is www.tcei.com/sss. They actively promote the use of space. While I live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, I joined up just to have something different to do. If this comes about, it would be a huge tourist attraction, if nothing else. You can bet I'd make a visit or two to see some light rocketry, or a piggyback launch!