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Ok, so I get up and truck down to the store for a couple of
Mountain Dew's to help me wake up. Then I hop on the small
Z-Trans bus and head on over to the Holoman Air Force Base. The driver
says that typically only a few riders use this route. Today there
are precisely two riders.
----- TARMAC SECTION -----
My first impression upon arriving at the base was my disappointment at the
number of people present. I was present at the 2005 X-Prize Cup when it
was at the Las Cruces Airport, and I can attest that at times it was so
crowded that I could not navigate the crowds, just like you would expect at
a carnival or a theme park during the height of the season. Not so for the
X-Prize Cup 2007. These two photographs were typical of crowd densities durring
the entire duration of the event.
What is even more amazing is the fact this this show is a merger of two shows,
the Holoman Air Force Base airshow which happens every year, and which is always
jam packed full of people, and the X-Prize Cup which during it's first year was
also quite crowded. So combine two crowded events and you would expect to have
a crowded event.
Here are two pictures of the only Jumbotron, a giant TV screen, which was set up
for this show. Displayed within are what I will assume are images from a
previous year's show, as the crowds within are far in excess of what I experienced
during 2007. Why you might ask? I can only speculate that some of the images which
were being fed through the jumbotron made their way out to either the Internet and or
to broadcast television, and the older images made the program look better than they
would have otherwise.
I was disapointed in the number of displays that were actually space
related. There were a large number of military related displays which
only stands to reason, as this event took place on a military base, and
this show is a merger of the X-Prize and the Holoman AFB Airshow. There was
a car dealership, which probably had the largest display of anyone attending.
There were souvenir booths, and a few others.
One good thing is that there were plenty of food vendor booths at the show.
Probably there were too many considering the lack of attendees. During X-Prize
Cup 2005, there was only one food vendor and I kid you not.
Here is the small X-Prize Cup Merchandise booth. I think that it's
size was consummate with the overall attendance of the show. I picked up
a groovey Anoush Ansari flight patch for $2. Such a deal!
It was pretty obvious that the military side of the show
overpowered the civilian space part. There was row after row of
massive military flight hardware as well as other equipment on display.
This is pretty cool if you are into that sort of thing.
Yes it was also an air show. I don't think, however, that there was much
going in the sky above our heads. There were a few airplanes now and then
and then a couple of parachuters flew down for our amusement. Bless those
that did.
Despite popular rumors, Taurine, the active ingredient in many
energy drinks, does not come from what emits out of a Bull. Taurine
is present in many sources. I just don't drink the darn stuff because
it makes me run to the bathroom too often.
I was able to pick up three complete issues of a slick looking publication called
Launch magazine. A mag all about aerospace, what a neat idea!
I'll be sure to read through every page myself once I get to comb through my bag
of souvenirs and datasheets.
Yet another disappointment. I specifically remember reading on the Internet
that there was supposed to be a real rocket race via the Rocket Racing League
in copies of the EZ-Flyer, which are not jet planes but real rocket planes. I think
this would have been very exciting. The Rocket Racing League was heavily promoted
during the X-Prize Cup 2005. I vividly remember seeing during 2005, on the Jumbotron giant TV
screens, commercials of these sci-fi like rocket planes traversing a computer
generated course consisting of wire frame rings which the planes were required to
navigate through.
Now take a look at this photo. The plane is of the same configuration as the EZ-Flyer,
but instead of a rocket engine has a propeller engine.
Here NASA promotes the "Stick" rocket for back the the Moon and onward to Mars.
They are using old Shuttle hardware for this, it is just a five segment solid rocket booster
while the Shuttle uses a four segment solid rocket booster.
Some think that this stack is too tall to be launched safely many times from a wind
prone area.
Here you see a large inflatable model of the Space Shuttle. I really don't think well
of NASA promoting their old obsolete 70's tech, dangerous expensive space plane which isn't
really even reusable, just rebuildable at over a billion dollars a shot. I thought that
the X-Prize was all about small, mean, lean startup companies who are not beholden to
government, but which live and die by the winds of the free market. Surprise! NASA and the
X-Prize foundation are buddies.
When I was setting up the tent on Friday, I did notice a few astronauts being
speeded around on golf carts. But I cannot in any way remember seeing any
astronauts today at the Cup. Where did they all go?
NASA did have some robots on display, which I will admit were fun to watch.
I talked to Steve Bennett, head of StarChaser Industries. This was, by the way, the
highlight of my visit to New Mexico, and of my so called vacation.
His Rocket, the Nova / Starchaser 4, is the only thing approaching a real
spaceship at the event this year. It can fly up to 30 miles. He did launch it in
the United Kingdom, but the government there wouldn't let him take it over a few miles.
That is why he opened an office in America. Let's see if the government here will actually
do him any better.
Starchaser
The visit with XCOR was facinating. I enjoyed talking to them. They have
a really neat spacesuit which is geared towards suborbital space and the
space tourist. Would I want one!
XCOR
RocketPlane was well represented at the Cup, with booths both outside,
and in the pavilion. The main news with them is that they have a new
suborbital rocket design.
RocketPlane
Here is a mockup of the capsule from SpaceX, the Dragon. I hope that they
are able to launch it, and that their reusable, or semi-reusable rockets are
a success. Come to think of it, I hope that they get competition from hundreds
of other companies which end up beating them in the pants. I ought to note that
they didn't have a booth or any people that I know of to talk to, just this one
capsule standing there all by itself.
Space Exploration Technolgies
I got to talk to Elaine Walker who has some cool microtonal
electronic music which I have enjoyed. This music sounds really
strange and interesting to me. She was attending the X-Prize Cup
with Justas Birgiolas, her boyfriend. I wish you both well.
ZIA
During 2005, the X-Prize Cup had a truly monsterous kids activity
area run by NASA. This was where NASA shined and did a great job.
I wasn't too peeved by their intrusion into the Cup then. This year
there was a puny kids activity area run by the New Mexico Museum of
Space History out of Alamogordo, New Mexico. There was a mad scientist
show which was pretty cool. I think that they were trying their best.
New Mexico Space Museum
Then we have the V.I.P. section for the rich folks. It would probably
have been lot more fun if I had been flown in, rented a car, and then
sat here in the shade drinking who knows what. Well, when you are
preordained to go to blazes, then hippity hoppity.
----- PAVILLION SECTION -----
Here is the pavilion building. Notice the lack of attendance
This is a mock of up Space Ship One. Will it forever be the only private
spaceship to make it into outer space? No, it doesn't really fly, this one
is just for show. The real Space Ship One is in the Smithsonian National
Air and Space Museum.
Final Resting Place
You can see into the the entrance of the pavilion here. Again the
crowd densities displayed are typical for the entire duration of
the show.
This is great. Behold, a giant rotating globe of the moon. I love it!
I guesstimate that the displays inside of the pavilion are about
1/3 military related, 1/3 space related, and 1/3 other. I'll say
that this is a natural mix for a combo military air and civilian
space show, but I won't be able to make this look good to my liberal
friends to whom I am promoting solar power satellite installations,
a difficult enough job as it is.
The next photo is a picture of a banner where the X-Prize Foundation
is promoting the Space Shuttle. I find this particularly amusing
because the Shuttle is obsolete hardware. Infact it is supposed to be
retired in 2010. I would not be supprised if the Shuttle was made to
fly for quite a bit longer because it brings alot of money into alot
of districts. The X-Prize Foundation *WAS* cool to me because it was
something to do with outer space which was not NASA and which was not
the military. It was private enterprise, which we all thought to be
free from politics, so could persue a new direction, bringing the price
of spaceflight down and the safety up. As one can see the X-Prize Foundation
is now buddy buddy with NASA and the military. Lets see if much more good
comes out of the X-Prize Foundation besides Space Ship One.
Mien Fuhrer
Infront of us is the intermitantly staffed booth for the National Space Society.
This may be the only space org that you ever hear of. It is the result of the merger
of two stars, the National Space Institute founded by Weiner Von Brown, and the
L5 Society, founded by groovey hipster Princeton Physicist Gerhard K. O'Neill. The
cultures of the two space orgs were not compatible by my own estimation. Guess which
space org's culture won out in the battle of the DNA?
Again we see the X-Prize Foundation promoting NASA hardware and programs.
This time it is Moon 2.0, which incidentally uses obsolete hardware. In
my opinion, this is a technological step backwards. The X-Prize Foundation
is now diluted enough as to be thrown into the same bin as BoLockNor, NASA, the
NSS, and others.
Google had a pretty big and really cool display in the pavilion. I didn't
bother to mess around on the consoles, as to just let others enjoy themselves
with those units. I would like to thank Google for sponsoring the 30 million
dollar challenge, and hope that it advances human spaceflight capability.
Google Space
Here I am trying to have fun inspite of everything.
----- LANDER SECTION ------
Now we have a throng of individuals waiting with baited breath for the amazingly
exciting neck to neck competition which is the Northrop Grumman Lander Challenge.
Oh Boy!
* ARMADILLO AEROSPACE *
* UNREASONABLE ROCKET *
* BONNOVA *
* SPEED UP *
* MICRO-SPACE *
I waited until the end of the show for the day which was bogus because Armadillo
had the good luck of attempting to win the contest 2 years in a row
without any competition. What kind of competition is it if there is
only one player? This is not very exciting! How exiting would it be
if you went to a NASCAR race and there was only one race car?
Armadillo First Day Failure
This stinks, because also only one team stepped up to plate for the
10 million dollar Ansari X-Prize which was Burt Rutan and Spaceship 1
Can we expect the Goolgle Challenge to have any more than one real
participant?
Incidentally, the longer we wait for SpaceShip2, the longer the delays and the
further that ship is pushed back. Starchaser is claiming 2013, which seems like
an awfully long time to me, before it can launch it's suborbital joyride vessel.
Steve Bennett says that this is a realistic target date. I suppose that I have to
believe him. My consternation is, if this is how long it takes private enterprise to
launch a measly
suborbital vessel, then how long would it take private enterprise to construct
and qualify a fully
reusable heavy lift launch vehicle capable of putting up thousands of square kilometers
of advanced solar power satellites. We absolutely need this if we are to offset peak oil
and to rein in our massive wholesale pollution of the planet. I'll say that we have
about 50 years in order to get straitened out on this matter.
After the nastiness which was the Holoman Air and Space Expo,
I was going to catch a cab, but then I learn that there is no
taxi service to and from the base. So I have to walk a very
hot, unpleasant, miserable two hours in the boiling sun, which contributes to my chances of
catching skin cancer. But heck I'm a tough guy and can handle it
Behold the long mean road into town!
While I am walking, I happen upon this billboard. Atleast some advertising
is done for this event. It did not seem to help matters any. With free admission
to boot!
Ah, at long last, the edge of town!
Some time after the Cup, I take a picture of this sick tree. This
sick tree is the symbol of humanities spaceflight capabilities, which
not even a prize competition organization can seem to make blossom. This may
also be a symbol of our entire civilization if we cannot put up solar
power satellites to replace fossil fuels, and to scale back our widespread
and maddening pollution of our to date only living planet.
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