Danish rocket launch

[praabjerg]

If my countrymen can launch a big rocket on a low budget, then surely I can at least build a MIDIbox SID.

There's also a "Pilot's POV" video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rASHRBo9Rg.

Short version: I'm sorry that MIDIbox can't take the first place, but this is likely the coolest hobby project I have ever seen.

Long version, with some more background for the curious:

Last thursday, apart from making a first post here about building a MIDIbox SID for a digital accordion, I was also eagerly anticipating the second attempt at a test launch of Tycho Brahe/HEAT-1X the following day. Tycho Brahe/HEAT-1X is the capsule/booster combination of Copenhagen Suborbitals. The Tycho Brahe capsule sits on top of HEAT-1X and is designed to hold a human being, shooting the prospective astronaut, Peter Madsen, into space and bringing him safely back down again. This was the first unmanned test launch, and there will be more of them in the coming years (scheduled for June each year), where they will be ironing out various problems and faults with the systems. You can see some of the problems in the videos. The two greatest so far: The rocket veers off course for a lack of steering, and the rocket engine still suffers from a certain amount of oscillations. This was anticipated, and there's already ongoing work to fix those. The reason the parachutes are basically ripped to pieces seems to be that the rocket veers off to retain a ballistic trajectory and never slows down enough for the parachutes to come out in one piece.

Did I forget to mention: The seagoing MLP (Mobile Launch Platform) 'Sputnik' was custom-built pretty much from scratch, just like the rocket and capsule.

And while I could forgive you for thinking it, this is not just a very elaborate joke by a bunch of insane Danish people :)

They are seriously aiming for Denmark to become the 4th nation to shoot a human into space, after... Russia, USA and China.

If they succeed eventually (and I have great confidence that if anyone can do this, they will), it would mark the first manned space launch in history by a non-profit, non-governmental organisation. These are literally mostly a bunch of craftsmen doing this in their spare time. Only three of them work at it full time. The rest of the team assemble in the HAB (Horizontal Assembly Building) after working hours and in weekends.

The entire thing works very much like an open source/hobby project. They are very open about all the gritty details of it, and encourage input from the public, though much of that takes places on their Danish blog. But you can also find many of the interesting details on their homepage.

The only cursory involvement by government money is the ships the Danish navy provides for assisting the launch operation each year.

The entire thing is primarily financed through donations and through the support organisation, which currently has 400 members, each giving 100DKK a month. By doing that, we currently pay rent for the HAB, and for a number of the tools and materials they need. The above videos were, for instance, recorded by HD cameras partly paid for by me (and all the other members). And I love every minute of it. They should be an inspiration to hobbyists around the world.

Edited June 5, 2011 by praabjerg