Space travel isn’t just for billionaires anymore.
Most days, Mads Stenfatt is a mild-mannered pricing manager who spends his time crunching numbersStenfatt is one of around 50 volunteers at, a group of amateur rocketeers in Denmark who are trying to launch a person into suborbit on a homemade rocket — and they’re doing it on a shoestring budget.
Later, I got an answer back from them that was basically, "If you're so God damn smart, why don't you come join us?"For a few years, I was more of a theoretical guy. I knew how to pack a parachute for skydiving, but I knew nothing about creating parachutes for space travel. So I had to learn the theory behind everything. We had another guy at that time who was making the actual parachutes, but he stopped in 2013.
I think that's one of the big philosophies of CS. From the beginning, none of us knew how to do things, so someone had to learn. That means that if we realize that we’re lacking in some manufacturing method or technology or whatever then it's okay to admit we don't know it. So then I might say, “Okay, I’ll take the responsibility and try to understand how to do this.”
At best, we can spend a few hundred dollars on materials and then just be ingenious in what we do. That's the fun part. Weto be different. One of the ways we do that is we overbuild stuff. All of the one or two percent improvements that the pros do to optimize something isn’t possible for us because it really costs money. We'd rather literally work with a hammer on a rugged engine to get it fixed than optimizing the thickness of the metal, for example.
Unfortunately, we have been set back quite a lot because of COVID. So there were many months where we couldn't meet up in the workshop. Regulations here in Denmark prohibited us. That's set us back quite a lot, but things are moving on.We all have different big things ahead of us — but I think overall for CS, we have two problems from an organizational point of view.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Star Trek actor Nichelle Nichols’ ashes bound for space on Alabama rocketThe ashes of the late actor Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Nyota Uhura in the original “Star Trek” television series, will launch into space this year on an Alabama-built rocket.
Read more »
Don Lind, shuttle astronaut whose moon mission was canceled, dies at 92Lind waited 19 years to launch into space and flew only once.
Read more »
China launches a new spy satellite into space for 'disaster prevention'China's space agency launched a mystery spy satellite that may gather military intelligence for the country.
Read more »
NASA's SLS hydrogen leak is a sign of the Artemis program's outdated technologyNASA's Space Launch System didn't launch on Saturday, September 3, due to a large hydrogen leak in a fuel line quick-disconnect fitting.
Read more »
Astronauts' blood shows signs of DNA mutations due to spaceflightThe researchers stored astronaut blood for 20 years to see how short space shuttle flights affected spaceflyer health.
Read more »
Astronaut Says First Gorilla Suit He Tried to Smuggle Into Space Blew Up in Fiery ExplosionThe first gorilla suit Mark Kelly sent his twin in space exploded in 2015 when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was lost in a massive fireball.
Read more »