New Zealand takes off
30 November 2009
In the past I have questioned the wisdom of spending vast sums on space exploration. But a new venture could slash the costs of getting beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.
Blast off for the Atea rocket took place yesterday (30 November 2009) from Great Mercury Island off New Zealand. Apparently it worked, in as much as it went up as it was supposed to, and then came back down again, so everyone is very pleased.
The significant thing about this rocket is that it is relatively very low cost (projected to be under $100k). It seems that the focus for space programmes is to go (boldly) where no man has been before – or at least to send probes there. The length of these programmes becomes longer and the cost heads towards the stratosphere.
Atea is different in that it is the product of a private company, Rocket Labs, and its goals are more conservative and practical. Its range is limited to 120km above the Earth’s surface (space starts at 100km) and it is intended that it provides a service for private companies with their own research agendas. The payload is only 2kg and limited to 58mm diameter within the 5m rocket, but the company hopes that it will provide the scientific community with a versatile and affordable way of conducting research that would otherwise have been limited by financial constraints. Companies, if they come from ‘friendly’ countries, can even take the system and do the launch themselves, or use Rocket Labs to provide this service.
Rocket Labs has had to overcome some serious challenges to develop a commercially viable product and have done some pioneering work, particularly in terms of thermal materials and fuel-propulsion systems.
The whole project sounds like an exciting venture and one built on commercial pragmatism rather than vast governmental egos and budgets. So it will be interesting to see how it develops. Can it be expandedm for example, to have the range and size required to launch satellites? One thing is for sure, it shows an enterprise and strength in the New Zealand technology sector that will surprise many.
CD still alive!
Just to clear something up from last week (Death of a CD), I have decided to keep my CD collection following the welcome concern from some of our readers that to dispose of them might open me up to prosecution under copyright laws (if I got rid of them then I couldn’t prove that the contents of my iPod were legally my own, was the consigns). Maybe I should also be a bit more circumspect with my comments!
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