Glad to be Australian/MSA Rocket Engine test fire

[rogerg (Roger)]

I found this quite amusing...

http://www.marssociety.org.au/ (currently at the main page is a article about the test firing, with pictures).

From what I see these guy's do a great job and are very professional - no discredit to them at all, only praise.

However, that won't stop me getting a good chuckle out of it and a feeling that I'm happy to be Australian:

Take a look at the pictures in the article.

When I've seen footage of american test firing (think I've seen some by NASA and some by Burt Rutan's mob, it's always been obvious how the engine is enclosed in a cage or some sort, bolted to huge lumps of concrete, 100's of metres away from the camera, fire trucks on hand, etc.

Here in Australia, we won't have any of that rubbish. A grassy field with blokes in t-shirt and shorts is all we need! Bring the kids along to enjoy the excitement, it's sunday arvo after all. Stubby in hand if ya lucky (none in these pictures, but looks like they'd belong).

I love it!

Reminds me of the small budget that FedSat was built within, and how NASA couldn't quite believe it could be done so simple and cheap.

Good luck to MSA, great to see successful progress.

Roger.

PS - no offence intended to anyone - MSA or american people.

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Yeah! No need to make a fuss. This is just simple rocket science, not brain surgery! Cheers.

[Satchmo]

That picture reminds me of the Rocket engine tests in the excellent BBC mini-series ROCKET MAN shown on ABC recently. Lets make a rocket to send to Mars: why not ?

Mark

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Haha!! LOL!

"Point it away from the trees a bit, Bob!" Yup - she'll be right mate! Get ready to extend the snag on the pole that you've hid behind your back until the camera goes away...... a ripper arvo!

[Ric]

A simple case of,
The Right Way
The American Way
And
The Australian Way

A classic in all respects

[mickoking]

The greatest Aussie atributes are Informality followed by Informality+Beer

[Gargoyle_Steve (Steve)]

Well back in tha early 90's when I was a practisin back yard rocket science-tist we done our rocket launches everywhere ... as you can see this perticular single stage rocket was launched off the back of my mobile launch vehickel, ie a 1971 rust bucket Landcruiser (the sharp eyed may notice it had been modified for huntin' as well as rocket launchin').


This simple looking projectile reached a height of around 1800 feet in a bare couple of seconds, deployed it's chute, and landed a couple of minutes later .. in one of the dead gum trees in the background!



Luckily we carried the "launch module recovery kit" ... a McCullough 16" chainsaw!


The trickiest bit?? Managing to capture a launch like this a split second after ignition! This was the only picture that successfully included the launch point AND the rocket in the same frame, and we tried to capture a photo like this many many times.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Thanks Roger,

That link had me in stitches laughing!!!
I Love the way the kid is 3 feet from the device
and good to see the bloke ready with the garden hose
They even fill it up with a plastic soft drink bottle!!!!!!
In Pic number 4 they even show Gaffa tape holding the tube together

Geez I'm damn proud to be an Aussie!

[rogerg (Roger)]

Gargoyle_Steve - I love the photo, great stuff. Another fine example of this ausie "informality".

... you got me laughing again Ken