CHALLENGE US
Challenge us. Challenge U.S. It's all the same, or at least it should be. As the country currently stumbles and staggers under the weight of fuel prices, there is finally a discourse developing regarding alternative energies. At long last, we are essentially forced into addressing the problem of our dependence on foreign oil, the immeasurable cost to our environment of having burned a zillion tons of fossil fuels over the last century, and the fragile perch upon which we sit because of oil. Presidential candidate John McCain was the first to call for a John Kennedy-like call to the nations best and brightest to act. Similar to Kennedy's famed call to place a man on the moon, McCain has said that as President he will enact the same type of battle cry, with the goal of becoming energy-independent.
It's a great idea, and here's why. By offering a reward, of sorts, to private companies and individuals to achieve, say, an electric car that is actually feasible, it makes it much more likely that it will actually happen. It's not the same as, say, the Federal Government announcing that they are going to figure it out. We all know how well that works. First, a study committee, than a feasibility study, then an accounting study, then a safety panel, then...it's 2054 and we haven't done a thing yet.
Consider the challenge back in the early 2000's for a private firm/entity to develop a space craft that could reach orbit, and return to Earth, and then do it again. Not a theory, an actual craft capable of demonstrating the ability. There was a multi-million dollar prize offered, along with a time limit. Interesting. Challenging. The kind of stuff that launched America into the industrial age, when engineers were humming along, designing bridges, buildings and transportation infrastructure, all on the cutting edge of the technology of the time.
Enter Burt Rutan on the space craft challenge. A well-known aviation and aerospace pioneer and maverick, Rutan had a host of aviation records already under his belt. It seemed, for years, although every couple of months, Rutan was breaking some new record in increasingly strange-looking aircraft. He circumnavigated the world in a flying wing that required he and his co-pilot to lay down, essentially in a tube, for several days and nights while they circled the globe on one tank of fuel. Incredible. When the space craft challenge was announced, I waited only days for the announcement that Rutan was going to take it on. There were a handful of entrants, but Rutan and his crew pulled it all together in his mysterious hangar in the Mojave Desert. Before the deadline, Rutan's pilot made a successful voyage into weightlessness, filming himself behind floating M & Ms, re-entered and landed. The first flight was not without it's moments. There were some control issues on the way in that almost resulted in a loss of control. They worked out the bugs and flew it a few more times, in and out of low orbit, with no further problems.
Later, Rutan paired with Virgin Atlantic owner and flamboyant businessman Richard Branson. Last week, they unveiled SpaceShipTwo, which they intend to use to pilot riders in and out of space for $200,000. a pop. There is already a waiting list. Branson, on hand for the unveiling, called the craft "one of the most beautiful and extraordinary aviation vehicles ever developed." I would have to agree with him. It has two fuselages, a 140-foot wingspan, comparable to the famous Boeing B-29 Superfortress. Each inner wing is connected at the tip, and that is where a cradle will hold the space vehicle itself. It is released at 50,000 feet and once separated a rocket booster propels the vehicle from there into low orbit, 62 miles above Earth. It is made entirely from composites, a manufacturing system designed by Rutan. Carbon-Composite, developed by Rutan, is a sandwich of materials, no metal at all, but is stronger than any metal or steel on Earth, but won't corrode. It is used in most airplanes now, from small ones to airliners because it is also, surprise, very light.
The reason, the point I'm eventually going to make, is that private industry can do what government can't because they're not mired in red tape and bureaucracy. Guys like Rutan are innovators, and, they are restless. They want to make the trip from drawing board to rolling down the runway as quickly, smartly and efficiently as possible. In the words of Larry the Cable Guy..."get 'er done." And there are thousands just like him waiting for the prize and the incentive to turn loose their ingenuity on the road to new sources of energy. Let's get out the wrapping paper and bows, and get going.
Karl From New Hampshire