Rocket Racing League Exhibition Race Date Set

Well I would like to apologize for my absence from New Frontiers, but I am now back from a much longer than expected reprieve from blogging. And now that I'm here I have some news to report.

Today the Rocket Racing League (RRL) announced the date for its first exhibition race. The date is August 1-2 this year and will feature two racers flying planes powered by rocket engines on a 2-lap circuit around an airborne raceway. The RRL is pretty much NASCAR in the air and with rockets. Sounds pretty awesome don't you think; so make sure that you are there or at least see the video reports which I will have up for you. I think that it will be a lot more interesting than NASCAR, but we will see.

It is expected that around 700,000 people will attend this exhibition to watch the action on multiple 50-foot (15-meter) projection screens on site. The Rocket Racing League was founded in 2005 by Ansari X Prize founder Peter Diamandis and Whitelaw, an Indianapolis 500 veteran. The competitors will be piloted Mark 1 X-Racer rockets developed by the firm XCOR Aerospace in Mojave, California.

The league currently has six teams that will compete in four series of races throughout the year. After the first EAA AirVenture exhibition, later races will be staged at the Reno National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nev., between Sept.10-14; at Aviation Nation at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nev., on Nov. 8-9, and at the X Prize Cup in Las Cruces, N.M., in late October.

The rockets will be built by various aerospace companies and are quite advanced. The RRL has to give safety a great deal of focus considering that they are really piloting rockets and racing them in close proximity. I would imagine that the RRL will inspire a good number of advances in rocket technology so I have to say that this really is a good idea. But as you know, only time will tell.

Source: Space.com
Picture Source: The BBC.com

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A Day in Space

Well I found a good deal of interesting stories today so I thought that I would just give a brief summary of all of them with links to the main article.

I found one article on UniverseToday.com that really intrigued me. The story is about the idea of a one man, no return mission to Mars. This one man mission would be much more technologically feasible than the normal mission because it wouldn't require a return rocket and they would need supplies for only one person. The man who came up with the idea, former NASA engineer Jim McLane, believes such an event would unify the world as never before. I don't think that finding volunteers for such a mission would be too hard, and the mission wouldn't be a suicide mission, the astronaut would have supplies sent to the Mars camp site in advance and more people could be sent every 26 months. Also a man and woman could be sent together as a futuristic Adam and Eve. I wish NASA or any space organization would at least consider this idea, I think that it would captivate the whole world and motivate a new generation of astro/cosmo/taikonauts.

Virgin Galactic has leaked a bit of information about their future SpaceShipThree (SS3). SS3, though nothing is set in stone yet, is planed to be a hypersonic point-to-point vehicle. This would provide a rapid trans-Atlantic trip or the frequent London, England to Sydney, Australia journey. Virgin envisions a 2012 time frame for detailed SS3 work to begin on SS3. SS3 will most likely begin if and when SS2 is successful. It seems like a good idea to me, very very quick travel to distant points, I don't see much wrong with that.

You have probably heard of the Rocket Racing League ( RRL) and they, along with the City of Las Cruces, have finally broken ground on the RRL Aerospace Business Park, two hangers at the east end of Las Cruces International Airport will be the first step of construction and should be done by May. The RRL Aerospace Business Park will serve as the headquarters for the RRL and with more than 300 acres of development planned, the business park will not only serve the RRL industry but will evolve into a destination location for fans visiting an RRL museum, Hall of Fame, education centers and other attractions.

Also if you haven't seen or read about it yet, here is the Martian avalanche that was caught on camera while it actually happened.

Thanks for reading today, I hope that I had some stories of interest for you. Just leave me a comment if you need to know more or have anything to say.

Picture Source: Wikipedia.org

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