Kiwis launch into space race
26 Nov 2009
New Zealand is taking a giant leap into the space race as the country’s first rocket launch counts-down, and the first-ever Kiwi female astronaut readies for take-off.
Due for blast-off next Monday (30.11.09) from Great Mercury Island, off New Zealand’s North Island coast, ‘Manu Korere’ - or 'bird messenger' - is a privately-designed rocket destined for scientific sub-orbital missions.
Meanwhile, Christchurch real estate agent Jackie Maw, a founding astronaut in Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic mission, hopes to become New Zealand’s first woman in space on the inaugural paid public sub-orbital flight next year.
Kiwi Space Girl
The self-titled ‘KiwiSpaceGirl’, Jackie Maw is set to travel to the US with a film crew for the official unveiling of SpaceShip2, the craft that will propel her 112km above the earth for a three-hour trip.
Maw is one of three Kiwis who’ve paid NZ$280,000 each for their flight on Virgin Galactic’s maiden voyage which is scheduled for some time in 2010.
Fellow passenger Mark Rocket, the first New Zealander to book with Virgin Galactic, is one of the founders of Rocket Lab - the NZ company that is developing the Manu Korere rocket.
Rocket Lab is a collaboration between 39-year-old Rocket, who changed his name by deed poll, and research scientist Peter Beck, 32.
Manu Korere
At six metres long and 150mm in diameter, ‘Manu Korere’ will carry miniaturised instruments for scientific sub-orbital 'sounding' missions.
The rocket will travel to an altitude of 120km then return to earth in a sub-orbital ballistic curve, to be recovered after splashdown in the sea.
Rocket Lab hopes to grab a slice of the lucrative space market by selling access to its rocket for sending science equipment into space for testing purposes.
Known as the Atea-1 model, the rocket is almost entirely constructed from lightweight carbon fibre composites manufactured from materials developed by Rocket Lab. They are a fraction of the weight of traditional metal components.
The rocket generates the equivalent of 3200hp from a rocket engine weighing just 13kg.
Rocket launch date
Depending on weather conditions, the rocket will be launched on or about 30 November from Great Mercury Island, in New Zealand’s Coromandel region. The island is owned by Kiwi millionaire banker Sir Michael Fay.
Location and timing have added a quirky twist to the historic launch which will happen in the same place as Captain James Cook's famed observation of the transit of Mercury - 240 years ago in November 1769.
Environmental breakthrough
For the past four months, the full-scale motor tests have been carried out in Air New Zealand's Auckland engineering base where the rocket motor was secured to a rig in the airline's jet engine test cell.
Air New Zealand gas turbines manager Richard Ison said the national airline had been happy to help the Rocket Lab pioneers.
"We can obviously identify with what they are doing - a small Kiwi company taking on the big established players, and having a fresh approach that simply blows right through the barriers of conventional thinking," Ison said.
"And we're very happy to support a genuine environmental breakthrough. The emissions from this engine are non-toxic as opposed to the traditional launch platforms, so it would be great to see Rocket Lab winning a big share of this market."
Rocket payload
Rocket Lab has offered a 100gm space on the rocket for sale on the TradeMe and eBay.
Wellingtonian Clare Keenan made the opening bid of $3000 to fly her grandmother's ashes into space.
There could be no better way to celebrate the life of Susanna Lizamore, 84, who died earlier this year because she was "such an adventurous lady. I know she'd like to have given this a go," Keenan said.
If successful, Lizamore's ashes will blast off with more than 22,700 messages to deceased family members from people around the world, which have been collected by Houston aerospace company Spaces Services and forwarded to New Zealand.
Rocket Lab
Beck and Rocket set up Rocket Lab after discovering a mutual interest in space.
Mark Rocket had always been fascinated by space technology and travel. Peter Beck, an award-winning scientist and engineer, last year received the Royal Society of New Zealand's Cooper Medal for original research in physics or engineering.
In his early twenties, Beck designed and rode a rocket-propelled bike which delighted the crowds at Dunedin's Festival of Speed by racing from 0 to 140km/h.
Both Kiwis say New Zealand is the ideal place to set up a space industry because it can be done more cheaply.
There was scope for space science in the southern hemisphere in areas such as climate change measurement, micro gravity and solar physics, Beck said.
Rocket Lab’s development is being watched by a number of international space companies, including NASA.
Greg Zilliac, an aero-physics engineer at the NASA Research Center in California who has been in regular contact with the two Kiwi rocket men, has described Beck and Rocket's project as a significant accomplishment.
A successful launch would seize the attention of the space industry and academia worldwide, Zilliac said.
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