craschworks

As a kid, I couldn't watch scary movies–I still remember getting freaked out by a scene from Outland, in which an alien tentacle crushes a man's leg. *Shudder*

However, as an adult, only a few movies are capable of sending a shiver down my spine…Psycho, The Shining, Crossroads. I think The Ring, which I saw last night, may qualify for the list.

What makes these movies scary to me? Here's some commonalities I've noticed:

a. A scene in which an apparently “normal” human is revealed to be a decaying corpse.
b. Madness/mental illness.
c. Old architecture with a bad history.
d. Murderous loved ones.
e. Isolation.
f. Quick, almost stroboscopic flashes of horrific scenes.
g. Children who're able to see/speak to ghosts or demons.

What scares you? What movies do you find scary?

Via the Global Ideas Bank

http://www.globalideasbank.org/wbi/WBI-163.HTML

More available info is available from the book Gaviotas A Village to Reinvent the World

by Alan Weisman

Paoli Lugari, a Colombian environmentalist, has worked since 1971 to develop Gaviotas, a self-sufficient community in the nutrient-poor savanna grassland of Los Llanos, the huge eastern plains in Colombia.

As he puts it: “They always put social experiments in the easiest, most fertile places. We wanted the hardest place. We figured if we could do it here, we could do it anywhere. The only deserts are deserts of imagination. Gaviotas is an oasis of the imagination.”

'Rain forests and excess people were a foolish mix'

Lugari was also motivated by the need for finding alternative habitats for Colombia's increasing population, having realised that “rain forests and excess people were a foolish mix”; and that, because population and development pressures were ever-intensifying around the world, people would eventually need to learn to live in even the harshest of the planet's ecosystems.

Starting with some abandoned concrete sheds at the midpoint of the failed trans-llano highway, and using the labour of Guahibo Indian, llanero workers and keen students from the universities, Lugari and colleagues developed prototype windmills, solar motors, water heater panels, micro-hydro turbines, biogas generators and various pumps. In 1976, the settlement, christened Gaviotas, was designated as a model community by the United Nations and given a research grant.

'They plant more trees than the Colombian government's entire forestry programme'

Later, inspired by a Catholic missionnary settlement in Brazil, the Gaviotas residents started hydroponic nurseries, with plants germinating in trays of sawdust and wood chips with added minerals. They also planted over a million tropical pines (pinus caribaea) having obtained the seedlings from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Belize and Honduras – indeed they plant more trees than the Colombian government's entire forestry programme. Instead of cutting them for timber, they're selling the renewable sap for making paint and turpentine.

In the moist understory of the Gaviotas forest, birds have returned to redistribute seed – dormant seeds of native trees probably not seen in Los Llanos for millennia are sprouting. Biologists have now counted at least 40 species which are sheltered by Caribbean pines. Over the coming decades, Gaviotas will let these new native trees choke out the pines (which are anyway sterile) and return the Llanos plains to what many believe was their primeval state, an extension of the Amazon. Already the population of deer and anteaters is growing.

Whilst coping with intrusions by military, guerillas and paramilitary groups, the Gaviotans have also had to develop ways to become self-sufficient, once the UN grant ran out.

The factory at Gaviotas employs many of the 130 Gaviotas residents, as well as people from surrounding communities. Here they produce the innovative devices that Gaviotas uses and sells, such as the windmills and a double action pump which pumps water six times deeper than normal models. Instead of raising and lowering the heavy piston inside a pipe, this one leaves the piston stationery and lifts the pipe made of plastic tubing. This simple, inexpensive pump has revolutionised rural life across Colombia for people who used to haul their water in buckets from muddy tropical rivers.

'The children's see-saw is actually a pump in disguise. Over the years Gaviotas technicians have installed these in thousands of school yards'

In the open-air Gaviotas preschool, the children's see-saw is actually a pump in disguise. As they rise and descend, water gushes from a vertical pipe into an open cement tank. Over the years Gaviotas technicians have installed these in thousands of school yards, using kid power to provide villages with clean water.

Besides schooling for their children, housing, health care, and food are free in Gaviotas, and everyone earns the same above minimum wage salary. With no poverty, that's why families remain a manageable size and why there's no crime problem in Gaviotas. And apparently no one gets married in the Gaviotas utopia. Couples live in free union.

'No one gets married in the Gaviotas utopia. Couples live in free union'

The settlement's hospital building is set on a rise, a maze of angles formed by sky lights, glass awnings, solar collectors, and brushed steel columns. A Japanese architectural journal has named this 16-bed Gaviotas hospital one of the 40 most important buildings in the world.

Inside, the air conditioning system is a blend of modern and ancient technology. The underground ducts have hillside intakes that face north to catch the breeze. Egyptians used this kind of wind ventilation to cool the pyramids.

In the hospital kitchen, methane from cow dung provides the gas for stove-top burners. But most of the cooking is done with solar pressure cookers. Photovoltaic cells on the roof run a pump; solar heated oil circulates around the stainless steel pot.

In a separate hospital wing, a large thatch ramada has been built for llanos-dwelling Guahivo Indians. Instead of beds, these patients lie in hammocks hung from wooden beams.

While the doctor treats the sick, their families stay with them because the Guahivo believe that to wall someone off away from his people is the ultimately unhealthy confinement. To earn their keep, the relatives tend vegetables in an adjacent greenhouse – Lugari hopes that this greenhouse will form the foundation for one of the finest medicinal plant laboratories in the tropics.

A new village is planned for the 600 resin-collecting workers they expect to need by the year 2004, with additional factories to encourage women to come – factories producing drinking water, fruit preserves and harps.

More recently, Gaviotas has decided to sell its cattle herd and to allow Gaviotans to raise rabbits, chicken and fish as private enterprises. “Too much red meat is bad for us,” says Lugari, “too many cow pastures are bad for the environment and too much hamburgerizacion is bad for the world.”

Meanwhile, in Bogota, Colombia's capital, rooftop solar collectors developed by Gaviotas are now heating water for more than 50,000 apartments.

The whole story of this remarkable community is told in the book Gaviotas! A Village to Reinvent the World by Alan Weisman, published by Chelsea Green Publishing Co (205 Gates-Briggs Building, PO Box 428, White River Junction, VT 05001, tel 802 295 6300; fax 802 295 6444; e-mail publicity dept: [email protected]; web: www.chelseagreen.com; 1998, ISBN 0 930031 95 4; $22.95; £15.50). The £1,000 Awards money is going to be used to distribute this book to those in the developing world and elsewhere who might otherwise not be able to afford it.

If anyone is interested in contacting the community directly, there is no e-mail or website available. Since there are no English speakers, contact has to be made in Spanish.

Centro Gaviotas, Paseo de Bolivar #20-90, Avenida Circunvalar, Bogota, DC, Colombia (tel +57 1 2286 74466 / 2969; fax +57 1 281 1803)

http://www.newrules.org/

Leftists, but probably some good ideas here. [Edit: Ugh, now that I've read more, I'm not so sure. There appears to be few regulations, or taxes that this group doesn't like.] From their home page:

Why NEW RULES?

Because the old ones don't work any longer. They undermine local economies, subvert democracy, weaken our sense of community, and ignore the costs of our decisions on the next generation.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) proposes a set of new rules that builds community by supporting humanly scaled politics and economics. The rules call for:

* Decisions made by those who will feel the impact of those decisions.
* Communities accepting responsibility for the welfare of their members and for the next generation.
* Households and communities possessing or owning sufficient productive capacity to generate real wealth.

These are the principles of “new localism.” They call upon us to begin viewing our communities and our regions not only as places of residence, recreation and retail but as places that nurture active and informed citizens with the skills and productive capacity to generate real wealth and the authority to govern their own lives.

All human societies are governed by rules. We make the rules and the rules make us. Thus, the heart of this web site is a growing storehouse of community and local economy-building rules – laws, regulations, and ordinances – because these are the concrete expression of our values. They channel entrepreneurial energy and investment capital and scientific genius. The New Rules Project identifies rules that honor a sense of place and prize rootedness, continuity and stability as well as innovation and enterprise.

http://www.hopedance.org/issue28/articles/christina.htm

Building Her Own Earthship
by Becky Kemer

In 1995, 26-year old Christina Sporrong moved from Seattle to Taos, New Mexico in search of sunny weather. Having experience in residential construction, Christina went to work for local architect and builder Mike Reynolds.

Earthships

Mike Reynolds’ buildings, known as Earthships, use earth-filled tires for the exterior walls and mortar-encased pop cans and glass bottles for interior walls. The tire walls are built into U-shaped rooms with the open side facing south. The walls are earth-sheltered, which helps maintain a constant temperature in both winter and summer.

The south side of the Earthship has large plate-glass windows set over indoor gardens, creating a greenhouse. Winter sunlight warms the tire walls and earthen floor which then release the warmth during the night. This is the essence of passive solar building.

Reynolds has developed a model for shelter that approaches sustainability on every level. Not only are the walls made of recycled materials, but every internal system (heating and cooling, water and wastewater, power and waste disposal) has been designed to use resources wisely and to work as part of an integrated whole. For example, rainwater harvested from the roof is used for cleaning and bathing and is then channeled to planters inside and out. A solar toilet, which combines the principles of a composting toilet and a solar oven, reduces human waste to a handful of ash that can be used as compost.

When hearing about tire walls and below-ground U-shaped rooms, perhaps you envision a dark, cave-like structure. Quite the contrary, Earthships are spacious and light-filled, and the combination of plants, tile counters and earthen floors makes these dwellings warm, inviting, and even luxurious. My aunt Zena lives in an Earthship and says that the shape and feel of her home leave her feeling “embraced.”

Christina’s House

Working on Earthships was an education for Christina. “It inspired me to build my own house and showed me that I could do it alternatively, cheaply and on my own. Mike gave me the tools to do that.”

At a land auction in 1996 Christina purchased a quarter-acre of sagebrush-covered mesa for $500, and set about designing a house that she could build in one summer with the help of friends.

The house design took shape in two sections: one a below-ground living and sleeping area and the other a ground level entry and kitchen with steps leading down to the Earthship room. Christina read up on straw-bale construction, visited local straw-bale homes, and decided to build with bales for her ground level room. She also decided to use a post and beam support for the roof instead of load bearing straw-bale walls.

Christina stopped working construction and picked up a job as a cocktail waitress so that she could build during the day and still earn money at night. In early spring, she went and staked out the area where her house would go.

The next step was to get tires from a local landfill and set them around the perimeter of her house-to-be. At this point Christina’s life took on a rhythm that would last through the summer: work in the evenings to afford materials for the next part of the project, and work during the day digging out the Earthship floor and building courses of tire walls. Each wall tire had to be filled with earth and then tamped down with a sledgehammer. “It took about a half-hour to pound each tire. I could only do about 7-10 tires a day before I went to work—it was totally labor intensive. Even though this is a small Earthship, it still took over 100 tires, and that took a few months to build.”

The first major project was concrete footings for the straw-bale walls. Christina built the forms and then called friends to help pour eight yards of concrete in one day. A month later she gathered materials for the post and beam framework, including posts recycled from an old feed store. Again she called together a crew and they put up the posts and beams. Next were the trusses and roof. Christina used Propanels, corrugated steel roofing with a baked-on ceramic coating which allows for safe rainwater catchment.

Now it was time for the walls to go up. Christina purchased bales from a feed store. “A few were rotten and I had to buy some more. You only want to buy the bales when you’re ready to put them up, so you don’t risk getting moisture on them.”

The straw bales were stacked in offset rows, like giant bricks, inside the post and beam framework. Rebar was driven top-down through the bales with a sledgehammer, and the walls were covered with chicken wire. “If I had it to do again,” says Christina, “I would measure each bale prior to building, and then stack them in such a way that I wouldn’t have to cut any bales. I would also use a weed whacker to clean up the walls before plastering. My bales were so uneven that, after the initial plastering, my place looked like a Smurf house. I had to use extra coats of plaster to even it out.”

Finally the windows went in and Christina had a home. “I’ve taken my time on the finishing touches”, says Christina, “like weather-stripping around the windows, insulating the ceiling and putting color on the walls.”

Building Your Own Home

“Alternative construction may be way more labor intensive,” says Christina, “but it’s worth it. It baffles me that people would choose to do traditional frame building, which is so unfriendly to the environment. Sustainable building expresses a different set of values, using materials that at some level are friendly to the environment.”

Both of Christina’s choices, recycled tires and straw bales, were environmentally sustainable. Straw is plentiful and is a waste product often burned in the fields rather than being harvested. The authors of Build It With Bales offer the following eye-opening perspective: “Using only one quarter of the straw available each year in North America, we could build over 3 million houses having an interior square footage of 1500 square feet.”

If you’re planning to build a sustainable shelter, you’ll want to learn about different methods [see articles and resources thorughout this special issue]. Consider taking a workshop, or helping with a building project.

Once you begin designing your place, you may want to build a model or draw a floor plan. “The very first thing I did,” Christina remembers, “was to build a miniature model of my design—it was a winter project. I remember using charcoal briquettes for the tires, and tying straw into tiny straw bales. I needed to build the model to visualize what I would be creating.”

It’s a good idea to check out your plans with a professional. An architect friend gave Christina input. “He said my design needed more windows,” she remembers, “and had me change some things to make it more structurally sound.

Be sure to think through all the systems-not just the outer walls. Incorporate earth-friendly alternatives wherever you can (e.g., passive solar heating, solar power, greywater systems, etc .

The Earthship is the most labor intensive of the sustainable building methods. Christina managed to finish hers because she kept it small, and her design simple. By designing small you will simplify your building process and may find your life “lightened” as well.

“Building the house”, says Christina, “was like running my own construction job. Each day I’d start my morning by looking at what I had to do the following day and making a list (of people to have work with me, how many bags of cement to pick up, etc). Then I’d set about doing what I had planned (the day before) to accomplish that day.

Budgeting money and time is a challenge. It’s easy to get caught up in details and fall behind on the basics. “Remember that,” as Christina points out, “once you are in your house, you can do the smaller projects on your own schedule. I built a stovepipe into my wall, and built the fireplace later. The trick is to realize what you can do with the resources you have so you don’t wind up with an enchanting house but no financing for the roof. I’ve seen that happen.” Christina also warns against buying all the materials in advance. “On my house there was no waste of materials, because I purchased as I went. I’ve seen people buy all their materials at the beginning and then not use half of them or have them get ruined.”

Finally, use the people resources all around you — to get ongoing advice, to help with building, or for professional input. You might want to hire someone with experience to help with part of the project. Whatever you decide, follow Christina’s example: “I asked many questions. I had to understand everything before I did it, and I picked up lots of tricks from others (like things to do so you don’t have leaks in your roof).

It takes enormous commitment to build a home. And, says Christina, “determination, pride, a strong ego, and craving a home space.” The focus this kind of project takes is amazing. “I pretty much lived the house for an entire year. I was completely obsessed. I dreamt about it at night, then would wake up and make changes. It was a test of mettle, for sure, and it definitely made me stronger.”

Designing and building a sustainable shelter for yourself is one of life’s unforgettable journeys. In the end, the experience of building and the friendships that happen in the process may well be as important as the home you create. As Christina says, “Everyone is going to learn in their own way; everyone will approach building a house differently. The only guarantee is that there will be hard times, and there will be beautiful times and, in the end, it will change your life. I mean, what an achievement, to build your own house!”

Becky Kemery is a carpenter, cook and freelance writer focusing on sustainable building. She currently is in the mountains of north Idaho working on a book about yurts. If you have interesting yurt stories or pictures, please send them to [email protected].

http://www.hopedance.org/issue28/articles/dean.htm

Can we ever solve our housing crises? Easy question! I know the answer is, “Yes, we can!” Tougher question: “… but will we?”

Would you believe we can create housing for 2 adults and 1 child at unsubsidized rents as low as $206 per month (per home)? And, for no more than $575 per month (including taxes and insurance) the ‘tenant’ would instead become a mortgage-free owner within only 10 years!

Design, Engineering and Construction are the easy part, the hard part is our culture. For one thing, as conservatives will rightly claim, piggish behavior is as firmly rooted in the poor as it is among the affluent sectors of U.S. culture… so won’t such “low cost” homes inevitably devolve into public-housing slums? Another (quite related ) major obstacle is our affinity for “$tuff” (first studied in accurate anecdotal form by comedian George Carlin, and, based on my own observations, it can be argued that one-third to one-half of all U.S. “housing” space is now dedicated to storage): Storage of furnishing (for cooking and dining, bedding, lounging, working, cleaning, maintaining, etc.), clothing (especially specialty, i.e. ski, scuba and “church-going”, apparel), recreational items, and the other god- knows- why- the- hell- my- uncle- gave- me- that- crap- but- I- better- save- it- for- his- annual- holiday- visit- since- I- couldn’t- dare- tell- him- to- stop- wasting- his- money- on- mindless- consumption- because- just- giving- me- a- hug- and- his- love- is- enough collectibles. But I made it work, and I think many others could make it work as well… with a little help from a tolerant and open-minded culture.

Serendipity started my minimalist project in a larger house I had purchased with my brother… and, by a series of chance events, I soon found how happy I could be in just 380 square feet of self-contained living space (plus a similarly- sized patch of outside garden). During the late 80’s and early 90’s I tinkered (on paper) with various ideas for low-cost, community-oriented housing. Then, right at the end of my commercial development “career”, I made my bed and lived within it; for five years altogether, nearly 2 years of which was shared with my beloved Heidi. We lived in “affordable housing” of my own creation: An area just 20 feet deep by 19 feet wide which (surprisingly) included a full kitchen, a full toilet and bath tub/shower combo, a multimedia entertainment center, ample closet and cupboard space, dual office desks with computer, printer and the like, music recording equipment, breakfast nook, and even gathering room (we hosted dinner parties for as many as eight). As a point of reference, 380 square feet is about the same size as two SUVs parked tightly by a Newport Beach valet (see the floor plan on our web site). Although the design was a success, I would do a few things differently in the future, such as installing PV Solar panels on the south-facing roof to generate most of the home’s power needs.

Now, here is all the really good news: This place was a snap to clean-up and to keep clean. Our utility bills were tiny. Everything was easy to get to. My costs were so low, the savings account swelled. Then, since my commute to work was non-existent and mundane household chores didn’t occupy my life, I found I had time for nearly daily bike rides of 5 – 20 miles including trips to the market, movies, restaurants and clubs… in fact, the use of my car declined to the point where I often had trouble keeping my car battery charged. I also had time to tend a garden which included fruit trees, herbs, vegetables and even row crops which provided calm recreation in addition to fresh foods. I had time to compose and practice music, to write, to think, even to sleep! I was amazed at how much more time I seemed to have: I learned that living small translated into better living. I began to imagine entire communities of like-minded folks living within a framework of such voluntary simplicity.

Of course, Orange County has no land zoned RESIDENTIAL – VSL (“voluntarily simple living”) so there was no place to demonstrate the concept on a scale larger than my bootlegged experiment (this is another “cultural” obstacle). Today, my hope is that such projects will be tried within some of the less densely populated areas of California (such as San Luis Obispo County) thereby creating clusters of low-cost, high-density, strong- community housing surrounded by correspondingly available open spaces. A typical housing tract of fifty 1,500 square foot homes each occupying 5,000 square foot lots set along a maze 50-foot wide streets (plus 5 additional feet on each side of the street for sidewalks), thus blankets 10 acres of land with asphalt, autos, rooftops and cement surfaces plus a mentality of isolation, mechanization and consumption… which are then sold at enslaving prices from $250,000 up. Instead, fifty of the proposed 400 square foot homes, including 320 square foot private gardens for each (when properly arranged in checkerboard fashion along common 20 foot wide landscaped pedestrian paths with auto-accessible streets only at the perimeter) uses under 1 acre of land (including those 50 private gardens!), leaving nine acres of open space for larger scale agriculture, recreation, tranquility, etc. (As a side note, to ensure these units would remain in use as affordable housing, CC&Rs would limit re-sale prices to the rate of inflation, and sub-rental of any privately-owned unit would be pre-defined and tied to inflation as well.)

Notice that this vision bears no relation to dismal and failed “public housing projects”. By using an equity-building structure, the pride and upside of private ownership would ensure proper care and maintenance by residents. And, while such housing may not appeal to everyone (especially those folks trapped firmly within the shop-till-you-drop mentality), it will appeal to both those folks who wish for voluntarily simple lives with greater community, not to mention those who now use an automobile, a bridge or a box to shelter themselves and their loved ones.

Any way you slice it, the numbers are “do-able” even for single parents and even for workers earning the current minimum wage. This style of living encourages tight-knitted communities, personal food gardening, lower consumption, and less accumulation of $tuff (primarily because there is less space to store it!) but it is also quite modern and dignified. And, of course, larger floor plans (i.e. up to 600 square feet) could provide up to two additional private rooms to accommodate larger families with adolescent children of different sexes.

Unfortunately, this type of housing takes some profit out of the developers pockets, and even reduces the income generation requirements of its occupants, both of which are heresy for the powers-that-be… and thus, such housing would require significant political will along with minor cultural adjustments.

We can do it! I know it because I’ve built the prototype. I’ve lived it. I’ve enjoyed it! We can create dignified and affordable housing to accommodate all but the hard core sociopaths in our community… only one question remains: Will we?

Dean Disandro lives and works in north SLO County. He also was involved in running for County Board of Supervisor in 2000

An inspiring example of the power of prizes to incent groundbreaking research.

Via Slashdot

http://space.com/businesstechnology/technology/rutan_scaled_0304187.html

Passenger-Carrying Spaceship Makes Desert Debut
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 07:35 pm ET
18 April 2003

story first posted 1 p.m., EDT, April 18, 2003

MOJAVE, Calif. — What has been billed as the “First Private Manned Space Program” and a new, never-seen spaceship, was unveiled today by noted design wizard Burt Rutan and his company, Scaled Composites, Inc.

Aggressive work on a passenger-carrying sub-orbital craft has been active and hidden from public view for two years.

Labeled as the SpaceShipOne Project, the unveiling took place here about 80 miles north of Los Angeles before a large crowd of journalists and invited guests.

Images

Labeled as the SpaceShipOne Project, Scaled Composites, Inc. has worked aggressively on a passenger-carrying sub-orbital craft for two years. CREDIT: Scaled Composites

Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne (foreground, top picture) and its drop-ship the White Knight (background, top picture). The bottom image shows SpaceShipOne and the White Knight together. CREDIT: Scaled Composites

Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites group based its private manned space project on an earlier aircraft design: Proteus CREDIT: Scaled Composites

SpaceShipOne officials are reviewing use of hybrid rocket propulsion system provided by SpaceDev of Poway, California. Hybrid propulsion uses Nitrous Oxide — also dubbed Laughing Gas — and HTPB (tire rubber). CREDIT: SpaceDev

More Stories

Robotic Planes Complete Fly-by Testing

Collision Alert: Radar System May Open Skies for Unmanned Vehicles

X-Prize Competitor Unveils Manned Space Capsule

After Columbia – Space Tourism Supporters Vow to Carry On

Space Adventures Teams with XCOR Aerospace To Develop Sub-Orbital Vehicle

Related Links

Scaled Composites Website

The X PRIZE Official Website

The company plans to use the craft to compete for the X Prize, a $10 million cash prize that will be awarded to the first team
that successfully launches three people to an altitude of 62.5 miles (100 kilometers) returns the safely to Earth and then repeat that feat with the same vehicle within two weeks

In a lengthy briefing for the media, Rutan declined to answer a number of questions about technical specifications of the spacecraft, including its weight. SpaceShipOne will be air launched from a twin turbojet research aircraft with an 82-foot wingspan that was developed by Scaled Composites. The first flight of that aircraft, called the White Knight, took place on Aug. 1, 2002.

Rutan said he could not estimate when he could make the first launch attempt. He did say that before going for the X Prize qualifying altitude there will several flight tests that begin with gradual expansion of the flight envelope, captive carry and drop tests.

High-altitude launch

Over the last few years, considerable effort has been secretly underway at the company's desert site. Experts at Scaled Composites are confident they've designed a system that supports suborbital flight – drawing from earlier aircraft design work, particularly the high-altitude Proteus vehicle.

From behind closed hangar doors their stealthy product was rolled out today.

“The event is not about dreams, predictions or mockups,” Rutan explained in a pre-debut statement. “We will show actual flight hardware: an aircraft for high-altitude airborne launch, a flight-ready manned spaceship, a new, ground-tested rocket propulsion system and much more. This is not just the development of another research aircraft, but a complete manned space program with all its support elements,” he said.

Rutan makes it clear that the unveiling is not a marketing event.

“We are not seeking funding and are not selling anything. We are in the middle of an important research program…to see if manned space access can be done by other than the expensive government programs,” Rutan explained.

Rutan said that after today, plans call for his group to go “back into hiding,” to complete the flight tests and conduct the space flights.

Point and shoot

While details of the project are being revealed today, in past years some aspects of the direction Rutan and his fellow rocketeers were headed were openly discussed.

Using a derivative of Proteus, space-launch operations are made possible. By changing out aircraft sections and configuring the vehicle to carry large external payloads, both suborbital and orbital booster operations could be carried out.

As example, in October of 2000, the Proteus set several world records for performance in its weight class, one being flight up to 62,786 feet toting a 2,200-pound (1,000-kilogram) payload.

Vehicles launched from Proteus could take advantage of a “point and shoot” capability. This requires the carrier aircraft to be positioned to a select attitude — including vertical for suborbital sounding rockets and astronaut flights — before booster separation and ignition.

According to earlier thinking, this approach would allow lofting a three-person single-stage fully reusable spaceship up to 112 miles (180 kilometers), giving those onboard some five minutes of microgravity. In addition, two-stage expendable boosters could be lobbed skyward from the aircraft, placing micro-satellite payloads of up to 80 pounds (36 kilograms) into low Earth orbit.

Initially, operating cost goals for the Proteus system, including booster, were pegged at less than less than $50,000 per seat for astronauts and $500,000 per launch for micro-satellites.

Hybrid rocket propulsion

Scaled Composites has been working with SpaceDev of Poway, California to evaluate use of a hybrid rocket propulsion system for the SpaceShipOne program.

Jim Benson, founding chairman and chief executive of SpaceDev, told SPACE.com that hybrid rocket propulsion is a safe and low-cost capability. Work on an advanced hybrid rocket motor has resulted in successful test firings, he said.

Benson said the company's motor design is thought to be the largest of its type in the world. It uses clean and inexpensive propellants, namely Nitrous Oxide (Laughing Gas) and HTPB (tire rubber).

For sub-orbital manned vehicles, Benson said, hybrid is ideal, not only for reaching the desired altitude, but due to propulsion system safety features. They far outweigh the higher performance of dangerous liquid or solid rocket motors, he said, which, unlike hybrids, can explode.

Hybrid rockets are non-explosive, and their responsiveness, affordability and simplicity of operation make them ideal for high-reliability manned or unmanned, orbital or sub-orbital applications, Benson said.

Eyes on the prize

One clear ambition of Rutan is to snag the X Prize purse of $10 million. The competition is patterned from the more than 100 aviation prizes offered in the early 20th Century. Those purses kick-started today's $300 billion-dollar commercial air transport industry.

The most significant of these prizes was the Orteig Prize, won by Charles Lindbergh for his 1927 flight from New York to Paris.

The goal of the St. Louis, Missouri-based X Prize Foundation is to make space travel frequent and affordable for the general public.

Rutan would not disclose the cost of the project, but said it would exceed the $10 million award for the winner of the X-Prize.
Rutan said the development program began three and half years ago. With a few exceptions, he added, all of the SpaceShip 1 hardware unveiled at the rollout has been tested for use in space. One exception is the rocket's actual flight nozzle.

Based on an earlier statement, Rutan has clearly been keeping his eyes on the prize, not for monetary reasons, but for its power to inspire.

“It would not be an understatement to say that the X Prize has already had an effect on me. I have never been as creative as I have been in the past few months,” Rutan explains on the X Prize web site.

“The X Prize competition, more than anything else on this Earth, has the ability to help make private spaceflight and space tourism a reality. By creating the X Prize, the St. Louis leaders have taken an important page from aviation history and created an opportunity for a modern day Orteig to step forward and open the door to a whole new industry,” Rutan said.

Bruce Smith reporting from Mojave, Calif., contributed to this report.

…is now a great new show on Showtime. They debunk everything from faith healing to fad diets.

I'm going to see the 8:30 p.m. showing of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets tomorrow at the Carmike Blue Ridge 14 Cinema. I'm planning to get there at 7:45, as I hear it fills up quickly. If any of you would like to go with me, let me know. Tickets cost a $1.50.

Okay, This American Life will definitely air the episode containing the Free State Project segment this weekend. “This American Life” airs at 8:00 p.m. on Friday and 4:00 p.m. on Sunday according to WUNC's schedule. The episode will also likely be available on their website sometime next week in RealAudio format.