Flat-Earther Set to Launch Himself in Own Rocket | Hacker News Reader

Flat-Earther Set to Launch Himself in Own Rocket

npr.org

32 pointscolinprince38 comments

> Still, Hughes converted to the flat-Earth belief recently, shortly after his first fundraising campaign for the rocket earned just $310 of its $150,000 goal. His second campaign, this time posted after his conversion and with the support of the flat-Earth community, succeeded in hitting its $7,875 goal.

He wants to build a rocket, and he'll say what it takes to get money to build a rocket.

Exactly. If you want to take peoples money what better group to pick than a group of fools?

It's not them funding it, if they even exist. The "flat-earther" part is just for the media exposure, which seems to work great.

If you are willing to launch yourself in a home made rocket the Internet will fund, as long as they can find you.

I'm now buying into this idea more. He's not just any other eccentric flat-earther.

He could actually be a brilliant con man that, as with all other crowdfunding schemes that turn out to be work of con artists, doesn't believe his own words and is preying on the wishful thinking of their funders.

I literally stopped reading at:

    "I don't believe in science," Hughes added. 
    "I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the air, 
    about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust. 
    But that's not science, that's just a formula. 
    There's no difference between science and science fiction."

Mobile friendly quote:

> "I don't believe in science," Hughes added. "I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the air, about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust. But that's not science, that's just a formula. There's no difference between science and science fiction."

Tip: don't use leading spaces to quote things on HN. Instead, use either:

  > The text.

or:

  > *The text.*

depending on whether you want italics or not. (Italics can be helpful if you are interspersing quotes with other comments of your own; probably not needed for a simple quote like this.)

We're pretty limited in formatting options here, so those are about the best you can do.

I /really/ wish HN understood markdown blockquote format syntax.

Thanks for the tip - I shall bear in mind for next time. I must be outside my edit time limit now, as I can't change this one, but will do in the future.

These people. You can get a MiG-29 to take you to the edge of space, so you can see the curve of the earth with your own eyes, for around €20,000.

>The plan, as stated, is to send himself 1,800 feet high in the air

Or just go to the top of a large building

are you serious, his plan is for only 1800 feet? LOL

Wouldn't it be easier (and better exercise) to get that elevation gain just hiking up a nearby mountain?

I think this is his test flight.

This leaves room for another fundraising campaign to go even higher next time.

Not very many buildings are that high:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings

1WTC is a little short, but the only one in the US which is close to that height.

Well, a $20000 budget can get you comfortably to any of the 1800+ft buildings, faster and safer. It's probably enough to go to all of them...

Or just go to the seaside and watch a boat sailing away over the horizon... but that wouldn't put him in the spotlight, and this is obviously just another media attention seeking stunt...

NB: This is actually how people in the middle ages knew the earth wasn't flat. They could watch ships drop down over the horizon from the harbor.

From Lexington MI I can see a lot of wind turbines across lake Huron in Canada. You can see the blades rotating below the horizon. I'm sure if you drive over there they stay a good 50 feet above the ground.

Sadly, flat-earth believers will then claim that the ships aren’t being obscured by the curvature of the earth - rather, supposedly, it’s just that one needs to use a lens to zoom in due to the vanishing point: http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/evidence-for-the-flat-eart...

Of course, it would be easy to test that theory: keep magnifying as the ship sails away, and if the ship is still appears to sink, then the vanishing point explanation is a non sequitur.

Where can I buy a MiG-29 for that price?

I’d assumed it was commercial flight ticket and a quick search appears that’s the case: http://www.flyfighterjet.com/edge-of-space-flight although I’m sure you could disprove a flat earth for one of the lower altitude flights they offer

I think the GP was referring to something like Migflung rentals[0

[0] http://www.migflug.com/en/jet-fighter-flights.html

I wonder how he thinks satellites work... just hovering above a flat earth?

It’s just all so stupid that I hate that NPR is even validating this by publishing it. There is no bar anymore, or any level of critical thinking. Ugh.

They teleport to the opposite edge when they hit one. It is common knowledge to anyone played Asteroids. http://www.freeasteroids.org/

Part of me wonders whether this is some very clever guerrilla marketing campaign for a new game or something like that.

Nah, he just wants to finish his project, and the one way he has found to fund it is to become a flat-earther and get their money.

The story that just won't die...

It's been posted 10 times in the last 3 days, getting votes most times, flagged other times.[0]

Curious what the record is for the most-submitted story submitted.

[0] https://hn.algolia.com/?query=flat%20earth&sort=byPopularity...

At this point, I'm almost certain that there's vote manipulation going on. I hope dang et al. can take a look into it.

Most airliners fly at 35,000 feet. Couldn't he just raise 400 dollars and buy a plane ticket?

Why does he have to be in the rocket? He doesn’t believe in cameras either?

Likely anything built by someone else has a filter in it to adjust the lens when it gets to the right height. This isn't about logic after all.

I've had a suspicion for a while that "Flat Earthers" are trolling everyone into giving them a free ride into space.

bunch of previous discussions:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15751398

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15760481

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15764574

I would cost, what, $400 or so to charter a boat from Los Angeles Harbor to just head due west? The way the insanity compounds on itself is spectacular.

They claim the edge of the world is at the south pole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsOz_J6tJVU&t=1332s

I seem to recall that most of these people believe the "edge" cannot be reached by sea or land due to hypnotic waves, or magnetic fields, or something like that; when you get too close, you become confused and turn around, fooling you into thinking believing that you've circumnavigated a sphere.

I predict his journey will be Darwinian.

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