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Comment by mixmax | Hacker News Reader

What this means is that the major obstacles for going into space have been cleared (reliable engine, logistics around sea launch, active guidance) so the next launch will be Heat2x, which has the potential to reach an altitude of 130 km. Space starts at 100 km.

Disclaimer: I'm involved with Copenhagen Suborbitals, and managed the livestreaming of the event.

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Did you see the joke comparing your achievement to the resekort situation[1]?

[1] https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151666565407048&se...

yes - it was hilarious! Rejsekortet is such an embarrasment to Denmark, my only constellation is that I once had sex with the CEO's daughter.

That escalated quickly.

I think you mean "consolation", but I understand the reasons for the typo.

You cheeky bastard--to boldly go and all that, I assume?

Oh no. You guys are implementing the same system that was launched in Holland (from the looks of the scanner).

It does not get better...

Thus electronic ticket systems :) The local government her in Oslo, Norway are working on something similar[0]. It should have been finished in 2005.

Now after massive cost overruns they have scoped it down and will soon demolish part of the system (the ticket barriers at the railway station), but still keeping some of it. And of course they have now also started to talk about a new system, this time requiring everyone to have a smartphone with them ( what will happen if your battery runs flat?).

0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reisekort

I think they did.[0]

[0] http://ing.dk/blog/hvorfor-man-ikke-kan-sammenligne-suborbit...

> What this means is that the major obstacles for going into space have been cleared (reliable engine, logistics around sea launch, active guidance) so the next launch will be Heat2x, which has the potential to reach an altitude of 130 km. Space starts at 100 km.

This seems to imply a ballistic trajectory. Still an impressive feat, but getting to orbital velocity seems to be as hard (if not harder), than getting to 100km.

"This seems to imply a ballistic trajectory"

To be fair, they are called Copenhagen Suborbitals.

IMHO Whatever they do seems unfeasibly cool to me...

Good point.

And it IS indeed one of the coolest things a human being can do - I'm quite envious.

I just wanted to make a point, so people don't start thinking that the next step is to strap a microsatellite on that thing :)

Wouldn't you still need to be able to retrieve the rocket? I mean it isn't a big issue that Sapphire rest on the bottom of the Baltic, but if Peter Madsen ends up there.

I'm very curious: How much did this all cost (I mean, without considering the time donated by volunteers)?

Their primary income is from the support organisation. It costs 100 Danish kroner a month (roughly $20) and there are around 700 members. So they live on roughly $14.000 a month, or $170.000 a year.

Needless to say there is a lot of ingenuity in costcutting, a lot of parts from home-depot....

Wow, this is even more impressive than the results imho. Kudos to you!

Even though the small budget is very impressive, we wouldn't mind to have more members in the support group. Ahem... :-) http://www.copenhagensuborbitals.com/

I don't know how reliable the estimate is but I have heard 10 million for the entire venture.

That is 10 million kroner, roughly 2 mill USD. I doubt NASA could do one launch for that amount of money.

What are the chances that CS would be open to publicly offering their schematics and blueprints for the open-source community?

http://copenhagensuborbitals.com/resources_downloads.php has a CAD files. Are you looking for something specific that isn't there?

I wasn't aware that the Arduino figured so prominently in their avionics!

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