Mads Wilson spends all his free time in Copenhagen Suborbitals headquarters on Refshaløgen.
The world’s largest amateur space project located in Copenhagen. If only a few years may Copenhagen Suborbitals become the first individuals who shoots up a man in space.
The Danish rymdraketens flight path. Click image for larger version.
Material from the theater decor and a builder, which are donated and found, has become a rocket launcher.
– The ultimate goal is to send up 80 kg Pork 100 kilometers up, and get it back to Earth alive. First, it is no doubt that it can be done, it is the second part that is tricky. In which case there will be no funny turn.
So says Mads Wilson when he receives the disused shipyard Refshaleøn in northern Copenhagen.
When we meet, it is only a couple weeks left until the very last test of Copenhagen Suborbitals most advanced rocket to date, before the real acid test will take place next summer. If all goes according to plan, the Heat 2X then pass Karma line at 100 km above the earth’s surface.
– Actually launch have already taken place , but we are waiting on a few parts missing. It is all the infrastructure around which takes time. The rocket we would probably be able to build in a few months, says Mads Wilson before we climb up the score that surrounds the barely eleven meters high and 1.7-ton rocket.
With Heat 2X is Copenhagen Suborbitals in its fifth rocket. It is the largest and heaviest project has fired since it was initiated by Peter Madsen and Kristian von Bengtson in 2008 predecessor Sapphire was launched in June last year, reaching just over 8 kilometers altitude, but was then lost due to an error when the parachute would be bailed out.
– Now it stands at the bottom of the Baltic Sea somewhere. We had not thought of the blasting agent we used to trigger it to not work at such low pressure. But now we have been looking at a junkyard and stole some old airbags and tested with them instead. It worked just fine, says Mads Wilson.
In a crowded cluttered hangar, which once was used to paint the ship, he shows up the earlier prototypes that have been tested over the years.
– we practice our way all the time. All this is museum material, he explains, pointing to a dented orange craft equipped with some unexpected elements: pilates balls and cartridges from the soda streams are materials that NASA might not directly be used in the construction of a spacecraft.
– but the principle is the same – and it works. When you land in the water, turn on the gas and then blowing up the balls and cartridges hold liquid rocket.
Huge amounts of money required to manage a project of this magnitude. They come from the monthly contributory support members and also from occasional larger donations. Also, the materials used are largely donated or bargains. As the example shows Mads Wilson the scaffolding as the Heat 2X now rests. It is made of cement blocks found in the yard debris piles. Other parts come from a theatrical backdrop donated by the Royal Theater, which is housed in a neighboring building.
But even if the funds are small, and they 40 members made up of volunteers who get involved outside of their full-time job, there is no doubt that the Copenhagen Suborbitals is a serious project.
– We have expertise in all different areas, it is a mixture. We have people from the Danish Technical University and the people who worked at companies that equips satellites. Our radio guys have been building the Danish Ørstedsatelliten, so there are people who know what they are doing. I hope, anyway, says Mads Wilson with a smile.
– All have in common that they have been doing amateur space in many years. In addition, there are some people who work professionally with space for everyday use that is with and helps us.
If everything proceeds as planned, the goal to postpone a person to be reached in five to six years, believes Mads Wilson. Then it will be in a different vehicle than the Heat 2X, which have no room for any man.
– Then we will have been the only amateur projects in the world that has done this. Sure, it’s crazy. But what if it succeeds
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