Desert Eccentric Launches Himself in his (Literally) Home-Made Rocket

[Yazata]

This 61-year-old self-taught 'rocket scientist' named "Mad" Mike Hughes built the rocket himself in his garage. The launch happened in the Mojave desert east of LA, in the tiny town of Amboy, just east of the Twenty-nine Palms Marine Corps Training Area.

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2018/03/25/...521995668/

Totally low-budget, one man's labor of love. NASA (or even SpaceX) this is not.

The rocket didn't even make it to 2,000 feet and his little capsule descended under a parachute. Our intrepid rocketman emerged bruised but otherwise ok.

The vehicle appears to have been powered by steam, with a valve to release the pressure in a rocket-like blast. Basically it looks like one of the Mythbusters' waterheater-rockets with fins, more controllable (it doesn't just launch explosively whenever the pressure vessel fails) and with a guy riding it.

A video is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_conti...UAHORcbvvQ

Why did he do it? He says to prove that the Earth is flat! (Why else would anyone launch a rocket? Well, Elon?) He certainly seems like he's one of those peculiar 'eccentrics' that seem to be strangely common out in the desert for some reason. (The kind of people who report being abducted by UFO aliens. I bet Mulder and Scully were watching.)

I have to say I love it.

[C C]

Thanks. I posted this about him back in January, and had forgotten completely about it. Amazed that he actually went through with it, much less survived.

https://www.scivillage.com/thread-4817-p...l#pid17529

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[Yazata]

Thanks. I posted this about him back in January, and had forgotten completely about it. Amazed that he actually went through with it, much less survived.

https://www.scivillage.com/thread-4817-p...l#pid17529

~

Apparently he's announced launch dates before this but scrubbed them. One time his truck broke down. Another time the Bureau of Land Management was giving him grief about permits.

If I had associated that post with this event, I would have posted the update to that thread.

[Magical Realist]

Well, did he prove the Earth is flat?

[C C]

Well, did he prove the Earth is flat?

Maybe a reason why the rocket was of the anemic sort, not designed to fly very high. He didn't want to witness too much of the Earth's curvature.

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[RainbowUnicorn]

Well, did he prove the Earth is flat?

Maybe a reason why the rocket was of the anemic sort, not designed to fly very high. He didn't want to witness too much of the Earth's curvature.

- - -

i suspect he had to form a moderate level of financing from the flat-earth folk otherwise they might smite his ruse to fnd his hobby.

that said.. liquid pressure thus size = critical volume to lift ratio etc...

[Yazata]

Well, that's all she wrote.

"Mad" Mike Hughes launched himself in his literally homemade rocket again yesterday. Apparently the parachute that he intended to descend under snagged on his back-of-a-truck launcher and ripped off. Mike's rocket veered sideways but still ascended pretty well, but then plummeted nose-first back into the earth without the parachute, and Mike was killed instantly. 

https://nypost.com/2020/02/23/mad-mike-h...-on-video/

Complete video here

https://twitter.com/justindchapman/statu...2175717376

https://www.foxnews.com/science/mad-mike...-in-mishap

https://www.dailybreeze.com/2020/02/22/d...r-barstow/

Hopefully the upcoming DM-2 mission has a better ending.

[Image: 694940094001_5662332666001_5662326516001...?ve=1&tl=1]

[Image: SBS-L-ROCKET-0223-1.jpg?w=863]

[Magical Realist]

Well, he died for science. I guess that's a noble enough cause.