Da Vinci Project Leader Explains Differences Between Tests And True Launch

(This exchange appears on the Ansari X-Prize message board...)

Dear Da Vinci Project staff,

I’ve been a fan of your X-Prize project team for years, and I am sorry to hear about your recent problems securing a filament winder.

I thought I should mention, that there has been something of a hostile reaction to DVP lately, even on the X-Prize’s own message board, from many who feel, perhaps justifiably, that you have been misleading to the public, by using, among other things, imagery of a diving suit prototype model suggestively as a space suit, images of a rocket firing that was not developed by your team, a scale test of a balloon that is not even made of the same material as the one to be used at launch.

I realize that a degree of secrecy is necessary in such a project, but it does begin to seem as if there isn’t a lot of evidence to support that Wildfire Mk VI is anything more than a ploy on behalf of Golden Palace. I hope that isn’t true. I for one, would like to be able to purchase a ticket on your craft in a few years. It’s something worth saving for, I think. At the same time, its improbable to believe that if this were a planned manned launch, that none of the major components have been tested to date. Was the Kindersly launch ever actually a serious concern?

My request may sound audacious, but I wonder if you would be able to take a minute out of your busy schedule and address current developments on the X-Prize message board. I know that John Carmack from Armadillo did this and it enlightened every reader.

Barring that, would it be possible to see some actual images or at least reports on DaVinci testing to date? With Scaled’s successful launch today, it doesn’t appear that there would be anything to loose by doing so. I am posting this as an open letter.

Feeney's Reply

Hello Everyone,

I would like to take a few minutes to describe the current state of our program and launch initiative.

In general we are close to making a final commitment to a new launch date. The team had a lot of courage to go forward with a competitive bid with our funding from Golden Palace.com having only been put into place the first week of August (the beginning of our 60 day notice). Specifically we have been tripped up by only a few long lead time parts that we were not able to get on time.

I’ll make no apology for stepping out there. We knew we had an uphill battle and almost everything went as we needed it to. Many companies have stepped up to help in the final effort. We are a tenacious team (all volunteer) and not afraid to step out there. We new we had to complete a monumental effort in a short period of time. That was and is being made. We came very close. I was the last one to be convinced that a temporary hold had to be initiated. As long as a race is on I’ll give no ground and fight, inspire the team to over achieve, exceed there own limitations.

Some specifics:

The recent test launch of the scaled balloon. Someone said it was not the flight material we are going to use. Yes and no. The test balloon was polyethylene at 0.75 mils thickness. The flight balloon is 4.5 mils thick.

We deliberately went with the same material but much thinner to test the stresses. The surface area of the test balloon and the payload were matched to the larger balloon. The test was a complete success and gave us increased confidence knowing that the larger balloon was a thicker material. Ground testing of the material has stressed it to double the load of the rocket 9000 lbs (test was 18,000 lbs of stress on 0.75 mil and it held together!

Some people have suggested our throwing our hat in was a Golden Palace media ploy. Not in the least. This is a serious effort with a lot of dedicated people working long days, 7 days a week. We’ve come a long way in a short period of time. The folks at Golden Palace.com we’re in the shop last week and are committed to the project through the 2 flights even if the X Prize is won. If Burt is successful in his second flight and wins the X-Prize prior to us completing our flights, we will still fly and do so a soon as safely can be done. Our time frame is still inside October. A new date will not be posted until we have arrived in Kindersley. Internally we have a target.

The da Vinci Project has been a composite effort of hundreds of people over the past 8 years - more than 150,000 man hours of engineering. Capital held us back on turning most of that into final hardware. We initially we’re going to go with the Microcosm liquid engines, but in the end found them too expensive. I’ve never let money or anything else be an excuse not to get the project done. Much of what is on the site now reflects the heritage of the project.

Microcosm agreed to let the engines remain on the site as a background to where we were. Technical info on the site describes (in general) the hybrid engine system we are using). One of the people that has been involved on a add hoc consulting basis for the hybrid engine has been Korey Kline of eAc - competitive supplier (but lost) of Burt’s engine. The entire engine system though has been developed internally from the building of nozzle tools, through ground thrust structure testing etc. Anthony Cesaroni provided early advice as well, though that was over a year ago.

Similarly the balloon team is a composite effort with expertise and advice from Raven, Per Lindstrand and Cameron balloons. At the end of the day, we chose also to build this on our own due to the limitations on available funding. Expert consultants are applied where necessary. The entire tether system including back up releases etc is engineered and built by Barrie Cordage of Montreal, one of the best in the industry.

Our RCS system is a combination of internal capability and one of our competitor teams that stepped in to help us out.

Avionics

We had a flight simulator and altitude predictor operating over a year ago. An off the shelf integrated INS / GPS was not in the budget, so we purchased an off the shelf IMU, received 5 GPS units free (COCOM limits removed) and engineered our own integrated system. Some last minute work is still in process to debug. Again, we’ve done this all internally -volunteers.

The space suit - hard diving suit was an early idea and donation. It was not suitable in the end, but remained as it reflected the commitment of what people were prepared to do for the project. The flight suit is a soft variety developed internally from an existing suit (heavily modified by someone who worked in the field with DCIEM for 30 years.

On August we had a roll out and gave a glimpse of the rocket which was still under construction. At the moment all the thermal protection is on, painted, seats in etc with multiple systems still being installed. The all important parachute system is a combined effort of the folks at BRS and one of the most impressive people I’ve ever met in the field of high speed drogue deployment chutes and rigging.

I could go on an on but have to run. What I will say though is we are committed to fly. We have a very competitive effort that is out of sync with Burt by a relatively short period of time. We never had the financial resources he had, but have matched him on technical prowess. We’ve stayed the course through incredible barriers - as have many of the teams and will hold that course until we fly - which should be this month. Until we prove ourselves, it is all concept to everyone on the outside.

The one thing which may add an element of credibility if you wish though is the process we went through to get the government approval and insurance. The approval process was finished on April 7 but could not be issued until the insurance was bought and in place. That has occurred. The insurance for the 2 flights is fully secured. Both the X Prize and government of Canada have received the proper docs and we should be in receipt of the flight approval shortly. That process both government and Insurance is extremely thorough. No amount of promotion will get you through it. It was a first for us and a team that did not have the heritage Burt had, yet we succeeded. Our April 7th successful completion of the evaluation just 6 days after Burt’s FAA approval says something. Money for the policy though was not available until Golden Palace came on board. The remaining time was insurance processing.

Thanks for your questions/observations.

Cheers,
Brian

FMI: www.xprize.org/messageboard