Inventor Connections – Connect Press

Rocket Racing!

By John Myers, ConnectPress Staff Writer
URL: http://www.inventorconnections.com/feature_full.php?
cpfeatureid=17405
January 10, 2007

In the middle of the desert there's a long strip of black asphalt, painted with a white line. In a moment the tranquil desert air will be disrupted by an explosion of heat and sound. What looks like a cross between a space shuttle and an F-14 fighter jet rockets down the runway.

The airplane climbs banks and maneuvers following an invisible track, racing against time toward its destination. Moments later a second airplane will take off in hot pursuit racing against the clock.

Welcome to Rocket Racing, a competition in which high powered jets, called X-racers, travel at outrageous speeds to complete a three-dimensional race course in the sky. Instead of burning rubber around a brick-and-mortar track the racers use a cockpit mounted heads-up-display (HUD) to race around a virtual track that not only requires racers to make turns at high speeds but also climb and descend through virtual gates that are super-imposed onto their cockpit HUD.

Rocket racing is the brain child of Peter Diamandis and Granger Whitelaw. Diamandis is the founder of the X-prize Foundation, which offers private grants to competitors in various scientific fields like aeronautics and genetics. Whitelaw is a founder and managing director of a consulting firm for technologically progressive companies.

"Rocket Racing is just like Indy or F-1 racing except in the sky and with a 300-pound engine," says Whitelaw. "It's a combination of extreme sports and racing all wrapped into one."

Each X-racer uses a liquid oxygen and kerosene rocket engine designed to burn for four minutes and then give the pilot enough thrust to glide for several more minutes before needing to refuel.

Rocket racing was born after a late-night brainstorming session between Diamandis and Whitelaw, inspired by a trip to a NASCAR race.

"Rocket racing was formed by myself and Peter Diamandis. Peter was working on the X-prize foundation while I was involved in racing Indy cars. I took Peter to the Indy 500 and after he saw the crowd he looks at me and says 'we have to do this with rockets somehow.' After a couple late-night sessions we realized we had hatched out what would become the rocket racing," says Whitelaw.

Both Diamandis and Whitelaw say they created rocket racing for three reasons: to create a profitable business, to create what they call "a truly 21st century sport, and to motivate advancements in space and aeronautics.

"Some great technology can come from this. If you look at Formula-1 and Indy racing, both of those sports have been test beds for the major OEMS like Ford, Firestone, Ferrari, and Toyota. They spend billions a year to test their new technologies in high heat, high stress, and repetitive conditions with professional feedback. Something like this has never been available in the aviation industry. There is no place where new technology like this is being tested. So the interests are wide, varied and deep," says Whitelaw.

Whitelaw cites the development of the HUD or augmented reality display that is used to create the virtual track for the pilots. In rocket racing the HUD is used to show pilots the gates they need to fly through to complete the track. Outside of rocket racing the display system could be used to help guide pilots to a landing strip or regulate air traffic patterns.

Whitelaw says he believes Rocket Racing will open up many ripe opportunities for commercial exploitation.

"There are multiple revenue streams, ticket sales, concessions, broadcast TV rights, IMAX or reality TV rights, gaming properties, advertising, and sponsorship," says Whitelaw.

Diamandis says there are plans to create an online videogame based on rocket racing. The game would allow players to superimpose their virtual racer over footage of live races allowing players to race against the professionals.

He says he expects to build a cottage industry around rocket racing. "In the same way 100s of companies have migrated to Indianapolis and around the various NASCAR headquarters, we expect companies to follow us. Because they want to be where the action is."

He goes on to say, eventually Rocket Racing will build an industry around testing, manufacturing and design in the aerospace industry.

"We're trying to bring the aerospace industry into the 21st century. Aerospace has gotten stuck in the way of doing business as the military-industrial-complex. Because it is a military operation it is inefficient, expensive and political. We're not trying to revolutionize it, we just want to bring it up to the standards of the rest of the world," says Diamandis.

Diamandis also has a very personal reason for creating rocket racing. He wants to relive a childhood dream of bringing space exploration back to the forefront of public discourse.

"Bringing space exploration back to public consciousness has been my dream since I was nine years old," says Diamandis. He says he hopes to use the revenue generated from rocket racing to fund other private space-based endeavors.

"By 1992 we were supposed to have gone back to the Moon and Mars. None of these things have happened. Today there has been very little development in rockets. Rocket engines were developed in the 1950 and 60s as ICBMs. So I gave up on the government. I started looking for ways to base the commercialization of space on tourism and entertainment. Somebody is going to do the first private reality show about going into orbit or the moon and it will capture a huge amount of attention," he says.

"What rocket racing can really do is bring a cadre of thinkers to work on low cost reusable engines. Having low-cost and efficient engines is one of the first requirements for going into space. Another thing rocket racing will do is make space exciting for kids like when I was younger" says Diamandis. "My mission is to bring the space frontier back the public. I want to be one of the first private explorers to land on the moon," he says.

Whitelaw says the first race is scheduled for the end of third-quarter 2007. "We will bring out grandstands and there will be a 50-foot Astrovision. The audience will be right there as the racers take off," he says.

"This is a 21st century sport for 21st century people," says Whitelaw.

Special thanks to readers George Raskulinecz and Cliff O'Connell for pointing out that the racers should run on fuel derived from liquid oxygen not nitrogen.

John Myers is a ConnectPress Editor/Reporter who holds a BA in Journalism and Media Arts from the University of New Mexico and is an avid gamer and high-tech enthusiast.
Published 12/19/2006 00:00:00 ConnectPress, Ltd © 2007