Dear all,

The Brazilian N-Prize team "Núcleo Tecnológico do Agreste" (NTA) have announced a launch date of 29th July 2012 for their N-Prize attempt. They are planning to use a very high-altitude balloon platform, from which they will launch a rocket, with a final cannon device to insert their satellite into orbit. Further details (for those of you who speak Portuguese!) are can be found here.

[url]http://brazilianspace.blogspot.com.br/2012/05/confirmado-lancamento-do-luna-1n-prize.html
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I'm still waiting for clarification as regards satellite tracking and some other details - watch this space!

Paul

If I understand the NTA website correctly, they plan on using a helium balloon to lift the rocket to 70 km, and then fire a rocket to reach 100 km. At 100 km, they would fire a cannon conaining 150 ml of alcohol plus oxygen to reach orbital velocity. It seems like they will have to overcome several hurdles:

Hurdle #1: Break the existing balloon world altitude record of 53 km by a margin of 32%
Hurdle #2: Achieve an additional altitude of 30 km with a rocket for a total height of 100 km
Hurdle #3: Fire a cannon at 100 km that will accelerate a 10 to 20 gram payload to orbital velocity
Hurdle #4: Achieve an oribital velocity that will permit 9 orbits with a perigee of 100 km without exceeding escape velocity
Hurdle #5: Create a 10 to 20 gram payload that can survive the acceleration to orbital velocity in a fraction of a second, and be detectable from the earth's surface

Outstanding!
Many things that could go wrong but I applaud their initiative and wish them success where others have failed to even get this far.
Records are meant to be broken and I hope they smash this one.
GO NTA

Rick

Any updates from the Brazilian team? Their N-Prize attempt is coming up in about 2 weeks.

Any word?