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Tales Of A Flat Earth

Schrodinger's Zebra said:
I must admit it's not the sort of thing I would normally watch. I assumed, (wrongly I now realise) from the twitter tag, that it was simply a 'text post' as it were. (I don't 'do' twitter).

Really wish I hadn't now, anyway.
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Sorry, I'm sounding judgemental, but there's a reason why, I dunno, Islamic State beheading videos were a meme fairly recently. Morbid curiosity generates as many clicks as fanatic enjoyment.
 
GNC said:
So the flat Earth theory claims a life, doesn't seem so funny now. At least the video of his death will get millions of views. It's what he would have wanted.
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Nonsense ! He's a martyr for the cause ! He died for his beliefs ! Stupid STUPID STUPID beliefs!
 
Mythopoeika said:
... Why did the parachute come off straight away?
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I've been looking for clues on how the parachutes were attached to the earlier (version of this? ... ) rocket used in the prior launch and how they may have been positioned / attached in this latest version.

On the earlier version, there were two large bags (my guess = the parachutes per se) side by side on a sort of tray in the rear of the dorsal side of the rocket. This tray-thing spanned the dorsal quarter of the rear nozzle area, and it was therefore adjacent to the main exhaust nozzle. The nozzle ran slightly "beneath", and was aimed so as to miss, this tray-thing.

There were also 2 cylindrical canisters tethered to these bags (1 canister per bag). The canisters were separately mounted to either side of the nozzle (seen from a dorsal view) and slightly "above" and "outboard" relative to the bags on the tray-thing. My guess is that these canisters held the coiled lines attaching the parachutes to the rocket vehicle's rear.

After reviewing the previous flight video and this fatal one, I think something went wrong from the very beginning. The rocket rolls (rotates around its long axis) immediately upon leaving the launching platform and begins to turn away from a straight flight path. Neither this rolling nor so much turning is apparent in the previous flight.

The exhaust plume also seems significantly more violent and voluminous on this latest launch.

My first guess is that something broke or was breached in or around the main rocket exhaust nozzle upon launch, taking the flight out of control and blowing away one or both parachutes packs. If the same joint tray-mount was used for both chutes, the whole set may have been blown off at cone (though I can't see the additional debris I would expect).

On the previous flight one of these chutes deployed, with the other opening a bit later. AFAIK both chutes were manually activated by Hughes himself.

If my guess is right, Hughes may not have had any chutes available to deploy when this most recent flight turned back toward the ground.

Given what appears to be the greater violence and twisting of this last launch, there's a chance Hughes was injured or incapacitated early on.
 
Here's a cropped photo illustrating the parachute mounting / arrangement on the original rocket prototype.

MMHughes-Chutes.jpg
 
Here's a photo of the rocket used in the 2018 flight. As you can see, the rear area has been reconfigured. The canisters are now nestled inside the rear "cage" even closer to the exhaust nozzle.

Mad-mike-hughes-USA-flat-earth-steam-powered-rocket-California-conspiracy-NASA-1222685.jpg

NOTE: I'm not certain whether the chutes were stowed in the canisters or in bags as illustrated in the early prototype photo.
 
Here's a photo of the rocket's descent during the 2018 flight, with both chutes deployed. The big grey main chute deployed first, and the darker greenish one deployed later (see the video of the 2018 flight).

I take it the larger grey chute was the primary, and the dark greenish one was the secondary.

The debris blowing off the rear during yesterday's fatal launch seems to be (or include) the darker greenish secondary chute (if he re-used the chutes).

mad-mike-2018.jpg
 
EnolaGaia said:
Here's a photo of the rocket used in the 2018 flight. As you can see, the rear area has been reconfigured. The canisters are now nestled inside the rear "cage" even closer to the exhaust nozzle.


NOTE: I'm not certain whether the chutes were stowed in the canisters or in bags as illustrated in the early prototype photo.
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That's even worse. That thing looks like a flying coffin even without the hindsight of actual events.
 
I'm having trouble locating a good photo illustrating the rocket's rear end configuration and equipment for this latest / last flight.

Here's a photo of the rocket ascending as / after the chute breaks away ...

MMHughes-Flite-A.jpg

​
Two things stand out for me in this photo ...

First, there's obviously other debris separating from the rocket in addition to the parachute per se. The two pieces I can discern may be part of the chute system.

More importantly (IMHO) ... There obviously appears to be an asymmetry in the exhaust plume, with a secondary(?) plume spewing out on the dorsal / port side. This reinforces my initial suspicion there was something that broke or was breached in or at the rocket exhaust.
 
You might have heard about this.

Michael Hughes died after the safety parachute in the rocket he made, and was flying inside, ripped off immediately after launch.


He made a launch before, and was in

I am not stressing the angle of he being a flat-earther, derisively like in all news reports, because he wanted to test his beliefs, like a true Fortean would do, and died for it.

Here, a link to one of several news stories available:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tech...dies-during-rocket-launch-attempt/ar-BB10jkSc

Rest in peace, Mr. Hughes.
 
Pity, maybe, but not respect. He may have been scamming the "believers" for all we know.
 
packshaud said:
You might have heard about this.

Michael Hughes died after the safety parachute in the rocket he made, and was flying inside, ripped off immediately after launch.


He made a launch before, and was in

I am not stressing the angle of he being a flat-earther, derisively like in all news reports, because he wanted to test his beliefs, like a true Fortean would do, and died for it.

Here, a link to one of several news stories available:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tech...dies-during-rocket-launch-attempt/ar-BB10jkSc

Rest in peace, Mr. Hughes.
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This has been discussed on the flat Earth thread.

Edit: Threads since merged - Yith
 
Yes, exactly.

"That was a PR stunt we dreamed up.” - quote from Hughes' PR. He just pretended to go along with the flat Earth theory to turn a profit. There's such a thing as taking a joke too far.
 
Possibly a worthy tangent: Hughes was being filmed by the Science Channel for a show called Homemade Astronauts.

Hughes used scientific knowledge to build his devices and yet ignored basic tenets in order to garner attention for himself. Shame on the Discovery Channel (parent co.) and the flat earth community for promoting this idiocy. It reached the ultimate denouement. I'd bet they cash in on it. Sickening.
 
Sharon Hill said:
He was quite old. Done reproducing. The Darwin Award thing is just dreadful crap all around.
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If by dreadful crap you mean horribly morbid but hilarious, then yeah. People die every day, but some manage to do so in the most outrageous ways, and that deserves at least as much public attention as Florida Man. If I were to die like some of the Darwin Award winners, I would never begrudge the public the right to have a chuckle at my expense. Everyone is going to die, but most people will die in boring ways; we should celebrate those head scratchingly amazing alternatives to the poor suckers who quietly pass in nursing homes, just as we honor those who die in war to protect our way of life. Plus the Darwin Awards are quite educational on a number of levels.
 
AlchoPwn said:
... Everyone is going to die, but most people will die in boring ways; we should celebrate those head scratchingly amazing alternatives to the poor suckers who quietly pass in nursing homes, just as we honor those who die in war to protect our way of life. Plus the Darwin Awards are quite educational on a number of levels.
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Agreed ... Let's not lose sight of the fact that Mad Mike Hughes had a long career as a stunt performer in the Evel Knievel tradition of clearly dangerous and arguably foolhardy escapades.

He wasn't a lifelong Flat Earther who moved into daredevilry; he was a daredevil who allied himself with Flat Earthers (at least at face value; see PR rep's comments cited above) to further his career.

Professional daredevils are de facto Darwin Award contestants by definition ...
 
EnolaGaia said:
Agreed ... Let's not lose sight of the fact that Mad Mike Hughes had a long career as a stunt performer in the Evel Knievel tradition of clearly dangerous and arguably foolhardy escapades. He wasn't a lifelong Flat Earther who moved into daredevilry; he was a daredevil who allied himself with Flat Earthers (at least at face value; see PR rep's comments cited above) to further his career. Professional daredevils are de facto Darwin Award contestants by definition ...
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I completely agree with all of this. Mr Hughes was effectively making himself a career out of being a jackass.
 
AlchoPwn said:
I completely agree with all of this. Mr Hughes was effectively making himself a career out of being a jackass.
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That’s his prerogative, for sure.
But the Darwin Awards have f*** all to do with Darwin and his ideas. I’d bet he would hate it. Also, many “award” winners have a complicated story we don’t get from the media. Call me humorless, but I don’t find human tragedies funny.
 
Sharon Hill said:
Possibly a worthy tangent: Hughes was being filmed by the Science Channel for a show called Homemade Astronauts.

Hughes used scientific knowledge to build his devices and yet ignored basic tenets in order to garner attention for himself. Shame on the Discovery Channel (parent co.) and the flat earth community for promoting this idiocy. It reached the ultimate denouement. I'd bet they cash in on it. Sickening.
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At least he earned him self an Darwin Award for his stupidity in trying proof the earth is flat.
 
Sharon Hill said:
That’s his prerogative, for sure. But the Darwin Awards have f*** all to do with Darwin and his ideas. I’d bet he would hate it.
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I beg to differ. Evolution by natural selection can indeed include individuals who take themselves out of the gene pool thru stupid acts. Given that humanity is supposed to have risen above other competing species due to our intelligence, it is pertinent indeed to see individuals who don't use that native ability weeding themselves out.

As to what Darwin would find funny, given he was an avid hunter and had a fondness for character driven comedy, I think you are wrong about him hating the idea, given that a good many of the Darwin awards are about American "characters" having bizarre hunting accidents.

Sharon Hill said:
Also, many “award” winners have a complicated story we don’t get from the media. Call me humorless, but I don’t find human tragedies funny.
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Are you kidding me? You wouldn't have given two shakes of a fetid dingo's kidney for most of the winners when they were alive, and likely would have crossed the street to avoid them, out of sheer fear. However, now they are dead, you want to pretend you are all compassionate? Pure cancel culture virtue signalling, and humorless to boot.
 
Sharon Hill said:
That’s his prerogative, for sure.
But the Darwin Awards have f*** all to do with Darwin and his ideas. I’d bet he would hate it. Also, many “award” winners have a complicated story we don’t get from the media. Call me humorless, but I don’t find human tragedies funny.
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Opinions vary Sharon.

I think that anyone who allows the general public to think that they are blasting of, to a height of 500 metres, in a steam powered rocket, to verify that the Earth is flat, is a nong.

I also see a man who was doing very questionable stuff for all the wrong reasons who finally went too far. (No pun intended.)
 
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