Mad Mike's Steam Rocket Ready for Lift Off , Possibly on Saturday, Aug. 17.

To be fair Mike was due for lift off yesterday but a faulty water heater forced it to be postponed , obviously the water heater is a crucial component in a steam powered rocket so no steam no launch , nevertheless Mike is preparing for lift off this weekend.

In 2018 Mike made it up as far as 1,875 ft but this year he's aiming for 5,000 ft in this his latest attempt to discover if the Earth is indeed round or as some would contend .... flat.

Here's a 6 minute video of Mike's launch last year.


I wish Mike all the best for his latest flight to infinity and beyond and hope the launch and landing go to plan , I salute his spirit and tenacity and think Mike is probably the great great grandfather of the still to be born Zefram Cochrane.

Good luck Mike.

Gotta give the guy props for guts and persistence. Sadly, even if he comes back with incontrovertible evidence that the earth is indeed round, the rest of the flat-earthers will write if off as fakery, he's turned shill, corrupted data, etc.

S&F for this OP Hope to see the follow-up.

originally posted by: Subrosabelow
Gotta give the guy props for guts and persistence. Sadly, even if he comes back with incontrovertible evidence that the earth is indeed round, the rest of the flat-earthers will write if off as fakery, he's turned shill, corrupted data, etc.

Sadly some people are nothing without thier chosen belief systems so to admit they may be wrong can cause an acute crisis of identity and self worth.
Obviously they want to avoid this pain, so they will go to any lengths to reinforce, promote and justify the ludicrous and will fiercely reject and attack anything that undermines their beliefs, no matter how obvious, well articulated and repeatedly stated the actual truth is.

a reply to: gortex

First off, it's cool as hell to launch a rocket with steam as a propellant.
Science is fun..

But as a method to discover anything about flat earth theory is stupid.
If you truly want to see the round earth use a balloon or an airplane..

When people ask “what’s so special about Americans?”

When you’re dumb enough to think the earth is flat, but just smart enough to build your own personal rocket to go find out for yourself! Haha! Gotta love this place.

a reply to: gortex

Dudes risking his life for nothing.

I think he needs to hit at least 35,000 ft with no clouds in his view in order to spot the curvature.

I wanted to prove it last summer to post the pictures here.

So I sent my fixed-wing drone up 5 km (Max allowable elevation with its current transmitter) and still couldn't see it.

Then I read that I was a little less than half way to the alt. needed to see the curvature - 10,600. meters.

a reply to: gortex

I'm shocked at how much of a following "Flat Earth" has at this point..

Many proponents for the theory claim NASA only uses fisheye lenses when filming at high altitude to make the earth appear as a globe.

They also say that the "horizon should descend as you get higher in our atmosphere if the earth is truly a globe, but it doesn't and always remains at eye-level."

And my favorite, "Water always finds its level. Water does not bend and stay bent. There is no observable scientific physical evidence of constant bending masses of oceans, lakes, canals, etc., which is why it's called sea level" (so water should not be bending around the globe? I don't even really get that argument...

How do flat earthers explain high and low tides, gravity, or any other number of observable tangibles we see and feel on a regular basis?

a reply to: Macenroe82

He's chasing a dream , can't knock him for that.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: gortex

First off, it's cool as hell to launch a rocket with steam as a propellant.
Science is fun..

But as a method to discover anything about flat earth theory is stupid.
If you truly want to see the round earth use a balloon or an airplane..

agreed, that is really cool... but really dumb.
Hot air baloons will go to 20,000 feet that I know of.
Planes cruise at what 35,000. all day long?

Hell, a balloon you'll even be up there a while... and not trying to figure out if you're about to die from a free-fall after using a steam powered rocket

If he hits the altitude required to see the curvature of the earth via a home-built steam powered rocket, that's an impressive achievement on its own.

And he could very well drift on the way down, and become the only person to "storm area 51".

All jokes aside, i wish him a safe flight and descent.

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: Macenroe82

He's chasing a dream , can't knock him for that.

Even if he was trying to prove the earth was no bigger than his home town, I applaud him for doing something rather than crying like a school girl and wanting others to do things for him. If more folks who parrot these fringe ideas were like this guy, there would be a whole lot less of them, as they would find the answers they seek on their own.

Hopefully he designed some better parchatues this time. He probably just recovered from the last time.

I'm under the impression he's just making use of dumb people for their money so he can accomplish his actual goal: to play with home made rockets.
The flat earth thing is just to milk the useful idiots

Good for him, I guess.

As for getting to the altitude to see the curvature of the earth... well google says it's hard at 7 miles up- but I'm in New England and all you really need to do is hike a mountain on a clear day.
edit:
A mountain near the ocean on a clear day. Looking out over the land like this guy is I imagine it's hard telling.

a reply to: gortex


Awesome!

Kennedy had a dream to land a man on the moon in a decade. MLK had a dream and his eyes have seen the glory of The Promised Land.

And for the trifecta, a steam powered rocket and may, or maybe not, flat-earther doing something TDL would never do, try to head towards space!

The landing is going to be physically hard. Hope he makes it out alive! "Look ma! No Naruto Running necessary!!"

"Dude's risking his life for nothing."

No, he's a media whore--that is how he finances his wacky dreams.

True science happens in anonymity.

Crazy whacky goofs like that guy are interesting. I was talking to an author about his story and sent him one of that guy's videos for reference since he was making a steampunk military civilization. It is good to have reference material.

Did anyone else notice in that video that the second chute almost didn't deploy? He even mentions at the end. That must have been scary.

Area fifty seven is here to stay.

At least they are doing something interesting down there. The event needs a rock band and big BBQ grill with a roasted pig or two. Lots of beer and a big potluck.

Well, you could just look at the moon and ask yourself why the earth would be flat if the moon is a ball. Which it clearly is because you can see that just by looking at the shadows. Or observing any kind of eclipse and doing the math. Or watching a planet traverse the sky.