Project I.N.V.A.D.E.R. -- thoughts

[Jeff Miller]

http://www.thunderchaser.com/invaderproject.html

Comments?

I received a post concerning this on the weather forum that I co-admin. I thought it would be interesting to post this here and see what all of the stormchase community makes of these "tornado seeking rocket scientists"

Jeff

 

[Mickey Ptak]

Has someone not already tried this before? I think I have read about this type off thing before. Hmmm... It didn't work though from what I understand.

Mick

 

[Kiel Ortega]

Originally posted by Mickey Ptak
Has someone not already tried this before? I think I have read about this type off thing before. Hmmm... It didn't work though from what I understand.

Mick

I think in the 70s an NSSL scientist used his own plane to try lauching rockets...and had bad results. I didn't see anything about what instruments they have in the rocket...anyone know more?

Or are they just tracking the rocket through the tornado?

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

Several issues.

A) No instruments? What's the point other than trying to shoot a rocket into a tornado.

B) These are large rockets. Anything over 1lb requires a notice to airmen at the nearest airport for FAA purposes. This must be submitted 24 hours prior to launch I believe. How do you swing that? (In fairness though, no one will be flying near a tornado hopefully!)

Aaron

 

[Kiel Ortega]

Originally posted by Aaron Kennedy
Several issues.

A) No instruments? What's the point other than trying to shoot a rocket into a tornado.

B) These are large rockets. Anything over 1lb requires a notice to airmen at the nearest airport for FAA purposes. This must be submitted 24 hours prior to launch I believe. How do you swing that? (In fairness though, no one will be flying near a tornado hopefully!)

Aaron

True...but we witnessed several aircraft around the Ulysses storm while the tornado was on the ground.

 

[Mickey Ptak]

Originally posted by Kiel Ortega


True...but we witnessed several aircraft around the Ulysses storm while the tornado was on the ground.

I can second that. Although I was not on that storm I was on the cell just 20 miles north of it. I saw at least one plane circling around in the clear slot. I did not know if they were performing tests or seeding (<spelling?). That should have been my first clue to go south.

Back on topic… Getting a rocket into the tornado is going to hard enough. I would like to see how far this goes though. Probably not past testing.

Mick

 

[Justin Walker]

Originally posted by Kiel Ortega


True...but we witnessed several aircraft around the Ulysses storm while the tornado was on the ground.

I noticed the same thing Kiel, saw two different planes flying alternating figure 8's around the storm...but not through it.

Also, I looked at their website and found video of lead forecaster/chaser, James Covington, in the video he radioed someone and asked if the tornado was coming towards him....Huh??? Lead forecaster doesn't know the motion of a storm he is chasing??? Seems funny to me! Also he says he sees multiple tornados, up to three. But I think he's confusing those with flanking line CRAP, one of them is just scud. Oh well...the video link is on the page...check it out and see what you think.

 

[Chris Foltz]

I can just see the headline now. One of the news helicopters from OKC gets shot down by a rocket on live TV while showing a large tornado on the ground out west of Yukon :wink:

 

[Ben Cotton]

Originally posted by Aaron Kennedy
B) These are large rockets. Anything over 1lb requires a notice to airmen at the nearest airport for FAA purposes. This must be submitted 24 hours prior to launch I believe. How do you swing that? (In fairness though, no one will be flying near a tornado hopefully!)

Simple, just send out a blanket NOTAM to every airport in the SLGT or SEE TEXT areas. If Tornado Fighters can be there on time, certainly the I.N.V.A.D.E.R. Project can. I'm personally inclined to laugh at this. If it fails, I'll feel justified. On the other hand, it might end up being quite succesful, in which case I'll eat my words. Sometimes its hard to tell if something is crazy or just ahead of its time...


Ben

 

[Justin Walker]

Originally posted by Chris Foltz
I can just see the headline now. One of the news helicopters from OKC gets shot down by a rocket on live TV while showing a large tornado on the ground out west of Yukon :wink:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Thats what rockets that size will get them!!

 

[Mike_French]

Originally posted by Aaron Kennedy
Several issues.

A) No instruments? What's the point other than trying to shoot a rocket into a tornado.

This is exactly what I thought.

1. They seemed so concerned with getting the rocket into the tornado when the dynamics of how it flies will probably radically change if/when instruments are put on it.

2. At their website, they don't even mention future plans that include instrumentation.

3. They say this about Tim Samaras:

"Two stormchasers, Tim Samaras and Brad Carter, recently succeeded with the deployment of the "In-Situ Tornado Probes" and recorded valuable data, but this method remains very dangeous and risky. Anything could go wrong- the tornado could move in too fast and catch the chasers, the vehicle could break down stranding the chasers in the path of the tornado, or who knows what else could go wrong. In the online video of the In-Situ Tornado Probe deployment, you can hear one chaser telling the other in a nervous tone to "hurry up...we have to go" (before the tornado arrives at their location). The purpose of the I.N.V.A.D.E.R. system is to greatly reduce the risk while providing a more reliable deployment method."

Are we supposed to believe that launching a rocket into a tornado at 480 mph is safer than what Tim Samaras is doing?

All of it seems a bit suspect to me...

 

[Darren Addy]

Originally posted by Chris Foltz
I can just see the headline now. One of the news helicopters from OKC gets shot down by a rocket on live TV while showing a large tornado on the ground out west of Yukon :wink:

Well, if it is SWEEPS week, it's all good. :wink:

Darren Addy
Kearney, NE

 

[Darren Addy]

I see that the Project I.N.V.A.D.E.R. Rocket Designer/Stunt Man has a "motorcycle jumping ministry". I don't believe I've ever seen those words together before. :?

Darren Addy
Kearney, NE

 

[Thomas Loades]

If their rockets are made of plastic, they might get a little closer, provided there's little debris, to the tornado than the last rocket attempts — they were by Sterling Colgate of the NSF in 1981–2, and they failed because the rockets were made of paper (the FAA wouldn't class them as a lethal weapon that way), and the fins fell off when wet.

Of course, maybe this is just this year's laser guy.

 

[Chris Sokol]

Originally posted by Aaron Kennedy
(In fairness though, no one will be flying near a tornado hopefully!)

You forget about Ranger 9 and Chopper 4. Maybe we should just put an instrument package on them instead.