Rockets of Doom From Carmack And Friends

Clark Lindsey writes: "John Carmack of Id Software fame has gotten deep into serious amateur rocketry. His Armadillo Aerospace web site gives regular status reports on the efforts of his team of mostly volunteers in building very low cost VTVL (Vertical Takeoff, Vertical Landing) hydrogen peroxide rocket vehicles. Last week he gave an impressive presentation at the Space Access Society meeting with a description of the progress made in their incremental development of remotely controlled vehicles that will eventually lead to a manned (suborbital) version."

The Space Access Society is worth checking out, anyhow, if you're interested in leaving earth without a NASA ticket -- their mission is to promote "to promote radically cheaper access to space, ASAP." The Armadillo Aerospace site also has one of the coolest-looking Linux machines I've seen yet, but there's no accounting for taste.