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It all started with 80 light bulbs stringed on a tree in New York City
With the popularity of electrification in the early 20th century, decorative light bulbs, such as this double-sided doll head from 1925, became popular.
In most parts of the world, December is a brightly lit month. Whether it is a religious celebration or a secular celebration, in recent years, driven by cheap and colorful LEDs and compact electronic products, the types and functions of lights have exploded. Homeowners can illuminate the eaves with iridescent icicles, cover their shrubs with shimmering nets, or install giant candlesticks on their minivans.
But decorative lights are not new. On December 22, 1882, Edward H. Johnson, vice president of the Edison Electric Light Company, lighted up 80 hand-wired bulbs on a tree in the living room of his New York City home, when he introduced the electric Christmas lights for the first time. Johnson chose red, white and blue light bulbs and installed the tree on a rotating box. As William Croft reported in the Detroit Post and Tribune, as the tree turns, the lights flicker and dim, creating a "flickering dance color." (Croffut's description and many other wonderful facts about the history of decorative lights can be found on the Old Christmas Tree Lights website.)
Two years later, Johnson's growing performance caught the attention of The New York Times. His tree now has 120 lights and more colors. He also "burned" a fire in the fireplace; in fact, it was colored paper illuminated by electric lights from below.
Regarding the possibility of electricity, Johnson is both an early adopter, a performer, and a propagandist. But the Christmas lights at the time were not completely practical, because most households were not powered on yet. Lighting must be wired manually, and bulbs or sockets are not standardized. In the next few decades, decorative lights were still the playthings of wealthy elites.
In 1903, GE introduced the first batch of pre-wired lamp holders, which shocked the home decoration industry.
At the same time, manufacturers continue to introduce new products. In 1890, the Edison Lighting Company began advertising for miniature incandescent lamps, which could be woven into garlands or used to decorate Christmas trees. An advertisement from General Electric in 1900 (formed by the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric in 1892) touted the advantages of electric Christmas lighting over gases and candles: "There is no danger, smoke or smell." Not quite. Customers who are willing to promise lights can rent them this season.
In 1903, GE introduced the first batch of pre-wired lamp holders, which shocked the home decoration industry. GE lights come in the form of harnesses or bouquets of 8, 16, 24 or 32 bulbs. You can add additional 8 bulbs festoons as needed. These kits include a 50-foot (15-meter) cord and screw into the lamp holder. The lights are connected in series, so if one bulb burns out, the rest of the circuit will dim. The detailed instructions describe how to solve the problem that the indicator does not light up. A set of 24 lamps costs US$12 (approximately US$325 today) and can illuminate a medium-sized tabletop tree.
GE lamps are still out of reach for ordinary consumers, but as competitors enter the market, prices drop rapidly. Just four years later, Chicago's Excelsior Supply Co. advertised "Blinking Christmas Tree Fairy Lights" in hardware dealer magazines. Each set of 8 bulbs only costs $5, and the wholesale price is $3.50.
As shown in this 1896 photo, US President Grover Cleveland was an early adopter of electrified Christmas trees. White House Historical Society
The earliest Christmas lights used a miniature version of Edison's pear-shaped carbon filament bulbs. The exhaust pipes were fragile and easily broken. In 1910, GE changed its basic design to a round bulb, but still had an exhaust pipe. In 1916, GE introduced the tungsten wire and gave the Mazda trademark to the new design. Two years later, they removed the tip to make the bulb rounder. In 1919, GE changed the shape of the bulb again, this time with the familiar cone similar to the flame of a candle. This bulb shape has been used until the late 1970s, and has recently reappeared as a "retro" style. (Anyone interested in the old set of lights can check out the Old Christmas Tree Lights website, which was originally created by the brothers Bill and George Nelson.)
While the "typical" bulbs continued to develop, more decorative human-shaped bulbs appeared. By 1908, Sears and Roebuck's product catalog launched a set of twelve painted glass bulbs shaped like small fruits and nuts for $2.75. In 1910, an article in Scientific American described Christmas bulbs in the shape of flowers, animals, snowmen, angels, and Santa Claus. In 1919, the American Ever Ready Company (the predecessor of Everready Battery Co.)'s decorative lights catalog expanded to include St. Patrick, Halloween pumpkins, clowns and police bulbs. Austria, Germany and Japan are famous for exporting human-shaped light bulbs.
These novel light bulbs face challenges. Depending on the orientation of the base, some characters hang upside down forever. The paint peels off or wears easily. Some designs are just creepy-such as the two-sided doll head shown at the top. But I am happy to use these antique bulbs to decorate my home. To me, they are warmer and more attractive than some of today's arrogant lights.
While researching this month’s column, I stumbled upon the doll head bulb while browsing the Smithsonian’s online collection. I had hoped to find more information about the object, but the details recorded on the Internet are limited. However, I did learn a few things about donors.
The light bulb came to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History through the bequest of Edith R. Meggers in 1974, who died the previous year. In total, Meggers donated more than 800 items, including badges and pins, dollhouse furniture, toys and games, calculators, typewriters and electrical insulators. Meggers shared her passion for travel and collecting with her husband William. They displayed their treasures in their homes, which they called the "Megs Museum of Science and Technology." Their collecting habits are well known in Washington, DC. The Washington Post published a feature article about them in 1941 with the subtitle "They Collect Almost Anything You Can Say."
Edith Meggers donated more than 800 items, including badges and pins, dollhouse furniture, toys and games, calculators, typewriters, and electrical insulators.
However, collecting is just a hobby. Edith Meggers worked in the Construction Technology Department of the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), where she met her husband; they married in 1920. Although readers of Spectrum may not be familiar with Edith's name, her husband's name may be familiar. William F. Meggers is the head of the NBS Spectroscopy Department.
When William Meggs first came to NBS, spectroscopy was still a developing technology, so he spent the first few years studying this process. His early papers studied the effects of sample physical conditions, excitation methods, and equipment used to acquire and record spectral data. In 1922, Meggers published an influential paper (together with CC Kiess and FJ Stimpson) on the application of spectroscopy to chemical analysis. During his long career, he has studied the spectra of 50 elements and established international measurement standards.
This 1895 advertisement equates the electric light with wealth and joy. The History of Ad Trust/Inheritance Images/Getty Images
Of course, being a famous physicist and avid collector cannot fully explain how Meggers’ Christmas lights and other objects entered the Smithsonian Museum. Edith Meggers' bequest was handled by her lawyers and involved more than a dozen different curators, as the collection spanned multiple departments. Unfortunately, donation records are kept secret from researchers until 2032. But the collection habits of Edith and Bill may disappear in their daughter Betty Jane Megs. She has a doctorate degree. He received his Ph.D. in Archaeology from Columbia University in 1952, and his thesis focused on the island of Marajo, Brazil. She spent a long career at the Smithsonian Institution, where she was the director of the Latin American Archaeology Project at the National Museum of Natural History when she died in 2012. So Betty Jane should know the process of donating valuables.
As the former curator of the Smithsonian Museum, I remember receiving phone calls and emails from potential donors who were cleaning the basement and attic, and wondered if their souvenirs are worthy of being included in the collection of the National Museum. Usually, due to space constraints, the curator has to say no. However, if the source of the item is well documented and the item is in good condition, the curator may ask for more information, especially if there is a good story attached.
I found it interesting to delve into the rabbit hole of Christmas electrification history.
This story is critical because the curator must justify the acquisition, explain how the item will fit into the museum's collection plan, and how it will be used in exhibitions, educational programs, or research projects. Having additional contextual materials, such as photos or user manuals, helps to prove the value of the object.
Another tip for donating is to ensure that you match the items with the appropriate museum, library or archive. The National Museum may not be suitable (even if it is accepted, your items are more likely to be stored and never displayed). Consider regional and local museums and specialized institutions. For example, after my father died, I sent photos of some of his engineering books to Jason Dean, vice president of special collections at Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, Missouri. Linda Hall is an independent research library that specializes in science, technology, and engineering. Dean took some books and I had to pay for the shipping, but I'm glad they found a new home.
I am one of those people who like to learn through objects, and I like to try to figure out what stories these ancient everyday objects can tell. Although I wish I could learn more about the figurine lamp that Edith Meggers (Edith Meggers) gifted to the National Museum of American History, I found a rabbit hole to learn more about the history of Christmas electrification and learn more about Edie The information about Silk and her family is very interesting. Maybe one day my things will eventually appear in the museum-but my curator thinks that the story has not yet appeared.
Part of the ongoing series focuses on photographs of historical artifacts that have unlimited technical potential.
The abridged version of this article appears in the December 2021 print edition as "It's a Wonderful Light".
Allison Marsh is a professor at the University of South Carolina and co-director of the University’s Ann Johnson Institute of Science, Technology, and Society. She combined her interest in engineering, history, and museum objects to write a column on the advancement of the past, which tells technical stories through historical artifacts.
Copenhagen Suborbital is crowdfunding its manned rocket
Volunteers from Copenhagen Suborbitals build manned rockets at night and on weekends. The team includes [from left] Mads Stenfatt, Martin Hedegaard Petersen, Jørgen Skyt, Carsten Olsen and Anna Olsen.
This is one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen: our homemade rockets fall from the sky and are slowed down by the white and orange parachutes I have been working on for many nights at the table. The 6.7-meter-high Nexø II rocket is powered by a dual-element engine designed and built by the Copenhagen Suborbital Team. The engine mixes ethanol and liquid oxygen to produce a thrust of 5 kilonewtons, and the rocket rises to an altitude of 6,500 meters. More importantly, it became one piece.
The successful mission in August 2018 was a big step towards our goal of sending an amateur astronaut to the edge of space on one of our DIY rockets. We are now building the Spica rocket to complete this mission, and we hope to launch the manned rocket in about 10 years.
The Copenhagen suborbital is the world's only crowdsourced manned space program, and hundreds of generous donors around the world provide nearly 100,000 U.S. dollars each year. Our project consists of various volunteers who are engaged in various daily tasks. We have many engineers and pricing managers like me who have a hobby of skydiving. I am also one of the three candidates for the position of astronaut.
We are in a new era of space flight: the National Space Agency is no longer the only game in the city, and space is becoming more and more accessible. Rockets manufactured by commercial companies such as Blue Origin are now sending private citizens into orbit. Having said that, Blue Origin, SpaceX, and Virgin Galactic all have the support of billionaires with huge resources, and they all expressed their intention to sell flights for hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. The Copenhagen Suborbital has a very different vision. We believe that anyone who is willing to invest time and energy should be able to fly into space.
The Copenhagen Suborbital Company was founded in 2008 by a self-taught engineer and a space architect who had worked at NASA. From the beginning, the mission was clear: manned spaceflight. Both founders left the organization in 2014, but by then the project had about 50 volunteers and sufficient motivation.
The founding principle of the group is that the challenges involved in building a manned spacecraft at low cost are all engineering problems that can be solved one by one by a group of smart and dedicated diligent teams. When people ask me why I want to do this, I sometimes answer: "Because we can."
Volunteers use a can of argon gas [left] to fill a tube in which engine components are fused together. The team recently built a fuel tank for the Spica rocket [right] in their workshop.
Our goal is to reach the Carmen Line, which defines the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space, at an altitude of 100 kilometers. Astronauts who reach that altitude will have a few minutes of silence and weightlessness after the engine is turned off, and will enjoy stunning views. But this will not be an easy journey. During the descent, the capsule will withstand an external temperature of 400 °C and a gravity of 3.5 as it gallops through the air at a speed of up to 3,500 km/h.
I joined the organization in 2011, when the organization had moved from a maker space on a decommissioned ferry to a hangar near the Copenhagen waterfront. Earlier that year, I watched the first launch of the Copenhagen suborbital, when the HEAT-1X rocket took off from a mobile launch platform in the Baltic Sea-but unfortunately, it crashed into the ocean when most of its parachutes failed to deploy. . I have brought to the organization some basic knowledge of sports parachutes acquired during my years of skydiving. I hope this knowledge can be transformed into useful skills.
The team’s next milestone came in 2013, when we successfully launched a sapphire rocket, which was our first rocket that included guidance and navigation systems. Its navigation computer uses a 3-axis accelerometer and a 3-axis gyroscope to track its position, and its thrust control system moves the four servo-mounted copper jet blades inserted into the exhaust pipe to keep the rocket on the correct trajectory assembly.
We believe that anyone who is willing to invest time and energy should be able to fly into space.
HEAT-1X and sapphire rockets use a mixture of solid polyurethane and liquid oxygen as fuel. We are keen to develop a two-component rocket engine that mixes liquid ethanol and liquid oxygen because this liquid propellant engine is both efficient and powerful. The HEAT-2X rocket, scheduled to be launched at the end of 2014, aims to demonstrate this technology. Unfortunately, its engine caught fire during static tests a few weeks before the scheduled launch. The test should be a controlled 90-second combustion; on the contrary, due to welding errors, a large amount of ethanol poured into the combustion chamber in just a few seconds, causing a large-scale fire. I stand a few hundred meters away, and even at that distance, I can feel the heat on my face.
The engine of the HEAT-2X rocket was unable to run and the mission was cancelled. Although this was a major disappointment, we learned some valuable lessons. Until then, our design has been based on our existing capabilities-the tools in our workshop and the people in the project. Failure forces us to step back and consider what new technologies and skills we need to master in order to achieve the ultimate goal. This rethinking prompted us to design the relatively small Nexø I and Nexø II rockets to showcase key technologies such as parachute systems, dual-element engines, and fuel tank pressure adjustment components.
For the Nexø II launch in August 2018, our launch site is located 30 kilometers east of Bornholm, the easternmost island of Denmark, in the part of the Baltic Sea used by the Danish Navy for military exercises. We left the port of Nexø in Bornholm at 1:00 in the morning. Meter. Arrive at the designated sea area on time to launch at 9 am, which is the time approved by the Swedish air traffic control. (When our ship is in international waters, Sweden monitors the airspace over that part of the Baltic Sea.) Many of our crew have been testing various rocket systems the day before and stayed up all night before launch. We are drinking coffee.
When Nexø II was launched and separated neatly from the launch tower, we all cheered. The rocket continued its trajectory, abandoning its nose cone when it reached the apogee of 6,500 meters, and kept sending telemetry data back to our mission control ship. When it begins to descend, it first deploys its parachute, a balloon-shaped parachute used to stabilize spacecraft at high altitudes, and then deploys its main parachute, gently carrying it into the waves.
In 2018, the Nexø II rocket successfully launched [left] and safely returned to the Baltic Sea [right].
This launch brings us one step closer to mastering the logistics of launching and landing at sea. For this launch, we also tested the ability to predict the path of the rocket. I created a model and estimated that there was a splash drop 4.2 kilometers east of the launch platform; it actually landed 4.0 kilometers east. This kind of controlled water landing-our first landing under a fully inflated parachute-is an important proof of concept for us, because soft landing is absolutely necessary for any manned mission.
In April of this year, the team tested its new fuel injector in a static engine test. Carsten Olsen
The engine of Nexø II, which we call BPM5, is one of the few parts that has not been fully machined in our workshop. A Danish company manufactures the most complex engine parts. But when these parts arrived in our workshop shortly before the launch date, we realized that the exhaust nozzle was a bit deformed. We didn't have time to order new parts, so one of our volunteers, Jacob Larsen, hammered them into shape with a sledgehammer. The engine doesn't look pretty-we nicknamed it the Franken engine-but it does work. Since the Nexø II flight, we have conducted more than 30 pilot fires on the engine, sometimes pushing it beyond the design limit, but we have not killed it yet.
The 15-minute interstellar journey of the Spica astronauts will be the product of more than two decades of work.
The mission also showcased our new dynamic pressure regulation (DPR) system, which helps us control the flow of fuel into the combustion chamber. Nexø I used a simpler system called pressure blowdown, where the fuel tank is filled with one-third of the pressurized gas to drive the liquid fuel into the chamber. With DPR, the fuel tank is filled with fuel and connected to a separate helium tank under high pressure through a set of control valves. This setup allows us to adjust the amount of helium flowing into the tank to push fuel into the combustion chamber, allowing us to program different thrusts at different points during the rocket's flight.
The Nexø II mission in 2018 proved that our design and technology are fundamentally reasonable. It's time to start studying the human-rated Spica rocket.
The Copenhagen Suborbital Company hopes to send an astronaut to high altitude on its Spica rocket in about ten years. Caspa Stanley
The Spica rocket equipped with a crew compartment is 13 meters high and has a total lift-off weight of 4,000 kg, of which 2,600 kg is fuel. It will be, to a large extent, the largest rocket built by an amateur.
The Spica rocket will use the BPM100 engine that the team is currently manufacturing. Thomas Pedersen
Its engine 100-kN BPM100 uses the technology we have mastered for BPM5 with some improvements. Like the previous design, it uses regenerative cooling, where some of the propellant passes through channels around the combustion chamber to limit the temperature of the engine. In order to push fuel into the chamber, it combines the simple pressure blowdown method of the first stage of flight and the DPR system, which allows us to better control the rocket's thrust. The engine parts will be stainless steel, and we hope to manufacture most of the parts ourselves from rolled sheet metal. The trickiest part, the hyperbolic "throat" connecting the combustion chamber and the exhaust nozzle, requires computer-controlled processing equipment that we don't have. Fortunately, we have good industry contacts who can help.
A major change is the conversion from Nexø II nozzle injectors to coaxial swirl injectors. The nozzle injector has about 200 very small fuel passages. It is difficult to manufacture, because if we have a problem in making one of the channels-such as a stuck drill bit-we have to throw the whole thing away. In the coaxial swirl injector, the liquid fuel enters the combustion chamber in the form of two rotating liquid sheets, and when the liquid sheets collide, they are atomized to produce burning propellant. Our swirl jet uses approximately 150 swirler elements, which are assembled into a structure. This modular design should be easier to manufacture and test to ensure quality.
The BPM100 engine will use a coaxial swirl injector [left] to replace the old nozzle injector [right], which will be easier to manufacture. Thomas Pedersen
In April of this year, we conducted static tests on several types of injectors. We first conducted experiments with easy-to-understand nozzle jets to establish a baseline, and then tested brass swirl jets manufactured by traditional machine milling and steel swirl jets manufactured by 3D printing. We are satisfied with the overall performance of the two swirl jets, and we are still analyzing the data to determine which one is better. However, we do see some combustion instability-that is, the flame between the injector and the engine throat oscillates, which is a potentially dangerous phenomenon. We are well aware of the reasons for these oscillations, and we believe that some design adjustments can solve the problem.
Volunteer Jacob Larsen holds a brass injector that performed well in the 2021 engine test. Carsten Olsen
We will soon begin to build a full-scale BPM100 engine, which will eventually include a new rocket guidance system. In our previous rocket, there are metal blades in the exhaust nozzle of the engine, and we can move it to change the thrust angle. But these blades create resistance in the exhaust flow and reduce the effective thrust by approximately 10%. The newly designed universal joint can rotate the entire engine back and forth to control the thrust vector. To further support our belief that smart and dedicated people can solve difficult engineering problems, our gimbal system was designed and tested by 21-year-old undergraduate Jop Nijenhuis from the Netherlands, who used gimbal design as a thesis project (he obtained Got the highest score).
The guidance, navigation and control (GNC) computer we use is the same as the one we use in the Nexø rocket. A new challenge is the crew capsule; once the space capsule is separated from the rocket, we must control each part ourselves to send them back to Earth in the desired direction. When the separation occurs, the GNC computers of the two components will need to understand that the parameters for optimal flight have changed. But from a software point of view, this is only a small problem compared to the problems we have solved.
Bianca Diana is working on a drone that she will use to test the new guidance system of the Spica rocket. Carsten Olsen
My specialty is parachute design. I have studied Balllute, which is inflated at an altitude of 70 kilometers to slow down the speed of the manned space capsule during the high-speed initial descent, and the main parachute, which inflates when the space capsule is 4 kilometers above the sea. We tested both types by letting skydivers jump out of the plane with a parachute, the most recent time being in the 2019 ballet test. The pandemic forced us to suspend parachute testing, but we should resume it as soon as possible.
For the parachute that will be deployed from Spica's booster rocket, the team tested a small prototype of a ribbon parachute. Mads Stenfatt
For the cone parachute that will be deployed from the booster rocket, my first prototype is based on a design called Supersonic X, which is a kind of parachute that looks a bit like a flying onion and is very easy to make. However, I reluctantly switched to a ribbon parachute, which has been more thoroughly tested under high pressure conditions and found to be more stable and robust. I say "reluctant" because I know how much work it takes to assemble such a device. I first made a parachute with a diameter of 1.24 meters. It has 27 ribbons passing through 12 panels, and each ribbon is connected in three positions. So on that small prototype, I had to sew 972 connections. The full-size version will have 7,920 connection points. I try to remain open to this challenge, but if further testing shows that the Supersonic X design is sufficient for our purposes, I have no objection.
We tested two crew cabins in past missions: Tycho Brahe in 2011 and Tycho Deep Space in 2012. The next-generation Spica crew cabin will not be spacious, but it will be large enough to accommodate an astronaut who will maintain a seat during a 15-minute flight (and a two-hour pre-flight check). The first spacecraft we are building is a heavy-duty steel "model" space capsule, which is the basic prototype we use to achieve practical layout and design. We will also use this model to test the design of the hatch, the overall resistance to pressure and vacuum, and the aerodynamics and fluid dynamics of the shape, because we want the capsule to splash into the sea with minimal impact on the astronauts inside. Once we are satisfied with the prototype design, we will make a lightweight flying version.
There are currently three astronaut candidates flying for the first time in the Copenhagen suborbital: From left, Mads Stenfatt, Anna Olsen and Carsten Olsen. Messtanfat
The three members of the Copenhagen suborbital team are currently candidates for our first manned mission as astronauts-me, Carsten Olsen and his daughter Anna Olsen. We all understand and accept the risks involved in flying a homemade rocket into space. In our daily operations, our astronaut candidates have not received any special treatment or training. So far, one of our additional responsibilities has been to sit in the passenger compartment seat and check its dimensions. Since our first manned flight is still ten years away, the shortlist is likely to change. As for me, I think it’s a great honor to be part of the mission and help build the rocket that will send the first amateur astronaut into space. Whether I eventually become an astronaut or not, I will be proud of our achievements.
Astronauts will enter space in a small crew capsule on the Spica rocket. The astronaut will remain seated during the 15-minute flight (and the previous 2-hour flight check). Carsten Brandt
People might wonder how we can live on a meager budget of about $100,000 per year—especially when they learn that half of our income is used to pay for workshop rent. We reduce costs by purchasing as many standard off-the-shelf parts as possible, and when we need custom designs, we are lucky to work with companies that provide us with generous discounts to support our projects. We launch from international waters, so we don’t need to pay for launch facilities. When we went to Bornholm for the press conference, each volunteer paid for it themselves. We lived in a sports club near the harbour, slept on a mat on the floor, and took a shower in the locker room. I sometimes joke that our budget is about one-tenth of what NASA spends on coffee. However, this may be enough to complete the job.
We originally planned to launch Spica for the first time in the summer of 2021, but our schedule was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused our studio to close for several months. Now we hope to conduct a test launch in the summer of 2022, when conditions in the Baltic Sea will be relatively mild. For this initial test of Spica, we will only fill up the fuel tank midway and launch the target to an altitude of approximately 30 to 50 kilometers.
If this flight is successful, Spica will carry more fuel and fly higher in the next test. If the flight in 2022 fails, we will find the problem, fix the problem, and try again. It is remarkable to think that the final 15-minute interstellar journey of the Spica astronauts will be the product of more than two decades of work. But we know that our supporters are counting down until the historic day when amateur astronauts board a homemade rocket and wave goodbye to the earth, ready to take a big step towards the DIY style.
One reason for the slow progress of the Copenhagen suborbital towards the ultimate goal of manned spaceflight is our concern for safety. We test our components extensively; for example, we conducted approximately 30 tests on the engine that powers the 2016 Nexø I rocket before launch.
When we plan and execute the launch, our bible is a safety manual from Wallops Flight Facility, which is part of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Before each launch, we will simulate the flight profile to ensure that it will not cause harm to our crew, ships, and any other personnel or property. We launch from the sea to further reduce the possibility of our rockets damaging anyone or anything.
We recognize that the Spica rocket and crew compartment of our manned spacecraft must meet higher safety standards than anything we have built before. But we must face our situation honestly: if we set the standard too high, we will never be able to complete the project. We cannot test our system like a commercial company (which is why we will never sell our rockets). Every astronaut candidate understands these risks. As one of these candidates, if every friend of mine who works in Rockets can look into my eyes and say "Yes, we are ready", I will have enough confidence to board the plane.
This article will appear in the December 2021 print edition as "the first crowdfunding astronaut".
Mads Stenfatt first contacted the Copenhagen Suborbital Company and put forward some constructive criticisms. In 2011, while viewing the photos of the DIY rocket's latest rocket launch, he noticed a camera installed near the parachute device. Stenfatt sent an email detailing his concern that the parachute ropes could easily get tangled around the camera. "The answer I got was basically,'If you can do better, join us and do it yourself,'" he recalled. This is how he became a volunteer for the world's only crowdfunded manned space program.
As an amateur skydiver, Stenfatt understands the basic principles of parachute packaging and deployment. He began to help the Copenhagen Suborbital Company design and package the parachute, and a few years later he also took over the sewing of the parachute. He has never used a sewing machine before, but he learns quickly at the dining table in the evenings and weekends.
One of his favorite projects is the design of high-altitude parachutes for the Nexø II rocket launched in 2018. While making a prototype and being confused about the design of the air intake, he found himself checking the bra composition on the Danish sewing website. He decided to use bra steel rims to strengthen the air intake and keep it open. The effect was very good. Although he eventually turned to a different design direction, this episode is a classic example of the spirit of the Copenhagen suborbital: collect inspiration and resources from anywhere you find to get the job done.
Today, Stenfatt serves as the chief parachute designer, frequent spokesperson and astronaut candidate. He continued to skydive in his spare time, jumping hundreds of times under his name. With a wealth of experience zooming down in the sky, he was very curious about what it would be like to move in the other direction.