Construct a satellite with a rocket on it designed to keep it going fast enough to maintain ELEO (extremely low Earth orbit) and a saddle. The idea is to have some foolhardy space jockey try to ride it while skimming along the edge of the atmosphere without getting bucked off or blown to pieces. The saddle-ite should have an aerodynamic design that allows it to skim smoothly along the edge of the atmosphere if balanced perfectly, but is deliberately designed to be very difficult (but not impossible) to keep balanced with the keel in the atmosphere. The keel itself has several motorized vanes on it which twitch randomly to simulate the bucking of a bull.
Athletes compete for longest distance. Would also make a pretty badass racing circuit.-- 21 Quest, Jun 06 2013 Sounds like you need a space ladder...hmm.-- not_morrison_rm, Jun 06 2013 In space, no one can hear your sales pitch.-- 21 Quest, Jun 06 2013 //In space, no one can hear your sales pitch
Space Mimes (ISO)..-- not_morrison_rm, Jun 08 2013 // why isn't there a sport: rodeo category? //
Because rodeo isn't a sport, it's culturally accepted cruelty. There's no sport in jacking a bull up on amphetamines and zapping him in the ass with a stun gun, nor is there in running down a terrified sheep and binding all four of its feet together, nor in half-strangling a calf and dragging it to the ground. Awarding the cruelest cowboy with a belt buckle the size of his home state does not make rodeo a sport any more than giving the ears and tail to a matador makes bullfighting a sport. At least in latin countries they kill the poor beast after they're done torturing it; here in the civilized world it's considered much more humane to stick it into a trailer and drag it to another dusty fairground where it has the opportunity to be drugged and terrorized all over again.
That said, [+] for the idea on its own merit and for any form of rodeo that leaves animals alone.-- Alterother, Jun 08 2013 There's no "edge" to the atmosphere; certainly not at ELEO altitudes. The atmosphere finally peters out about half way to the moon, where the sun's radiation pressure overpowers the earth's gravity. The greatest change in atmospheric density with height occurs at sea level. Your keel, in other words, will have to be hundreds or thousands of kilometres long.-- spidermother, Jun 09 2013 sport: bouncing-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jun 09 2013 I agree with all of that, Alterother.-- 21 Quest, Jun 09 2013 I never suspected otherwise. I was a little high last night, and rodeos disgust me. Cannabis Sativa + touchy subject + [The Alterother] = wordy rant.
// Your keel, in other words, will have to be hundreds or thousands of kilometres long. //
Think of the advertising decals. Body panel coverage will be leased by the acre.-- Alterother, Jun 09 2013 random, halfbakery