Thrust SSC

Editorial

Welcome to the ThrustSSC Web Site and the first of our online Editorials! If you have been watching the site closely over the last few weeks, you will have realised that there is suddenly an enormous amount of activity that we can show to the world as ThrustSSC bursts into life. In reality of course everyone has been working at an intense pace for months now, finishing the car, administering the Mach 1 Club, or packing and dispatching merchandise. On the Internet side, Nick Chapman and I have been working to keep on top of all the news and report it to the world - as well as look after our other jobs on the project!

Now, though, we are entering totally new phase. Thrust is no longer just sitting quietly in Q Shed as technicians climb all over her, nor is she straining at the leash in a tie-down cell - finally we are ready to set her free on the runway at Farnborough! News is only fresh for a very short time - Nick and I will be working hard to bring it to you before it becomes history.

To say that we are all looking forward to the next few weeks would be the worst understatement of the project to date! Finally we will be able to check that everything works - not just on the car, but also all the other team equipment and activities - from the telemetry and communications hardware, to the start and recovery procedures.

On the Internet side, the equipment for sending telemetry from the car back to the UK for analysis and for reporting on the desert operations is finally coming together. This weekend we moved the 1.8m Hughes satellite dish out of Q Shed and successfully set it up outside as it will be in Jordan - giving us telephone, fax and data communications from Jordan to the world. In fact all the updates to the site over this Bank Holiday weekend have been made via the satellite connection - a real test of its capabilities! Canon’s digital camera is impressing everyone with the way we can just take photos and load them straight onto the Internet. Even the visiting journalists take a second look! The Communications Room in the Operations Trailer is all but finished, with the computer network around the converted truck installed and linked up to the PES (Personal Earth Station) that controls the satellite dish.

Whatever else you do on the Internet, keep watching this site closely - it is going to an exciting journey!




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