A self-taught scientist plans to launch a rocket he built in his garage, in a bid to ‘prove’ the Earth is flat.
‘Mad’ Mike Hughes, as he’s known, built the ‘steam-powered’ rocket using scrap metal. What could possibly go wrong?
The 61-year-old limo driver, from California, plans to launch the rocket – which cost an estimated $20,000 (£15,000) – at the weekend, writes Associated Press.
He told Associated Press:
I don’t believe in science.
I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the air, about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust, but that’s not science, that’s just a formula.
There’s no difference between science and science fiction.
Mike rejects the general belief the Earth is spherical and his flight is being sponsored largely by a group called, ‘Research Flat Earth’.
Hoping to prove his fellow flat Earth theorists correct, Mike said he wants to fly high enough to gather evidence which disproves the accepted fact, the Earth is round.
In a recent interview with the Daily Plane, a website for ‘flat Earthers’, Mike said he only started believing the theory fairly recently.
He said another planned flight will take him dozens of miles into space and allow him to ‘prove once and for all this earth is flat’.
He said:
It will shut the door on this ball Earth.
This is the king of the deceptions. This is it. And once this domino falls and more people come to this side, then everything else — the dominos structure falls.
This weekend’s rocket launch won’t actually be Mike’s first. The self-taught scientist reportedly took to the skies over Arizona back in 2014, which he said saw him sustain injuries which incapacitated him for weeks, writes The Independent.
Yet this hasn’t troubled Mike too much, telling AP:
If you’re not scared to death, you’re an idiot. It’s scary as hell, but none of us are getting out of this world alive.
I like to do extraordinary things no one else can do and no one in the history of mankind has designed, built and launched himself in his own rocket.
I’m a walking reality show.
US rapper B.o.B. has revealed he’s crowd-funding to get enough money to send a rocket into space to ‘prove’ the Earth is flat.
Apparently B.o.B – real name, Bobby Ray Simmons Jr – wants to use his own satellites to ‘find the curve’ and has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for his project.
The rapper revealed he was a ‘flat Earther’ on Twitter back in 2015, so this latest move shouldn’t really come as much of a great surprise really.
Watch James Corden talking about it here:
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B.o.Bs GoFundMe page is asking for donations so he can ‘purchase and launch multiple weather balloons and satellites into space, for experimental exploration’ and to ‘find the curve’.
He already donated $1,000 to the cause to get it going and will apparently be keeping his fans updated with step-by-step documentation of the process.
However, astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Terry Virts had something to say about it all:
Time will tell.
