CASPER, Wyoming USA — Far from the high-tech, big-budget world of NASA, in a sprawling old shed near the airport, 51-year-old rocket scientist John Wickman is furthering the space age.

"In one sentence, what we're trying to accomplish is low-cost access to space," Wickman says. "That's it in a nutshell."

This is the shell of his idea: He wants to build a rocket from sheet aluminum, powered by fuel he and his partners mix by hand. It will cost only about $500,000, rather than the 5 to 10 million it would cost if NASA built it.

"We really design to cost," Wickman says. "That's the primary goal, and when you do that, you come up with some very unusual designs, and you use materials that are basically standard commercial materials."

Tests Have Been Successful
So instead of ordering custom-made parts from an aerospace company, Wickman scours the hardware store for pipes and sealant. Instead of using a multimillion dollar fuel-mixing system like a big rocket company, he uses crock pots and a kitchen mixer, combining ingredients from the hardware store. And it all works _ test batches of the fuel burn brilliantly.

Even better, test rockets have gone off exactly as expected. NASA scientists have been so impressed that they're now helping fund his research. They're eagerly awaiting the day Wickman's rocket takes to the sky.

If all goes as planned next month, the rocket will be launched from a pad in Casper, and it will travel approximately three and a half times the speed of sound and 50 miles up to the edge of space. It will carry and launch a small model of a ship designed by NASA to replace the shuttle. It will use low cost, reusable rockets like Wickman's, and it can land at any commercial airport.

"When that happens, then we'll start having routine access to space, and it's going to change everything," says Jim Nations of Wickman Spacecraft and Propulsion.

For 15 years, John Wickman has been convinced that he is on the right path to lowering the financial barriers to space. Now he is just as convinced the next man in the moon might come from Casper.

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