Best case scenario:Motor overperforms, accelerates SpaceShipTwo to Warp speed and ushers in a new era of interstellar travel.Worst case scenario:Motor failure triggers gravitational singularity and sucks up the whole solar system into a black hole.
We've had this discussion before.I once asked SNC about the SS2 motors (I believe it was on The Space Show) and got the closest thing to an actual statement that they've ever made. To paraphrase: our motors work just fine, thank you.
Best case scenario:To date, SS2 has been flying with an interim motor that they know is under-powered and was designed as such for safety reasons during the atmospheric test phase. The full-scale motor is already in production/testing but VG and SNC see no reason to give people outside the project access to proprietary/confidential data until they're good and ready.Outcome:SS2 flies eventually, perhaps even on schedule.Worse-case scenario:The motor, as-designed, does not do the job and cannot do the job because it just doesn't have the right performance. VG claim SNC failed to deliver as per contract, SNC claim VG under-specified; At the very least, SS2's rear hull will need to be completely redesigned for a motor with the right performance and, at the very most, the whole vehicle will need to be completely redesigned from scratch to accommodate an up-sized Lynx or possibly a SpaceX Merlin-1c.Outcome:SS2 never flies; VG and SNC spend the next decade in civil litigation and VG probably goes bankrupt from a lack of visible assets; those who put up cash in advance for a ride gain only bitter experience about trusting long-time snake oil salesmen like Sir Richard Branson.
And so it begins.
SS1 worked nicely, thank you very much, with nitrous oxide and rubber for propellant.SS1 reached over 100 km three times with that propellant, as you should all know.Remember?
A small note about change from a hybrid to liquid is a ~4% performance gain for ~ same total weight engine system and prop so that a slightly shallower trajectory can be used producing a longer "Hang Time". Other possibilities is a faster turnaround.If Lynx is successful with their low/easy maintenance rocket engine then Virgin will have to follow.Compitition isn't it grand.
Probably irrelevant. SS2 is much larger and a far more complex machine. It weighs multiples of SS1 and it seems that the hybrid motor doesn't scale up very well.
Quote from: oldAtlas_Eguy on 10/06/2013 06:35 pmA small note about change from a hybrid to liquid is a ~4% performance gain for ~ same total weight engine system and prop so that a slightly shallower trajectory can be used producing a longer "Hang Time". Other possibilities is a faster turnaround.If Lynx is successful with their low/easy maintenance rocket engine then Virgin will have to follow.Compitition isn't it grand. I think when Lynx flies next year it will startle a lot of people at VG/TSC. The word around Mojave is that they just don't take XCOR seriously. At least rhetorically. It's a shame that Scaled and XCOR never got together. That's a long and complicated story that I can't really reveal here.
Quote from: parabolicarc on 10/10/2013 05:21 pmQuote from: oldAtlas_Eguy on 10/06/2013 06:35 pmA small note about change from a hybrid to liquid is a ~4% performance gain for ~ same total weight engine system and prop so that a slightly shallower trajectory can be used producing a longer "Hang Time". Other possibilities is a faster turnaround.If Lynx is successful with their low/easy maintenance rocket engine then Virgin will have to follow.Compitition isn't it grand. I think when Lynx flies next year it will startle a lot of people at VG/TSC. The word around Mojave is that they just don't take XCOR seriously. At least rhetorically. It's a shame that Scaled and XCOR never got together. That's a long and complicated story that I can't really reveal here.XCOR is 3-4 minutes in space, how long is VG advertising ?
I think when Lynx flies next year it will startle a lot of people at VG/TSC. The word around Mojave is that they just don't take XCOR seriously. At least rhetorically. It's a shame that Scaled and XCOR never got together. That's a long and complicated story that I can't really reveal here.
XCOR is 3-4 minutes in space, how long is VG advertising ?
Quote from: Lurker Steve on 10/10/2013 05:35 pmXCOR is 3-4 minutes in space, how long is VG advertising ? IIRC, Lynx does not attain 100 km altitude.
Lynx Mark I will go to 60 km, Mark II will got 100km .