scott taylor - 9/12/2007 9:25 AM6. Dock oxidizer drone with shuttle (Ok, very tricky but possible in very thin atmosphere)
scott taylor - 9/12/2007 10:01 AMwhat would make such a manouver impossible? I am sure the same thing was said about in-flight refuelling but British Aerospace were obviously not listening!
scott taylor - 9/12/2007 11:22 AMSurely speed is relevant to atmospheric density. It is almost certainly impossible to perform a high-speed link up using current public domain technology but surely the advances in missile defence technology and ESA’s planned unmanned linkup with the ISS show that it cannot be entirely impossible.
scott taylor - 9/12/2007 7:25 AMAn idea for large payload orbital delivery:1. Adapt shuttle type vehicle to carry 100-ton payload.
2. Adapt main fuel tank to carry more fuel and correspondingly less oxidizer.
3. Synchronize launch with large ocean based pre-accelerator (see www.hypacc.com ).4. Loft scramjet powered drone-carrying remainder of required oxidiser.5. Drop solid boosters in usual fashion.6. Dock oxidizer drone with shuttle (Ok, very tricky but possible in very thin atmosphere)
8. Repeat several times.9. Build space ship.10. Go to Mars!
I have built some very small models of my original Hydro Pneumatic Accelerator (HYPACC)