For you consideration I would like to introduce to you a launch idea that I have. I wish to get some exposure to the idea to see if there is further government or private industry interest. I have attached a white paper to describe the concept. Comments and recommndations welcome. Thank you for your time.
Quote from: MLSman on 10/08/2009 05:17 pmFor you consideration I would like to introduce to you a launch idea that I have. I wish to get some exposure to the idea to see if there is further government or private industry interest. I have attached a white paper to describe the concept. Comments and recommndations welcome. Thank you for your time.I stopped after reading this sentence:"In the case of the space shuttle in the first 8 seconds, it has traveled 300 ft and consumed half of its fuel supply (1.5 million pounds)." This is not correct. Shuttle consumes something nearer to 250,000 lbs of its roughly 3.8 million pounds of total propellant during the first eight seconds. It takes roughly one minute, give or take, for the stack to consume half of its propellant. Back to the drawing board!Thanks Ed, That information came from an article I read off of the internet a while back. I will make the correction. Can I ask where you got your information?Thanks again,Keith - Ed Kyle
I'm not a expert but 500 miles/hour does not give you much of the kinetic energy you need to reach orbit. Can't you get that much from just an air launch from a aircraft.
Nathan, you are correct when I spoke with some Delta folks the shipment of their rocket is a big deal, they float them on a barge. But then the Russian Zenit booster is shipped out here for Sea Launch and it dosn't seem like a problem, so I think it depends on the booster.