Getting Into The Private Space Race 29
powerbarr writes "This article has an excellent description of the issues of getting into the rocket industry without government funding and focuses on one startup that is doing it. Sea Launch is a subsidiary of American, Russian, Ukrainian, and Norwegian companies that has cheaper, more accurate, and more reliable launch system that is trying to compete with all the government sponsored systems that are more expensive and less reliable."
Let's Slashdot Outer Space (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Let's Slashdot Outer Space (Score:5, Funny)
1. Cramped quarters in space craft.
2. Stale, recycled oxygen.
3. Elbow-to-elbow with hundreds of geeks; many having personal hygiene no better than you or I!
4. Male-to-female ratio: let's just say a rounding error could kill off the species.
5. "Open source rockets" would be a terrible way to thank the thousands of people who eagerly volunteered to help you pack.
Open source, not open door... (Score:1)
2. Fresh Hydrogen; 1atom/cubic metre
3. See 1.
4. The species is dead anyway... I just hope I find a single female to constitute an exception to 1.
5. You're right... We should use proprietary rockets on them, and keep the open-source ones for ourself...
Re:Let's Slashdot Outer Space (Score:2)
I get it ... (Score:5, Informative)
This private venture is 40% owned by Boeing [sea-launch.com]
Methinks there might be opportunities for British Aerospace and Concorde to start launching space missions...
Repeat competition comments from previous article (Score:3, Funny)
uh... one launch? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:uh... one launch? (Score:5, Informative)
Here is a link to past launches [sea-launch.com]
Rail Gun launches for payload planned ... (Score:2, Offtopic)
quite alot to read to get the meat , but it is there
I think a high altitude rail gun suspended from a balloon
platform at 160,000 ft would be best
NASA recently set a balloon record at 161,000 ft.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020 82 7063353.htm
At that altitude it would not have to deal with the friction
of 99% of the earth's atmosphere
At that altitude storms/weather does not affect launches
there is no wind either .
Re:Rail Gun launches for payload planned ... (Score:2, Interesting)
1. You need a balloon that is 100 times bigger to lift the same amount of weight where the atmosphere is 99% thinner.
2. For every action...
When you fire this thing, the balloon is going to recoil just as much as the projectile.
BTW-I thought the files on totse were old BBS files and a lot of really weird stuff.
Re:Rail Gun launches for payload planned ... (Score:2, Informative)
require an enormous amount of lift to pull it off
even with hydrogen balloons
The credits for the information aka references were at
the bottom of the page
Of course you already knew that as you read the whole thing
real fast and rapid fire responded to me
Oh well
As for for the transfer of forces, the ballon platform is
not capable of moving at mach speeds, and also E=MC(squared)
so the mass of the platform, MANY tons is greater than
that of a 450kg
Re:Rail Gun launches for payload planned ... (Score:1)
What does relativity have to do with this? I kinda wonder what kind of education you military guys get, it seems to be pretty lacking on the theory side.
Re:Rail Gun launches for payload planned ... (Score:2, Interesting)
Yes, you are correct, none of the articles are
about balloon launches
The ballon raised platform is my own idea
But a short burst recoil is not going to move a
huge multi-ton platform that much and you have to
consider time constants in equations as well
Also the platform is going to have drag against
the recoil
The short time constant, aka firing time, and
the drag of the platform , ie. converting
the recoil into acceleration of the huge platform
has to
Re:Rail Gun launches for payload planned ... (Score:1)
I posted another post that came up with the idea of
hydrogen thrusters to compensate, and or a pneumatic
or hydraulic slide recoil compensation system similar
to what the paladin cannon itself uses
I am no engineer to be sure, but it can be done,
things alot more difficult have been achieved to be sure
Also if you are scientifically astute as you say you realize
that mass always matters
Ex.: in space me at 200 lbs. pushing off a rocks weighing
2,000 lbs. I move roughly ten times faste
Balloons and more ... (Score:1)
I still think it can be done, and a 2nd gun firing down
with just a hydrogen blast could counteract alot of
the rail gun recoil force if not all of it
Ex. the guns fire at the same time, one up , one down
NASA already used high altitude ballons to carry a 3/4 ton
payload to 161,000 feet
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/02 0 82 7063353.htm
Hot air balloons are not gonna work for this no way
I am talking about high altitude balloons using gases
Invariably
Re:Rail Gun launches for payload planned ... (Score:1)
It would be a awesome thing to see too, a super cheap
high altitude cargo fligging rail gun to get the parts
for a space station or moon base
Like you said , it is going to take some TRULY brilliant
folks to make it happen, I am just a dreamer, but I am
sure it can be done by the right ppl
Peace,
Ex-MislTech
relativity ... (Score:1)
You ask what this has to do with this ???
Maybe your education was lacking on theory ???
Rail Gun "energy" ??? Recoil "energy" ???
Platform "mass" ??? projectile "mass"
Time as the Constant
I think it has a FAIR amount to do with relativity,
then again ALL things do
Outside this is the drag of the platform during recoil
Once again I will relate the size of the balloons
to a cloud city to hold this monster up at that
high of an altitude , but it will make for weather
free launch system for
Re:Rail Gun launches for payload planned ... (Score:1)
railgun [railgun.org] [railgun.org].
This is Hardly a Non-Governmental Operation (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:This is Hardly a Non-Governmental Operation (Score:3, Informative)
I was not aware that Burt Rutan is working on large rocket engines to enable geosynchronous orbit. The article is about the commercialization/privatization of space and how it compares to the ai
Re:This is Hardly a Non-Governmental Operation (Score:1)
Re:This is Hardly a Non-Governmental Operation (Score:1)
>I was not aware that Burt Rutan is working on large rocket engines to enable geosynchronous orbit.
Well, he hasn't announced anything yet, and I don't know for certain that he has any designs yet as well. (Rutan is notoriously closed-mouthed about these things). But he has hinted that he has very broad plans beyond the rocket systems (SpaceShipOne/White Knight) that he has now.
Your info on Boeing's attitude on Sea Launch is very interesting and explains much.
Kinda cool! (Score:2, Funny)