DailyDirt: Actually Getting People Into Space...
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
There are only a handful of vehicles that have launched people into space (or even just provided shelter) for space-faring people. A few more ships and space stations would be nice to see, and there are a few in various stages development (unfunded proposals, ahem). If you're interested in people (not just robots) exploring outer space, here are just a few links on some of the ships that might transport more folks to at least the edge of space.- Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin spaceflight company just launched and landed a rocket -- again -- and this particular rocket was actually re-used. This accomplishment is still not quite on par with SpaceX's feat, but it's a solid step towards cheaper spaceflight for human passengers. [url]
- Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser spacecraft has a NASA contract to become yet another backup way to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. The lifting body design of the Dream Chaser can be traced back to Soviet-era experimental space planes -- and maybe someday we'll see this vehicle transporting astronauts. [url]
- Perhaps you've seen comparisons of the sizes of various fictional spaceships (eg. NCC-1701 vs. Firefly class transport ship), but a size comparison of actual (or proposed) space vessels compared to the International Space Station is pretty cool. All the real spacecraft (and even the ones that are still very much in development, like Skylon) are much smaller than the original Starship Enterprise, but the ISS is probably a bit more sprawling than you might think. Oh, and if you haven't seen the size comparisons of fictional ships, check it out. [url]
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Filed Under: dream chaser, elon musk, jeff bezos, lifting body, manned missions, re-usable rockets, rockets, space, space exploration, spacecraft, suborbital
Companies: blue origin, nasa, sierra nevada, spacex
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It always has to devolve into a conversation about size, doesn't it. Next you'll be discussing the quality of the payload.
At least I'm above that.
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You Want Comparisons Of (Fictional) Spaceships?
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Re: You Want Comparisons Of (Fictional) Spaceships?
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Cheap Launch System
Place the launch vehicle in the tube, in vacuum and electro magnetically suspended.
Ensure there is a relatively tight fit between the launch vehicle and tunnels walls.
When you are ready to go fill the space behind the launch vehicle with compressed air, preferably hydrogen and oxygen which you ignite for maximum pressure gain and away you go (multiple ignition points would be required along the length of the tunnel to better balance and maintain pressure).
Interesting design element, mass of launch vehicle is now a plus, as it provides inertia upon exiting launch tube, with mass just limited by pressure required to generate the designed acceleration.
Zero mass wasted on getting the launch vehicle to orbit and so maximum payload and life support achieved and that launch vehicle can use extra mass needed for inertia to punch it through the remaining atmosphere to orbit to, so in fact it can be armoured.
Biggest steam rings imaginable, along with the exit of the launch vehicle as it coasts into space. By far the cheapest per tonne (forget pounds, so last millennium) launch system possible.
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Re: Cheap Launch System
And no, the launch vehicle will not "coast into orbit". This is not a launch system, just part of one at best. You would still needed an enormous rocket to impart the orbital velocity.
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An example of this: The 900-kilogram steel plate cap for the test shaft of the Pascal-B nuclear test.
Granted, we now know much more about meteorites, including that the heat of re-entry will still have them arriving at the ground with a cold interior. Ablation can remove heat, which is how the fibreglass Apollo heat shield worked, and a Russian wooden heat shield.
If any bit of it cleared the atmosphere, it would mean that America put an object into solar orbit a couple months before Sputnik reached earth orbit.
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I have something similar in my bathroom. If my wife walks in inadvertently, she will nearly reach escape velocity getting out.
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Re:
Many of those propellants are more than a tad dangerous, including Chlorine trifluoride, or "CTF"...
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