[ExI] big dumb booster question

[Jeff Davis]

>From my childhood enthusiasm for jet planes and space flight, a visual
memory remains vivid:  an
F-100 super sabre being "launched" from a stand using a JATO rocket.
Later I learned that the JATO used asphalt as fuel, tar basically.
Mixed with some oxidizer, of course.

Question: Would it be functionally possible to use asphalt as fuel in
a "big dumb booster", and if so, how would its use compare
ECONOMICALLY to more advanced fuels?

Or is this just a big dumb idea? ;-}

Best, Jeff Davis

 "Everything's hard till you know how to do it."
                         Ray Charles


Setting aside the current political kerfluffle vis a vis Hugo Chavez,
I was wondering if the Orinoco tar sands and proximity to the equator
could turn Venezuela into a booster maker and launch-services
provider.