[ExI] Fwd: Space governance

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: Anton Sherwood <bronto at pobox.com> 
Sent: Saturday, September 26, 2020 2:36 PM
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Cc: spike at rainier66.com
Subject: Re: [ExI] Fwd: Space governance

On 2020-9-26 11:00, spike jones via extropy-chat wrote:
> We knew you don’t build a 737 in Seattle, fly it to Orlando, unload 
> the passengers, then hurl it into the sea.

I didn't get where I am today by flying anything to Orlando.


> working on SSTO: I calculated that anything you can do with one stage 
> can be done better with two.  Turns out that was true then and still is now.

Why is that?  And can both stages be recovered?

--
*\\*  Anton Sherwood  *\\*  www.bendwavy.org






Both stages must be fully recovered before the whole idea is a go.

A reasonable middle ground exists: the second stage goes to orbit to stay.  The second-stage motor need not be enormous to lift a tank of fuel with the remaining cargo to orbit.  That part would be a throw-away (in a sense) but we could get a pressure vessel into LEO, tether it to another similar tank, get them rotating about a common center for a small but comforting gravity-like environment (0.1 G might be enough.)  That isn't exactly recoverable, but getting useful materials to orbit is (in a way) better than recovering it.

So that idea is really kind of a hybrid: first stage fully recoverable, second stage fully useable.

spike