[extropy-chat] The other space program

[Eugen Leitl]

On Wed, Aug 11, 2004 at 02:16:15PM -0700, Adrian Tymes wrote:

> I have some friends on their team.  I'm not certain
> whether they'll be able to pull off step 3 - something
> light enough to float yet strong enough to withstand

This isn't the issue (though your hull erosion through plasma will make the
craft very, very short-lived), the question is where do you want to get the
thrust from? Who's going to build the microwave stations on the ground to
track the craft as it goes around the Earth? How many newtons thrust do you
get from 10 kg thruster, and how much lift capacity in 50 km height does that
need, what is the crossection of the hull, and the drag?

And does anyone have a fat airfoil for hypersonic regime which provides the
lift?

> hypersonic velocities (even with the tradeoff: the
> lower in the atmosphere one goes, the more one can
> float to resist gravity, but the stronger the craft
> must be if moving fast) - but even if they can just
> pull off step 2 - the Dark Sky Station - that'd be
> rather impressive.  I do think they'll get at least
> that far.

The Dark Sky station is as close to LEO as SpaceshipOne. I.e., not at all.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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