[ExI] Inflatable tower could climb to the edge of space

[Dan]

--- On Fri, 6/12/09, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 6/12/09, Dan wrote:
> > I believe that idea's been discussed before -- and not
> just here.
> > Not that it's a bad idea.  I think I also saw an
> animation on a TV
> > documentary depicting a crewed rocket being
> accelerated and
> > then the rockets firing at the end -- kind of similar,
> I reckon, to
> > launching planes from a carrier, though I presume the
> jets are
> > running before they're launched.
> 
> Oh yes, it's an old idea. I'm not trying to claim I just
> invented it!  :)
> 
> I'm just saying that wouldn't it be sensible that before
> trying to
> build the difficult tower project, we should try the easier
> land-based project?

I'm with you there.  Also, why not just build big dumb boosters?  No sexy bleeding edge tech; they just would seem very likely to work.

Regards,

Dan