"SpaceShipTwo could be single stage to SUBorbit"
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From: John on 12 May 2010 12:22 On May 11, 8:57 am, "Jeff Findley" <jeff.find...(a)ugs.nojunk.com> wrote: > "Marvin the Martian" <mar...(a)ontomars.org> wrote in messagenews:usWdnd2hQtY7HHXWnZ2dnUVZ_g6dnZ2d(a)giganews.com... > > > The delta V for LEO is about 9 km/s. No fracken way in hell is that > > little plastic thing going to go to LEO. Maybe if you strapped a nuclear > > rocket engine to it, but those are illegal. > > > It's simply the rocket equation. > > > Basically, all this damned thing does is go up and come down. Orbit is a > > completely different matter. People who don't understand the rocket > > equation and the difference between LEO and a sounding rocket get a jazz > > out of "space ship two", but they're stupid putzes. > > Actually, ignorant can be fixed. Stupid can't. In most cases, it's easy > enough to explain that orbital velocity is so fast that you really do need a > huge amount of fuel and oxidizer to get into orbit. The X-15 example helps > somewhat too. The X-15 could fly high or fast, but could not do both on the > same mission. And even the X-15's high speed flights only achieved a small > fraction of orbital velocity. > > SpaceShipTwo is designed to fly high, not fast. You need both to make it > into orbit. > > Jeff > -- > "Take heart amid the deepening gloom > that your dog is finally getting enough cheese" - Deteriorata - National > Lampoon As well as, as pointed out earlier, you need more than SS2 has to come back down (safely)
From: Jeff Findley on 12 May 2010 14:15 "J. Clarke" <jclarke.usenet(a)cox.net> wrote in message news:hsefpp0934(a)news7.newsguy.com... > On 5/12/2010 9:40 AM, Jeff Findley wrote: >> "J. Clarke"<jclarke.usenet(a)cox.net> wrote in message >> news:hsdvvt01qd4(a)news5.newsguy.com... >>> There was indeed a plan to strap a bunch of solid rockets to an X-15 and >>> put it in orbit, with a heat shield. The Powers That Be decided that >>> humans couldn't function under the stresses of space flight though and >>> went with a fully automated "capsule". Would be a different world if >>> the >>> X-15B had been flown and worked. >> >> I've seen this X-15B many times at the museum and the ablative coating is >> definitely not on the aircraft. >> >> http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=556 >> >> Note the appearance of the aircraft in the "HiRes" pictures. Also note >> the >> drop tanks in picture #1. > > First, that's an X15A--no X15B was ever built or flown. My mistake. It's clearly X-15A-2 which was modified to carry external tanks. > Second, there was never any plan to "drop" the auxiliary fuel tanks. This is incorrect. Watch the video: X-15A-2 flight video http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/movie/X-15/HTML/EM-0033-08.html When dropped from the B-52, the external tanks are clearly visible under the X-15A-2. The latter part of the video shows the tanks being dropped, followed by dropping the mockup-engine carried underneath. Due to the landing gear/skid design used, I don't believe it would have been prudent to try landing with the tanks attached. X-15A-2 landing http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/movie/X-15/640x/EM-0033-09.mov > And apparently they have stripped it because it was white when I saw it > many years ago. This is true. Jeff -- "Take heart amid the deepening gloom that your dog is finally getting enough cheese" - Deteriorata - National Lampoon
From: Rick Jones on 12 May 2010 16:25 In sci.space.history Robert Clark <rgregoryclark(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > This is for the *suborbital* XCOR flight which does cost half as > much per passenger as the two-stage Virgin Galactic system. Do you have actual XCOR and VG cost figures or are you going by price paid by the consumer? rick jones -- Wisdom Teeth are impacted, people are affected by the effects of events. these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway... :) feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH...
From: Pat Flannery on 12 May 2010 21:47 On 5/12/2010 10:15 AM, Jeff Findley wrote: >> Second, there was never any plan to "drop" the auxiliary fuel tanks. > > This is incorrect. Watch the video: > > X-15A-2 flight video > http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/movie/X-15/HTML/EM-0033-08.html > > When dropped from the B-52, the external tanks are clearly visible under the > X-15A-2. The tanks weren't only droppable, they were recoverable for re-use via parachute. When their added weight and drag were taken into account though, they didn't really add very much extra performance to the X-15A-2 for all their complexity and added 60 seconds of burn time on the LR-99 engine. The ablative coating took 700 man-hours to strip off and reapply. On the Mach 6.7 flight, shockwave impingement on the lower fin from the intake cone of the dummy ramjet/scramjet* burned through its leading edge and caused the dummy engine to fall off to destruction before it could be properly jettisoned for recovery. There's a video showing the heating damage suffered on that flight here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHuBsBOF4R8 * It's been referred to as both in literature. Pat
From: Pat Flannery on 13 May 2010 06:47
On 5/12/2010 12:25 PM, Rick Jones wrote: > In sci.space.history Robert Clark<rgregoryclark(a)yahoo.com> wrote: >> This is for the *suborbital* XCOR flight which does cost half as >> much per passenger as the two-stage Virgin Galactic system. > > Do you have actual XCOR and VG cost figures or are you going by price > paid by the consumer? I still want to ride on Canadian Arrow's V-2 clone...and I want to wear a big bubble space helmet when I do it. Now _that's_ a spaceship. With luck I might get exposed to cosmic rays during the flight and develop strange powers that allow me to burst into flames whenever I want and fly around, making a fortune at fireworks displays, and getting me a hotbody redhead babe like this as a "trophy mutant": http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/28/ff81p1.gif God, you could have _cut diamonds_ with it around a minute after I first saw illustrations of her when I was a teen. ;-) Pat |