SSTO built. Forum: Spacesettlers
Thread: SSTO built.
# 2926 byaglobus@... on June 3, 2002, 4:05 p.m.
Member since 2021-10-03
The reason for the fancy stuff is to handle the energies involved. The
rocket equation tells us that the energy necessary is proportional to e
raised to the deta-v / specific-impulse. The delta-v achieved by Delta
Clipper was trivial. Slower than my car (if I remember correctly). The
delta-v necessary to reach orbit is about 17,000 mph if launched from
the equator. The Delta Clipper was a great project and achieved much,
but the scaling issues are formidable.
> In that it took off, hovered, and landed again rather safely without an
> investment of gazillions of dollars is what attracted my attention.
> Could
> the design have been scaled up to become a true orbital contender or
> relatively cheap taxi is still a question in many minds, as it should
> be....
> but to me it shows that you don't necessarily need exotic alloys, super
> sophisticated components, etc. that push space-access (even near space)
> beyond reasonable budgets.
The materials in one asteroid (the largest ) are sufficient to make
orbital space colonies with ~500 times the surface area of the Earth in
usable real estate. See http://lifesci3.arc.nasa.gov/SpaceSettlement/
for details.
Al Globus
CSC at NASA Ames Research Center
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/~globus/home.html