Smells Like Teen Spirit

--- Al Globus wrote:
> What is CATS?
Cheap Access To Space

> LEO access is the key to everything. It doesn't
> help to have a 4 lane
> superhighway with a 100 mile dirt track for an
> onramp.
>
I don't quite follow how LEO is the key. If I'm
launching beyond LEO, I don't even stop in LEO. I
bypass it totally. If I want to goto the Moon, I try
to boost into a lunar transfer orbit directly instead
of LEO. One of the major problem with the shuttle in
fact is that it is stuck in LEO. What good is shoving
things up 100 km in space when I really want to be
23k+ km in space.

In fact, launching stuff into LEO just requires my
spacecraft to waste precious lbs in fuel and
propulsion systems to get it to the real orbit I want
it to be in. A great example of how much mass is
wasted in launching too low is the Cosmic Background
Explorer. It was originally slated to be launched
from the Shuttle in the late 80s into a polar orbit at
900 km (i forgt the inclination). However, after the
challenger accident it got switched to a delta 2
launcher. Due to this it was able to reduce its mass
by 50% by removing the fuel and propulsion systems
neeed to it from the shuttle's orbit (about 100 km) to
its designed orbit!

So what good is LEO? Maybe its okay for some tourist
jaunts, but not much else. If you want to get to the
big money, mining and manufacturing, you need to get
beyond LEO. Same with going to the Moon.

Ryan Z