[QUOTE=Eudoxia;31864799]Well, reusable would always be prefered, but there's the cost of bringing these things down safely.
They are large, hollow bricks of metal that are supposed to vaporize on contact with the ocean. I don't think a single parachute is going to get it to land safely. It's probably a more complex thing than deploying large enough parachutes and handwaving the problem away, if they haven't done it already.
And I doubt it's economical to add more boosters to send the boosters into orbit. It's already hard enough to propel tinned primates into orbit, it's cheap to just let the boosters fall. Specially when the cost of maintaining the shuttle, of disassembling, checking, testing, reworking and reassembling the whole thing after each flight. With that kind of constraints, it's just economics to let the thing get lost.[/QUOTE]
I wasn't really suggesting the use of parachutes or using boosters to deliver boosters. I was actually suggesting a spaceplane that's launched into orbit by some sort of very powerful rocket sled, which is viable for America at least due to all those mountainsides to build the sled ramps on. That way it could be launched without the need for multiple boosters, just the one rocket sled, and the craft could re-enter the atmosphere in a similar fashion to the old shuttles.
This might sounds insane, but would a sort of sloping gravity boost for a rocket sled work? It'd kinda be like this; the shuttle is mounted on top of a Rocket Sled, then the two are dragged up a large ramp kind of like a rollercoaster. At the top of this first stage of the ramp, a sort of V-shaped track with a curved bottom awaits the shuttle and sled, shortly before the sled and shuttle start to "fall" down the track ahead of them, again like a rollercoaster, whilst the incline becomes more horizontal as it approached the curved dip. Eventually it starts to reach the bottom, and at the right moment the sled kicks into life and fires it's boosters to increase the speed as the uphill stage of the ramp begins. Magnetic acceleration would also be an option if the tech is good enough, and further increase the speed. Eventually, when the sled and shuttle reach the end of the line at the top of the ramp, they detach just as they reach the open-end of the ramp, with the shuttle firing it's engines to keep it soaring up through the atmosphere, whilst the disposable Booster Sled ends up crashing into a designated "Junkyard Crater Zone", where the remains are later carted off to be recycled.
Would this be effective in any way, or is it a miserable-sounding flop of rocket sled design? If the latter I guess THIS might be more effective.
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Maglifter.jpg[/img]
Also I know shuttle maintenance is kinda expensive, but if it ends up working better than the standard booster and module thing, it might be worth it. Plus if tech improves it'd become easier to maintain.
[QUOTE=ironman17;31865674]I wasn't really suggesting the use of parachutes or using boosters to deliver boosters. I was actually suggesting a spaceplane that's launched into orbit by some sort of very powerful rocket sled, which is viable for America at least due to all those mountainsides to build the sled ramps on. That way it could be launched without the need for multiple boosters, just the one rocket sled, and the craft could re-enter the atmosphere in a similar fashion to the old shuttles.
This might sounds insane, but would a sort of sloping gravity boost for a rocket sled work? It'd kinda be like this; the shuttle is mounted on top of a Rocket Sled, then the two are dragged up a large ramp kind of like a rollercoaster. At the top of this first stage of the ramp, a sort of V-shaped track with a curved bottom awaits the shuttle and sled, shortly before the sled and shuttle start to "fall" down the track ahead of them, again like a rollercoaster, whilst the incline becomes more horizontal as it approached the curved dip. Eventually it starts to reach the bottom, and at the right moment the sled kicks into life and fires it's boosters to increase the speed as the uphill stage of the ramp begins. Magnetic acceleration would also be an option if the tech is good enough, and further increase the speed. Eventually, when the sled and shuttle reach the end of the line at the top of the ramp, they detach just as they reach the open-end of the ramp, with the shuttle firing it's engines to keep it soaring up through the atmosphere, whilst the disposable Booster Sled ends up crashing into a designated "Junkyard Crater Zone", where the remains are later carted off to be recycled.
Would this be effective in any way, or is it a miserable-sounding flop of rocket sled design? If the latter I guess THIS might be more effective.
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Maglifter.jpg[/img]
Also I know shuttle maintenance is kinda expensive, but if it ends up working better than the standard booster and module thing, it might be worth it. Plus if tech improves it'd become easier to maintain.[/QUOTE]
I think letting the machine slide down and then up the ramp with a rocket sled might be too much infrastructure and simply too ludicrous to get funding. I think a system like that proposed in Marshall Savage's The Millennial Project is more feasible, sort of like a cannon powered by laser bursts: [url]http://projectrho.com/rocket/surfaceorbit.php#id--Bifrost_Bridge[/url]
As for the maglev, it may not be entirely feasible: [url]http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/Nowicki/SPBI1SI.HTM[/url]
I think you can count on the superconductor industry producing better and cheaper superconducting maglevs, but there are limits to how high a temperature it can stand while superconducting. And I think friction, even against it, may produce sufficient heat to get the superconductors beyond the temperature of superconductivity, even if it's as high as 340 K or something.
I think my idea is rather feasible: [url]http://pleasegodno.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/the-lightcraftram-accelerator-propulsion-system-in-fam/[/url]
PATENT PENDING
I didn't know you had a blog Eudoxia. A blog worth looking into? [b][i]preposterous![/i][/b]
[QUOTE=OvB;31865873]I didn't know you had a blog Eudoxia. A blog worth looking into? [b][i]preposterous![/i][/b][/QUOTE]
It's famous too. I got Michael Anissimov to comment on one of my posts! (He's like a celebrity of the transhumanists) Too bad he hates me ;o;
Hey, why can't I invest in this company?
I don't need a business plan or even profits, JUST TAKE MY MONEY!
[QUOTE=Eudoxia;31865888]It's famous too. I got Michael Anissimov to comment on one of my posts! (He's like a celebrity of the transhumanists) Too bad he hates me ;o;[/QUOTE]
Why does he hate you?
[QUOTE=OvB;31866135]Why does he hate you?[/QUOTE]
I complained about his wiki and because of this picture:
[IMG]http://img807.imageshack.us/img807/8360/michaelanissimovtrolled.jpg[/IMG]
[B]FUCK YES[/B]
I can't wait for my internship!
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