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You could actually get a payload into LEO with an ICBM, as long as it was lighter than your average nuclear warhead (or for MIRVed missiles, lighter than your w

You could actually get a payload into LEO with an ICBM, as long as it was lighter than your average nuclear warhead (or for MIRVed missiles, lighter than your warheads plus bus).

Cthulhu_ 9y ago
Could you? I mean if my KSP knowledge is anything to go by, yes you could, but KSP isn't reality and I can imagine the rocket itself is already too heavy or doesn't have enough thrust / fuel to bring itself into orbit.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  KSP is close enough to reality here. Also, isn't US fond of using old ICBMs to launch military satellites?
  - jackaroe78 9y ago
    Usually just on the 4th of July (give or take a week)
  - azernik 9y ago
    It's considered a valid way to dispose of excess missiles under disarmament treaties like START.
- keenerd 9y ago
  We've used old ICBMs to get stuff to the moon. LADEE most recently. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Atmosphere_and_Dust_Environment_Explorer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Atmosphere_and_Dust_Envi...
- Symmetry 9y ago
  The principles that KSP teaches are correct except for the bit where in KSP you're only under the gravitational influence of one body at a time, which doesn't matter for reaching orbit. The specific numbers in the KSP parts are totally fudged to make the game more fun but parts with those numbers would work like they do in KSP if they existed. For instance in real life jet engines have a lower thrust to weight ratio than rocket engines. EDIT: But you can download the realistic solar system mod to get a sense of what real world thrust ratios and orbital delta-v is like. And Children of a Dead Earth has multi-body physics for Lagrange points and so on.
  - Crespyl 9y ago
    If you really want a realistic but still playable sim, there's also Orbiter which not only uses real numbers as much as possible, but actually goes so far as to model non-spherical gravity sources like lumpy asteroids.

You could actually get a payload into LEO with an ICBM, as long as it was lighter than your average nuclear warhead (or for MIRVed missiles, lighter than your warheads plus bus).

Cthulhu_ 9y ago

Could you? I mean if my KSP knowledge is anything to go by, yes you could, but KSP isn't reality and I can imagine the rocket itself is already too heavy or doesn't have enough thrust / fuel to bring itself into orbit.

TeMPOraL 9y ago
KSP is close enough to reality here. Also, isn't US fond of using old ICBMs to launch military satellites?
- jackaroe78 9y ago
  Usually just on the 4th of July (give or take a week)
- azernik 9y ago
  It's considered a valid way to dispose of excess missiles under disarmament treaties like START.
keenerd 9y ago
We've used old ICBMs to get stuff to the moon. LADEE most recently. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Atmosphere_and_Dust_Environment_Explorer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Atmosphere_and_Dust_Envi...
Symmetry 9y ago
The principles that KSP teaches are correct except for the bit where in KSP you're only under the gravitational influence of one body at a time, which doesn't matter for reaching orbit. The specific numbers in the KSP parts are totally fudged to make the game more fun but parts with those numbers would work like they do in KSP if they existed. For instance in real life jet engines have a lower thrust to weight ratio than rocket engines. EDIT: But you can download the realistic solar system mod to get a sense of what real world thrust ratios and orbital delta-v is like. And Children of a Dead Earth has multi-body physics for Lagrange points and so on.
- Crespyl 9y ago
  If you really want a realistic but still playable sim, there's also Orbiter which not only uses real numbers as much as possible, but actually goes so far as to model non-spherical gravity sources like lumpy asteroids.