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Here's a silly thought: why can't we put the spacecraft on top of an ICBM in a silo and launch when the next extrasolar object is detected? The American and Rus
by HarryHirsch 7y ago
Here's a silly thought: why can't we put the spacecraft on top of an ICBM in a silo and launch when the next extrasolar object is detected? The American and Russian armed forces worked out 24/7 launch readiness in the 1960s.
- jandrese 7y agoNobody wants to pay for the personal needed to staff that silo.
- sandworm101 7y agoBecause an ICBM doesn't have anywhere near the power needed for such a mission. A timely flyby of an interstellar object would need something akin to the Saturn-V or Falcon Heavy, or perhaps multiple launches of said. An ICBM is a firecracker in comparison.
- HarryHirsch 7y agoI see that now. With the two booster stages, the Ulysses spacecraft weighed > 15 tons in LEO, and the Dnieper rocket has a capacity of 4.5 tons to LTO. And you do need to get to Jupiter to turn the orbital plane of the spacecraft out of the ecliptic.
- rtkwe 7y agoICBMs could only launch a very small probe into orbit and not even a sun centered one. They're meant for basically sub orbital ballistic trajectories for nukes and you don't need the power to put something into orbit for that.
- a3n 7y agoBecause launching it could trigger a response?