5 ms·
>Fuel is at present an insignificant cost of launching a rocket Fuel is almost ALL the cost of launching a rocket. If you can arrange for me to pick up fuel ev
by excuse-me 15y ago
>Fuel is at present an insignificant cost of launching a rocket
Fuel is almost ALL the cost of launching a rocket. If you can arrange for me to pick up fuel every vertical mile on the way up - I can get to orbit very cheaply!
- JabavuAdams 15y agoYeah, except for the rocket thingy.
- excuse-me 15y agoIf you don't need to achieve escape velocity in the thick lower atmosphere and accelerate all those 100,000lbs of fuel to 10km/s the rocket becomes pretty trivial
- JabavuAdams 15y agoI was replying to this: "Fuel is almost ALL the cost of launching a rocket." Also, how did your hardware get out of the thick lower atmosphere? Someone paid the cost of lofting that mass. Not much about rockets is trivial, except in theory. Practical issues: * heat dissipation: your fuel / oxidizer combo probably burns hotter than the nozzle material can tolerate. This needs to be tested (not for on orbit, for the first time) * fuel supply -- it's non-trivial to design tankage and feed systems that can supply fuel and oxidizer at the rate needed, in vacuum * propellant storage -- non-trivial unless you go for the really nasty "storable" propellants Pretty much every piece of the problem is non-trivial.
- ericd 15y agoSpace elevators, baby. I wonder where the material scientists are on nanotube length...