3 ms·
The X-prize Lunar Lander Challenge was an interesting alternative way to get to reusable rockets. There were rules to take off from one pad and land on another
by Gravityloss 2y ago
The X-prize Lunar Lander Challenge was an interesting alternative way to get to reusable rockets.
There were rules to take off from one pad and land on another pad while hovering 90 seconds. And the higher level challenge had 180 seconds of hovering. And then the rocket must fly back (after refueling).
This doesn't need any complicated launch ranges and permits like "real" rockets. But the delta vee capability needed to hover that long is still significant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Lander_Challenge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Lander_Challenge
I think it's a shame it didn't directly lead to viable businesses. Armadillo Aerospace and Masten Space and others acted as an inspiration though. You can make rocket flights reliable and relatively routine.
If they could have made that work as a business, say, first for sounding rockets, then they could have scaled that up to orbital.
Back in the 2008 era there wasn't that much VC money floating around either...
- cubefox 2y agoIt certainly would have been far more effective for NASA to spend money on private companies instead of spending those billions on their Constellation program. Even today, NASA invests far more money into the in-house project SLS/Orion than into rockets by private space companies. So there was enough money, it was just spent inefficiently by a government agency.
- Gravityloss 2y agoYes, definitely, but that's politically hard though. Ie the NASA administrator can't do that on their own. EELV:s had supposed "black zones". Ares I was the thing. And so on. Even when Dragon and Cygnus were a thing, SLS had to be developed.