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So is it just a suborbital plane that can launch something high enough where an additional small booster can put the payload in orbit?

by iwwr 12y ago

filipncs 12y ago
No, it's single stage to orbit; it's a poorly written article. It goes to mach 5.4 with atmospheric air before switching to liquid oxygen. The article makes it sound like it only ever reaches mach 5.4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft)
- trhway 12y ago
  it is lost on me why Skylon would be noticeably better than a Mach 5-6 plane boosting a second stage. Such 2 stage system would have obviously less trade-offs and thus would be easier/cheaper to design and build.
  - icegreentea 12y ago
    Staging isn't free. While true that the second stage vehicle will be simpler, the combined second and first stage together could be more complicated/heavier than the Skylon. Noticeably, the point of the Skylon and SABRE is that it's possible to use a common engine core in airbreathing and pure rocket mode, thus potentially generating weight savings. I'm sure someone sat down and did the calculations. I have this feeling that a lot of the times when you actually sit down and work out the math for a range of assumptions, you generally come down to 'eh, maybe A, maybe B, so may as well try A'.
- blueskin_ 12y ago
  >it's a poorly written article. It's the BBC, so I'd say it's an averagely written article in their context.
  - ris 12y ago
    It's by Jonathan Amos, who generally knows his stuff and whose articles are usually well above most bbc tech articles in quality. It's an unfortunately worded paragraph I'd say.
    - blueskin_ 12y ago
      Well, I suppose 'poor' is above 'awful'.
Someone 12y ago
No. It's a plane that can go into low orbit. You need an additional booster to bring stuff into high orbits. For smaller satellites, this study concludes that it is economical to recover that booster. "power units that work like jet engines at low altitudes and slow speeds, but then transition to full rocket mode at high altitudes" and "Skylon itself is designed only to go a few hundred km above the Earth, so it would need an additional "upper-stage" module to push the satellite into its final, 36,000km-high orbit."

So is it just a suborbital plane that can launch something high enough where an additional small booster can put the payload in orbit?

by iwwr 12y ago

So is it just a suborbital plane that can launch something high enough where an additional small booster can put the payload in orbit?

filipncs 12y ago

No, it's single stage to orbit; it's a poorly written article. It goes to mach 5.4 with atmospheric air before switching to liquid oxygen. The article makes it sound like it only ever reaches mach 5.4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft)

trhway 12y ago
it is lost on me why Skylon would be noticeably better than a Mach 5-6 plane boosting a second stage. Such 2 stage system would have obviously less trade-offs and thus would be easier/cheaper to design and build.
- icegreentea 12y ago
  Staging isn't free. While true that the second stage vehicle will be simpler, the combined second and first stage together could be more complicated/heavier than the Skylon. Noticeably, the point of the Skylon and SABRE is that it's possible to use a common engine core in airbreathing and pure rocket mode, thus potentially generating weight savings. I'm sure someone sat down and did the calculations. I have this feeling that a lot of the times when you actually sit down and work out the math for a range of assumptions, you generally come down to 'eh, maybe A, maybe B, so may as well try A'.
blueskin_ 12y ago
>it's a poorly written article. It's the BBC, so I'd say it's an averagely written article in their context.
- ris 12y ago
  It's by Jonathan Amos, who generally knows his stuff and whose articles are usually well above most bbc tech articles in quality. It's an unfortunately worded paragraph I'd say.
  - blueskin_ 12y ago
    Well, I suppose 'poor' is above 'awful'.

Someone 12y ago

No. It's a plane that can go into low orbit. You need an additional booster to bring stuff into high orbits. For smaller satellites, this study concludes that it is economical to recover that booster. "power units that work like jet engines at low altitudes and slow speeds, but then transition to full rocket mode at high altitudes" and "Skylon itself is designed only to go a few hundred km above the Earth, so it would need an additional "upper-stage" module to push the satellite into its final, 36,000km-high orbit."