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> Notice how nearly the entire volume of the satellite launcher in the diagram consists of hydrogen tank. There's not a lot of room in there for passenger loung
by teamonkey 12y ago
> Notice how nearly the entire volume of the satellite launcher in the diagram consists of hydrogen tank. There's not a lot of room in there for passenger lounges and drink trolleys.
The passenger variant presumably wouldn't need as much fuel as the one designed to launch satellites into orbit.
- idlewords 12y agoWhy not? You have to slow down and land with the full passenger load, rather than launching the payload into space[1]. And you need to engineer the vehicle to very conservative airline safety standards. [1] Although launching the passengers into space is an attractive option, given the kinds of people who could afford tickets on this thing.
- teamonkey 12y agoYou need a massive multi-stage rocket that is 90% fuel (+ reactant etc.) by mass to get a couple of tons of satellite into orbit 160km up; yet a fraction of that fuel mass can take a plane and hundreds of passengers thousands of kilometres at a stretch, but only 1 or 2km high. In other words, going up is hard.