Greg D. Moore (Strider) wrote:
Hmm, and can you upgrade the engines at all?

Might gain you a bit more.

So.. what could you do with say:

200lbs
500lbs
1000lbs

I think the first 2 are basically "small sat" type things.

1000lbs, a bare minimum once around capsule?


It really doesn't make any sense though.
Because of its size and low mass, the Atlas booster will destructively
reenter in fairly short order from air drag anyway, so you really
haven't gained anything by doing it this way.
It would make more sense to figure out how to recover the 1/2 stage
after jettison.
But the two engines in that were fairly cheap low-tech ones, so that
really doesn't make any sense either, considering the amount of payload
you'd lose from the weight of the recovery system.

Pat