spaceship one as sounding rocket ..

one thing that has not yet mentioned (at least i could not find any
mention of this) is the opportunity of using SSO as a manned sounding
rocket ..

it fills a gap betwenn current zero G planes, current sounding rockets
and actual satellites - offering much longer zero gee time then the
planes, larger payload then most sounding rockets at comaratively low
price with the chance to easily refly experiments - AND - to fly maned
experiments ..

i would guess a number of resaerch institutions and universites might
be very interested in this .. your opinion ?

servus

markus

Markus Baur wrote in newsAKEb.146722
:

one thing that has not yet mentioned (at least i could not find any
mention of this) is the opportunity of using SSO as a manned sounding
rocket ..

it fills a gap betwenn current zero G planes, current sounding rockets
and actual satellites - offering much longer zero gee time then the
planes, larger payload then most sounding rockets at comaratively low
price with the chance to easily refly experiments - AND - to fly maned
experiments ..

i would guess a number of resaerch institutions and universites might
be very interested in this .. your opinion ?

Don't see why it couldn't be used as a launcher for a sounding rocket,
or a multistage light satellite launcher. The hybrid motor is pushing
a heavy mass to a pretty good altitude; how high would it go by itself
and a small payload?

I would not be surprised to see them try this, or perhaps it's their
real goal.

--Damon

Damon Hill wrote in message . 132...
Markus Baur wrote in newsAKEb.146722
:

one thing that has not yet mentioned (at least i could not find any
mention of this) is the opportunity of using SSO as a manned sounding
rocket ..

it fills a gap betwenn current zero G planes, current sounding rockets
and actual satellites - offering much longer zero gee time then the
planes, larger payload then most sounding rockets at comaratively low
price with the chance to easily refly experiments - AND - to fly maned
experiments ..

i would guess a number of resaerch institutions and universites might
be very interested in this .. your opinion ?

Don't see why it couldn't be used as a launcher for a sounding rocket,
or a multistage light satellite launcher. The hybrid motor is pushing
a heavy mass to a pretty good altitude; how high would it go by itself
and a small payload?

I would not be surprised to see them try this, or perhaps it's their
real goal.

--Damon

You seem to be talking about an unmanned version of SS1. I would be
very suprised to see Rutan go along with this. He has been very
adamant in past interviews that the living, breathing, thinking pilot
is a key part of his designs. It probably would add a lot of
complexity to the vehicle to make it unmanned (then you'd have to
figure out unmanned flight, tailbraking, and landing by computer), and
it may even add weight. (SS1 isn't fly-by-wire.)

Tom Merkle

Damon Hill wrote in message . 132...
Markus Baur wrote in newsAKEb.146722
:

one thing that has not yet mentioned (at least i could not find any
mention of this) is the opportunity of using SSO as a manned sounding
rocket ..

i would guess a number of resaerch institutions and universites might
be very interested in this .. your opinion ?

Don't see why it couldn't be used as a launcher for a sounding rocket,
or a multistage light satellite launcher. The hybrid motor is pushing
a heavy mass to a pretty good altitude; how high would it go by itself
and a small payload?

I would not be surprised to see them try this, or perhaps it's their
real goal.


I wonder who would use it. Most NASA sounding rocket flights
carry smaller payloads to much higher altitudes (usually for
studying the radiation belts, etc.) Of the 26 sounding rocket
launches planned by NASA during the next fiscal year
("http://www.wff.nasa.gov/~code810/pages/srpo_monthly_sch.html")
only two seem to be lower altitude, heavy-payload, single-stage
Black Brants.

- Ed Kyle

Well, one of Rutan's plans for the Proteus was to use it for launching
smallsats, IIRC... so I dunno where you get the idea he's be agin' it.......

(Tom Merkle) wrote in
:

Damon Hill wrote in message
. 132...
Markus Baur wrote in newsAKEb.146722
:

one thing that has not yet mentioned (at least i could not find any
mention of this) is the opportunity of using SSO as a manned
sounding rocket ..

it fills a gap betwenn current zero G planes, current sounding
rockets and actual satellites - offering much longer zero gee
time then the planes, larger payload then most sounding rockets at
comaratively low price with the chance to easily refly experiments
- AND - to fly maned experiments ..

i would guess a number of resaerch institutions and universites
might be very interested in this .. your opinion ?

Don't see why it couldn't be used as a launcher for a sounding
rocket, or a multistage light satellite launcher. The hybrid motor
is pushing a heavy mass to a pretty good altitude; how high would it
go by itself and a small payload?

I would not be surprised to see them try this, or perhaps it's their
real goal.

--Damon

You seem to be talking about an unmanned version of SS1. I would be
very suprised to see Rutan go along with this. He has been very
adamant in past interviews that the living, breathing, thinking pilot
is a key part of his designs. It probably would add a lot of
complexity to the vehicle to make it unmanned (then you'd have to
figure out unmanned flight, tailbraking, and landing by computer), and
it may even add weight. (SS1 isn't fly-by-wire.)

Duh.

I wasn't talking about SpaceShip One, I was talking about the hybrid
motor package and a payload; obviously there'd need to be an aeroshell
and guidance system, but far smaller and less complex.

--Damon

Any port in a storm. Until you mentioned this, I hadn't been able to see
any practical use for the thing. Orbital flights are infinitely more
interesting.

Damon Hill wrote in
32:

Markus Baur wrote in newsAKEb.146722
:

one thing that has not yet mentioned (at least i could not find any
mention of this) is the opportunity of using SSO as a manned sounding
rocket ..

well ..

i did not think of it as any port in a storm - just of an additional
way to make money with it ..

is there any way to make payload / height comparisions of ss1 with
exiting sounding rockets - i have looked (a little) and did not find
the proper information ..

servus

markus




John Schutkeker wrote:
Any port in a storm. Until you mentioned this, I hadn't been able to see
any practical use for the thing. Orbital flights are infinitely more
interesting.

Damon Hill wrote in
32:


Markus Baur wrote in newsAKEb.146722
:


one thing that has not yet mentioned (at least i could not find any
mention of this) is the opportunity of using SSO as a manned sounding
rocket ..

Markus Baur wrote in
:

i did not think of it as any port in a storm - just of an additional
way to make money with it ..

What other ways are there to make money with it? You can't use it to
deliver crew into orbit, so I've just been assuming that it's a stepping
stone toward that goal.

Commercializing space flight is the key, but after forty years of big
promises in that regard, it has yet to appear. So forgive me for being
skeptical. This X-Prize idea is a good one, and I hope it can break the
logjam, but I'll believe it when I see it.

If you think it's bad having just a few commercial aeronautics companies,
since there are only a few customers for airplanes, and each one is very
expensive, just project that phenomenon onto the space industry. The
problem looks insurmountable to me.

is there any way to make payload / height comparisions of ss1 with
exiting sounding rockets - i have looked (a little) and did not find
the proper information ..

I have never been able to find a good publication for answers to questions
like this. You'd think there'd be a magazine devoted to aerospace science,
but if there is, I don't know of it. It sure isn't Aviation Week and Space
Technology. Smithsonian Air and Space is the best I can find, but that's
more of a history mag. Let me know if you find anything.

John Schutkeker wrote:
Markus Baur wrote in
:


is there any way to make payload / height comparisions of ss1 with
exiting sounding rockets - i have looked (a little) and did not find
the proper information ..


I have never been able to find a good publication for answers to questions
like this. You'd think there'd be a magazine devoted to aerospace science,
but if there is, I don't know of it. It sure isn't Aviation Week and Space
Technology. Smithsonian Air and Space is the best I can find, but that's
more of a history mag. Let me know if you find anything.



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