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WI: Could they have pulled it off, no.1: SASSTO/Gemini



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 1st 04, 09:11 AM
Mike Flugennock
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Default WI: Could they have pulled it off, no.1: SASSTO/Gemini


2004 at last! Approaching 02:30 on the East Coast of North America, and
trying to reboot my brain after reading that last goddamn' Hallerb post
about Jesus, Gagarin and Voskhod 1.

Pleasantly relaxed on a pint of Bass and some very mellow smoke, now, just
sort of gliding into the New Year while browsing all this fantastic
concept imagery and history at Marcus Lindroos' site, and I've started
wondering about all these concepts that never got picked, and whether or
not they may have actually flown with a reasonable amount of work. Hell,
even back when the Shuttle final design was first chosen, the NASA Admin
was heard to comment to the effect that it was already in danger of
becoming a "flying white elephant", and had suffered a lot from committee
design, and resulted in a vehicle which was -- shall we say -- slightly
sub-optimal.

So, what the hell, how about a nice, fresh what-if, totally fresh, not
even a what-if-the-Russians-had-managed-to-make-a-race-of-it thread, OK?

Given: whatever you ask for within bounds of reason, Congress gives you.
It once again involves Mondale's car pool "forgetting" to pick him up a
couple of mornings, but you push it through. So, we're off to do our first
generation reusable vehicle. Keep in mind that, for the purposes of this
WI, the budget's no problem, and given this, all you engineers and pilots
lurking out there are encouraged to chime in on some of the concepts that
get my interest going.

(Disclaimer: any impressions, thoughts, speculation, WAGs, SWAGs
made in these posts are strictly those of a layman
aficionado who grew up watching lots of Gemini,
Apollo and SkyLab missions)


So, let's kick things off with
http://www.abo.fi/~mlindroo/SpaceLVs/Slides/sld017.htm , the Douglas
SASSTO ...but not the advanced versions, the really huge-assed things with
all the drop tanks, but the first version, the technology demonstrator
which launches a Gemini, seen at
http://www.abo.fi/~mlindroo/space60s/sassto.jpg -- because we're all such
suckers for a really interesting advanced Gemini variant. (I'm surprised
EA hasn't picked this up for "Geminimania!")

This, iirc, was a "Saturn Application" project, one of many rounds of
feasibility studies of SSTO launchers that continue to this day. Any
reason why this couldn't have been made to work (some of you will probably
say "because it's one of Phil Bono's old ideas")? The idea of landing the
vehicle by backing downwards, onto landing-pad legs, like a rocket ship in
an old movie, sounds like a bit of a stretch, but the rest of it...?



Also, in the image at
http://www.abo.fi/~mlindroo/space60s/bono.jpg , what's with the checkered
roll pattern on the Gemini SM at the upper left, even though it's beneath
an aerodynamic fairing which has its _own_ checkerboard roll pattern? It's
not as if once they make orbit and jettison the fairing, anyone will be
able to see the roll pattern on the SM. And what's with the roll patterns
on the drop tanks on the concept at lower left? This is some of the cooler
concept art at this site, but it looks as if it may have been created by
someone who didn't quite understand how roll patterns work.

--
"All over, people changing their votes,
along with their overcoats;
if Adolf Hitler flew in today,
they'd send a limousine anyway!" --the clash.
__________________________________________________ _________________
Mike Flugennock, flugennock at sinkers dot org
Mike Flugennock's Mikey'zine, dubya dubya dubya dot sinkers dot org
  #2  
Old January 1st 04, 01:12 PM
Hallerb
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Posts: n/a
Default WI: Could they have pulled it off, no.1: SASSTO/Gemini


2004 at last! Approaching 02:30 on the East Coast of North America, and
trying to reboot my brain after reading that last goddamn' Hallerb post
about Jesus, Gagarin and Voskhod 1.


Thats a impersonator not me.
 




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