could a shuttle have flown propelled into orbit on a space X booster?

strictly for fun could that have been done?

bob haller wrote:


strictly for fun could that have been done?


No. Even if there was some way to attach it that wouldn't destroy the
booster (which isn't designed to have loads hung on the side of it) it
wouldn't work. If you remove the engines (and you might as well,
since you'd have no fuel for them) the Orbiter weighs over 75 tons.
Falcon 9 maxes out at 25 tons or so to LEO. Even Falcon Heavy can
only lift 70 tons, so it can't boost a Shuttle Orbiter, either.


--
"Adrenaline is like exercise, but without the excessive gym fees."
-- Professor Walsh, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"

On Wednesday, October 18, 2017 at 9:51:35 PM UTC-4, Fred J. McCall wrote:
bob haller wrote:


strictly for fun could that have been done?


No. Even if there was some way to attach it that wouldn't destroy the
booster (which isn't designed to have loads hung on the side of it) it
wouldn't work. If you remove the engines (and you might as well,
since you'd have no fuel for them) the Orbiter weighs over 75 tons.
Falcon 9 maxes out at 25 tons or so to LEO. Even Falcon Heavy can
only lift 70 tons, so it can't boost a Shuttle Orbiter, either.


--
"Adrenaline is like exercise, but without the excessive gym fees."
-- Professor Walsh, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"

strap 2 or 3 falcon heavys together..........

bob haller wrote:

On Wednesday, October 18, 2017 at 9:51:35 PM UTC-4, Fred J. McCall wrote:
bob haller wrote:


strictly for fun could that have been done?


No. Even if there was some way to attach it that wouldn't destroy the
booster (which isn't designed to have loads hung on the side of it) it
wouldn't work. If you remove the engines (and you might as well,
since you'd have no fuel for them) the Orbiter weighs over 75 tons.
Falcon 9 maxes out at 25 tons or so to LEO. Even Falcon Heavy can
only lift 70 tons, so it can't boost a Shuttle Orbiter, either.


strap 2 or 3 falcon heavys together..........


Musk isn't even sure he can make one of them work...........


--
"Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar
territory."
--G. Behn

On Thursday, October 19, 2017 at 2:40:15 PM UTC+13, bob haller wrote:
strictly for fun could that have been done?

Yes.

http://www.astronautix.com/s/saturnshuttle.html

http://www.astronautix.com/s/shuttle.html

http://www.pmview.com/spaceodysseytw...lvs/sld036.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn-Shuttle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_Heavy

The Falcon Heavy puts out 5.13 million pounds of thrust. The Saturn V used for the Saturn Shuttle - puts out 7.65 million pounds of thrust from three Falcon Common Core Boosters. Adding two more Falcon boosters, a total of Five - would boost total thrust to 8.55 million pounds of thrust and permit putting a fully loaded External Tank atop the central booster - to which the ET is affixed. The Space Shuttle is attached to the side as shown in the Saturn Shuttle. The 0.9 million pound increase permits added propellant (stretched ET) and added payload aboard the Shuttle.

Recovery of all the parts and pieces (using the ET on orbit as a space station) is a dramatic improvement over the SRBs actually used.

http://www.astronautix.com/s/stsexte...nkstation.html


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A Falcon 9 could put a DynaSoar (X20) or X-37 in orbit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-20_Dyna-Soar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37

The Falcon Heavy could place highly reusable space plane on orbit as well - this paper also discussed the advantages of liquid fueled rocket booster to replace the SRBs.

https://www.aiaa.org/uploadedfiles/a...sfinalaiaa.pdf

The BFR - Big Falcon Rocket has 4,400 t take off weight, second stage 1,185 t and payload of 150 t - fully reusable. It has 1,100 t capacity in the second stage, and 85 t of structure. 7 added launcher of BFR freighter, fills the 1,100 t propellant tanks on the BFR and can place 125 t one way on the lunar surface, with return of the empty vehicle.

Land on Moon, Drop Payload, Return Empty

So, 64 launches, with 8 lunar flights, puts 1,000 t on the moon.

Land on Moon, Drop Payload, Return Full after refuelling

With a source of carbon and water - and even silver!

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/sci...le15788109.ece

Size of initial station;

Following a thorough survey of lunar resources, mine sites are chosen. Using the BA-330 inflatable module as a reference, 288 people can be supported by 1000 t of hardware. A group of 72 people with equipment, can mine lunar materials for carbon and water - to produce methane and oxygen propellant to refuel the BFR upper stage on the moon.

In this case, 150 t can be brought to the moon and 150 t of silver taken away. At $1 million per ton it pays for the highly reusable launches.

Build a Mass Drive to send Lunar Propellant to LEO.

https://www.lpi.usra.edu/publication...063/GaTech.pdf

A mass driver on the moon, sending chemical propellants to LEO at very low costs, provides a means to reduce the number of Earth bound launches to 1.

(1) Launch filled BFR derived tanker stage to LEO from the moon with mass driver followed by aerobraking - contains 1320 t and masses 30 t empty.
(2) Launch BFR upper stage to LEO from Earth with booster, arrive at LEO empty.
(3) Transfer 1,100 t propellant from lunar BFR to terrestrial BFR
(4) Lunar BFR boosts back to moon with 320 t propellant, lands empty, refilled and reused.
(5) Terrestrial BFR does TLI and lands on moon empty, for reuse after refill.

Also, the lunar sourced BFR sends materials to Earth Orbit, and even to Earth, as it refuels an outbound BFR.


On Monday, October 23, 2017 at 2:10:34 PM UTC+13, William Mook wrote:
On Thursday, October 19, 2017 at 2:40:15 PM UTC+13, bob haller wrote:
strictly for fun could that have been done?

Yes.

http://www.astronautix.com/s/saturnshuttle.html

http://www.astronautix.com/s/shuttle.html

http://www.pmview.com/spaceodysseytw...lvs/sld036.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn-Shuttle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_Heavy

The Falcon Heavy puts out 5.13 million pounds of thrust. The Saturn V used for the Saturn Shuttle - puts out 7.65 million pounds of thrust from three Falcon Common Core Boosters. Adding two more Falcon boosters, a total of Five - would boost total thrust to 8.55 million pounds of thrust and permit putting a fully loaded External Tank atop the central booster - to which the ET is affixed. The Space Shuttle is attached to the side as shown in the Saturn Shuttle. The 0.9 million pound increase permits added propellant (stretched ET) and added payload aboard the Shuttle.

Recovery of all the parts and pieces (using the ET on orbit as a space station) is a dramatic improvement over the SRBs actually used.

http://www.astronautix.com/s/stsexte...nkstation.html


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*
* *

A Falcon 9 could put a DynaSoar (X20) or X-37 in orbit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-20_Dyna-Soar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37

The Falcon Heavy could place highly reusable space plane on orbit as well - this paper also discussed the advantages of liquid fueled rocket booster to replace the SRBs.

https://www.aiaa.org/uploadedfiles/a...sfinalaiaa.pdf