Lynx Spaceplane

On Apr 2, 9:02*am, (Rand Simberg) wrote:
On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:53:41 -0600, in a place far, far away, Pat
Flannery made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:

Why exactly is the Air Force interested in this thing?:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g...T49jQD8VLFIEO0
Suborbital recon aircraft? Launch platform for some sort of ASAT weapon?

As a technology demonstrator for a responsive reusable transport for
rapid replenishment of satellites.

There is no such thing as, "rapid replenishment of satellites", as
satellite construction itself is not that rapid. Unless you can tell
me something other than DMSP and NPOESS that the Air Force is
interested in, regards to satellites.

Perhaps USA-193 was too rapidly constructed?

Eric

On Wed, 2 Apr 2008 11:55:15 -0700 (PDT), Eric Chomko
wrote:


Why exactly is the Air Force interested in this thing?:

As a technology demonstrator for a responsive reusable transport for
rapid replenishment of satellites.

There is no such thing as, "rapid replenishment of satellites", as
satellite construction itself is not that rapid.

Cart/Horse (or Chicken/Egg) phenomenon at work? No rapid replenish of
satellites because we don't have launchers available on short notice,
or no short notice launch capability because satellites take too long
to build?

This would seem to be a paradigm shifter, if it pans out.

Brian

Brian Thorn wrote:

On Wed, 2 Apr 2008 11:55:15 -0700 (PDT), Eric Chomko
wrote:

There is no such thing as, "rapid replenishment of satellites", as
satellite construction itself is not that rapid.

Cart/Horse (or Chicken/Egg) phenomenon at work?

Nope.

No rapid replenish of satellites because we don't have launchers available
on short notice, or no short notice launch capability because satellites
take too long to build?

Both.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

http://derekl1963.livejournal.com/

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL

Pat Flannery wrote:


Pegasus was designed to carry multiple quick response small military
comsats into orbit if the need arose.
That apparently never panned out.

I thought that Pegasus was mainly designed to carry multiple Orbcomm
Microstar satellites into orbit (back when Orbital Sciences owned
Orbcomm.)

--
Dave Michelson

Brian Thorn wrote:
Cart/Horse (or Chicken/Egg) phenomenon at work? No rapid replenish of
satellites because we don't have launchers available on short notice,
or no short notice launch capability because satellites take too long
to build?

Pegasus was designed to carry multiple quick response small military
comsats into orbit if the need arose.
That apparently never panned out.

This would seem to be a paradigm shifter, if it pans out.

Lynx is a long, long way from being a orbital vehicle; the design isn't
right for a orbital reentry, and the velocity is way too low at burnout
to achieve orbit.
Like I said in my original posting on this subject, you can picture it
as a quick response direct ascent ASAT system, or some sort of a
boost-glide reconnaissance system...but a orbital SSTO is way beyond
this technology to accomplish.
By modern standards Xcor engines are real clunkers as far as isp and
thrust versus engine weight goes, but tough and dependable.
If you were going to use something like this on those military missions,
the first thing you'd probably do is save a lot of weight by taking the
people out of it.
Other than those two missions, the only other alternative I can think of
is a means to insert some sort of rapid deployment strike team into
hostile territory at multi-Mach velocity, via a boost glide flight
profile after a launch off of a aircraft carrier or being dropped from a
carrier aircraft.
This doesn't make much sense either, as it would be a very attractive
target for a SAM on the way back into the atmosphere as it headed toward
its target, due to atmospheric heating alone.

Pat

Dave Michelson wrote:Pegasus was designed to carry multiple quick
response small military comsats into orbit if the need arose.
That apparently never panned out.

I thought that Pegasus was mainly designed to carry multiple Orbcomm
Microstar satellites into orbit (back when Orbital Sciences owned
Orbcomm.)

MUBLCOM... stacked up like a pile of pancakes inside the Pegasus payload
shroud:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUBLCOM
The basic idea was to thwart Soviet ASATs by simply outnumbering them
per Pegasus launch, till their number of ASAT launch vehicles was depleted.
Sort of the satellite equivalent of MIRVs versus ABMs.

Pat

On Thu, 03 Apr 2008 01:05:21 -0600, in a place far, far away, Pat
Flannery made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:



Brian Thorn wrote:
Cart/Horse (or Chicken/Egg) phenomenon at work? No rapid replenish of
satellites because we don't have launchers available on short notice,
or no short notice launch capability because satellites take too long
to build?

Pegasus was designed to carry multiple quick response small military
comsats into orbit if the need arose.
That apparently never panned out.

Because it wasn't that responsive, and it was very expensive per
flight.

This would seem to be a paradigm shifter, if it pans out.

Lynx is a long, long way from being a orbital vehicle; the design isn't
right for a orbital reentry, and the velocity is way too low at burnout
to achieve orbit.

Which is completely irrelevant, since it's a technology development
program.

"Derek Lyons" wrote in message
...
Brian Thorn wrote:
No rapid replenish of satellites because we don't have launchers available
on short notice, or no short notice launch capability because satellites
take too long to build?

Both.

So you have to start somewhere. Spending a few million dollars on something
like Lynx may yield some interesting results. But even if they get nothing
from the project, what's a few million dollars compared to the total spend
on military research in the US?

Jeff
--
A clever person solves a problem.
A wise person avoids it. -- Einstein

On Apr 2, 8:30*pm, Brian Thorn wrote:
On Wed, 2 Apr 2008 11:55:15 -0700 (PDT), Eric Chomko

wrote:
Why exactly is the Air Force interested in this thing?:
As a technology demonstrator for a responsive reusable transport for
rapid replenishment of satellites.
There is no such thing as, "rapid replenishment of satellites", as
satellite construction itself is not that rapid.

Cart/Horse (or Chicken/Egg) phenomenon at work? No rapid replenish of
satellites because we don't have launchers available on short notice,
or no short notice launch capability because satellites take too long
to build?

The one element not mentioned is cost. Face it, the cost of building
satellites is too high and the cost of launches is too high.


This would seem to be a paradigm shifter, if it pans out.


Clearly both payload construction costs AND launch costs BOTH need to
come down at the same time as one really won't help the other
necessarily.

It is sort of like gas and cars and computer hardware and software.