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Scalability of Launch Vehicles for Tourism
Hi everyone:
Clearly, by scaling up a launch vehicle to carry more passengers, you should be able to reduce per-passenger costs. But my question is, what types of vehicles are easiest to scale up? I'm thinking, especially, of HTHL (Rutan) vs. VTVL (Carmack). My gut feeling is VTVL, but I was wondering if some more educated people could help me out with this. -- Direct access to this group with http://web2news.com http://web2news.com/?sci.space.policy |
#2
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Scalability of Launch Vehicles for Tourism
On Sat, 05 Jul 2003 00:58:33 +0200, in a place far, far away, "M.
Scott" made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that: Hi everyone: Clearly, by scaling up a launch vehicle to carry more passengers, you should be able to reduce per-passenger costs. Better to scale up flight rate. -- simberg.interglobal.org * 310 372-7963 (CA) 307 739-1296 (Jackson Hole) interglobal space lines * 307 733-1715 (Fax) http://www.interglobal.org "Extraordinary launch vehicles require extraordinary markets..." Swap the first . and @ and throw out the ".trash" to email me. Here's my email address for autospammers: |
#3
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Scalability of Launch Vehicles for Tourism
"M. Scott" wrote:
Hi everyone: Clearly, by scaling up a launch vehicle to carry more passengers, you should be able to reduce per-passenger costs. Yes, but that's worthwhile only if the traffic/market is large enough. As with aircraft, you have to fill a certain number of seats just to break even on flight costs. That's more easily reached on a small spacecraft today, as it was on a DC-3 back when it was introduced. But the traffic back then would not have supported a 747 capacity aircraft, even if it flew only once a week. (and they aren't making mone, if you can't keep them flying as much as practical) Whenever demand to reach LEO ramps up enough, larger vehicles will make more sense than flying the hell out of smaller ones. But my question is, what types of vehicles are easiest to scale up? I'm thinking, especially, of HTHL (Rutan) vs. VTVL (Carmack). My gut feeling is VTVL, but I was wondering if some more educated people could help me out with this. Personally, I think once you need to put more than about 100,000 pounds (or the approxamate equivalent in passengers...again, as with aircraft, these ships should be able to function as people or cargo carriers) in one shot, VTVL is the way to go. At smaller sizes, you can make an argument for a wider variety of designs. And Phil Bono was looking as VTVL with massive passenger/cargo capability back in the sixties... |
#4
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Scalability of Launch Vehicles for Tourism
Do standard ELVs really scale well at all?
Taking a quick look at the history of small ELVs, no one has simply taken an ELV and scales it up in all three dimensions. I assume this is because the mass fraction and efficiency drop off if you do, and the frontal area rises more than necessary. If you have a small (say Minotaur-class) ELV, does scaling up for more payload make sense at all, or is there a limited degree to which it works, after which you go for a new design? Thanks, Matt Bille ) OPINIONS IN ALL POSTS ARE SOLELY THOSE OF THE AUTHOR |
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