[amsat-bb] Re: Thought experiment ... Rockets and balloons

[Bryce Salmi]

It's to my understanding that the Rockoons didn't go to orbit, but did
reach space with ballistic trajectories. The hard part with orbit is the
pure speed needed. RIT had a
program<http://www.rit.edu/kgcoe/electrical/meteor/meteor/Home.html>for
an orbital rockoon type project called METEOR a while back but it has
since been ended. I believe the advantages of launching from 30+ km
altitude are quickly outweighed by the added complexity of the system as a
whole. In the end the rocket fuel for most orbital rockets needed to get to
37km altittude is a small fraction of the total fuel on board anyways.

my $0.02

Bryce
KB1LQC


On Wed, Sep 18, 2013 at 10:30 AM, Joe <nss at mwt.net> wrote:

> It's called a Rockoon, and has been done before, google it.
>
> Thing is now days it's launch would have to be permitted by the government
> just as much as any other major rocket flight. or get out of the USA like
> into the gulf of mexico to do the launch.
>
> Joe WB9SBD
> Sig
> The Original Rolling Ball Clock
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> On 9/18/2013 12:01 PM, Rob wrote:
>
>> I'm not a rocket scientist but I have an active imagination .....
>>
>> Thinking of a recent XKCD .... to achieve orbit .... the hard part isn't
>> the altitude it's the velocity ....
>>
>> Would there be any advantage (cost effective) carrying a launch vehicle
>> say
>> to 37KM ... think Red Bull Stratos .... and firing the engines there???
>>
>> So you're already 37KM up .... there's a lot less atmospheric drag ....
>>
>> This would be like a drop from a plane ... but even higher ....
>>
>> Thoughts???
>>
>> de KA2PBT
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