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

[M5AKA]

> Would there be any advantage (cost effective) carrying a launch vehicle say
> to 37KM ... think Red Bull Stratos .... and firing the engines there???


Sounds a bit like the UK LOHAN project, see 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/07/vulture_2/

The team have been doing tests this week about 150 km West of Madrid, BTW they are looking for people in the area who can receive the 434 MHz telemetry signals, see 

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/september2013/the_register_434_mhz_balloon_launch.htm


Their next test flight is on Thursday, Sept. 19 at 1pm BST (1200 GMT). 

Surrey Satellite Technology and Virgin Galactic have a similar idea of using an air-launched rocket, see 

http://amsat-uk.org/2012/07/11/sst-us-and-virgin-galactic-small-satellite-launches/


73 Trevor M5AKA



________________________________
 From: Rob <pabutusa at gmail.com>
To: AMSAT-BB at amsat.org 
Sent: Wednesday, 18 September 2013, 18:01
Subject: [amsat-bb] Thought experiment ... Rockets and balloons
 

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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