"Robert Bonomi" wrote in message
...

Well, *except* for the fact that the U.S. government was already a
signatory
to an international treaty _disclaiming_ any such claims of territorial
ownership "in space".

But what I *really* wanted to explore was design ideas for a homebuilt
"airborne" Moon vehicle.

Here's the scene: You're living on Luna, having retired from ______ (fill in
blanks at your pleasure). It's the year ____ and low-gravity retirement has
become the "in" thing. You live longer, the old aches and pains are less,
etc. Your Social Security private trust fund has built up to the point that
you just *have* to start spending some of it! The one thing you miss since
moving out here is roaring around in your homebuilt on Saturday afternoons.
So, absent any regulation to the contrary, you decide to build a Lunar
replacement.

First thing to decide on is a name for the critter. Hmmm..... Moonraker
sounds appropriate. Wonder if anybody has used that one? Oh heck with that,
let's get on to the design parameters.

Seats - One, two???
Pressurization - (?) if not, then a big enough seat to accommodate a space
suit.
Range - There's fuel and air caches every 1,800 miles, so let's add ~10% and
say 2,000 miles.
Speed - Let's say 600 knots. (What I'm doing is multiplying typical terran
specs by 6. Why? I dunno)
Payload - (?) We can let the Mass/Weight guys duke that one out.
Visible means of support (Lift) - Wonder if NASA has an airfoil for an
airless environment? If not, we'll have to come up with something. I
wouldn't want to go ballistic - it's not as much fun as low & slow.
Thrust - Open for suggestions. . .
Primary source of power - Anybody got a design for something better than a
Chinese sparkler?

C'mon guys. There's got to be another Rutan out there. What are we going to
do when he's history?

Rich S.