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In article ,
Chad Irby writes: In article .net, "Steven P. McNicoll" wrote: "Chad Irby" wrote in message om... ...for a tiny fraction of the cost, and having the ability to repeat the feat in less than two weeks (which the government program didn't manage). So what's significant about it? If I have to explain to you the significance of the tech behind a reusable spaceplane, then why have you even bothered posting to this thread to begin with? There ain't a whole lot of tech, there, Chad - Burt's taking a very low-speed approach, (Rather Grand Fenwickian, in fact) with a low thrust, long burning rocket motor, and a fairly lightweight, high drag reentry vehicle. Peak speeds are around Mach 2 on ascent, and somewhere around Mach 1.9 on the re-entry. There's nothing particularly exotic about those speeds. Heating is low - around 100 Deg C, and an Aluminum or Composite airframe can deal with those temperatures and dynamic pressures without a whole lot of trickery. He's also designed a self-stabilizing shape, (In some ways not too different from the behavior of a badminton birdie) that doesn't need sophisticated systems, such as adaptive flight control systems or reaction controls, to set and hold its attitude. While it's a good design, it's not significant in advancing technology. It also can't be expanded much beyond the X-Prize requirements. You aren't going to see an orbital Spaceship !, or a Semi-Ballistic Spaceship 1 Hypersonic Transport. It's a very clever design very highly optimized to do only one thing - meet teh X-Prize requirements. -- Pete Stickney A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures. -- Daniel Webster |
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