Global Flyer

In article ,
Rich S. wrote:
"Robert Bonomi" wrote in message
...
In article ,

Pressurization introduces *lots* of complications -- seals, O2 mixture
supply,
etc. Not to mention what it does to weight and balance.

We'll let the spacesuit designers worry about that one, then.
"Give me one Moonsuit, Mark IV and a forty watt phased plasma rifle, please"

Woops! You'll have to settle for the EnergyStar compliant 34 watt one.

Range - There's fuel and air caches every 1,800 miles, so let's add ~10%
and
say 2,000 miles.

Optimist! "Origin to primary, divert to secondary, plus 'holding' time"
plus (at least) 10% of _that_ total. If you want to survive the 1st
emergency,
that is. I get a requirement of about 4300mi (minimum)

Uh-uh. No weather diversions necessary. Note: Sport Pilots may not fly at
night.

Moon-quake, Solar flare, "Deck is fouled", I can think of a bunch of reasons
that 'divert to alternate' might be required.

Speed - Let's say 600 knots. (What I'm doing is multiplying typical terran
specs by 6. Why? I dunno)

Something to do with the underlying gravity of the situation?

Snicker

No, no. That's a *Mars* bar. This is Luna. And it should be *obvious*
that "Almond Joy" is the appropriate one -- "Sometimes you feel like a nut"
*DEFINITELY* describes this 'food for thought'.

(Don't blame me if you don't like the answer. It was _your_ question, after
all.


"Ballistic" glider lets you leave the engine on the ground, at the
take-off
site.

"Glider"????

You don't really think a *PARACHUTE* will work, do you ? grin

But, yeah, "glider" -- for lack of a better term. At the landing site,
a *BIG* ramp -- with the _upper_ part conforming to the ballistic trajectory
you launched into. You have on-board 'maneuvering' thrusters, to tweak
you path to the _exact_ ramp trajectory -- a GCA "glide slope" with a
*vengeance*. You touch down on the ramp, and roll out, possible friction
brakes, possible aircraft-carrier type snubbing cable.

(I just realized that this is a _ground-based_ 'ballistic recovery system'!


Of course, this system makes "divert to alternate" a physical impossibility.
Unless you carry a *ridiculous* amount of 'delta v' on board.

Primary source of power - Anybody got a design for something better than a
Chinese sparkler?

There's always NASA's "Orion" design.

Scaling might pose some *serious* difficulties, however.

My Citizen watch has a "Forever" battery and only needs an occasional burst
of sunlight - can we scale that up?

You can *try*, but I suggest that -first- you calculate the energy-density
of that system. then contemplate the mass requirements, _just_ to power
your "forty watt plasma rifle" -- let alone any on-board flight controls,
instrumentation, life-support system, etc.