--- Doug Pensinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Gautam wrote: > > > He thought, IIRC, that he and his grad students > could, if > > they chose, build a rocket that could put 10 kgs > in > > LEO for about $50,000. It was just mindblowing - > I > > wish I had a tape of the presentation so I could > show > > it to people. > > Fascinating stuff, Gautam, but why _wouldn't they > choose to do it? > > Doug
Well, among other reasons, because I think it might be illegal, as such a rocket would also qualify as an ICBM :-) In all seriousness, I don't actually know. He said they've actually gone ahead and designed all the hard parts, and actually built some of them, so he didn't feel it was much of a challenge. OTOH, I'm not sure what _use_ putting 10 kgs into LEO would be right now. 10 kgs isn't that much. If someone were to right him a check for the amount, he seemed very confident he could do it. My guess is that scaling it up to launch heavier payloads is a bit more of a challenge, but, judging by his talk (I am not, after all, a specialist in nanotech) eminently doable. Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com ____________________________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
