On Fri, 02 Aug 2002 14:20:35 -0400, Alex Fraser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>Interesting discussion, is this project set in the far future?
Ya think?
>How many KISS rockets would you need to achieve escape velocity?
This question is SO UTTERLY RIDICULOUS that I felt a quixotic urge to
work the problem. The result is - um - intruiging:
About 103 stages worth. Or about 1,536,326,179,647,600,000,000,000
KISS equivalents. You read that right, it's one sextillion, 536
quintillion, 326 quadrillion, 179 trillion, 647 billion, 600 million
KISS equivalents. Give or take a few quintillion; I settled for a
ball park figure here.
That assumes KISS can be clustered, which it can't, really.
It also assumes KISS can be staged, which it can't, at all. The servo
that operates the fire valve is a piece of GSE. It isn't on the
vehicle. The second stage would never fire.
That neglects drag and gravity losses, too. Even so, the 103 stage
monster cluster weighs 39 septillion kg on the pad, or just about 6.5
times the mass of the Earth.
Look. KISS is capable of a little less than Mach 1. Escape velocity
is Mach 35. The Isp of the KISS engine is a measured 117 seconds.
Have we a *little* comprehension of the power of the rocket equation
now???
-R
--
"Sutton is the beginning of wisdom -
but only the beginning."
-- Jeff Greason
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