On Tue, 24 Jun 2003 08:58:34 -0700, Pierce Nichols <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Remove the time limit and add a minimum altitude, in order to >broaden the range of possible approaches to the problem.
Why? The goal is to enable space transportation. If you eliminate the only requirement that makes space transportation competitive - raw speed - someone will build an airplane to do the job. That's nice, but we want to get to orbit with technology developed to win these prizes.
If you set the altitude requirement correctly (say, 100 km), then it pretty much has to be some kind of space transport, and someone who wants to try it with something like a skip glider (or other things I haven't thought of) has a chance. You could also achieve a similar effect by stretching the time limit out to something a bit more generous but still well beyond the range of any conventional a/c -- say 90 minutes or so. There's not a whole lot of practical difference between 30 and 90 minutes for this sort of application, at least in the near term. Your door to door time (i.e., what the customer is paying for) is still dominated by the time required to get the payload to and from the launch sites on either end.
-p
Mars or Bust! www.marssociety.com
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