On Thu, 02 Oct 2003 21:39:48 -0500, John Carmack <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>It was clear from the first workshop that the regulatory requirements >>would be more of a challenge than the rocketry ones. > >God, I hate that cop-out. > >Several amateurs have gotten regulatory clearance for 100+ km flights -- >Ky, HARC, and interorbital at least. None have managed the rocketry >challenges yet.
No, I agree with Michael. The rocketry challenges were of the sort the CATS Prize competitors felt they could meet. The regulatory requirements were nebulous and difficult unto impossibility without a $10,000 6DOF and the knowledge of how to use it. Now it may be that the competitors were out of their league both technically and regulatorially, but only the regulatory difficulty was really apparent at the time.
I'll buy the "at the time", but nobody today should be using the regulatory cop out, unless they have demonstrated, say, multiple reliable 100,000' launches to show that the technical side really isn't that challenging. They are both challenging, but the evidence today shows that the regulatory challenges can indeed be met. So far, we only have hot air about the technical challenges, and deluding ourselves otherwise is counterproductive.
And I've heard Ky's screed about the hassles of getting a waiver - more than once - and I think he has more trouble with the paperwork than with the rocket. (My advice to CSXT is to forget the amateur exemption and just get a damn launch license. Or at least a waiver on the burn time. Trying to get up to Mach 4 in 15 seconds - yikes! That's God's own power density, and I'm not surprised the vehicle failed. Going to 30 or even 60 seconds would make life a lot easier on everyone.)
-R
60 second burn times with an unguided rocket is not going to work, you will have really significant gravity turn effects that greatly increase your landing zones and reduce your altitude. Unguided sounding rockets are spin stabilized, scaling HPR up to those levels alone won't work unless you are just really really lucky.
John Carmack
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