On Tue, 07 Oct 2003 15:52:26 -0700, David Weinshenker
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>What bothers me about it is that I'm wondering how many of those
>intending to attempt CATS flights:
>
>1. Had no HPR or equivalent experience
>2. Were discouraged from acquiring same by such comments
>3. Might have had a better chance of success if they _had_
>done some smaller-scale rocketry first, if only to have a
>better idea of what they were up against.
ERPS, for one. ERPS would not have succeeded in building and flying
KISS on nearly the schedule it did without your involvement, which
biased the group heavily toward operational experience in the field
launching rockets.
But It was the flight of KISS, not the HPRs that led up to it, that
got ERPS noticed as one of the, "no kidding, they fly stuff," serious
amateur groups.
The HPR flights and experience were necessary but not sufficient. I
will grant you that the. "HPRs don't count," biased people away from
them, but I don't know that that had any significant impact on any of
the CATS Prize competitors. Ky's trials and tribulations with CSXT
have proven that you can't easily get to 100 km with a scaled up HPR,
let alone 200 km carrying a payload and verifying your altitude.
It certainly didn't have any effect on ERPS while ERPS was a CATS
Prize entrant. ERPS has been interested in RLVs from the start, and
Black Adder II was a departure from that. So is KISS, but KISS is
dedicated to propulsion system testing and getting operational
experience, and is more of an incremental test program than a
philosophical departure.
>> static tests don't count,
>
>Tell that to XCOR... :)
XCOR is a perfect example of it. Static tests are absolutely
necessary in the development of reliable engines. Lots of static
tests. But it wasn't static tests that put XCOR on the map; it was
flying the EZ-Rocket.
>IMHO, infrastructure work (facility construction/maintenance etc.) _does_
>count, because it's _necessary_. One comment made during the Apollo program,
>regarding the various facilities projects: "The road to the moon is built of
>steel and concrete here on earth."
They're necessary, but not sufficient.
-R
--
"SEAL training is just like Ranger training, except
it's three weeks longer. It takes that long to teach
them how to balance the balls on their noses."
-- Doug Jones
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