[AR] Re: 500,000 tons OFF TOPIC

  • From: Keith Henson <hkeithhenson@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2014 22:52:43 -0700

On Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 3:09 PM, Monroe L. King Jr.
<monroe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>  I only need to be right twice a day to make progress.
>
>  There is no sense arguing with you guy's I guess you have it all
> figured out.

Ah, how I wish I had it figured out.

Which bring us around to what amateur rockets are about.

It is fundamentally a way to have fun.  A reason to make things that
go whoosh, or sometimes BANG and sometimes whoosh *and* BANG.  I had a
run with amateur rockets when I was a kid, built and static fired a
liquid fueled rocket engine when I was in the ninth grade, made ZnS
rockets in high school.  Can post pictures of the crashed remains of
one that went to 7200 feet.  *Might* be able to find the liquid rocket
engine.

But besides the fun, it's where I got my first appreciation for
exhaust velocity.  Worked out what it would take to put a ton in orbit
with ZnS (a rotten exhaust velocity if ever there was one).  I
reworked the problem recently and we got it right back in the late
50s.  The first stage of a one ton orbital ZnS rocket would cover the
entire state of Arizona.

snip

>  I hope Skylon flies

Me too.  I am hanging the entire power satellite economic model on a
laser boosted Skylon.  Reaction Engines people think this is a fairly
nifty idea.  No wonder, it's an extension of their stock in trade,
high exhaust velocity.  I met with the lot of them in Culham a and a
half year ago.  Don't hesitate to ask any of them, including Alan
Bond, what they think of a laser boosted, hydrogen only variation on
Skylon.

snip

>  I do wish arocket would help out the amateurs and more discussions
> where based on real work being done by amateurs. This really could be a
> great place to make progress for everyone as it is these day's I can't
> even post relevant to amateur rocket progress.
>
>  There is nothing "new" in AMATEUR rocketry.

That's a sad fact.  Short of changing the physical constants of the
universe or nanotechnology we can't do anything about it.

If you want to do serious things in space, amateur won't do it.

On the other hand, this list is one of the very few places on the net
where you can talk about exhaust velocity and people know what you are
talking about.

Keith Henson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L5_Society

PS.  The Firefox browser on gmail highlight misspelled words for me.
Without it, my spelling is no better than yours.

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