[AR] Re: Radian One spaceplane
- From: "John Stoffel" <john@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2022 09:11:36 -0500
"Peter" == Peter Fairbrother <peter@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:
Peter> On 21/01/2022 05:54, Henry Spencer wrote:
On Thu, 20 Jan 2022, Peter Fairbrother wrote:
...There are lots of good things about Radian, but SSTO isn't one of
them - a crewed winged fast turnaround first stage would be brilliant,
but a SSTO would spend a lot of it's time just loitering in orbit -
two day turnarounds (probably too long) would not be possible.
Why not? If you must put big wings on an SSTO, one benefit is that you
can do a once-around flight, using aerodynamic lift to get enough
crossrange to land back at the launch site 90ish minutes after takeoff.
It does mean kicking the payload out *immediately* on achieving orbit,
but there's nothing fundamentally wrong with that, if you think of the
vehicle as a delivery truck, not a camper van. How long does a delivery
truck park in front of your house when delivering a package?
Peter> I guess that's OK if a] no astronauts and b] the target space assembly
Peter> station has a tug to collect payloads.
Peter> But a tsto gives flexibility here to have the orbital delivery vehicle
Peter> faff around a bit without tying up the expensive main launch engines.
Peter> Also you can have different second stages for different purposes.
Peter> Doesn't have to be winged, but wings allow operation from an
Peter> airport rather than a dedicated launch pad. Less capital outlay
Peter> for a start.
I think this assumption is bogus. Any SSTO with wings is going to be
huge, and the runway(s) and taxiways will also be damn big. Just look
at all the infrastructure work that went into supporting the A380
around the world. They had to pour more concrete to strengthen aprons
and other areas, and widen taxiways to make sure there was enough
clearance.
The 777X has the folding wingtips to try and work around that issue in
some ways. It's not the weight per-se, but the clearance between
adjoining access ways.
So maybe you can _land_ your SSTO at an airport, but doing launching
from there isn't going to happen I suspect due to the noise. Most
airports are near population centers, so NIMBYs are going to be ripped
to have an SSTO launching over their heads all the time.
So say you build an SSTO-port way out and away from people. Does that
really improve things? Dunno... I just think the dream of using
existing airports for SSTO won't really fly. Sorry for the pun. :-)
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