If one decrees before the first napkin drawing that Reliability Is More
Important Than Performsnce, and then walks one's talk, it is entirely
credible to talk about a three stage system that could deliver a
few hundred kg to LEO for a few million dollars with a crew safety record
of 99.99%. Vehicle reliability would be lower than that, with survivable
failure modes. Dispatch reliability would be lower yet, but better than
current ELV practice.
Sorry to be vague, but I don't want to step on XCOR's or Agile's toes.
-R
On Friday, October 21, 2016, Robert Steinke <robert.steinke@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 6:25 PM, Jim Davis <jimdavis2@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','jimdavis2@xxxxxxxxxxxxx');>> wrote:
On 10/19/2016 10:59 PM, Henry Spencer wrote:True that physics makes it more challenging, but more challenging does not
It would be good if you'd explain why you think the *physics* doesn't
permit this.
...
This is why fault tolerance is more challenging in the case of a launch
vehicle when compared to aircraft.
It's a matter of physics.
Jim Davis
equal impossible.
