[AR] SSTO
- From: "John Dom" <johndom@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2018 18:34:24 +0100
Keith Henson wrote on 100218:
SSTO ... I think a better idea is Skylon. It is amazing how much gravity
drag you can offload on wings, even after running out of air to burn...
Skylon is supposed to get 15 tons (5%) to orbit out of 300 tons wet.
If you invest in a few GW of lasers in orbit to heat the hydrogen, the payload
for the same sized vehicle goes up to around 45 tons.
The US earlier copied Canberra and Harrier jets successfully because these were
proven concepts.
Why not Skylon: probably only when it can do what it promises to. Who knows
where the Skylons would be by now if they got the same help SpaceX got. Only
from NASA?
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