SSTO RLV -Moved Thread

[spacefan]

You are 100% right. The public just dont care if only the super elite get to fly. They wont care if astronauts went back to the moon or even Mars. The only thing that will ignite the public interest in space would be for ordinary people to be able to afford the trip.

We need a reliable SSTO RLV more than a hundred Ares, Jupiters or EELV's. The shuttle should have been canned sooner with all the money saved nasa could have done the job right. with cheap access to LEO missions to the moon, mars and NEO's could be assembled in orbit.

[J.McDonald]

Is cheap spaceflight an unreachable goal?
How cheaply can we accelerate somebody to 17,000mph and then bring him home again?
Just because we first did it fifty years ago doesn't mean that it's easy!

[spacefan]

Is cheap spaceflight an unreachable goal?
How cheaply can we accelerate somebody to 17,000mph and then bring him home again?
Just because we first did it fifty years ago doesn't mean that it's easy!

I agree, I was referring to cost in relative terms i.e hardware you get to keep and reuse as opposed to throwing it all (or most of it) away every mission. Its definatly not an easy thing to do and its not going to get easier without serious funding to crack the problems which will probably mean another 50yrs and no SSTO RLV.

Hopefully the likes of scaled composites/Virgin Galactic can inject some enthusiasm for space in the public its just difficult to see how their technology can be stretched to get us into orbit.

Hmm, a shame about X33.

[Me2]

SSTO RLV is fool's gold and not feasible. RLV is feasible

[spacefan]

SSTO RLV is fool's gold and not feasible. RLV is feasible

Me2 so whats your objection to single stage to orbit RLV's?

Is it true the engineers at LM thought the idea was feasable and that Venture star got canned for commercial reasons?

I think everyone can agree that its a massive challange and a lot of technology needs to come together. Provided all components of an RLV can land like a plane and enjoy a quick turn around ready for next launch SSTO would not be essential.

[klydemorris]

We're gettin' off-topic here folks.

Me2- you have a solid point about SSTO and RLV and I believe you are 100% correct. Let's start a new thread and cover it there as it would be a valued debate.

[J.McDonald]

Which part of the forum should we discuss that in? I can't seem to find a suitable place to start a thread.

[klydemorris]

Good point... RICK! ...calling RICK!

[Rick]

Sorry for the delay, an awfully busy day for me.

What pertinant name for a forum would you like? After I create it, I'll move the affected thread responses to their new home.

[J.McDonald]

Just a general spaceflight forum, I guess...? No point making something like "The SSTO RLV bashing forum" is there

[Rick]

Done and done.

The bashing may now continue ...(just kidding)

[J.McDonald]

Well, to kick things off, I agree with Me2- fools gold.

There's no denying that, in isolation, we could achieve SSTO or RLV. It's well known that Atlas-Score was virtually an SSTO right at the dawn of the space age.
Combining the two is almost certainly not achievable, at least not with a meaningful payload.

You need to look at the overall system- does SSTO serve a useful purpose? Not really. The benefits of staging outweigh any disadvantages. Does RLV serve a purpose? Not until flight rates increase.

Elon Musk went through this whole thought process and came to a very logical conlcusion, IMHO. Two stages, kerolox, and the ability to reach GTO without an extra stage. If he can pull it off, and I hope he does, then he will have made a far greater contribution than an SSTO RLV can hope to.