I think everyone on this list should play Kerbal Space Program ( https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/) and you'll realize the getting into sub-orbital flight is easy, orbit however is not... It's actually realistic enough to learn orbital mechanics but fun enough to enjoy as a game... It's the un-official pastime of many young rocket scientists... hehe.
getting to orbit is hard and requires most fuel. Also, for the Virgin Galactic and any plane/balloon based launch you are looking at ~500Kg payload (at least that's whats stated on Virgin Galactic's website for under $10 million)... sounds great until you realize your still spending several million dollars where as a commercial rocket (lets say SpaceX Falcon 9) is ~60 million for 13,500 Kg... There are many universities and NASA departments making cubesats but the small satellite market is nothing compared to the large payload (or many small payloads) to orbit market, and that's where you'll find business going... Sorry guys, no ones building a launch system for us... Also, if AMSAT was to create a balloon or plane launch system those are incredibly complex launch platforms that have to work in order to even think about the satellite working... It's hard enough getting volunteers for the satellites nevertheless a launch system. The launch providers are in the big payload businesses and that's the market we're stuck with. On another note, every round of comments comes back to: "lets have a long life satellite...", "Let's put engines on the satellite", etc... Well fact is we need to develop that technology in LEO before even trying to get to HEO ourselves. That's a technological feat in itself. It seems to me that some people haven't quite grasped the fact that AMSAT *is developing a standardize platform of technology to bring to longer life and new technology to CubeSats and HEO* and that platform is called... FOX... Supporting AMSAT Fox is supporting AMSAT's potential future in HEO. Also, don't quit, volunteer. - Brent, KB1LQD On Wed, Sep 18, 2013 at 11:10 AM, M5AKA <m5...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: > > Would there be any advantage (cost effective) carrying a launch vehicle > say > > to 37KM ... think Red Bull Stratos .... and firing the engines there??? > > > Sounds a bit like the UK LOHAN project, see > > http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/07/vulture_2/ > > The team have been doing tests this week about 150 km West of Madrid, BTW > they are looking for people in the area who can receive the 434 MHz > telemetry signals, see > > > http://www.southgatearc.org/news/september2013/the_register_434_mhz_balloon_launch.htm > > > Their next test flight is on Thursday, Sept. 19 at 1pm BST (1200 GMT). > > Surrey Satellite Technology and Virgin Galactic have a similar idea of > using an air-launched rocket, see > > > http://amsat-uk.org/2012/07/11/sst-us-and-virgin-galactic-small-satellite-launches/ > > > 73 Trevor M5AKA > > > > ________________________________ > From: Rob <pabut...@gmail.com> > To: AMSAT-BB@amsat.org > Sent: Wednesday, 18 September 2013, 18:01 > Subject: [amsat-bb] Thought experiment ... Rockets and balloons > > > I'm not a rocket scientist but I have an active imagination ..... > > Thinking of a recent XKCD .... to achieve orbit .... the hard part isn't > the altitude it's the velocity .... > > Would there be any advantage (cost effective) carrying a launch vehicle say > to 37KM ... think Red Bull Stratos .... and firing the engines there??? > > So you're already 37KM up .... there's a lot less atmospheric drag .... > > This would be like a drop from a plane ... but even higher .... > > Thoughts??? > > de KA2PBT > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
