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_...
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-la...
73 Trevor M5AKA
________________________________ From: Rob pabutusa@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