* Posts by malenfant

2 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Aug 2010

New spaceplane proposed for NASA station crew contract

malenfant

Re: You can't get there from here #

That's not as significant of a factor as you imply. The USAF were aiming to launch shuttles into a polar orbit from Edwards... The main reason the shuttle underperforms at sending payload to the ISS is because out of a total 70 tons of payload the STS system wastes 50 tons on wings tiles, airframe and other assorted bits of airplane crap that aren't mission relevant... This compromises payload far more than the stations orbital inclination.

Also moving the launch site further north will not magically give you back the assist that comes from launching to an equatorial orbit from an equatorial location. Whatever orbit your launching to then The equator is at least as good a place to start as any. For low inclination orbits then you get an assist because of the greater linear velocity you start off with by being further from the earths rotational axis. As you manouver into a higher inclination orbit then you surrender some of that component of your speed but if you started out further fromt the equator then you would never have had it in the first place. A low lattitud launch site is as good a place as anywhere for launching to a higher inclination orbit.

That said Kennedy is not a great place to launch to 51 degrees from. I think the problem is not so much it's latitude but the restrictions on overflight. Rockets are forced to launch close to due east and this requires a later plane change that eats out of the shuttles OMS fuel.

The reason that the ISS orbit is more favourable to Baikonur than Kennedy is because the Proton and Soyuz rockets and their associated spacecraft flat out do not have the extra delta V for the plane change wheras STS does ...also I suspect the russian boosters lack avionics for a dogleg manouver. Proton first stage was still using analogue computers when zvezda and zarya launched...

Anyway, I expect the spaceplane to go the same way as the airship and they flyingboat. A misguided attempt to impose the prejudices of one transport method onto the realities of another.

Holiday snaps? Er, no - criminal porn

malenfant

Re: Food for thought

>You cannot get 400 images of children in provocative poses without going out and looking for it.

Ever browsed /b?

Actually I find /b a seriously disturbing place but that's another conversation.