Getting Into The Private Space Race

powerbarr writes "This article has an excellent description of the issues of getting into the rocket industry without government funding and focuses on one startup that is doing it. Sea Launch is a subsidiary of American, Russian, Ukrainian, and Norwegian companies that has cheaper, more accurate, and more reliable launch system that is trying to compete with all the government sponsored systems that are more expensive and less reliable."

Comments

Rail Gun launches for payload planned ...

[Ex-MislTech]

http://www.totse.com/en/technology/science_technol ogy/railway.html

quite alot to read to get the meat , but it is there .

I think a high altitude rail gun suspended from a balloon
platform at 160,000 ft would be best .

NASA recently set a balloon record at 161,000 ft.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020 82 7063353.htm

At that altitude it would not have to deal with the friction
of 99% of the earth's atmosphere .

At that altitude storms/weather does not affect launches ,
there is no wind either .

It would take ALOT of balloon power, but a good size payload
could be shot into space repeatedly , and it could be powered
by several different means .

As hydrogen is light, it might be best as a fuel for the
rail gun .

Smaller ballons could carry up more hydrogen cylinders as
needed .

From 32 miles up firing at insane multi-mach speeds .

Firing it once a day to get cargo into the same spot would
put up so much more , so much faster for so much less than
what the shuttle is currently doing .

firing once a day would give you alot of time to charge
the capacitor banks of the coil system .

Peace,
Ex-MislTech