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Canadian Company Developing New Space Shuttle

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the any-port-in-a-storm dept.

Archimboldo writes "CNN is carrying an article on the development of a new space shuttle design by Ontario's PlanetSpace called the Silver Dart, which is based on the U.S. Air Force's Flight Dynamics Laboratory-7 (FDL-7) program. Advantages over the aging Shuttle design include an all metal exterior for all-weather re-entry, twice the shuttle's lift coefficient at sub-sonic speeds, a lighter inner body, and newer electronics." The company has high hopes of snagging some of the space tourism market along with grabbing some of the resupply missions to the ISS.

9 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. All metal? by YA_Python_dev · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It seems a bit strange to me that an "all metal aircraft" can have sufficient heat insulation for an orbital re-entry... someone can clarify this?

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    There's a hidden treasure in Python 3.x: __prepare__()
    1. Re:All metal? by WindBourne · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, reentry is ~3000F, so Titanium would work. But I sure would prefer something that was higher than that.

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      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    2. Re:All metal? by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's called a hot airframe. The space shuttle is a cold airframe. If it gets hot, it fails, therefore it requires an additional heat protection system. On the shuttle, this is a very fragile ceramic/silica tile.

      This spaceship uses a hot airframe. The metal parts of the vehicle are designed to get hot during reentry, and all the parts that are delicate are protected behind the very strong metal exterior.

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      Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
  2. Predictions! by mister_llah · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Say, Terrence, do you know what my space suit smells like?"

    PFFFBBBBLLLT!

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    MoM++ - A Classic Expanded - [Master of Magic 1.5]
    http://mompp.sourceforge.net/
  3. Won't it be hard to launch that far north? by aapold · · Score: 3, Informative

    I mean there's a reason most space agencies launch from closer to the tropics... to gain additional velocity from the rotation of the earth...

    I guess they'd have to launch from somewhere else...

    That is unless their reviving the Gerald Bull Space Cannon program...

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    "Waste not one watt!" - CZ
    1. Re:Won't it be hard to launch that far north? by lashi · · Score: 3, Informative

      They are building it to sell to NASA or space tourism agencies. They are not launching it. Someone else is.

  4. Avro Arrow et al by pettau · · Score: 5, Informative
    Some of Canada's aerospace history ...


    sorted in some kinda order --please fill in the gaps.
  5. Ten rockets? by Zarf · · Score: 3, Interesting

    from the article:
    The spacecraft is expected to launch vertical atop a stack of about 10 Canadian Arrow rocket engines and land horizontally on an aircraft runway, they added.

    If I remember my space history correctly, Russia had a moon rocket design that tried to incorporate the firing of 20 or more independant rocket motors. The design proved far too complex for the electronics of the day to coordinate and control.

    With todays computer processing power I'll be interested to see if the problem of coordinating that many rocket motors simultaneously has become trivial enough to make a reliable launch vehicle.

    IIRC: The old soviet rockets would spin out of control.

    However, IANARS (I Am Not A Rocket Scientist).

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    [signature]
    1. Re:Ten rockets? by bryantthesmith · · Score: 3, Informative

      The Delta II can use up to 9 strap on rocket boosters in addition to the main main motor. This configuration has flown successfully for many years. If they try to make all 10 boosters controllable I could see them having problems (like the Soviet Moon rocket). If they just have a few motors for control and use the rest for boost it will probably be an easier task.