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Japan Launches the World's Smallest Satellite-Carrying Rocket (nasaspaceflight.com)
Japan has launched the world's smallest satellite-carrying rocket. Long-time Slashdot reader hey! writes:
Last week Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully placed a three-kilogram cubesat into an 180 x 1,500 kilometer orbit at 31 degrees inclination to the equator. The payload was launched on a modified sounding rocket, called the SS-520-5. The assembled rocket weighed a mere 2600 kilograms [2.87 tons] on the launchpad, making the SS-520-5 the smallest vehicle ever to put an object into orbit.
Note that the difference in the SS-520's modest orbital capacity of four kilograms and its ability to launch 140 kilograms to 1000 kilometers on a suborbital flight. That shows how much more difficult it is to put an object into orbit than it is to merely send it into space.
Note that the difference in the SS-520's modest orbital capacity of four kilograms and its ability to launch 140 kilograms to 1000 kilometers on a suborbital flight. That shows how much more difficult it is to put an object into orbit than it is to merely send it into space.
Scott Manley is a great youtube commentator on space stuff. Last year he made a video on the smallest orbital rockets.
Since then, Electron and now SS-520 have orbited satellites, so it is a little out of date. He starts with the Electron and talks about the previous SS-520 launch is covered at 4m40s. Numerous other rockets get a mention.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
They've used that for anti-satellite missile tests that were successful before. I'm sure that one or other of the "black ops" outfits has some such capability to quickly put spy sats in orbit.
Why not to design the satellite as some sort of long cilindre and to use a militar converted jet to carry it "near" the atmosphere limit
You've just re-invented the Pegasus. Not to mention Virgin Orbital. And Stratolaunch.
You do need something that carries a heavier payload than a fighter, though--
and just to send it the remaining distance as a missile?
It's not the distance-- it's the velocity. Orbital velocity is about Mach 25; you only get a tiny fraction of that from a jet. But, it does help, some, mostly because getting above much of the atmosphere does help.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Probably because it wouldn't make that much difference. Getting to space is the easy part; the lion's share of the energy needed for low earth orbit is accelerating your payload to 7km/s or 15,000 mph.
Using a mothership makes a lot of sense if you're going for a suborbital jaunt, as with SpaceShipOne, which at 3600 kg is comparable in size to this rocket. But the energy savings you'd get is such a tiny fraction of what's needed for orbit it's not worth the engineering and logistical complications.
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The SS-520 was first launched in 1998. It is based on the S-520 which was first launched in 1980 (source).
Yes, the SS-520 and S-520 could be used as weapons, but that has been the case for decades. Nothing in this test makes them more weaponizable than they were before the test. There is no reason to think this test had any ulterior military motives.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
JAXA has vehicles capable of putting over sixteen metric tons in orbit.
But if they wanted to nuke North Korea, the easiest way would be to adapt a missile fired from one of their attack submarines or guided missile destroyers.
Really, JAXA has done something cool here, and the only context people can think of it in is nukes?
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