Category Archives: ESA

Even more on Skylon

They stop airbreathing at 2 km/s. Let’s compare this to staging. Assuming an upper stage of the weight of Skylon at that point (230 t), what kind of a rocket would be required for that? With a hunch of 3000 … Continue reading

Posted in Design, ESA, RLV:s, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Why precool but not liquify – Skylon and SABRE

Well, I thought maybe I could add some content. Everybody’s heard about the British Hotol follower Skylon and its airbreathing SABRE engines. What’s special about them? My understandin’s based on this excellent document from Reaction Engines explaining why the system … Continue reading

Posted in airplane, Architecture, Design, Energy, engines, ESA, industry, Launchers, RLV:s, Suborbital, Transportation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Gravity Assist Competition

Or The Space Game, by ESA. This is a nice javascript webpage where a probe is shot from Earth to Jupiter with gravity assists at Venus (twice), Earth and Mars. You try to achieve the lowest propulsive delta vee. You … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Astronomy, Depot, Design, Energy, ESA, Homebuilt, industry, Launchers, Lunar, Models, Motivation, Science Links, Spacecraft | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Humans Fast, Machines Slow

Detach a small capsule with the humans that goes directly to the surface (with only days of life support) and leave the untended craft to do multi-pass aerobraking Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Colonization, Depot, engines, ESA, Global, industry, ISRU, JAXA, Lunar, Models, Motivation, NASA, RLV:s, Science Links, Spacecraft, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

British Rocketry Relics

At the Science and Society picture library. Note the many small independently hinging peroxide/kerosene Gamma chambers, the large but cancelled Larch engine, the washing machine / musical box guidance computer with a rotary drum that has bumps, and many other … Continue reading

Posted in ESA, industry, Launchers | Leave a comment

Jeff Greason

The Man. On Space Review. [EDIT: About a month ago, but I only just read it.] This is just excellent. So many things I agree with, that go against the stupid myths of spaceflight and space policy. If you read … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Colonization, Depot, ESA, industry, JAXA, Motivation, NASA, RLV:s, Spacecraft | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Reality and Future

Jeff Greason is a rational person who simply gets it. It is mind boggling how completely opposite from someone like Mike Griffin he is. See Jeff’s presentation with the Augustine Panel. Paraphrasing, “we could go to Mars with Ares V … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Demotivation, Depot, ESA, Global, industry, ISRU, Lunar, Motivation, NASA, RLV:s, Spacecraft | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Skylon

Nice video explanation of the SABRE engine by Richard Varvill. In a sense, it boils down to the problem of changing the hot fast low pressure intake air flow to a cold slow high pressure flow. In the Sabre engine, … Continue reading

Posted in airplane, Architecture, Energy, engines, ESA, industry, Motivation, RLV:s, Science Links, Suborbital, Transportation | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Third Way for Space Journalism

Note, this text was originally posted as a comment on Rob Coppinger’s Hyperbola blog at flight international. I hope there was more expansion in the “third way” for space journalism, at the moment it’s more like the big professional publications … Continue reading

Posted in Demotivation, ESA, industry, Journalism, NASA, Navelgazing, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sometimes

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qK2bdrS7E8] …stuff like this makes me think it’d be cool to be an astronaut. But the 20 year waiting of on and off flight opportunities, constant staying away from your family, random accidents killing people, and the complete helplesness of … Continue reading

Posted in Demotivation, ESA, industry, Motivation, NASA | Tagged , | Leave a comment