Hey Folks,
As I understand it, this is to be the last year of the space shuttles activities!
Allegedly they(NASA) are going back to disposable rockets for putting other satellites and such into space, as well as using the Apollo type reentry capsules for sending folks to and from the space station!
I thought the Shuttle idea was a good one. But I thought the use of those massive disposable rockets and all of that fuel to get the thing up off the ground and into space seemed rather wasteful.
I thought I had seen where they had used a 747 to transport a shuttle from one coast to the other. I realize that the shuttle was empty when they did that, and that they used cranes to load and remove the shuttle from the 747.
But that's what had me wondering? It takes a lot less energy, fuel to take off into flight horizontally than to go straight UP! I don't know what the capacity of a 747 is, perhaps the empty Shuttle IS it, but I wondered why they couldn't design a 747 with stronger engines, or just add a few more to provide additional carrying capacity, so that it could carry the SHUTTLE with it's FULL PAYLOAD AND FUEL needed to get it from 30+K feet up in the atmosphere up into outerspace? It would need some quick release machanism to be able to "LAUNCH" it from the 747 once it got it up to that altitude, but I would think that it would have been much cheaper in fuel and materials(disposable rockets) costs to do it this way!?
OR...design a shuttle/PLANE with the capabilities to take off normally and then just fly out into outerspace with additional rockets. I know there is a program/contest that's been going on for a few years in trying to find such a craft so that space flight can become commercial, just can't remember the name right now?
Anyways, just wondering what other folks think?
T.C.
As I understand it, this is to be the last year of the space shuttles activities!
Allegedly they(NASA) are going back to disposable rockets for putting other satellites and such into space, as well as using the Apollo type reentry capsules for sending folks to and from the space station!
I thought the Shuttle idea was a good one. But I thought the use of those massive disposable rockets and all of that fuel to get the thing up off the ground and into space seemed rather wasteful.
I thought I had seen where they had used a 747 to transport a shuttle from one coast to the other. I realize that the shuttle was empty when they did that, and that they used cranes to load and remove the shuttle from the 747.
But that's what had me wondering? It takes a lot less energy, fuel to take off into flight horizontally than to go straight UP! I don't know what the capacity of a 747 is, perhaps the empty Shuttle IS it, but I wondered why they couldn't design a 747 with stronger engines, or just add a few more to provide additional carrying capacity, so that it could carry the SHUTTLE with it's FULL PAYLOAD AND FUEL needed to get it from 30+K feet up in the atmosphere up into outerspace? It would need some quick release machanism to be able to "LAUNCH" it from the 747 once it got it up to that altitude, but I would think that it would have been much cheaper in fuel and materials(disposable rockets) costs to do it this way!?
OR...design a shuttle/PLANE with the capabilities to take off normally and then just fly out into outerspace with additional rockets. I know there is a program/contest that's been going on for a few years in trying to find such a craft so that space flight can become commercial, just can't remember the name right now?
Anyways, just wondering what other folks think?
T.C.
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