Posted: 2/7/2013 2:28:28 PM EDT
| So I've been playing a lot of kerbal space program lately and it has me thinking about rockets and such. Do you think an average person could put something small into orbit? I know there's high powered rocketry and some of it gets pretty high up. Do you think it could be done, or would it turn into an issue of carrying fuel just to carry the fuel and then not get anywhere? |
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There's a reason most nations do not have a Tier 1 (yes, I'm serious) space program. It takes a monumental effort to have a workable space launch program that is successful. Could you put enough ass on a rocket to get it to space? Sure. But is your payload going to work? What will keep it stable? Will it be performing routine station keeps to maintain spacecraft orientation? How do you know where your object is, or if it has a healthy state? What about comm infrastructure that is secure so the Chinese don't hack it into oblivion?
For the average guy, no. |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CubeSat#Design
In 2004, with their relatively small size, CubeSats could each be made and launched for an estimated $65,000–$80,000.[3] This price tag, far lower than most satellite launches, has made CubeSat a viable option for schools and universities across the world. Because of this, a large number of universities and some companies and government organizations around the world are developing CubeSats — between 40 and 50 universities in 2004, Cal Poly reported. ********** So yes, you could have your own satellite, if it went up on a booster delivering someone else's satellite to orbit. Having your own booster, that is the problem, since any booster that could put a satellite in orbit could also be used as either an ICBM or an anti-satellite weapon. |
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Quoted: There's a reason most nations do not have a Tier 1 (yes, I'm serious) space program. It takes a monumental effort to have a workable space launch program that is successful. Could you put enough ass on a rocket to get it to space? Sure. But is your payload going to work? What will keep it stable? Will it be performing routine station keeps to maintain spacecraft orientation? How do you know where your object is, or if it has a healthy state? What about comm infrastructure that is secure so the Chinese don't hack it into oblivion? For the average guy, no. All that needs to be said about that is that the US government didn't achieve tier 1 space capability until the 1960s. Think about the things that had been invented and discovered by that time...and it still took that long to put a man into orbit just a couple of hundred miles away from the surface of the earth and bring him home safely. Space seems so far away but most manned space missions have never gotten more than 300 miles away from the earth's surface. That's about the range of the average car on one tank of gas. Not so far, really. But not so easy, either. CJ |
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Quoted:
So I've been playing a lot of kerbal space program lately and it has me thinking about rockets and such. Do you think an average person could put something small into orbit? I know there's high powered rocketry and some of it gets pretty high up. Do you think it could be done, or would it turn into an issue of carrying fuel just to carry the fuel and then not get anywhere? Orbit? No. Plenty have people have used ballons or rockets to get to stuff up there but it takes ALOT more energy and technical stuff than that to actually get it into orbit. |