X Prize Lander challang....

[moot]

Airscrew  - Link?

Originally posted by crockett
Just a thought here and I'm no rocket scientist and have no clue how you guys are thinking of doing it. So I figured I'd share this idea with yea.

I've always thought using Hot air balloons to lift a craft into the upper atmosphere would be a easier and a cheaper way to get a craft into near earth orbit.

If you do a little research you will find some old US military experiments where they used hot air balloons to lift a guy into near earth orbit so he could parachute back down. (was the only guy I know of, to break the sound barrier with out a aircraft)

I always thought it would make a cheap launch platform to get objects into space, because the hardest part of getting to space is of course breaking the earth's gravity.

Crockett, all sorts of balloons, balloons + rocket, and huge "blimp" solutions have been tried and refined...  They mostly can't compare with rocket propelled solutions.

[Airscrew]

Originally posted by moot
Airscrew  - Link?

no link, that was just a screen shot I found.  I do recall though reading about a website that had all those games online you could play...

I guess I should do a little searching...

[crockett]

Originally posted by AKIron
Altitude does not equal orbit. While the altitude would reduce the atmospheric drag, you still need to attain a speed fast enough to overcome gravity. Vehicles in orbit still feel gravity almost as much as we do on the ground. Their speed is sufficient to keep them falling around the earth.

The idea behind it, is to allow the craft to carry less fuel, which equals lighter and less effort needed to enter orbit. That's the only reason I was thinking of it, kinda the same concept as Space Ship One uses but this would just be a much higher alt launch pad.

In hindsight it appears they wont be entering orbit with this contest, which makes my idea illrelevant for this contest anyway. I had heard about this contest before and was under the impression that they actually were going to achieve orbit.

It's silly to think that anyway now that I thought about it, because I'm sure NASA wouldn't be to keen on having some more space junk orbiting the earth.

I guess this contest is just for an actual lander on the moon so getting to orbit isn't their problem as this contest will just be a simulated landing here on mother Earth.

[gunnss]

Thanks all,
 

We are trying for the lunar lander prize. basically we need to take off fly to a set altitude, hover for a set amount of time, then soft land on a target. Then within a per-set amount of time we need to launch, hover and land on the original launch site. there are lot of other rules, including instrument package and payload to be carried, but that is the basic challenge.

Our approach will be a lot lower tech than most of our challengers, but alas the team is already getting really proprietary with our designs. So I can't really say much about the how.

The 08 entry forms and year specific rules come out soon, and Our 1/10th prototype is about half built.

Alas the rules exclude hypergolic fuels, so a Minni Me163 is out.
Regards,
Kevin

[VWE]

Good frikin luck... you'll need it!