Jeff reminded me of a post I meant to do a month or so ago, and forgot. Blue Origin made t’s debut test ride, and performed quite well. Here’s the video:
The test flight, from the video, obviously went well. However, my original questions still remain. Sending an empty capsule 285 feet up, and then landing is cool, but not really demanding. How much kerosene would be required to carry a comparable load to what a Delta V would carry? It just seems to me the point is somewhat moot since a parachute accomplishes the same thing ( on Earth anyway ). And, as far as other planets go, the lunar landers did it on the Moon, and the rovers just bounced their way on Mars. Anything else is sort of out of the picture. Especially if you’re going to rely on kerosene ( there’s just not a lot of it floating around in space ). So, the people working on Goddard are definitely brilliant people. I’m just at a loss to what their end-goal is when compared to the myriad of larger issues surrounding space travel. No one in the private sector has been able to get astronauts TO space, much less have a powered, controlled, landing.
But, don’t get me wrong. Even with my curiosity and questions, the successful test ride is very cool!
The one thing I noticed in the video was the lack of flames from the rockets. Of course, this could be due to the type of fuel used but even the videos showing the exhaust nozzles showed very little. It was almost like they were using steam to power the craft. Like you said, how much bigger will this ship need to be to carry a reasonable payload and the fuel to get it to orbit? Im thinking HUGE.
I thought the lack of smoke was kinda odd as well, but don’t know enough about that stuff to make any kind of logical decision as to what it might mean. It might mean they’re not using kerosene, it might not.
As far as the size goes, that’s exactly what I was getting at.
Got some interesting updates to my questions via several sources. Bezos has asked for permission to pursue cryogenic fuels. No one is really sure which one, but apparently they are using the kerosene-peroxide mix just for development.
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