OAAHSTO - A Forgotten Idea Still In Use
- From: jsavard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (John Savard)
- Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 00:29:03 GMT
You've all heard about SSTO (Single Stage to Orbit). The idea being that
with exotic fuels or advanced engines, the very low payload fraction
resulting from having to use multiple stages could be avoided, reducing
the cost of going into space.
Well, they're *still* using new forms of Atlas booster to send payloads
into space, and the Atlas launched John Glenn into orbit.
It simplified rocket design with a brilliant idea.
The fuel tanks and the fuselage of a rocket are pretty light. It's those
rocket engines that are the heavy part.
Instead of building a second stage, when the tanks are nearly empty, why
not just jettison some of the rocket engines?
And that's how the Atlas worked. It had a ring around the base that held
two of its three rocket engines, which was dropped at a point in its
ascent.
As it happens, the Atlas used kerosene (all right, RP-1) and liquid
oxygen as fuels. Just like the Saturn V.
What if the first stage of the Saturn V had let four of its five F-1
engines drop part of the way up? (Along with being made somewhat larger,
to hold a little more fuel and oxidizer, I suspect.) Would then only one
more stage, rather than two, have served to send men to the Moon?
John Savard
http://home.ecn.ab.ca/~jsavard/index.html
http://www.quadibloc.com/index.html
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