Re: One Small Step


Mike Combs wrote:
> <skearney@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1137035296.537278.228250@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> > In the space colonization literature of the seventies, a mass
> > driver would launch twenty or so kilograms at a time
>
> You might be looking at the earlier studies (the ones involving soil-filled
> sacks made from fiberglass). The later studies recommended launching small
> spheres of lunar soil which had been sintered at the focus of a solar
> mirror. They were described as being about the size of a softball, so I
> would expect them to come closer to weighing one kilogram than twenty.
>
One of the advantages of making a proposal that turns out to be
misguided is that it is sure to generate some traffic in the form of a
sensible reply. using a 'sack' to deliver lunar samples intact might
still be sensible if the first market for moon rocks is for keepsakes.
It would not pay for the program but it could give some return on
investment long before the infrastructure for processing is in place.

> > to be collected by
> > a 'catcher' that would intercept it prior to perigee, otherwise it
> > would crash back into the moon.
>
> This makes it sound like you're visualizing the catcher orbiting the moon.
> The catcher was stationed at the L-2 point behind the moon.

It's all comming back to me now.
>
> This shows the payload trajectory: http://ssi.org/assets/images/Ch08p150.gif
> Earth is towards the left in this illustration.
>
> > Perhaps a much smaller system could be
> > built to launch 'cannisters' that would have not only the coils for
> > acceleration, but a pressurized oxygen tank with a nozzel in front,
> > along with valves on the sides for attitude control. At apogee a jet
> > of oxygen would raise the perigee so that the cannisters could be
> > collected at leasure.
>
> You're esentially proposing replacing a dumb payload with a smart one
> capable of self-propulsion and navigation. I don't see any reason to assume
> that the latter could be made smaller than the former (or more economical,
> for that matter).
>
Point taken.
> --
>
>
> Regards,
> Mike Combs
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> By all that you hold dear on this good Earth
> I bid you stand, Men of the West!
> Aragorn

.

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