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Design exercise: Open source personal spaceplane

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Inverted Vantage

Formerly Unknown Target
Joined
Jun 19, 2008
Messages
1,116
Hi HA. So when I first joined, I was intending to build a rocketplane. My plan was to use this as a testing platform for A) a rocket racer entry, and B)a homebuilt spaceplane. Obviously I was dreaming big...I still don't think it's impossible, though for me if it is ever possible it will be another 20 years before I'm in a position to do anything about the actual construction.

That being said, I think it'd be interesting/useful to talk about designing such a craft; setting requirements, discussing hurdles, etc. I think that a truly personal spacecraft, more so something that can be built at home, is not something that is commonly thought about or even necessarily thought of as "possible".

However, I imagine a two person spacecraft with a 50 mile target ceiling, 2 minute loiter time at apogee, with the ability to be constructed in an average homebuilder's garage.

Major hurdles that I can think of include pressurization, optimization, and the powerplant.

I had some ideas, such as using a pulse jet for the powerplant (300 lbs thrust vs 100 lbs weight, incredible simplicity for the homebuilder), though that presents a host of other problems (noise, fuel consumption, etc).

What do you folks think? How would something like this be tested? Is there anyone else who's thought along these lines? Does anyone have any concepts they'd like to share?

I'm at an event right now so I can't put too much detail into this post, but I will post later. Looking forward to anyone's thoughts. :) Cheers.
 
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