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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: SSTO!
Message-ID: <5131@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 27-Feb-85 18:58:05 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.5131
Posted: Wed Feb 27 18:58:05 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 27-Feb-85 18:58:05 EST
References: <699@mordor.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 16

SCRAMjet technology is mostly on paper.  It is extraordinarily difficult
to test realistically, since airframe and engine have to be integrated
closely (or so I'm told), and nobody's felt like financing a dedicated
research aircraft just to check it out.

SSTO does not require SCRAMjets, or variable geometry either.  It can
probably be done with an aerospike nozzle plus modern lightweight
structural materials, burning conventional propellants in a fairly
conventional way.  There is little in the way of difficult or uncertain
engineering in this approach.  (By contrast, variable-geometry SCRAMjets
sound like a recipe for horrendous complexity and expense.)  And some
of the folks pushing this method think that $100/lb is a ridiculously
high cost to orbit and could be beaten easily.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry