It might be a good idea to start with a small (unmanned) fully reusable system and slowly scale it up over decades.

Space/Science » in reply to It might be impossible but I remain optimistic

David F Mayer — 6/10/2004 7:14:30 AM (archived)

I am also partial to ramjet (if feasible) for the first stage, at least up to whatever speed makes sense. All-rocket designs may be simpler, cheaper, and more reliable than ramjet. It remains to be seen.

Anyway, starting small and expanding each generation by a factor of four might very well be the best way.

"Complex systems that work evolve from simple systems that work, not from complex systems that do not work."

The whole thread (9 posts)

The major criteria for long term economical space travel. (in my opinion) - David F Mayer - 6/8/2004 12:37:01 AM
- The single criteria for long term economical space travel - Gary - 6/8/2004 2:42:12 AM
  - To get launch costs to LEO down, REUSABILITY and QUICK TURNAROUND are the keys. - David F Mayer - 6/9/2004 1:24:32 PM
    - Not necessarily - Larry J - 6/10/2004 2:14:42 PM
    - It might be impossible but I remain optimistic - Gary - 6/10/2004 6:15:28 AM
      - It might be a good idea to start with a small (unmanned) fully reusable system and slowly scale it up over decades. - David F Mayer - 6/10/2004 7:14:30 AM
    - You're boxing in the solution - T. Lurker - 6/10/2004 2:48:39 AM
    - Hard to get both resuability and performance -- 747 is a much easier problem - dtb - 6/10/2004 2:09:23 AM
      - re: "Hard to get both resuability and performance -- 747 is a much easier problem" That is CERTAIN. I was only using an analogy. - David F Mayer - 6/10/2004 7:08:06 AM

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