Questions regarding orbital lifting, cost and efficiency.

[victorhadin]

I'm just doing a small feasibility study of various space-weapon concepts. Might any of you aid me with the following issues:

1) How much can a space shuttle carry in payload mass in one go?
2) I need details on the cost and fuel efficiency of hydrogen/ oxygen rocket motors & fuel and/ or solid fuel rockets such as those used on the space shuttle.
3) Details of heat-resistant materials as used on the shuttle and also of lightweight reflective materials would be nice.



Not just the shuttle, of course. Equivalents such as Arien and Russian lifters are just as good.

Please?

[Kuroneko]

A bit of a tall order, isn't it?

Some of the information you requested can be found here, including maximum payload, some details on fuel and the insulation tiles.

I'm afraid I don't know of any place you can get this information in significant detail, though. What exactly do you need it for?

[victorhadin]

Well I wanted to do a feasibility study on various space-weapon concepts, such as the kinetic harpoon, space-based mirrors, lasers etc. In particular the kinetic harpoon interests me.

But in order to do a proper study I will need to factor in the costs of getting them into orbit, and furthermore need the fuel efficiency of typical hydrogen/ oxygen rocket engines in space.

[kojikun]

you cant ignore future developements such as space elevators. theres already plans to construct one outside Melbourne.

SEs would drastically reduce cost to put something into orbit.

[Morat]

In particular the kinetic harpoon interests me.

A harpoon? Could you elaborate?

[Uraniun235]

My guess would be a projectile that you could deorbit and hit a target with. I remember reading about such a system called THOR once.

If you built the system up enough, you could develop the ability to strike just about anywhere in the world within half-an-hour, supposedly.

[SyntaxVorlon]

Go for massive asteroid mining and build huge rail guns, loadem with rock and throw rocks at the earth at orbital velocity, cute little explosions.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

I'm just doing a small feasibility study of various space-weapon concepts. Might any of you aid me with the following issues:

1) How much can a space shuttle carry in payload mass in one go?
2) I need details on the cost and fuel efficiency of hydrogen/ oxygen rocket motors & fuel and/ or solid fuel rockets such as those used on the space shuttle.
3) Details of heat-resistant materials as used on the shuttle and also of lightweight reflective materials would be nice.



Not just the shuttle, of course. Equivalents such as Arien and Russian lifters are just as good.

Please? :)

Quick answer to your question is that it costs roughly $20000 - $40000 per kilogram to put something into orbit, with the disposable rockets tending towards $20000 and the Space Shuttle tending towards $40000. And the bulk of our modern delivery systems is taken up by the fuel, so to roughly answer your question about efficiency, it's "not very at all."

As a result, space weapons are fairly infeasible. It costs a lot to get them up there, and there's no real benefit to using space weapons on Earth-bound targets. It costs much, much less to carpet bomb a place with B-52s than it would to perform pinpoiint kinetic strikes from geosynchonous orbit.

[PeZook]

I'm just doing a small feasibility study of various space-weapon concepts. Might any of you aid me with the following issues:

1) How much can a space shuttle carry in payload mass in one go?
2) I need details on the cost and fuel efficiency of hydrogen/ oxygen rocket motors & fuel and/ or solid fuel rockets such as those used on the space shuttle.
3) Details of heat-resistant materials as used on the shuttle and also of lightweight reflective materials would be nice.



Not just the shuttle, of course. Equivalents such as Arien and Russian lifters are just as good.

Please?

Try the orbiter forum attached to www.orbitersim.com. They'll give you payloads, URLs, thrust values and tons of other stuff

[victorhadin]

Cheers, guys!

As for the lone cynic, well that's what I intend to find out. I won't be placing these lovelies in geosynchronous orbit in any case, but rather simulating them in low orbit. The fuel efficiency question was required to estimate how much fuel it would take to decelerate this projectile a few hundred/ few thousand miles an hour (depending on mode of use, which will be investigated) for taking it out of orbit.



-And a space elevator in Melbourne!!? Surely they would have to be on an equatorial site?