Hello All,

I recently bought a copy of a 1956 book by Erik Bergaust and William S. Beller, titled "Satellite!" I was reading it tonight, and Chapter 3, "Long-Playing Rockets," discusses several satellite-launching methods that were proposed but not implemented because of time constraints and/or because in those days, small satellites couldn't carry useful payloads of instruments. One launching method, which I've never seen discussed anywhere else, confirms an idea that I had (please see below). That chapter also discusses a (non-fluorine) super-oxidizer that had been developed and proved to be safe to handle (more on that below, too). Also:

The idea (which occurred to me decades later), was first described by Professor Kirill Stanyukovich, of the Soviet Academy of Science Commission for Inter-Planetary Communication (the scientific panel which oversaw the development of the Sputnik satellites), in a 1950s Soviet journal article. It involved launching a suborbital rocket to an altitude of 250 miles. At the instant when the rocket came to a standstill at the peak of its trajectory, an explosive charge would fire, injecting an 18 inch satellite into orbit. He wrote that it would require a charge of TNT or hexogen explosive only ten times as massive as the satellite itself. (NASA's Trailblazer re-entry test and meteor simulation vehicles, which often utilized an explosive charge as a final stage, achieved velocities [up to 60,000 feet per second] far in excess of escape velocity, as did the metal artificial meteor pellets fired from an Aerobee rocket in late 1957 [one reached 33,000 mph!].) In addition:

With today's g-hardened electronics (as in guided gun projectiles like the Army's Copperhead), or by "potting" conventional electronics in resin or foam in such a projectile-satellite, ordinary sounding rockets could be used to cheaply fire small payloads into Earth orbit, solar orbit, or to the Moon. (Arthur C. Clarke pointed out in his 1968 book "The Promise of Space" that 10 pounds of TNT--if all of its energy was imparted to a projectile above the atmosphere--could send a 1-pound payload to the Moon; inefficiencies of energy impartation would make it necessary to use more than 10 pounds of TNT, but not much more.) Using a transparent "potting" resin such as polyurethane or epoxy, it would be possible for such projectile-spacecraft to carry imaging systems (perhaps of the spin-scan variety), magnetometers, radiation and radio science instrumentation, and even solar cells to provide electrical power for the onboard systems. Even the new solid-state micro-thrusters (which have been developed for CubeSats) might be capable of being used in projectile-spacecraft for attitude control, orbital adjustments, and/or mid-course trajectory correction maneuvers. As well:

That chapter of "Satellite!" also covers air-launched satellite proposals (using a B-58 Hustler, a ramjet-augmented special launch aircraft, and a three-stage solid propellant Rockoon [called Saloon by Kurt Stehling, its designer] carried aloft by a Skyhook-type balloon). Plus:

That chapter's sub-section on propellants mentions liquid ozone (a super-oxidizer), and production and storage methods that make it safe to handle and store. Gerald W. Platz and C.K. Hersh at the Armour Research Foundation discovered that producing 100% pure ozone (with no free, single [01] oxygen atoms mixed in with the 03 ozone molecules) makes it insensitive to impact shocks and vibration, which they demonstrated by dropping containers of liquid ozone from great heights and by subjecting them to severe vibration. This "not-followed-up" line of research would significantly improve launch vehicle performance. (The British launched a satellite using hydrogen peroxide [with kerosene fuel, although it contributed a small share of the total thrust, and its tanks were very small, see: http://www.spaceuk.org/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Arrow ], despite H2O2's notorious reputation for being similarly unstable--if handled and stored properly, H2O2 is also safe.) Hydrogen peroxide and liquid ozone rocket oxidizer technologies are promising lines of development that today's even better (than back then) materials science and technology could bring to fruition.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Interesting concepts.

Reading through ROTW (Rockets Of The World), one big issue will be proper orientation of the sounding rocket when the charge ignites.

With todays modern explosives and shape charges this might be doable.

Lots of different ways to stabilize the sounding rocket now as well.

Reading ROTW, the thing learned was that most failures were do to the improper attitude/stabiliziation of the boost rocket prior to insertion. To get to the moon is going to take some serious "aiming".

Sounds kind of like a stomp rocket on steroids.

Mike

That was essentially the way the Juno I operated. The Redstone booster put the spin-stabilized package at altitude, then the three solid upper stages fired in rapid succession to impart the needed orbital velocity.


Bill

__________________
It is well past time to Drill, Baby, Drill!

If your June, July, August and September was like this, you might just hate summer too...

Please unload your question before you ask it unless you have a concealed harry permit.

: countdown begin cr dup . 1- ?dup 0= until cr ." Launch!" cr ;

Give a man a rocket and he will fly for a day; teach him to build and he will spend the rest of his days sanding...

Today, something like a Black Brant 12 or an Aries sounding rocket could loft a standard payload cylinder to the desired injection altitude--they even have optional cold-gas (nitrogen, I believe) thrusters and gyroscope guidance platforms available for such payloads (for precision pointing of telescope payloads or other imaging devices). The payload section could house the gun and the projectile satellite (or a solar orbit probe or lunar probe) and take aim at the desired "window" in space, then fire the gun at the correct moment. It would even be possible for two or more gun-and-payload units to be carried on a single flight (similar to how some of the USAF's OV [Orbiting Vehicle] satellites were carried two or three at a time--along with their individual upper stages--aboard Atlas ICBMs launched from Vandenberg AFB [see: http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau/atlas_sd.htm ]). Also:

A five-stage version of the late 1950s-era Project Farside Rockoon (the four-stage version achieved orbital velocity going straight up, boosting payloads to 1 Earth radius) was proposed for sending small payloads to the Moon. It was never built because back then, its tiny (3 pounds, if memory serves) payload wasn't enough to accommodate any meaningful instrumentation (maybe a tracking beacon, but nothing more). With today's tiny and lightweight electronics, however, a three-pound lunar probe *could* carry several instruments; in fact, JPL is working on a 3U CubeSat-based lunar probe (made up of three "stacked" 10 cm X 10 cm CubeSats, plus two folding solar arrays ) called INSPIRE.It wasn't a rocket-lofted gun, but quite close, indeed, with those fast-burning clustered upper stages... The Juno II (which consisted of a stretched Jupiter IRBM with two or three [depending on the mission] of the Jupiter-C's/Juno I's "Baby Sergeant" clustered upper stages) also flew that way, "tossing" the high-speed upper stages to the desired orbital injection altitude (or to the proper point in space to start off for the Moon, for either a lunar flyby into solar orbit or a "figure-8" Luna III-type Earth-Moon-Earth trajectory--Pioneers 3 and 4 were programmed for lunar flybys, but Pioneer 3 fell short when its first stage shut down 3.7 seconds early). Also:

That type of simplified launch vehicle, using an MRBM (Medium Range Ballistic Missile)- or IRBM (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile)-type first stage topped by one or more spin-stabilized solid upper stages, could loft small satellites, lunar probes, and solar orbit probes fairly cheaply--the USAF even flew a similar simple satellite launch vehicle in the mid-1960s with good success. It was as follows:

The two-stage Thor-Burner I (or Thor-Burner 1, also called Thor-Altair, see: http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau/thor_sd.htm ) satellite launch vehicle used retired Thor IRBMs topped by spin-stabilized Altair and Altair-related rocket motors. A more powerful (yet still simple and inexpensive) SLV like this could be made using a Delta II first stage (either without--or with--solid boosters, depending on the desired payload mass and orbit) topped by a spin-stabilized solid upper stage motor; this second stage could be any of the ATK STAR series upper stage motors (including the Delta II's PAM-D solid propellant third stage) or other such motors, such as any surplus Orbus upper stage motors (a third stage could be added if needed for lunar or solar orbit missions). Boeing would welcome such a way to keep the Delta II parts in production, and ATK would be happy to have a new market for their STAR upper stage motors. This uprated Thor-Burner 1 would be great for polar orbit and Sun-synchronous orbit launches from Vandenberg AFB, as well as for lower-inclination orbital launches from Cape Canaveral.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

I remember an article about launching from a high altitude plane years ago.

They were testing Sputnik sized objects from a fighter at the time. Not sure if that was actually done or conceptual though.
__________________________________________________ _____

That was the U.S. Navy's EV-1 (also called NOTSNIK, see: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en...0.0.yztNsuGMZt0 ), a clustered vehicle, which was launched from an F-4D Skyray. Most of them failed, but one appeared to have worked (possible signals from its satellite were received in Christchurch, New Zealand), but because of the then-primitive and gap-filled satellite tracking network and the satellites' tiny size (plus the extreme secrecy of the project), we will never know if it really achieved orbit or not. Also:

A follow-up air-launched vehicle, the four-stage (non-clustered) EV-2 Caleb (see: https://www.google.com/search?q=EV-...gbv=2&oq=&gs_l= ), was also designed and flown (as a sounding rocket), but no orbital attempts were made and the Caleb was soon cancelled due to political pressure from the U.S. Air Force. With today's lightweight solid motor case technology (neither the EV-1 nor the EV-2 had guidance systems), a Caleb-type vehicle could orbit heavier payloads. Here (see: http://www.aerospaceweb.org/questio...aft/q0271.shtml ) is a good overview of NOTSNIK and Caleb (Caleb was also tested as a ground-launched ASAT [Anti-Satellite] weapon]).

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR