May 142011
A followup to THIS.
This is what happens when launch vehicle designers decide that aerodynamics don’t matter.
7 Responses to “A better drawing of Ugmo”
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A followup to THIS.
This is what happens when launch vehicle designers decide that aerodynamics don’t matter.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
That would have looked really strange sitting on a launchpad. God help you if it got hit by lightning after being stacked. Was there any thought given to recovering all the solid motors?
Doubtful. It seems that at the time solid rockets were seen to be cheap “wooden rounds,” easily thrown away.
Some years ago a Delta rocket explode because one of solid rockets failed
it rain BURNING solid rocket fuel from sky all over launch pad, buildings, parkinglot
imaging that with Ugmo over Cape Kennedy…
I hate to say it, but I think there’s the germ of a good idea here.
If one of the reasons space flight is expensive is that boosters are made in small production runs, then a launch vehicle made up of stacks of the same thing over and over might help lower the per-unit cost.
If you liked that, you’ll love this:
In 1937, the BIS started work on a Moon project. Their first run at the problem combined ingenuity with a frightening confidence in their ability to convince any sane person to ride in their Moon rocket. This consisted of a capsule perched on top of a rocket made up of nests of about 2500 little solid fueled rockets set to fire in layers and hurl the capsule moonward… assuming that it didn’t simply blast it to atoms instead.
Additional details:
The vessel was divided into six tiers (steps) of equal hexagonal cross-section and the six sections were made up of an array of tubes each consisting of a separate rocket motors. Each of the lowest 5 steps was made up of 168 motors, intended to impart sufficient velocity to achieve escape from the Earth’s gravitation. The remaining stage consisted of 45 medium motors and 1200 smaller tubes intended to land the remainder of the vessel on the Moon; allow for subsequent escape from the latter (leaving redundant structure on the surface of our satellite), and for reduction in velocity prior to entering Earth’s atmosphere.
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