Space Forum / Space Flight / November 2003

Flammable ployester cabin carpeting and EMF interfereance fromt he 8-track
player?;-)

The problem is mindset and worldview. In the mid 1970s space was
considered a job for governments and megacorporations. People only started
taking the idea of small independent groups building manned spacecraft as
a serious possibility in the 1990s or thereabouts (though there were
people even in the 1970s who were thinking about this, and even trying to
build hardware, IIRC). Once a few people started doing the math and
talking it up a critical mass began to form, leading directly to Rutan's
current effort. The whole point of the X-Prize is not to get somebody to
do a one-off: it's to change thinking. It there had been an X-Prize in
1975 it probably would have been won by 1985, possibly by Rutan himself.

Considering that by the mid seventies the basic technology for suborbital
flight was 30 years old, no. A V-2 knockoff was no more impossible then
than now, and fundraising might even have been slightly easier without the
additional 30 years of "space is hard" propaganda from NASA.

As always, IMO,
....Andrew

marsbeyond@yahoo.com (Tony Rusi) wrote in message

Well back then jet engines were heaver, composites were heaver and
still had matrix  and lamination issues(to an extent they still do).
Don't underestimate the difference electronics makes either, not just
on the flight vehicle but also for affordable CFD simulations and the
like. Radio communication links are orders of magnitude cheaper. There
is a *lot* more infrastructure that is cheaper, logistics etc is
cheaper. Everything is a lighter and needs less power.... I could go
on.

It should be noted that none of these changes have been revolutions,
but just incremental improvements over time. This is one of the
biggest criticisms of the rocket industry, there really hasn't been
much incremental improvements. We still use 1960 technologies really
(ie no altitude compensation nozzles).

But one thing is for sure. Commercial rocket/space craft stuff is only
getting easier and cheaper (that not the same as easy and cheap). It
will never be "car" cheap but I believe it will get "airline" cheap.

Greg

I wouldn't be surprised if he lights the rocket engine by then, but
flying to 100km in the next four weeks?  Not a chance.  Burt is taking
a sensible, incremental flight test plan, and there are still a lot of
questions to answer along the way.

John Carmack

Compare price, size and weight of a 1975 inertial platform with today's
GPS receiver.

    Jan