From: earlcp@idirect.com   
      
   navigaiter2002@aol.comSpamsuX.retro.com (Allen Meece) :   
      
   > > How does this work?  They mentioned using electric rockets which have   
   very   
   > low thrust.>>   
   >   
   > You asked how ATO, Airship To Orbit, would work and all they said was that   
   > since they don't know how it would work, it probably wouldn't.   
   >   Ah, the conceit of pessimism. It, not the shallow gravity well, is what   
   > keeps   
   > us stuck on the ground.   
   >    How it works: The launcher station floats very high where the air is <1%   
   > as   
   > thick as at the ground. An V-shaped orbiter airship a mile long is   
   > assembled on   
   > station. This orbiter uses its own positive buoyancy to float upward to 40   
   > milles high where the air is even less dense and which is halfway to a   
   lower   
   > LEO.   
   >    Then electric ion propulsion is used to accelerate the giant airship   
   > forward   
   > and up.  [JPA is looking at standard Hall thrusters as well as proprietary   
   > ion   
   > thrusters.]   
   >    The orbiter's angle of attack is upward so the thin air compresses under   
   > the   
   > Vee-shaped ship and raises its altitude. The higher it goes, the thinner   
   the   
   > air and the less the drag and the faster it goes. Repeat until orbit is   
   > reached.   
   >    This is not rocket science, it is high altitude aerodynamics.   
      
   Yes, and with high altitude aerodynamics you get drag that you have to   
   overcome.  The cost of the drag is why no-one see why it will work.   
      
                          Earl Colby Pottinger   
      
   --   
   I make public email sent to me!  Hydrogen Peroxide Rockets, OpenBeos,   
   SerialTransfer 3.0, RAMDISK, BoatBuilding, DIY TabletPC.  What happened to   
   the time? http://webhome.idirect.com/~earlcp   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)