Centre for Hypersonics - HyShot Scramjet Test Programme

[Trei, Peter]

I'll speculate that Jim posted this as a demo that 'amateur' rocketry
can reach orbit. If you read the article, you'll find it does nothing of
the kind. This is suborbital - in fact, the rocket goes almost 350km
straight up and down (they're testing scramjet configurations during
re-entry).

The highest speed reached on the way up is 8300km/hr, which is
about 2.3 km/sec. The shuttle at 300 km (a typical height) is going
7.73 km/sec, over 3 times as fast. This sounding rocket goes a
little higher, but it can't stay there, and is nowhere near being in
orbit.

As to range safety, it's worth noting that the Israelis have launched at
least one satellite. They were so worried about the reaction of their
neighbours that they launched it over the Mediterranean into a retrograde
orbit. That way, a launch phase failure would be more likely to hit water,
and  the contries overflown were less likely to be interprete the launch as
an attack.

When the Norwegians unexpectedly launched a small rocket over 
Russia a few years ago, it got to the point of Yeltsin having his 
'football' open, with keys inserted ready to send the retaliation 
command before it was determined to be harmless.

Peter


> ----------
> From: 	Jim Choate[SMTP:ravage at einstein.ssz.com]
> Reply To: 	Jim Choate
> Sent: 	Thursday, February 22, 2001 5:59 PM
> To: 	hell at einstein.ssz.com; cypherpunks at einstein.ssz.com;
> rpv-uav at einstein.ssz.com; sci-tech at einstein.ssz.com
> Subject: 	Centre for Hypersonics - HyShot Scramjet Test Programme
> 
> http://www.mech.uq.edu.au/hyper/hyshot/
> -- 
>     ____________________________________________________________________
> 
>            Before a larger group can see the virtue of an idea, a
>            smaller group must first understand it.
> 
>                                            "Stranger Suns"
>                                            George Zebrowski
> 
>        The Armadillo Group       ,::////;::-.          James Choate
>        Austin, Tx               /:'///// ``::>/|/      ravage at ssz.com
>        www.ssz.com            .',  ||||    `/( e\      512-451-7087
>                            -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'-
>     --------------------------------------------------------------------