W
willpittenger
Guest
Shortly after Challenger was destroyed in 1986, I began thinking of what became my concept for a next-generation shuttle system. Years later, I started thinking of this system as the Challenger class. I hope that within 20 years a real system that capabilities described in this document becomes reality. I know that this isn't ready for production. Some of the requirements probably require tomorrow’s technology. However, I hope technology will catch up with me before that 20 years is up. As a result, perhaps it would be better to think of this document as a set of specifications. Correctly implemented, I think this could become the first truly economical fully reusable single stage to orbit system available.<br /><br /><br /><b><font color="black">Early concepts prior to the name be associated my proposed system</font>/b><br />Prior to my entry into college in 1990, I mainly had two versions of this concept, which I kind of blurred together. It too some time before I really considered this something I wanted to see happen. The first version was since the Rogers Commission linked the SRB booster to the explosion, I started insisting that no rockets be required. (I realize now that at least something equivalent to the RCS system on today’s shuttle would be needed. As for orbital maneuvering, I had hoped that ion engines would be enough. Again, I have no information on that.) Therefore, I asked my high-school physics teacher if an airplane going fast enough could leave the atmosphere. Shortly after he said yes, I heard about the X-30. That was the second version of the concept.<br /><br />I started looking at the X-30 design. I thought I saw several problems with it. First, I couldn’t understand how the X-30 would fly at speeds significantly below Mach 5. It didn't have enough wing area. The fuselage could help, but not with the scramjets in the way. It took me a while to figure a solution out.<br /><br />Second, by then, I had heard about a type</b> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>