Sea dragon is it possible if so why not use it?

[Valcan]

http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/searagon.htm

Ok this says that its fully doable to build and that it could work Why not build it if it does.

It promises almost 1,000,000 lbs to orbit :shock: (a 747 max weight is 900k for take off). And it was supposed to cost only a quarter of that of saturn 5 launches.

 

[nimbus]

$$$

 

[SpaceTas]

History.
Sea Dragon concept arose when NASA was thinking about moon-basses, manned trips to mass, nuclear powered space ships, and others were dreaming of solar power stations and colony in space. At just about the same time the mood in Washington changes along with public interest, and the Apollo program was cut short. After that there was never a need to launch a million pounds into orbit all at once. The heaviest payloads were (and are), geostationary communication satellites and pieces of the space station. The shuttle was to be the space truck to haul any satellite to Low Earth Orbit with a booster to geostationary orbit. That use died with Challenger combined with a previous attempt by congress to jump-start the US launcher business. Then the shuttle's role was to construct the space station. The space station "replaced" the need to use the shuttle as a space lab (therefore no upgrades in increase its mission length).

Having such a beast as Sea Dragon maybe would have made launching a station easier. You would have got a different style of station with a few big modules, but it is only worthwhile if doing large scale manned Moon or Mars missions.
But now NASA is not doing that either.

So no Sea Dragon.

 

[pmn1]

Having such a beast as Sea Dragon maybe would have made launching a station easier. You would have got a different style of station with a few big modules, but it is only worthwhile if doing large scale manned Moon or Mars missions.
But now NASA is not doing that either.

So no Sea Dragon.

Why limit yourself to the US?

Has any other country even considered something like this, after all the shipyards in China should be able to knock these out like they knock out the box boats and LNG carriers but they don't.

I've never heard of anyone suggesting copying the idea which to me suggests that despite the evidence that the small scale testing produced, there is a problem.

 

[Valcan]

SpaceTas wrote:
Having such a beast as Sea Dragon maybe would have made launching a station easier. You would have got a different style of station with a few big modules, but it is only worthwhile if doing large scale manned Moon or Mars missions.
But now NASA is not doing that either.

So no Sea Dragon.

Why limit yourself to the US?

Has any other country even considered something like this, after all the shipyards in China should be able to knock these out like they knock out the box boats and LNG carriers but they don't.

I've never heard of anyone suggesting copying the idea which to me suggests that despite the evidence that the small scale testing produced, there is a problem

OK me personaly i wouldnt trust the chinese to build me anything remotly complicated. As ive said before there horribly corrupt. And anything they make to go into space is part of there military ambitions for space. (and if you believe they only have peaceful intentions in space i have some land in hati for ya.) :lol:

Most countries wouldnt need it the vast magority who do have a space program just use medium to small launchers.

 

[SpaceTas]

Apologies for such a US centric comment. Maybe China could use such a beast. Imagine the impact of a whole space station launched in one go. Or a single shot moon base. But imagine the embarrassment if it went boom.

China already has a plan sketched out for how to get to the Moon with their current boosters; involves at least 2 launches and in Earth orbit rendezvous and docking as well as around the Moon.

If anybody can correct me, but I think the Sea Dragon never got beyond a concept design, and history is littered with those.

 

[Valcan]

Apologies for such a US centric comment. Maybe China could use such a beast. Imagine the impact of a whole space station launched in one go. Or a single shot moon base. But imagine the embarrassment if it went boom.

China already has a plan sketched out for how to get to the Moon with their current boosters; involves at least 2 launches and in Earth orbit rendezvous and docking as well as around the Moon.

If anybody can correct me, but I think the Sea Dragon never got beyond a concept design, and history is littered with those.

I think it just comes down to wether its safer or easier just launching from land.

 

[lildreamer]

what I thought as a side note everyone... from the afore mentioned article about SeaDragon

"..But this came just as Apollo was being cut back and the Viet Nam war was eating an ever greater amount of the US budget. NASA dissolved their Future Projects Branch (dropping almost all the manned Mars landing work). Prospects for Sea Dragon essentially disappeared, and Aerojet could no longer fund it on IR&D..."
good a: 300 mill back then to get this Heavy duty Ford F150 2ton truck to do our lifting
bad b: notice the parallel events occuring

i'll over state the obvious but this WAR that US is in on 'two fronts" is killing the US's ability to be a productive entity...
(thats my only political hack there sorry.... )

Now what I don't understand if you factor inflation and cost $ to todays standard your still ahead of the game compared to what was being offered with the current programs...my .026756 dollars worth of opinion.....