Water Launch

[vesson]

I thought about this while viewing stuff on the new Nasa plans for future space exploration...<br /><br />Is there any benefits/downsides to launching a large space craft from deep water?<br /><br />My first thoughts were that we could launch larger vehicles from water due to its obvious bouyancy properties... kinda cancelling out problems of escape velocity to an extent.<br /><br />What does everyone think? <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[igorsboss]

The rocket has to shove all the water out of the way, which would take a whole heck of a lot of power.

 

[spacester]

Google 'Sea Dragon rocket' <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[igorsboss]

Cool!

 

[nexium]

My guess is a water launch would take slightly more fuel which would be out weighed by safety and security benefits. Launching from near the top of a tall mountain near the Equator would increase the pay load by several percent, but the logistics would be difficult. Neil

 

[CalliArcale]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>But I don't see why launches could not take place from artificial islands in international waters;<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Sort of a scaled-up Sea Launch, you mean? (Sea Launch puts medium-weight payloads into orbit aboard Zenit rockets.) A few satellites have also been launched from "boomers" (submarines designed to launch ICBMs, which generally as in the light- to medium-lift class if converted into satellite boosters), particularily using the Russian Volna rockets.<br /><br />Incidentally, for those who don't know, boomers are submerged when they launch their missiles, so there is precedent for a water-launch concept. It's just never been scaled up to a heavy- or super-heavy-lift vehicle. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>