Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: New Space SHuttle
Message-ID: <1989Aug27.045126.3670@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <900.24E64901@mcastl.fidonet.org> <17125@ut-emx.UUCP> <981@corpane.UUCP> <oYxoOpq00XoCM1gVEq@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 89 04:51:26 GMT

In article <oYxoOpq00XoCM1gVEq@andrew.cmu.edu> dd2f+@andrew.cmu.edu (Daniel Alexander Davis) writes:
>A Spaceplane would be a very good thing to get off Mars surface with,
>but it 
>would have to be designed to fly in Mars' atmosphere...

Spaceplanes win big only if the atmosphere can be used as fuel or oxidizer.
Mars's atmosphere is pretty useless, essentially chemically inert and very
thin.  I don't think a Marsplane will show much advantage over wingless
rockets.

>Would someone direct me to a good source of information on the
>spaceplane?
>What it can do, and when it will be ready to do it? ...

The only US spaceplane in serious planning is the X-30, which will carry
two pilots, each with a toothbrush as baggage, into orbit (it is hoped)
sometime around 1995, with a lot of luck.  The White House etc. wants to
slip that to 1997 or so.  Nobody with sense is betting lots of money on
either of those dates.  If you want a spaceplane that can carry a useful
payload, you're definitely into the 21st century and maybe quite a ways
into it.
-- 
V7 /bin/mail source: 554 lines.|     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
1989 X.400 specs: 2200+ pages. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
