100,000 ft or bust………
I’ve decided to launch to space before Elon Musks 12,000 satellites block the sky……… Yes that is TWELVE THOUSAND SATELLITES!!!!! I assume you all know what Elon is doing. It’s going to be like SkyNet before we all die in the film and have to invent a time machine to go back to fix the problem….. But mobile network reception and by extension mobile phone reception as we’re all using Whats App these days, is going to be fantastic ! I’d also assume that like GPS, our locations tied to our mobile phones will all be within mm accuracy whichever jungle hole you’re in. That’s within 1/32 of an inch for anyone that’s non metric. And won’t this massive number of satellites block the signals from the ones above? Yes? No?
There’s a National Geographic article on it here.
Sooooooo. Where do we start.
Designing a rocket is a circular process. You start with what you know, guess at what you don’t, do the maths, find out you’re not quite there, make changes and go round the loop again. As you find out more the guesses get fewer until you have a finished design.
Thrust is dependant on the motor design/ diameter/ fuel available and the rate you burn it. As that all changes your minimum diameter may change. Your weight may increase. Your structural loading on the rocket due to thrust and velocity may change. And so you go round the loop again..
Then you test it on the ground, maybe publish to your peers, and then do a test launch to verify everything. The expected altitude of this package sims to 70-100K ft. With/without a camera. Who needs a camera……..
Ground test is soon………
And then we’ll go round the loop again…