Question Brainstorm: How to build a spaceship?

[alrik]

Arduino? I'm using it.

Now, open-source spaceship? Why the hell not?
Where will we start?

I dont know... I just put an idea :rofl:

Anyway a good starting point should be... the engine i think.

- Engine
- Electronics
- Aerodynamics
- Materials
.... more and more....
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

 

[Hielor]

I think rather than starting straightaway with an open source spacecraft, you should take the smaller step first: an "open-source kit plane." Kit planes have been around for more than half a century, and aircraft technology is much more widely available and "mature" than spacecraft technology.

I think your audience for such a project ("free/open-source aircraft plans") would be much larger than for a spacecraft, and you'd be a lot more likely to see any of them get completed.

 

[Kaito]

Gum, a paperclip, and some paper
[/MacGyver]

 

[lockingtoggle]

Even suborbital Spaceship One took more than 10 million $$$ to develop.

Yes, but 9 of them went on safety. We can skip that part. :thumbup:

I like Hielor's idea. Count me in.

 

[JamesG]

Yes, the only way to make money from space is to sell things to the people who want to go there...

 

[Andy44]

You need two things:

1. Money. Lots of it.

2. Freedom to do what needs to be done.

Number 2 is harder. Governments don't want private citizens to build space vehicles, although if you play ball you can get the necessary permits and so forth, which is what Musk and Branson are doing. Then you will still be restricted as to which technologies and techniques they allow you to use.

Number 1? Win the lottery, or make friends with Bill Gates. Money can be raised, many people have made piles of it.

 

[Eagle]

If you can weld enough steel and have access to a hardware store it can be built off the shelf. Its a naughty part of rocket science, but spacecraft can built around thrust and material inefficiencies. The enemy of perfect is good, and good gets you into space.

Number 2 is harder. Governments don't want private citizens to build space vehicles.

That's true with so many things its sad. Then again, lots of home owners expand without a permit.

 

[JamesG]

If you can weld enough steel and have access to a hardware store it can be built off the shelf. Its a naughty part of rocket science, but spacecraft can built around thrust and material inefficiencies. The enemy of perfect is good, and good gets you into space.

Or a spectacular form of suicide anyway...

But yes, You could slap together a capsule from an old water heater welded to a titanic solid rocket motor and brute force your way to orbit. The math is well known and straight forward. The complicated guidance and electronics and sensors aren't even really needed if you have the payload doing the flight control and course corrections by nessessity.

 

[Ghostrider]

Governments don't want private citizens to build space vehicles

Governments don't like private citizens to do anything at all except work their arses off, pay taxes and vote what they themselves want (and they would love to skip the pesky voting thing). So, if you want to get anything done, promise them lots of lovely money and then provide it - or else they'll change their mind and squash you flat "for teh children".

 

[Andy44]

Anyone remember this TV show?

 

[dbeachy1]

Well, I remember the TV show Salvage One from way back in 1979. Ahh, I was so young...

Who knew that building a spaceship was so easy??

 

[JamesG]

I remember thinking that the "steam" takeoff thrust was a bit understated even to my adolecent mind...

 

[Hielor]

2. Freedom to do what needs to be done.

Number 2 is harder. Governments don't want private citizens to build space vehicles...

I think the problem isn't with space vehicles, it's with the fact that the materials used to launch conventional rockets are remarkably similar to those used to build bombs.

I imagine that if you found some magical way to get into space without needing materials also seen in modern weaponry, the government wouldn't care nearly as much.

 

[JamesG]

Thats only part of it. Another security aspect is that from orbit, its relatively easy to drop something on just about any spot on the globe.

The spacefaring nations have gotten used to having exclusive run of space. If common access to high altitude and orbit were unlocked, regulatory and defense agencies would have to change they way they do things. And we all know how much buacuracies love change.

 

[T.Neo]

Rockets can be built of out steel (STS SRBs are steel) but not any steel- the average steel you usually get is stuff called "mild steel", and for anything other then car body panels and thick archectural structures it is utterly useless.

You'd probably need maraging steel (used in applications such as fighter aircraft landing gear) which is extremely high-tech; if available at all in a country like the US, it would probably be prohibitatively rare and expensive. You'd be better off by making the fuel tanks out of glass fibre, however, this incurs a mandril and application/curing process.

Rockets can of course be built around thrust and material inefficiencies, although the engineering and manufacturing involved would still be incredibly complex and expensive.

An open-source kit plane sounds like a very good idea to me. A spacecraft is simply too complex and intricate to be taken so lightly.
AFAIK several very simple kit plans exist for homebuilt aircraft, and I could certainly see a market for open-source plans.

 

[JamesG]

AFAIK several very simple kit plans exist for homebuilt aircraft, and I could certainly see a market for open-source plans.

Sure if you only plan to sell them to the wishful thinkers. I don't know the statistics but I am willing to bet that a healthy percentage of kit plane plans and kits never fly.

But, this is offset by the liability you'd see if someone took your plans and blew themselves up or crashed their craft into a densely populated area. Kit ultralights and light sports are tolerated because the amount of havoc they can cause is limited to less than than of an automobile. Something that can reach orbit will be much more dangerous and vastly more risky from a litigation perspective.

 

[T.Neo]

Something that can reach orbit will be much more dangerous and vastly more risky from a litigation perspective.

Orbital (or suborbital) is a whole different matter.

I was only talking about kit aircraft.

 

[the.punk]

Starting today, with no significant surplus of money, and head full of nominal intelligence, how will you, an average homo terrestrialis with a habit of looking into the big sky, build a spaceship capable of taking you and a friend around the Moon?

Any optimistic ideas?

1. You need...money
2. Buy titanium
3. Build the spacecraft
4. Buy hydrogen and oxygen and fill them into tanks. Or mix a hypergolic fuel or a fuel of your choise.
...

 

[JamesG]

Orbital (or suborbital) is a whole different matter.

I was only talking about kit aircraft.

O. Ok.

The kit plan and plane market is alive if not well. The expense, (percieved) hazard, and the refusal of people to accept responsibilty for thier own stupidity has left the business a shadow of what it was in the 60s and 70s.

 

[jedidia]

Open source rockets? sure, I'm in! So are the Taliban, I guess...:shifty: