Sending A Rocket To The Moon! (Progress Sheet)

[dlazarus6660]

I think somebody watch "The Rocket Farmer" one too many times!

This is seriously great stuff and I would like to see it happen.

One question, If it could be done by your criteria, don't you think someone would have done it by now.

 

[Dork_Vader]

I think somebody watch "The Rocket Farmer" one too many times!

This is seriously great stuff and I would like to see it happen.

One question, If it could be done by your criteria, don't you think someone would have done it by now.

LOL at least he didn't watch that Startrek movie in which they follow the Borg back in time and that drunk builds a warp drive rocket on his own..

 

[dlazarus6660]

LOL at least he didn't watch that Startrek movie in which they follow the Borg back in time and that drunk builds a warp drive rocket on his own..

That was going to be my next post!

 

[dlazarus6660]

70 post 7 hours later.

 

[dlazarus6660]

SSSSSSSSSh did we scare him off?

 

[Dork_Vader]

I think somebody watch "The Rocket Farmer" one too many times!

This is seriously great stuff and I would like to see it happen.

One question, If it could be done by your criteria, don't you think someone would have done it by now.

I do believe it could be done perhaps not on his criteria. I think the problem is funding it and getting a team together in one area to build it. Many of the people on this forum have the intelligence to make it happen they just don't have the resources. But as I said I don't think orbit would happen and I don't think any return flight would happen. It would just be launching the rocket at the moon and planting it on the surface.

 

[cerving]

All he needs to do is to get to 36Kfps and aim at the right spot +/- a microradian or two. No problem. A 4G net burn for about 19 minutes will do it. He might be able to steer it with an Arduino and an IMU shield, he should check out their forum too... www.arduino.cc

Oh, it's only JANUARY? I thought it was APRIL...

 

[georgegassaway]

To help to give you a taste of what it's like to develop a rocket to get into orbit, and then to fly to the Moon, I highly recommend Kerbal Space Program:

https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/

While the game is fictional, most of the rocket science is real (the atmospheric effects are a work in progress, and re-entry heat is not there, yet).

In any event, you can select various engines, fuel tanks, and so forth, and cluster or stage them as you want. Then (hopefully), fly into space, and make orbit around Kerbin. Once you learn to make orbit, then you can try for the Mun (their moon).

There is an autopilot mod that you can add on, called MechJeb. I like to use it myself, but it is definitely a good thing to first learn the game without it, to fly manually. Then use MechJeb later to do what by then would be "routine".

Of course, for a real-world rocket, you need an automated guidance system.

In this game, I've been into low orbit many times. To their moon many many times (as well as Minmus, a small icy body outside the orbit of their moon). Also Duna (Mars) a few times, to Eeloo (the farthest-out planetary body), and most recently, Moho (Mercury), landing 3-Kerbal crews and getting them back. Not the same as doing it "for real", but a lot of fun and some good practice/experience to have a taste of what it's like to make the tradeoffs of thrust, mass, ISP, launch profiles, and so forth (the parts even have a price associated with them, but so far the game has not implemented a budget)

- George Gassaway

 

[shrox]

Well.

I thought this was going to be interesting.

Thanks to those for driving him away. Kind of surprised.

I'll be careful about thinking outside the box myself I guess.

 

[dlazarus6660]

Well.

I thought this was going to be interesting.

Thanks to those for driving him away. Kind of surprised.

I'll be careful about thinking outside the box myself I guess.

Really?

I'll say it again.

If it could be done, it would have been done.

Now let me get back to my TV show "Salvage 1"

 

[chadrog]

C'mon Shrox! You and I both know that a Big Bertha will shred before it ever gets up to escape velocity!

G.D.

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner

Not if you paper the fins.:wink:

 

[shrox]

Really?

I'll say it again.

If it could be done, it would have been done.

Now let me get back to my TV show "Salvage 1"

Like I said, even a BB on the moon is reaching the moon.

 

[Benbug]

Dude, a word of advice - try not to refer to people who have trained and worked in their respective fields for decades as "the experts" as it comes across as being bloody condescending, ie; "so-called experts".

Leave the quotation marks to the pseudo-scientific, hoaxer, basement-dwelling douchebags.

In all seriousness, best of luck with your Moon shot. The world needs more stories of wonderment - prove us all wrong.

Bb

 

[shrox]

Yes, he could have rethought things and bought a few hybrids to experiment with from a few vendors right on this forum. But probably not now, I sure those vendors would have like that.

Might have become a customer of mine too. Stop driving people away.

 

[bobkrech]

You know Safari might be on to something.

He's young, ambitious but he has no idea of what it takes and how much it costs to get a payload on the moon, but we at TRF certainly do. From our collective experience we know his budget is about 2 orders of magnitude short of the cheapest proven 1-way lunar launch solution available. I think we at TRF need to set up a LLC and raise the $200,000,000 required for a credible launch effort via one of the internet project funding sites. It just might be possible. We need only convince a mere 3% of the earth's population to each kick in $1 US to fund the project. That's only 10% of the funding SpaceX had to raise to merely put their rocket into low earth orbit. I think this is a much better deal and would give TRF some real bragging rights.

My proposal is simple. We'll contract the LV, facilities and support systems from Starsem, the Soyuz Company, since the Soyuz was the first and cheapest LV to place a probe on the moon, as they have hardware and permits in place to do it. That would eliminate all LV development costs and give us a 95% probability of getting something successfully planted on the moon. The going price for the Soyuz LV, launch facility rental, and support personnel is between $100,000,000 to $150,000,000 which would leave us at least $50,000,000 to develop the payload. I think if we put out minds together collectively we could put together a very creative payload for $50,000,000 and get a 2 month vacation at Balkonur Cosmodrome for the management team. Hey we might even be able to make a contest out of it. May be we'll simply plant $1,000,000 in gold bars on the lunar surface and offer to pay a 10% finders fee for some one to go up and return it to us.

Anyway, this plan is as plausable as any I've seen to get a payload to the moon. The Soyuz LV had a 95% success rate since the 50's so it's a really low risk high reward program, certainly far better than our typical Class 3 amateur launch attempts. We just have to convince 200,000,000 suckers, aka investors to cough up a buck each to get this program off the ground.

Aim high, somewhere around 250,000 miles high, more or less, and shoot for the moon.

We can do it. Yes we can. I know we have the talent here at TRF to get it done. :grin:

Bobski

 

[aditat2]

:rofl:

 

[RWmarlow]

Gee Mr. Bob That was wonderful ! Way to give a speech!

 

[dlazarus6660]

You know Safari might be on to something.

He's young, ambitious but he has no idea of what it takes and how much it costs to get a payload on the moon, but we at TRF certainly do. From our collective experience we know his budget is about 2 orders of magnitude short of the cheapest proven 1-way lunar launch solution available. I think we at TRF need to set up a LLC and raise the $200,000,000 required for a credible launch effort via one of the internet project funding sites. It just might be possible. We need only convince a mere 3% of the earth's population to each kick in $1 US to fund the project. That's only 10% of the funding SpaceX had to raise to merely put their rocket into low earth orbit. I think this is a much better deal and would give TRF some real bragging rights.

My proposal is simple. We'll contract the LV, facilities and support systems from Starsem, the Soyuz Company, since the Soyuz was the first and cheapest LV to place a probe on the moon, as they have hardward and permits in place to do it. That would eliminate all LV development costs and give us a 95% probability of getting something successfully planted on the moon. The going price for the Soyuz LV, launch facility rental, and support personnel is between $100,000,000 to $150,000,000 which would leave us at least $50,000,000 to develop the payload. I think if we put out minds together collectively we could put together a very creative payload for $50,000,000 and get a 2 month vacation at Balkonur Cosmodrome for the management team. Hey we might even be able to make a contest out of it. May be we'll simply plant $1,000,000 in gold bars on the lunar surface and offer to pay a 10% finders fee for some one to go up and return it to us.

Anyway, this plan is as plausable as any I've seen to get a payload to the moon. The Soyuz LV had a 95% success rate since the 50's so it's a really low risk high reward program, certainly far better than our typical Class 3 amateur launch attempts. We just have to convince 200,000,000 suckers, aka investors to cough up a buck each to get this program off the ground.

Aim high, somewhere around 250,000 miles high, more or less, and shoot for the moon.

We can do it. Yes we can. I know we have the talent here at TRF to get it done. :grin:

Bobski

Bobski,

As always, you hit the nail on the head!

I think in the future, I'll be walking to the Amesbury field instead of catching a ride with you.

If I do ride, I'll open the window to allow the fresh air in.:rofl:

Gee, this is a great post idea, wish I thought of it!

 

[T-Rex]

I was one of the first to make a negative comment, but that is just my inner curmudgeon coming out. At the same time, we know that the way it has always been done is more complicated than we believe the OP is capable of.
Just because that's the way it has always been done, doesn't mean it's the only way or even the best way. It took some brilliant minds to do it before, and come up with the old way. Never know, maybe this kid is the next Oppenheimer or Goddard.
OK, he comes off a bit strong, he needs to learn some social skills. A communications class might be a good idea.
Maybe we should cut him some slack, if he is out in left field, he'll find out on his own. If he is right, well, we could be missing out on an opportunity to be part of something great.....I'm not smart enough, but the sum of the parts here at TRF might be.

(Yeah, I had to do some touchy-feeley training not to long ago...)

 

[shrox]

...Maybe we should cut him some slack, if he is out in left field, he'll find out on his own. If he is right, well, we could be missing out on an opportunity to be part of something great.....I'm not smart enough, but the sum of the parts here at TRF might be.

Excellent.

(Yeah, I had to do some touchy-feeley training not to long ago...)

I am so sorry.

 

[beezwax]

Reality check, or pissing on people's parade? There's a difference between having big dreams and being high on crack. Only one actually operates within the world of objective reality. If someone proposes something that is completely uninformed and absurd it doesn't make the rest of us dream-killers for saying so. But I'm sure everyone here would be absolutely tickled to be proven wrong, so knock yourselves out kids, really. Until then you might want to take your indignation down a notch.

Well.

I thought this was going to be interesting.

Thanks to those for driving him away. Kind of surprised.

I'll be careful about thinking outside the box myself I guess.

 

[dave carver]

I was going to send him to Dave Crisalli from the Reaction Research Soc. for some direction. I think, with a lot of money, he could help with a LF motor. He's done a 10,000 lb. thrust motor so I'm pretty certain if theres anyone that can help...

There's also surplus LF rocket motors to consider. I wouldn't doubt if he could find a Soviet 50,000lb. motor. Basicly it's a up-graded V-2 motor. They would cluster 30 of these to lift something. No wonder early Russian rockets blew up with great regularity.

 

[shrox]

Reality check, or pissing on people's parade? There's a difference between having big dreams and being high on crack. Only one actually operates within the world of objective reality. If someone proposes something that is completely uninformed and absurd it doesn't make the rest of us dream-killers for saying so. But I'm sure everyone here would be absolutely tickled to be proven wrong, so knock yourselves out kids, really. Until then you might want to take your indignation down a notch.

I am not indignant, just tired of the negativity. Homer Hickman had unrealistic dreams too. Blew up his mom's new fence in the process, remember? One year later, I am sure even he thought sending a plastic model airplane "4 or 5 miles I reckon" was pretty foolish too.

 

[dlazarus6660]

To hell with the moon, there are three rovers on Mars exploring the planet. I find that a lot more interesting than sending a 'model rocket' to the moon. The fact that we have been to the moon 6 times, brought back a couple of hundred pounds of moon rocks and found nothing else. If the 'model rocket' could provide some information upon landing on the moon, that might be useful. How about launching a model rocket from the ISS to the moon. There is enough resupply missions to the ISS that someone can smuggle a rocket to the ISS and launch it to the moon.
Problem solved!

 

[shrox]

To hell with the moon, there are three rovers on Mars exploring the planet. I find that a lot more interesting than sending a 'model rocket' to the moon. The fact that we have been to the moon 6 times, brought back a couple of hundred pounds of moon rocks and found nothing else. If the 'model rocket' could provide some information upon landing on the moon, that might be useful. How about launching a model rocket from the ISS to the moon. There is enough resupply missions to the ISS that someone can smuggle a rocket to the ISS and launch it to the moon.
Problem solved!

Yes...hmmm. This might be the droid we are looking for.

 

[dave carver]

Well.

I thought this was going to be interesting.

Thanks to those for driving him away. Kind of surprised.

I'll be careful about thinking outside the box myself I guess.

There's a difference between a BS'er and an eccentric genius

 

[shrox]

An external science experiment on the ISS could be a small box with a rail launched model rocket in it with enough thrust to send it on a long outward spiral to the moon. It would be a great college competition. Maybe 270-360 days to reach the moon if it was HPR. (Just a guess on the time frame)

 

[closet astronaut]

OK...I've been ignoring this thread for quite some time, when I saw the first post I thought it was just some sort of spoof. However, after seeing it explode into four pages so quickly I had to see what all the hubbub was about. So after alot of reading, wow what a flurry of dialouge. The only thing that comes to my mind is...you all thought my Mercury project was ambitious...hmmm. I'm glad there's a new target.

 

[Gary Byrum]

I am not indignant, just tired of the negativity. Homer Hickman had unrealistic dreams too. Blew up his mom's new fence in the process, remember? One year later, I am sure even he thought sending a plastic model airplane "4 or 5 miles I reckon" was pretty foolish too.

In the movie, Homer's dreams were NOT unrealistic. His goal was simple and achievable. He wanted to build a rocket. And through trial and error along with increasing his mathematical skills, he did it.

We have 3 possible scenarios to consider here. Safari could be one of the three of these. As per the intro: a 20 year old, and who knows, this could be a majorly brilliant genius of a kid who comes from a filthy rich family that has a plethora of connections in the rocket science society, or he could be a brilliant hoaxman trying to get a rise out of all of us, or he's not a 20 year old kid, instead, he's someone from the guv poking their nose in here stirring the waters to see who knows what about what. If the latter is the case, you all are letting on about what you know in a great big way. Phishing comes to mind.

I can't blame any of you for red flagging this post. I might have done so also. But this doesn't sound like any average 20 year old kid. If he really IS 20.

 

[dlazarus6660]

Here is the thing, a rocket with fins would not be needed. NO Atmo. just a tube with a gyro for stabilization. Probably needs to spin for stability. Needs to reach escape velocity to reach the moon. If the rocket was launched from the ISS.