🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan6.042912.1@acad3.alaska.edu> nsmca@acad3.alaska.edu writes:
>
>When DCX flys, why not use it as a way to lift a small payload such as the
>"solar Sail Race" contestants into space? That is if the contestants are
>unmanned..

Because DCX can't achieve orbit, it's not designed to do that. It's a
small test vehicle intended to prove out certain SSTO concepts in a
suborbital vehicle and isn't planned to be flown above 30,000 feet.

The entrants in the solar sail race will be unmanned. The flight time
to Lunar orbit will be weeks if not months. No planned sail can carry
enough life support for such a long flight.

Large solar sails may someday be useful for carrying non-perishable cargo
about the solar system, and the race is a way of proving out the concept.
It should really be viewed as a race between snails, however. 

Gary

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