Alex Bruccoleri is a PH D candidate at MIT.
Alex worked through some of the math for what speed we need to get to about a 100 km orbit. The first draft result is about 7.8 km/s, but factoring in air drag and other issues make the real number about 10 km/sec.
"The only proven way to safely accelerate an object to 10 km/s is through rockets!"
Rockets come in two flavors:
1) Chemical - muzzle accelerates gas via pressue forces
2) Electric - gas is ionized and electrical forces used for acceleration - the problem is the power source takes weight.
He went through some math.
Summary: "Rockets are hard. We need chemical propulsion for high thrust. We want high temperatures and pressures for high exhaust velocity. We are limited to less than 5km/s. This means we have a limited mass for payloads, structures etc. to reach orbit."
The full agenda for Space Access 2013 agenda.
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