Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

urmomaisjabbathehutt t1_j8rc8g5 wrote

Reply to comment by holyrooster_ in After a decade in development, Japan’s H3 rocket is ready for its debut by DoremusJessup

we could take the same view with other technologies like fusion in the enegy industry or advanced designg nuclear rocket engines and still get us nowhere but perfecting 1950s technologies

imho those people had been testing their technology for years but the company size and available cash is nowhere to be able to proceed with the desirable development speed

further ahead there are people working on other types of hypersonic engines

and in the future even plasma jet enginess (fairly early stage and with many issues to solve such as the amount of energy...) fairly stage but imho worth exploring since a breakthrough on such could change not only space industry but the entire aerospace industry

2

holyrooster_ t1_j99ucyo wrote

> we could take the same view with other technologies like

Yes. We should look at fundamental physics when making investments.

Fusion is mostly dumb for almost all application. Most nuclear rocket engine designs are pointless and not really worth it as well.

> imho those people had been testing their technology for years but the company size and available cash is nowhere to be able to proceed with the desirable development speed

If you are proposing a design with limited upside but at least 100 the cost of a conventional design then of course you can't do that.

The reality is the Skylon project was barley more then 1950 sci-fi, to go 'full speed on development' would have cost most of the European space budget. And all for a concept that serious technical issues, a team with insufficient knowledge and experience and limited upside.

1