Leaving the planet as a hobby?

[Brian]

Not me, but some sort of object. Supposing that I was willing to spend 4 or 5K over the next couple of years, could I launch something out of the earths gravitational field? I think getting something into orbit would be a little too much to ask.

My first thought (this whole idea occured to me 45 minutes ago) was to use a large weather balloon to at least carry the object out of the atmosphere. Then launch it with a timer. What would I use for fuel?

How could I verify that it had escaped Earth?

Is this even remotely possible? Would there be legal problems?

 

[Sundog]

A bag of sinsemilla is a lot cheaper, dude.

 

[Brian]

A bag of sinsemilla is a lot cheaper, dude.

Yeah, but I don't smoke any more so I have to find equally profitable ways to spend my time.

It's either gonna be this, or I'm going to power a large(ish) appliance with potatos.

 

[daver]

Yeah, but I don't smoke any more so I have to find equally profitable ways to spend my time.

It's either gonna be this, or I'm going to power a large(ish) appliance with potatos.

Go with the potatoes.

You say you want to get something out of the earth's gravitational field. Later you say getting into orbit is too much to ask. There's a disconnect here. Getting an object away from the earth's effective gravitational field means giving it more than escape velocity; that's much harder than getting it into orbit.

Maybe you want to get something above NASA's astronaut limit--more than 50 miles high. As far as i can tell, the altitude record for an amateur rocket is somewhere around 7 miles. These rockets aren't cheap. It looks as if the record for unmanned ballon is around 35 miles; it's barely possible then that you could reach 50 miles if you start with a high altitude balloon. No way you're going to do it for $7k, though.

Maybe you can use the $7k to bribe someone into letting you put something into the ballast of an Arienne, or into one of the GAS cans on the shuttle (if it ever flies again). If you want to launch it yourself, your cheapest strategy might start with purchasing a nuclear device on the black market (there are certain complications with that method).

 

[Zep]

You can get superseded ground-to-air defence missiles for "scientific purposes" pretty cheaply. And yes, they WILL have the warhead and guidance removed from the nose!

They are used by amateur rocket societies and universities for various purposes. Possibility??

 

[Crossbow]

Not me, but some sort of object. Supposing that I was willing to spend 4 or 5K over the next couple of years, could I launch something out of the earths gravitational field? I think getting something into orbit would be a little too much to ask.

My first thought (this whole idea occured to me 45 minutes ago) was to use a large weather balloon to at least carry the object out of the atmosphere. Then launch it with a timer. What would I use for fuel?

How could I verify that it had escaped Earth?

Is this even remotely possible? Would there be legal problems?

Would it be possible, of course! What you are describing is essentially an engineering problem and the good thing about engineering problems is that can always be solved provided one has enough money and enough time.

However, I would say that your project is most ambitious and I expect that you would have to spend at least $5000/week, as opposed to $5000/year, for the next several years in order to achieve your goal. There is a good reason why so very few objects (and all of them have been the result of a national, as opposed to private, program) have every completely left Earth because it takes so much technology to actually do so.

Also, as for your balloon idea, the best attitude that you could expect from such a thing is about 120,000 feet, or about 20 miles. And while 20 miles of altitude sounds quite high, and it is, compared to what you are after it is just a tiny step. Therefore, even if the balloon could get the rocket that high, then one will have to somehow remotely fire it and steer it on to the proper course because if the path is too shallow, then it may just wind up in orbit around the Earth (and you do not want that), or worse, it may actually crash into the surface of the Earth (even less desirable).

Good luck!

 

[Brian]

Re: Re: Leaving the planet as a hobby?

Also, as for your balloon idea, the best attitude that you could expect from such a thing is about 120,000 feet, or about 20 miles. And while 20 miles of altitude sounds quite high, and it is, compared to what you are after it is just a tiny step. Therefore, even if the balloon could get the rocket that high, then one will have to somehow remotely fire it and steer it on to the proper course because if the path is too shallow, then it may just wind up in orbit around the Earth (and you do not want that), or worse, it may actually crash into the surface of the Earth (even less desirable).

Good luck!

Actually, getting something in orbit would be good enough for me. My mistake in thinking was that it would be more difficult to get something into orbit. More of a precise things than just lobbing something off the planet. I forgot that it would take a tremendously larger amount of power to escape the earths gravity.
Sounds way out of my price range at any rate.

I don't suppose a series of weather baloons would help.
One half inflated, one a quarter inflated ect. So as the air pressure decreases, the helium in the half full one expands and remains less dense than the atmosphere around it, the full one would pop at some point. ect...

 

[Crossbow]

Re: Re: Re: Leaving the planet as a hobby?

Actually, getting something in orbit would be good enough for me. My mistake in thinking was that it would be more difficult to get something into orbit. More of a precise things than just lobbing something off the planet. I forgot that it would take a tremendously larger amount of power to escape the earths gravity.
Sounds way out of my price range at any rate.

I don't suppose a series of weather baloons would help.
One half inflated, one a quarter inflated ect. So as the air pressure decreases, the helium in the half full one expands and remains less dense than the atmosphere around it, the full one would pop at some point. ect...

Good, getting something into orbit is much more 'doable'.

I have heard of amature raido people using satellites that they have made to help relay their communication signals around the world. What they do is ask, beg, plead, etc. NASA, and other space organizations, to let their devices to be used as part of the 'ballast' load that is in just about every space launch.

This way they are able to get their stuff into orbit without actually having to pay for a launch.

I suggest that you check out this approach if you are really serious.