The Rocket Company

Front Cover
This richly illustrated book is a fictionalized account of the challenges faced by a group of seven investors and their engineering team in developing a low-cost, reusable, Earth-to-orbit launch vehicle. The marketing, regulatory and technical problems are explored, making it an excellent and readable introduction to the technical aspects and challenges facing today's designers, entrepreneurs, regulators, legislators, and investors. The business model presented includes numerous timely scenarios and ideas: considering a reusable launch vehicle as a product, which has a different market and better cash flow, than the market for launch services; using clever engineering to solve the problem of an economical reusable launch vehicle with existing technology; and greatly increasing the supply of launch capacity, with a reusable vehicle that has low marginal costs per flight, is necessary to drive down the cost of launch to low Earth orbit using modifications of the same basic vehicle to gain access to the inner solar system at reasonable cost. institutions to solve the problem of low-cost, reusable launch vehicles makes this book necessary reading for all those involved in developing solutions. The Rocket Company provides a point of departure for building a consensus on how to take the process through to low cost access to orbit - and beyond.
 

Selected pages

Contents

Seven Billionaires and One Big Problem
1
Big Telescopes Hot Rodders and Librarians
9
Gateses Jobses and the Laureates Lemma
17
Build Big Build Many or Use it Again
23
Small Market Small Payload But Not a Toy
35
Myths Mistrust and Trust
39
The Pitch
47
The Business Plan
63
Markets Philosophy Techniques and Approaches
153
Rockets Jets and Soft Landings
159
Pilots Payloads and Passengers
163
Mooncars Monks and Monasteries
171
Aliens Cheetahs and Archea
183
Halfway to Everywhere
189
First Stage First Flight
201
Stop the Production Line
209

Mazes Stop Cords and Skunk Workers
71
Fuel Tanks Heat Shields and Fire Walls
77
Balloon Tanks Fracture Mechanics and Friction Stir Welding
91
Enthusiasm Bubbles Ejections and Expander Cycles
101
Gasoline Alcohol Kerosene or Liquid Methane
113
Design Reviews Prototypes and Parawings
119
Guidance Navigation and Control
129
Webb Suit Hard Suit Space Suit
141
Earth Below Us
219
Money Manufacturing and Marketing
227
Always Room for Improvement
233
Space Is Finally a Place
239
Mars for the Many
247
Index
253
Supporting Materials
Copyright

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