Quote:
Originally Posted by
Abdallah

Rocket mass 1110kg
Payload to LEO 1kg
I'm imagining a bunch of stuff, like using aerospike-like inside out nozzle on the first stage, but with an extending nozzle section correcting for pressure, allowing the "spike" to act more like a wing, allowing efficient slow ascent through lower atmosphere, and using engines of higher stages to store prop for lower ones. I'd like a conical nozzle, though biconic and tri- would be fine. Just curious......
This is a possibility:
http://exoscientist.blogspot.com/201...sy-page-2.html
Using altitude compensation would be useful, but even more important is lightweighting the stage. For instance using carbon fiber propellant tanks or solid motor casings can improve your mass ratio by double for each stage.
This can result in a mass ratio of about 5 for solid rocket motors, even for small motors of the type you’re considering. Then you can see a three to four stage rocket using solid motors can reach orbit even with standard nozzles, no altitude compensation required.
Bob Clark