Above image from Mechanix.
Wow. Do you remember this article from a few years back in Popular Science?
If a group of Marine Corps visionaries have their way, however, 30 years from now, Marines could touch down anywhere on the globe in less than two hours, without needing to negotiate passage through foreign airspace. The breathtaking efficiency of such a delivery system could change forever the way the U.S. does battle. The proposal, part of the Corps's push toward greater speed and flexibility, is called Small Unit Space Transport and Insertion, or Sustain. Using a suborbital transport-that is, a vehicle that flies into space to achieve high travel speeds but doesn't actually enter orbit-the Corps will be able, in effect, to instantaneously deliver Marine squads anywhere on Earth.When I first saw the story I was beyond geeked! I thought ...YEAH BABY! This is the cats meow. This is the type of 'sci-fi' thinking that's been missing in the defense department.
Little did I know that it was already considered----decades earlier---and with tech that was just as viable during the time as the new concept was a few years ago.
The problem with this concept is chemical rockets.Until we change that technology we are going nowhere.
ReplyDeleteThe funny part is that the decades-old concept is actually probably doable within today's state-of-the-art. Of course, the new concept is pie-in-the-sky with requirements far beyond the state-of-the-art. Thus be it ever.
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