UK Spaceport

chris_m

unforeseen wrote: »

But you would never reach terminal velocity, especially in Summer with all the caravans about

I suspect, and hope, that you really meant "escape velocity", not "terminal velocity"

kabayiri

chris_m wrote: »

Now look at the rotational speed of the Earth's surface at Newquay and at the equator, the latter is somewhat faster therefore a rocket already has more velocity if launched from close to the equator than from further away - which is why agencies try to get launch sites as close to the equator, within other practical considerations, as they can.

Hope that helps too

Yeah but that's boring physics.

Where's your pun on "port"?

chris_m

unforeseen wrote: »

US manages quite well by launching from Kennedy Space Centre (28N) and the Russians manage with Baikonur (49N)

Indeed - although Russia has just started using their new facility in the far east of Russia which I think is further north than Baikonur.
They've built it to reduce their reliance on cooperation from Khazakstan, who only lease Baikonur to Russia until 2050. Should they wish to put birds up which cannot be launched from the new cosmodrome, they have a Soyuz launch pad at Guiana Space Centre too.

chris_m

kabayiri wrote: »

Yeah but that's boring physics.
Where's your pun on "port"?

Not struck on port TBH, I much prefer a decent single malt myself

Generali

Froggitt wrote: »

1. Distance to outer space from Newquay - 62 miles.

2. Distance to outer space from the equator (anywhere along it) - 62 miles.

Hope that also helps.

Less flippantly:

http://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/projects/vss/docs/navigation/2-why-launch-from-equator.html

zagubov

Generali wrote: »

Less flippantly:

http://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/projects/vss/docs/navigation/2-why-launch-from-equator.html

I seem to remember seeing at some point that every six miles you move closer to the equator you accelerate by 1 mile per hour eastward, until you're travelling about a thousand mph when you reach there.

unforeseen

chris_m wrote: »

I suspect, and hope, that you really meant "escape velocity", not "terminal velocity"

Ooops you are right.

But there again, what goes up must come down*




*Assuming it fails to reach escape velocity

zagubov

Froggitt wrote: »

Why on earth would the UK site a Spaceport in Scotland, when every other week there is some SNP politician banging on about another referendum and leaving the UK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36303741

http://www.spaceportscotland.org/

Well all the UK's space vehicles would have to leave the UK to get into space, so why not locate the spaceport in a location that might be leaving the UK anyway?

You'd be halfway on the journey by the time you started.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

zagubov wrote: »

Well all the UK's space vehicles would have to leave the UK to get into space, so why not locate the spaceport in a location that might be leaving the UK anyway?

You'd be halfway on the journey by the time you started.

I'll give you that one.

HornetSaver

Maybe we're just carving up the land the way we did in Cyprus?

You want independence Scotland? Sure thing. Oh, but of course you can't have this bit because of the nukes. You can't have this bit because of space. You can't have the Orkneys or Shetlands because we need a military buffer between ourselves and the Faroe Islanders - they're a right threat to our national security, them 'uns. Same with Aberdeen and the nearby coastline because of Norway. By the way, we're going to reshape the boundary at Berwick-upon-tweed, so that it gives us an appropriate percentage of the coastline. No need to thank us for the extra land, you're entirely welcome.

Everything else is there for your people to do with as they see fit. Best of luck as an independent nation.