Could we fly a modified kite to the moon?

Why fight the atmosphere? Let's use it's wind power in our favor. Instead of burning up trying to get out of it, why not let it lift whatever it is we've shot up into space? Of course the wind will quickly die out, but then light weight rockets attached to it will get through the rest of the atmosphere.

Well if none of that is possible then I guess the real question is, how far could a kite go into the atmosphere? This could be a neat and cheap project that could actually answer some interesting questions. I did a quick search and couldn't find anything so maybe it's worth trying.

How hard would it be to get about two or three hundred 500 foot spools of string and tie them together? Might cost a few hundred dollars but you would have about 10 miles of string which I think would get you to the next layer of the atmosphere. Maybe then its easier to fire off some little rockets and let them do the rest. Add some basic stearing and a camera and we're off to the moon!

Engage!

... just dont tie that string around the moon and try to pull it down to the earth

In order to escape Earth's gravity and get to the Moon you need to be going about 25,000 mph. Getting higher in the atmosphere would help some but you still need a rather large rocket to get your ship going that fast. A large rocket requires a large kite. A large kite requires, not string, but cable. Cable is heavy, you need a bigger kite... etc.

I can send a little rocket you buy from Walmart for $20 towards space and it's not going 25,000mph. Obviously it doesn't get very very because it runs out of fuel. What do you mean you need to be going 25,000mph to escape Earth's gravity? I can climb a long ladder at any speed I want and I'm escaping gravity. I guess the lift of the wind isn't much of a help is what you're saying, because it dies out before gravity does?

Escape velocity of earth is 11.2 KM per second
6.95 Miles per KM
1 mile per second = 3,600 miles per hour

Escape velocity = 25,020 miles per hour

See:
en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by salsaking


You're right in a way. To escape Earth's gravity from at the Earth' surface is 25,000 mph. The higher you get the less it is. If you could continuously rise at 1mph you could get to the moon (it would take a long time though).

But you still run into the same problem. To fire the rocket for a long time, you need a lot of fuel. Fuel is weight. Same vicious cycle. More weight, more powerful rocket, heavier.

BTW, there is such a thing as balloon launched rockets.

reply to post by Phage


I knew I'd see you in this thread Phage!
I must admit it attracted me like a moth to a flame.

Out of interest, does anyone know the maximum or record height that someone has flown a kite? Just wondering...

IRM

That all makes sense, I think I'm expecting gravity to diminish as the atmosphere does, but I dont think their amounts are related.

Let me ask this then, would the maximum height of a kite be more dependent on how high the wink can take it, or the force of gravity pulling down the weight of all the string attached to it? i.e. which one would stop the kite first?

Thanks for all the replies of very useful info!

Hi, salsaking.

Why not pull the moon to earth with a chain, and be STO ?
be of service to others, by the same occasion. . .? B-)

Seriously, after our rocket got us out of the earth's air, we use
another kite, using the solar wind. . .

voila !

reply to post by salsaking


Two things are related:

The higher the kite gets the thinner the air gets so the kite provides less lift.

The higher the kite gets, the longer (and heavier) the string has to be, requiring more lift.

Highest Altitude Achieved by a Kite - The classic record is 31,955 feet by a train of 8 kites over Lindenburg, Germany, on August 1, 1919. Single kite altitude record has been satisfactorily established by Richard Synergy, who flew a large delta to 13,609 ft above ground level near Ontario, Canada in August 2000.

source
From this site. Seems credible. World Kite Museum

I hope this info helps in your kite idea to the moon. It sounds interesting.

Originally posted by InfaRedMan


Out of interest, does anyone know the maximum or record height that someone has flown a kite? Just wondering...

Highest Altitude Achieved by a Kite ...

www.kitefestival.com...

Dang..

[edit on 2/25/2009 by Phage]

So, like attaching a chain to the moon, gravity always wins before we get anywhere near what we're trying to do.

I guess the hardest part of escaping the atmosphere is not the atmosphere at all, it's after that where the Earth's gravity is still strong and there is no way to rely on any wind or anything else in the atmoshere to help.

It seems I always hear it as "escaping the atmopshere", when really it should be "escaping gravity".

I will have to adjust my thinking and come up with another idea.

reply to post by salsaking


There is no gravity.
The Earth sucks.


But yeah, gravity is the big problem.

Atmospheric drag is nothing to sneeze at though, it would be easier without all this pesky air.

[edit on 2/25/2009 by Phage]

Originally posted by C-JEAN

Seriously, after our rocket got us out of the earth's air, we use
another kite, using the solar wind. . .

Solar sails (also called light sails or photon sails, especially when they use light sources other than the Sun) are a proposed form of spacecraft propulsion using large membrane mirrors. Radiation pressure is about 10-5 Pa at Earth's distance from the Sun[1] and decreases by the square of the distance from the light source (e.g. sun), but unlike rockets, solar sails require no reaction mass. Although the thrust is small, it continues as long as the light source shines and the sail is deployed. In theory a lightsail (actually a system of lightsails) powered by an Earth-based laser could even be used to decelerate the spacecraft as it approaches its destination.

en.wikipedia.org...

[edit on 25-2-2009 by Snisha]

[edit on 25-2-2009 by Snisha]

[edit on 25-2-2009 by Snisha]

reply to post by Snisha


The problem with a light sail is that you cannot "tack". You can only move in the direction of the light. It also requires a very high vacuum, at the level of interstellar space.

With a solar sail (using the solar wind) you could make progress toward the Sun, just as a sailboat can move at an angle into the direction of the wind.

[edit on 2/25/2009 by Phage]

Hi again, lunar ATSers.

Another idea, to start with:

www.spaceelevator.com...

Blue skies.

reply to post by salsaking


You devolop a technique for increasing sensitivity (out the arse, btw) for superconductors. Attaching one to your rig and one to the ground. You nullify gravity. Aside from that, there is no other way.

Uh first of all you need wind to get a kite to function...
In Space there is no wind.

Second of all, you aren't thinking scientifically, do you know how far away from Earth the moon is? heh

That's why I said modified kite with small rockets, which you must not have read. However as others pointed out it would quickly run out of fuel.

What if it were solar powered with a little fan and panel like this?




I guess the fan would also be useless in space as it would also need atmosphere for the fan to work.

The term you want is, "space elevator." It is already being studied.

[edit on 25-3-2009 by president]