Concept
The suborbital Hopper was a FESTIP (Future European Space Transportation Investigations Programme) system study design selected for further analysis during Future Launchers Preparatory Programme. It would be composed of a single stage reusable vehicle which would not reach orbital velocity. This vehicle was to be launched on a 4 km magnetic horizontal track which would accelerate it to launch speed. At a height of 130 km, the vehicle would fire an expendable rocket powered upper stage which would reach orbital speed and place its satellite payload into orbit. Finally, the vehicle would then glide down to an island in the Atlantic Ocean and be taken back to French Guiana by ship. An EADS spokesperson stated that a reusable launch vehicle like Hopper could halve the cost of sending a satellite into orbit, which now stands at $15,000 USD per kilogram of payload.
Read more about this topic: Hopper (spacecraft)
Famous quotes containing the word concept:
“Modern man, if he dared to be articulate about his concept of heaven, would describe a vision which would look like the biggest department store in the world, showing new things and gadgets, and himself having plenty of money with which to buy them. He would wander around open-mouthed in this heaven of gadgets and commodities, provided only that there were ever more and newer things to buy, and perhaps that his neighbors were just a little less privileged than he.”
—Erich Fromm (1900–1980)
“The latest creed that has to be believed
And entered in our childish catechism
Is that the All’s a concept self-conceived,
Which is no more than good old Pantheism.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“It is impossible to dissociate language from science or science from language, because every natural science always involves three things: the sequence of phenomena on which the science is based; the abstract concepts which call these phenomena to mind; and the words in which the concepts are expressed. To call forth a concept, a word is needed; to portray a phenomenon, a concept is needed. All three mirror one and the same reality.”
—Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794)