Drone launch

[Lohan2008]

Are there any (unmanned) drones able to take satellites to LEO ? How much more expensive would it be compared to rockets ??

[cicatrix]

You will need rockets anyway to reach LEO. At least the on the final part.

[magnemoe]

Its far easier to get into space in KSP than in real world, 4.5 km/s versus 9 km/s who is more like an Eve launch.

Skylon is supposed to be unmanned and wherefore an drone.

[peadar1987]

Well, technically speaking, the ATV, H-II, Dragon, Cygnus and Progress used to supply the ISS are all "drones", in that they are flown unmanned. As is anything we have sent beyond the orbit of the moon. Very few spacecraft actually aren't drones.

[Nibb31]

Are there any (unmanned) drones able to take satellites to LEO ? How much more expensive would it be compared to rockets ??

You need to define drone.

The proper name for a drone is a UAV: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Other than that, UAVs can be of any type: plane, helicopter, quadcopter, boat, rocket...

By the proper definition of drone, an unmanned rocket or spacecraft is already a drone.

I think what you're talking about is an unmanned spaceplane or SSTO or both. So please reformulate your question with the proper words.

[Dkmdlb]

Wikipedia says that Skylon, which is an unmanned SSTO spaceplane, will cost $12 billion to develop. To get a sense of the scope of the task, consider that Skylon is planned to be about 270 feet long (more than twice as long as the space shuttle, and longer and as heavy as a 747 jumbo jet).

[Lohan2008]

I am thinking of an UAV that takes of like an aeroplane and then uses rocket propulsion to go into space, with a cargo area that could carry a (small) satellite.

[Lohan2008]

That is quite a comprehensive list of expendable cargo spacecraft Paedar, it must be too hazardous to launch horizontally.

[Nibb31]

I am thinking of an UAV that takes of like an aeroplane and then uses rocket propulsion to go into space, with a cargo area that could carry a (small) satellite.

Then your question is about SSTO spaceplanes, not UAVs. How the vehicle is controlled is irrelevant.

Getting to orbit is about reaching orbital speed, not altitude. To accelerate to 27000 km/h, you need a lot of propellant.

Conventional rocket: engines + propellant + payload. The payload fraction is typically less than 0.5% of the gross takeoff weight of the rocket.

Space plane: engines + propellant + wings + landing gear + hydraulics + TPS. Without even adding a significant payload, your vehicle is already too heavy to reach orbit.

This is why nobody has managed to make an SSTO spaceplane yet.

[xenomorph555]

The closest we had to a spaceplane UAV was Buran, and also X-37B but that doesn't deliver satellites.

[Dkmdlb]

I am thinking of an UAV that takes of like an aeroplane and then uses rocket propulsion to go into space, with a cargo area that could carry a (small) satellite.

More on Skylon - even if it is successful (which it probably won't be), it will be able to carry a payload about the size of the Falcon 9 payload. And the plane itself is longer than the Falcon is tall. And the Skylon needs somewhere in the range of 300 tons of fuel to reach orbit. I get the feeling you are dramatically underestimating the size of a vehicle like you are describing.

[Sandworm]

There are drones that can go to space and fly back to land at a runway. The first was called Buran, but it flew only once to space. The only space drone flying today is the X-37B.

[Kryten]

Bor-4 also returned from orbit and did most of a landing run, but had to ditch and be picked up by a ship.

[Iskierka]

Many of you are overlooking an obvious space drone, the Pegasus, currently operational with a payload of 450 kg to LEO. The X-37b isn't much of a drone launch considering it is launched atop a rocket, and thus far isn't known to have deployed a payload, it is the payload.

[N_las]

Many of you are overlooking an obvious space drone, the Pegasus, currently operational with a payload of 450 kg to LEO. The X-37b isn't much of a drone launch considering it is launched atop a rocket, and thus far isn't known to have deployed a payload, it is the payload.

What is your definition of "drone", that something is excluded because it launches on top of a rocket? As long as it is unmanned, it is a drone.

By your critera, the pegasus isn't a drone either. It is just a "rocket".

If the pegasus is a drone, then an unmanned Saturn V is also a drone. But how can you then excllude the X-37 ?

[Nibb31]

Pegasus is a rocket, not a spaceplane.

There can be manned spaceplanes, unmanned spaceplanes, manned rockets, unmanned rockets, manned helicopters, unmanned helicopters. The term "drone" designates an unmanned aerial vehicle, whether it's a helicopter, a plane, a quadcopter, a rocket, or anything else that flies in the air. There are also drone boats, drone tanks, drone submarines, yet they can't be called UAVs (obviously). The term "drone" is just too vague to be meaningful.

All rockets since the old V2 can be considered UAVs, since they had their own avionics and guidance systems. All satellites since sputnik can be considered UAVs, since they are unmanned. Even manned rockets like the Saturn V or the old Vostok R7 were never piloted by a human. The distinction makes no sense.

All modern launchers are unmanned, they're aerial, and they're vehicles. They fly to orbit to launch payloads on their own, using their own avionics and guidance systems. So they can all be considered "drones".

Edited December 11, 2014 by Nibb31