Ballpark, what fraction of a rocket launch fuel energy need to orbit is to overcome atmospheric drag as opposed to overcoming gravity? Anyone know off the top of your head?
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It’s all about how the mass ratio is affected. If you want to do the math yourself (and note I’m on my phone and this is from my head) use: Delta v = 9.8 m/s^2 * Isp * log (m0/mf) For Isp used 450s (more realistic) m0 = initial mass mf = final mass Delta v as above
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@elonmusk the payload to orbit improvement from an air launched setup would be ~5%... that’s taking into account reduced drag at altitude and the Mach 0.7-0.8 speed of the launch vehicle. So the answer seems somewhere in the middle.
End of conversation
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