Hello, all!
I'd like to propose an idea that could prove once and for all whether the Earth is round or flat. I call it Project ESDR (Earth Shape Determining Rocket).
It's simple, really. Since you guys reject photos from space, why don't we take our own?
Let's build a rocket!
DESIGNING A ROCKET: MATH TIME:
Our rocket needs to achieve an altitude of 250,000 feet. This is definitely high enough to see the curvature (or lack thereof, if FET is correct) of the Earth.
4,000 m/s (meters per second, a metric unit of speed) is almost half as fast as rockets accelerate to to get into orbit. It should be more than enough to achieve an altitude equal to or greater than 250,000 feet.
How can we get 4,000 m/s of Δv (change in velocity)? According to Wikipedia, the equation for a rocket's Δv is: Δv = veln(m0/mf). ve is the rocket's exhaust velocity or specific impulse, m0 is the starting mass of the rocket, and mf is the mass of the rocket after all its fuel is expended. ln is a mathematical term called a natural logarithm.
Let's have the rocket have a m0 of 1,010 kilograms (1.01 metric tons), and a mf of 10 kilograms. The rocket's specific impulse will be 92.76, because that's the quoted specific impulse of an efficient model rocket engine. When we run the numbers, we get a Δv of 4198.21 m/s, which is more than enough! Great, we'll need 1 metric ton of fuel and 10 kilograms of payload, which we should be able to do.
Join me next time, where we start working on the rocket's payload and find the right fuel!