re boom whoosh matthew phantom gatech edu matthew deluca writes in article apr mnemosyne cs du edu wdwells nyx cs du edu david fuzzy wells writes i hear insert favorite rumor here that it will supposedly coincide with the atlanta olympics even worse the city of atlanta has a proposal before it to rent space on this orbiting billboard considering the caliber of people running this city there s no telling what we re going to have leering down at us from orbit i would just like to point out that it is much easier to place an object at orbital altitude than it is to place it with orbital velocity for a target km above the surface of earth you need a delta v of km s assuming that rockets with specific impulses of seconds are easy to produce a rocket with a dry weight of kg would require only about kg of fuel oxidizer a small dispersal charge embedded in about kg of sand or birdshot depending on the nature of the structure would be the payload i am sure the whole project is well within the capability of the amateur rocketry community it sounds like a good science fair project reduction of light pollution through applied ballistics or it could be part of the challenge prize being discussed here billion for the first person to spend year on the moon million for the first erradication of an orbital eyesore ccd burner i wouldpledge for the first person to bring it down and i am sure there are at least other astronomers nature lovers or just plain people of good taste who would do likewise of course a gerald bull solution might be simpler either the solution gerald bull would apply the use of a large caliber gun or the solution which was applied to gerald bull the use of a small caliber gun david m palmer palmer alumni caltech edu palmer tgrs gsfc nasa gov
