/sci/ - Science & Math

How would a lunar eclipse affect operations in a manned moon base?

Furthermore how would it function in the fully two-week-long nights without sunlight?

Green text your ideal launch system for delivering civilian passengers and g-sensitive cargo to LEO.

>scramjet assisted air launch to orbit spaceplane launched from massive blended wing body mothership
>mothership is powered by 6 GE90 turbofans modified with afterburners for launch maneuver.
>spaceplane attached to mothership's back which is carried to around 35,000 ft taking off from a conventional runway without afterburners
>mothership may spend several hours cruising to desired latitude for launch insertion allowing it to operate from almost any commercial airport at any latitude in the world
>when launching orbiter, the mothership turns on its afterburners boosting itself from 35,000 to 50,000 ft from Mach 0.8 to 1.2
>orbiter activates scramjets once mothership's speed settles at just above Mach 1, then it detaches itself and begins pre-orbital burn
>once orbiter reaches 90,000 ft at around Mach 5 it switches from scramjets to aerospike engines, which share exhaust nozzles, closing off the leading air intakes and begins injecting LOX into the combustion chamber
>both the scramjets and aerospike engines burn liquid methane but the scramjets run without LOX injection
>rides aerospike motors to orbit and then again for deorbit
>after reentry near the end of its glide slope, the orbiter extends internally stowed conventional wings that allow far more conventional, slower landing approaches without parachute braking
>wings have simple geometry (i.e zero sweep when extended, modest front taper, high aspect ratio, plain flaps or single slotted fowler flaps) and are stored internally inside the orbiter's SR-71-like aerodynamic chines, rather than externally such as in fighter jets like the F-14

IMO air launch to orbit should become the brim (except for extremely large payloads, 500 tons or more) because it eliminates the need for spaceports as the carrier plane can use most of the world's airport infrastructure.