[FPSPACE] Rock the Mesbah

[Keith Gottschalk]

>Shahab-3B Improvements Leading to the Shahab-4/Mesbah-1
Space-Strategic
>Missile System   >C Charles P. Vick 2004
> [. ..snip...]
>The 20-60 kilograms payload suggested is in the Taep'o-dong-1 three
>stage class booster which Iran had purchased and received several
years
>ago that they then evaluated and improved leading to the expected
>Shabab-4. 

       A 20 kg satellite can broadcast the Iranian national anthem / a
Quranic verse from orbit.  One way to increase the satellite size,
whether for a spysat or in general, would be for them to strap 3 Shahab
first stages side-by-side, Delta-style. Ultimately 4 strap-ons. This of
course requires a lot of homework for mechanical engineers, starting
with the dreaded god of Vibration and Resonances.

     If Iran has civilian payloads in mind instead of,  or national
prestige in addition to, A-bomb warheads, then Iran should spend the
next five years aiming to chuck away the 2nd & 3rd stage
solid-propellant stages asap, & replace them with cryogenic stages. That
will double the satellite mass they can launch. But a third world
country will find that means a whole decade of sweating for their
engineers. India has vastly more hi-tech personnel than Iran, but took
more than a decade to master a, er, chilled-out attitude   :)

     On the other hand, if Iran stays with solids rather than migrates
to cryo, they must expect high risk that the Pentagon / Tel Aviv will
argue this confirms their paranoia, & launch pre-emptive SLBM / cruise
missile strikes.

Keith