This idea was posted on Monday, March 13, 2006.

The idea came to me as a "wake-up" dream.  By that, I mean that I started dreaming shortly before I woke up and the dream continued through the process of waking up, so that it didn't end while I was asleep.  The idea embodied in the dream remained in my mind so that I woke up with the idea still in my mind, essentially unchanged from it's form in the dream.  That's fairly common for me.  Several of my ideas have come to me that way.

Actually, in my dream the external shape of the rocket was more like a spindle than a cylinder.  By that, I mean that it was thicker in the middle and tapered smoothly toward both ends.  I made it look like a cylinder in my sketch because it was easier to draw that way.

Suggestions:

The solid fuel should be shaped so that the rocket will travel at relatively lot speed through the lower atmosphere and attain orbital velocity only after it’s above most of the air.

Some sort of small retro-rocket must be incorporated into the design, to drop the rocket shell (reentry vehicle) back into the atmosphere.  I'd suggest an interlock so that it can't be accidentally fired until the passenger is safely secured into the shell.

It might be a good idea to transfer the control module to the interior of the reentry vehicle during reentry.

Since the thing is intended to be used by ordinary folks, all flight control should be pre-programmed on the ground and automatic during operation.