14 October 2024 20:31
The reusable rocket concept will revolutionized space transport. However, there is another way for smaller players without the budget, but not much unlike what SpaceX is going for, reusable orbital systems.
The return of the space plane. The Skylon spaceplane is an interesting aircraft that was born out of the ashes of the Horizontal Takeoff
and Landing Aircraft (HOTOL) project which met its demise in 1988 due to lack of funding and interest in the project [4]. In 1994, three members of the recent shutdown HOTOL project erected Reaction Engines to take over the concept and to this day have been designing the Skylon spaceplane.
The most important part of this project is the SABRE engine which is a proprietary idea of Reaction Engines Limited (REL). The Skylon’s mission criteria are to land and take off from a runway carrying a payload of 15 mT (Tonne) [4]. Borg and Matula also explain in detail the problems with attempting to use an air-breathing engine to go into orbit and the specifics on how the SABRE engine is designed. Typically for space-bound programs air-breathing is not a viable option compared to rocket propulsion due to the great L/D ratio discrepancy between the two at 10:1 as opposed to 35:1 [4].
However, air-breathing engines
use atmospheric air to cool the components, compress, and burn greatly reducing the need to carry onboard fuel. The issue with using turbomachinery at high Mach speeds is heating, which is where the SABRE has its most useful component, the pre-cooler. The pre-cooler can cool the extremely high-temperature air so the turbomachinery can operate effectively and reduce the strain on the compressor. The pre-cooler and heat exchanger work in a helium
loop where the helium extracts heat from the heat exchanger and is used to power turbopumps within the system.
Return of hypersonic travel. The Skylon Spaceplane can be modified for civilian and cargo purposes within our atmosphere. Mach 5-7 are some of the figures passed around. This will drastically cut trans continent flight times, not knowing how the sonic boom issue over urban areas will be solved, I think NASA is working on a design that eliminates or at least reduces the noise generated when hypersonic to an acceptable level. For me, I would say, a sonic boom is a small price to pay for technological advancement, but then again, I never lived under the flightpath of the great Concorde to know the effects.
The space race is well and truly on, an interesting time to be alive, if only more budgets went to Space science & exploration than war, humanity would have some very cool things to show off to coming generations, rather than death and destruction. We would have gone back to the Moon sooner, probably have a fledgeling colony on Mars, studying the depths of Europa and making our way to Titan. Just know, as a species, we are one rogue asteroid away from extinction, ask the Dinosaurs, or was it nuclear war. Same result, a nuclear winter and the wiping away of +90% of life on Earth.
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