NASA Engineers Propose Combining a Rail Gun and a Scramjet to fireside Spacecraft Into Orbit [Nasa]

NASA has been working on creating a new, cheaper way to launch spacecrafts. Their latest proposal involves train tracks, a rail gun and a scramjet. Here’s what they’re looking to do:

In April, President Obama urged NASA to return up with, among other things, a low-priced method than conventional rocketry for launching spacecraft. By September, the agency’s engineers floated a plan that may save millions of greenbacks in propellant, improve astronaut safety, and allow for more frequent flights. All this will take is two miles of train track, an airplane which can fly at 10 times the velocity of sound, and a jolt of electricity sufficiently big to light a small town.

The system calls for a two-mile- long rail gun which will launch a scramjet, with a view to then fly to 200,000 feet. The scramjet will then fire a payload into orbit and return to Earth. The process is more complex than a rocket launch, but engineers say it’s also more flexible. With it, NASA could orbit a 10,000-pound satellite sooner or later and send a manned ship toward the moon the subsequent, on a fraction of the propellant used by today’s rockets.

It may sound too awesome to ever be a reality. But unlike other rocket-less plans for space entry, each relevant technology is advanced enough that tests could happen in 10 years, says Stan Starr, a physicist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. NASA’s scramjets have hit Mach 10 for 12 seconds; last spring, Boeing’s X-51 scramjet did Mach 5 for a record 200 seconds. Rail guns are coming along too. The Navy is testing an electromagnetic launch system to switch the hydraulics that catapult fighter jets from aircraft carriers. ” We’ve got the whole ingredients,” says Paul Bartolotta, a NASA aerospace engineer working on the project. ” Now we just ought to determine methods to bake the cake.”

How To Fly Into Orbit:

Rev Up The Rail Gun
A 240,000-horsepower linear motor converts 180 megawatts into an electromagnetic force that propels a scramjet carrying a spacecraft down a two-mile-long track. The craft accelerates from 0 to one,100 mph (Mach 1.5) in under 60 seconds- fast, but at under 3 Gs, safe for manned flight.

Fire The Scramjet
The pilot fires a high-speed turbojet and launches from the track. Once the craft hits Mach 4, the air flowing in the course of the jet intake is fast enough that it compresses, heats to a few,000ºF, and ignites hydrogen inside the combustion chamber, producing tens of thousands of pounds of thrust.

Get Into Orbit
At an altitude of 200,000 feet, there isn’t enough air for the scramjet, now traveling at Mach 10, to generate thrust. Here spaceflight begins. The two craft separate, and the scramjet pitches downward to get out of ways as the upper spacecraft fires tail rockets that shoot it into orbit.

Stick The Landing
The scramjet slows and uses its turbojets to fly back to Earth for a runway landing. Once the spacecraft delivers its payload into orbit, it reenters the atmosphere and glides back to the launch site. The two craft can also be ready for an additional mission within 24 hours of landing.

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This post is tagged: aerospace engineer, electromagnetic force, jolt of electricity, kennedy space center, relevant technology, space center nasa, velocity of sound