[ExI] UK Skylon spaceplane passes key review

Eugen Leitl eugen at leitl.org
Tue May 24 15:18:02 UTC 2011


----- Forwarded message from Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> -----

From: Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org>
Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 16:24:16 +0200
To: tt at postbiota.org, astro at postbiota.org
Subject: UK Skylon spaceplane passes key review
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.18 (2008-05-17)


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13506289

UK Skylon spaceplane passes key review

Jonathan Amos By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

Skylon concept (Reaction Engines) Skylon would operate from a runway

A revolutionary UK spaceplane concept has been boosted by the conclusions of
an important technical review.

http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/bispartners/ukspaceagency/docs/skylon-assessment-report-pub.pdf

The proposed Skylon vehicle would do the job of a big rocket but operate like
an airliner, taking off and landing at a conventional runway.

The European Space Agency's propulsion experts have assessed the details of
the concept and found no showstoppers.

They want the next phase of development to include a ground demonstration of
its key innovation - its Sabre engine.

This power unit is designed to breathe oxygen from the air in the early
phases of flight - just like jet engines - before switching to full rocket
mode as the Skylon vehicle climbs out of the atmosphere.

It is the spaceplane's "single-stage-to-orbit" operation and its re-usability
that makes Skylon such an enticing prospect and one that could substantially
reduce the cost of space activity, say its proponents.  Mature concept

The UK Space Agency (UKSA) had commissioned Esa to evaluate the design, and
the European organisation's staff reported on Tuesday that they had not seen
any obvious flaws.

“Start Quote

    From what we've seen so far, we can't identify any showstoppers”

Dr Mark Ford Esa's head of propulsion engineering

"Esa has not identified any critical topics that would prevent a successful
development of the engine," they write in their review.

Skylon has been in development in the UK in various guises for nearly 30
years.

It is an evolution of an idea first pursued by British Aerospace and Rolls
Royce in the 1980s.

That concept, known as Hotol, did have technical weaknesses that eventually
led the aerospace companies to end their involvement.

But the engineers behind the project continued to refine their thinking and
they are now working independently on a much-updated vehicle in a company
called Reaction Engines Limited (REL).  Sabre Engine (Reaction Engines)

Realising the Sabre propulsion system is essential to the success of the
project.

The engine would burn hydrogen and oxygen to provide thrust - but in the
lower atmosphere this oxygen would be taken directly from the air.

This means the 84m-long spaceplane can fly lighter from the outset with a
higher thrust-to-weight ratio, enabling it to make a single leap to orbit,
rather than using and dumping propellant stages on the ascent - as is the
case with current expendable rockets.

But flying an integrated air-breathing and rocket engine brings unique
challenges.

At high speeds, Sabre would have to manage 1,000-degree gasses entering its
intake. This hot air would need to be cooled prior to being compressed and
burnt with hydrogen. Reaction Engines' answer is a novel precooler
heat-exchanger.

This would incorporate arrays of extremely fine piping to extract the heat
and plunge the intake gases to minus 130C in just 1/100th of a second.

Ordinarily, the moisture in the air would be expected to freeze out rapidly,
covering the network of fine piping in a blanket of frost and dislocating its
operation.

Regulatory support

But REL says it has developed an anti-frost solution that will allow the heat
exchanger to run and run. Esa's technical staff have witnessed this "secret
technology" on the lab bench and can confirm it works. The agency's experts
say they also fully expect a scaled up version of the precooler technology to
function properly this summer when it is tested in conjunction with a
standard jet engine.

"We've not looked at everything; we've focussed on the engine and the
[Skylon's] structure," explained Dr Mark Ford, Esa's head of propulsion
engineering. "But from what we've seen so far, we can't identify any
showstoppers. It's quite an innovative technology if it works."

Assuming, this summer's test programme does indeed achieve its goals,
Reaction Engines says private investors will release £220m ($350m) of funds
to take Skylon into the next phase of its development.

This would include the production of a ground demonstrator that would show
off Sabre's full engine cycle - its air-breathing and rocket modes and the
transition between the two.  Test rig (Reaction Engines) Sabre's precooler
technology will be put through its paces on a test rig this summer

The price for launching a kilogram of payload into a geostationary orbit -
the location for today's big telecoms satellites - is currently more than
$15,000 (£9,000). Skylon's re-usability could bring that down to less than
$1,000, claims REL.

If the vehicle ever does go into full production, the investment required
will probably be in the region of $9-12bn (£5.5-7.5bn), but the company will
not be looking to government for that money.

"The government hasn't got that sort of money and we want this project to be
a privately financed one," said Alan Bond, the managing director of REL.

"What government can do for us however is deal with the legislation that
surrounds the eventual introduction of a spaceplane - how it is certified and
how it conforms to certain aspects of international space law. And the
government has already indicated its willingness to do all this in the recent
budget."

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET at bbc.co.uk

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