[ExI] Report on space business

[BillK]

On Sun, Nov 11, 2012 at 8:38 PM, Keith Henson wrote:
> Last Thursday I gave a talk at the 3rd Space Word conference in
> Frankfurt on power satellites, how to build them with laser propulsion
> to get the cost down and how you build the first laser at GEO with
> Skylon. (I can send the power point slides I used if someone wants
> them.)
>
> I was impressed with the people who showed up.  There is another world
> out there.  They speak English (more or less) as a common language.  I
> don't think I ran into anyone who did not appreciate the importance of
> high exhaust velocity as the way to get the payload up and the cost
> down.  That's unlike some conferences in the US where it's hard to
> find anyone who understands the rocket equation.
>
> Friday I visited Reaction Engines.  Delightful experience meeting Alan
> Bond and Richard Varvill, the key technical guys.  They have (and I
> saw) the precooler for the SABRE engines working.  They extract a GW
> of heat from entering ram air and drop the temperature to -150 deg,
> making it possible to compress the air to rocket chamber pressure with
> a low tech turbine.  Miles of tiny tubes in each one, and they *don't
> leak.*
>


BBC tv did a 50 mins documentary about Reaction Engines in Sept 2012.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ_a21fPkYM>



BillK