Aeronautics and astronautics – Spacecraft – With fuel system details
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-01
2001-02-27
Poon, Peter M. (Department: 3644)
Aeronautics and astronautics
Spacecraft
With fuel system details
C244S05300R, C244S062000, C244S00100R, C060S202000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06193194
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
At the present time the most economic, technically viable method used for launching and accelerating high-mass space vehicles from the earth's surface to orbital or escape velocities is based upon rocket or jet propulsion wherein propulsive thrust is achieved by burning a gas inside pressure chambers and creating pressure differentials on the walls by expelling the gas through a system of nozzles. Unfortunately, since the required velocities are relatively high, most of the chemical energy is wasted accelerating large amounts of unburned fuel, and the inert structural mass required to contain it. Thus, the useful payload is a small fraction of the vehicle's initial launch mass. This has serious technical implications in terms of payload limitations which appear to be unavoidable.
The minimum mass ratio (launch mass/burn-out mass) for achieving low earth orbit using LH
2
/LO
2
propellant is about 10.0. Unfortunately, since the density of LH
2
is very low, the vehicle must be designed with a large structural mass to contain it. Consequently, the required initial mass will be very high, even for relatively small payloads. Thus, the cost to put payloads into orbit is very-high even if the vehicle is reusable. For example, the expected minimum cost of transporting payloads into orbit by the proposed reusable single-stage Aerospace Plane propelled by idealized scramjets operating at maximum efficiency or by the vertically launched Delta Clipper will be about $300/kg ($136/lb), and the size and weight of the payloads will be relatively small.
The problem of achieving economical space travel does not involve energy. A long-range 747 airliner burns the equivalent of twice its own orbital energy in the fuel it consumes. The problem is the high mass ratio of the launch vehicle set by the rocket equation. Therefore, if the underlying propulsion principles (i.e., the technical methods) of space travel remain unchanged, space travel will always remain very expensive and way beyond the reach of ordinary citizens. The situation can not be significantly improved by utilizing remotely generated laser or microwave beams to heat the propellant gas because of thermal and structural limitations. Although nuclear propelled vehicles could achieve high velocities in interplanetary space, they could not be operated directly from the earth's surface. The basic mass ratio problem of launching payloads from the earth's surface into orbit would still remain.
The technical problem of achieving economical space travel is one of the most challenging problems in applied physics. In actually, the problem is not actively pursued because it is viewed as having no viable solution that is attainable with current technology. The propulsion method and operating system introduced herein will provide a solution to this problem. What is most significant is that this method is well within technological feasibility, and, from an engineering point of view, will be relatively easy to develop and implement. It could also be utilized as a propulsion method for achieving low-cost high-speed intercontinental transportation at speeds far beyond that of supersonic airliners.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In the vehicle acceleration method presented herein, the entire vehicle is designed with a streamlined toroidal geometry having a diameter ranging from a few meters to several hundred meters containing a thin-walled superconducting solenoid coil mounted inside with approximately the same diameter. Thus, the vehicle resembles a circular flying wing with a constant length-to-thickness ratio airfoil. The solenoid is charged with current to create a large axial magnetic field in the circular region inside the vehicle's perimeter. The vehicle's superstructure is designed as a stress-bearing containment vessel to support the magnetic stress acting on the charged solenoid which tends to pull it apart and compress it into its mid-plane. The acceleration method involves launching the vehicle with conventional chemical rocket propulsion on a nearly vertical ballistic trajectory which is designed only to reach a vacuum environment at an altitude of about 125 km using relatively little propellant. The energy required to propel the vehicle into the vacuum environment is only about {fraction (1/10)} of that required to propel it all the way into orbit. After the vehicle reaches the vacuum environment, it is accelerated to orbital or escape velocities by a traveling repulsive magnetic field.
The traveling repulsive magnetic field is generated by ejecting a low-density, easily ionizable gas cloud behind the vehicle in the magnetic field of the solenoid and transmitting a plane-polarized microwave beam into the cloud from a very large transmitter mounted horizontally on the earth's surface. By selecting a frequency tuned to the electron cyclotron resonant frequency of the vehicle's magnetic field, the incident microwave beam ionizes the gas and accelerates the free electrons into high-energy cyclotron resonant orbits. In view of Lenz's Law, the orbiting electrons become strong magnetic dipoles that oppose the magnetic field of the solenoid. They are accelerated away from the vehicle by magnetic repulsive forces, taking the positively charged ions with them by electrostatic forces. In their aggregate, the orbiting electron dipoles generate a large repulsive magnetic field that travels behind the vehicle that is sustained by the ejected gas cloud and by the microwave beam that is continuously transmitted and focused inside the vehicle's perimeter. The thrust vector lies along the vehicle's central axis. By rotating a pressurized toroidal passenger cabin inside the vehicle, an artificial gravity environment is created which also gives the vehicle gyroscopic spin stability to cancel non-axial magnetic torque from the earth's magnetic field. Since this acceleration method can be used in reverse to decelerate a vehicle approaching the transmitter from space, the vehicles are reusable and can, with the aid of atmospheric breaking, be decelerated to land at the launch site by reversing the steps. By constructing the transmitter horizontally on the earth's surface adjacent the launch site in the form of a multiple-feed, electronically-steered phased array several hundred meters in diameter with a high power density energized by a large system of underground toroidal superconducting energy storage coils, it will be possible to achieve virtually unlimited CW beam power. This power is converted directly into the traveling repulsive magnetic field which accelerates the vehicle over great distances. Atmospheric breakdown is avoided by generating the beam over a large area on the earth's surface and focusing it on the vehicle above the atmosphere. The resulting accelerating force can be many times greater than any previous technically viable vehicle acceleration method. The invention will enable single-stage reusable space vehicles to accelerate enormous payloads to escape velocities with mass ratios that are actually lower than that of long-range airliners.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3114517 (1963-12-01), Brown
patent: 3891160 (1975-06-01), Minovitch
patent: 4006597 (1977-02-01), Dick
patent: 5052638 (1991-10-01), Minovitch
patent: 5520356 (1996-05-01), Ensley
Abbott Yvonne R.
Christie Parker & Hale LLP
Poon Peter M.
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