Reusable spacecraft

Details Reusable spacecraft Reusable spacecraft

1995-11-13

1998-03-24

Kashnikow, Andres

Aeronautics and astronautics

Aircraft, heavier-than-air

Fluid sustained

244 123, 244 23R, 244 23B, B64C 2900

Patent

active

057303908

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a national stage of PCT/EP93/02888, filed Oct. 20, 1993.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a reusable spacecraft.
2. Background of the Invention
The mathematical constant e=2.718 . . . controls physical processes. All attempts to leave the earth are determined by the rocket equation pay-load remaining after combustion of the propellant, v is the achieved end velocity of the rocket and w is the discharge velocity of the rocket gases. Based upon this equation it is not possible to leave the earth with the chemical propellants presently existing without having to rely on a multi-stage principle.
Multi-stage rockets with liquid propulsion have the shape of superposed long cylinders, which prior to starting, are fueled in such a manner that they lift off the rocket launcher only very intricately. If only one of the bundled thrusters fails during lift-off the rocket drops back to earth and explodes. Another difficulty is that especially the thrusters of the first stage have to be steerable since a multi-stage rocket can be stabilized when lifting off the rocket launcher only by means of the rocket thrust.
Consequently, the first stage of the "Saturn 5" rocket used for the landing on the moon had a huge starting weight. The whole rocket is carried by the firepower of the rocket thrusters and raises its velocity only since the starting weight rapidly decreases because of the very high fuel consumption. Furthermore, after the burning out of the individual stages, the same either glow away as they drop back to the earth or can no more be caught back from the space.
The very high costs of such a space technique have caused the engineers to look for other possibilities. The American "Space Shuttle" represents a rocket aircraft which is hung onto a large fuel tank. In order to achieve a terrestrial orbit of a height of about 250 km, additionally two huge solid-fuel rockets are necessary. In contrast to the propellant tank which glows away when falling down, the outer shells of these solid rockets are again caught and are reused. However, this is technically rather critical since the reusable rocket shells form that part of this rocket system which is most susceptible to damage. The rocket aircraft itself can land on runways prepared therefor without any consumption of fuel. However, the expected reduction of costs from the reuse of the rocket aircraft has not occurred up to now.
The procedure proposed by Sanger et al of fastening a rocket aircraft on the back of a supersonic aircraft can be a very promising technical advance. According to this procedure, the supersonic aircraft provided with jets utilizes the oxygen of the terrestrial atmosphere so that for the first stage no liquid oxidizing agent has to be carried along. If it should be possible with such a supersonic aircraft to reach velocities of more than 5000 km/h, the principle of a reusable propulsion stage can be achieved. However, in contrast to the mother aircraft, the rocket aircraft carried in a pickaback manner is aerodynamically bulky since for the return to the earth a landing as with the Space Shuttle occurs. Thus it appears to be difficult to reach with such a rocket aircraft the necessary high velocities of the first propulsion stage within the atmosphere of the earth.
The methods described above are possibilities for transporting pay-loads into the space. However, landing and starting on gas-covered planets or satellites cannot be carried out. At most assembling of a landing rocket in space might be possible, which rocket reaches the earth under the influence of a braking flame stream, as with the manned moon ferry. However, in order to be able to start again, one or several unmanned landing ferries will have to be used which serve for the propellant supply and which, however, have to remain on the extraneous celestial bodies.
From GB 21 76 451 A a reusable spacecraft is already known. The outer shell of this spacecraft is configured as that, when flying obliq

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patent: 5224663 (1993-07-01), Criswell
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