A Revolution in Aero travel is Underway, Lead by Engineering Pioneers from the UK
Space exploration is a hot topic around the globe nowadays. What used to be an achievable feat only to chosen astronauts is becoming a possibility for everyone who has the funds. The recent breakthroughs in space technologies are paving the way for this to happen on a large scale, and we are here to tell you about it.
If you’ve been attentive to the media in the last few months, then you will know that owning the leading space company is something that the richest men of the world are eagerly striving for. It seems that something has been in the air for years, but now the space craze is real. Elon Musk, Richard Branson, and Jeff Bezos are considered to be the three main players of space tourism. Richard Branson succeeded with his first space-plane VSS Unity just recently, on July 11th. The flight was a huge milestone for his company Virgin Galactic. Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin have scheduled their first space flight for July 20th. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has already taken a chosen few crew members to the International Space Station. He has plans to launch an all-civilian flight into orbit by September 2021. However, while there is much hype about the billionaires active in the space race, other worthy underdogs do not get as much coverage. The British company Reaction Engines has recently had a significant breakthrough regarding the tech involved in making civilian space flight an affordable reality, yet that hardly gets any mass media attention.
The Sabre Rocket Engine
Engineer Alan Bond hails their invention as a true revolution in the field of transportation. The innovation in space tech looks similar to a regular jet engine, but the Sabre engine is far from normal. Technically it is a Synergetic Air-Breathing British Rocket Engine. What makes it so special? The Sabre is unique because it can extract oxygen in the air and use it as fuel. It is not reliant upon liquid-oxygen tanks like regular space shuttle engines. The latter are dependent upon expendable boosters, which make space missions very expensive and slow to develop. It is cumbersome to get regular crafts reloaded with fuel and repaired from possible damages that occur on re-entry.
A space shuttle with an external fuel tank and two rocket boosters can take two months to get ready for take-off again, and that comes with a significant cost of $100 million. Reaction Engines are working on their own spacecraft that uses the Sabre rockets, named Skylon. The company claims that it could be ready for take-off within only two days of its landing. On top of that, the estimated cost for a mission would be as cheap as $10 million. That is significantly lower than what Elon Musk’s SpaceX company is looking to charge for launching cargo in the Falcon 9 rocket – $50 million.
A Breakthrough in Development
The Sabre Rocket development presented some significant challenges before it was ready. One of the main problems the engineers had to deal with was that the engine produced a vast amount of heat as it lifted off. It is a difficult feat to compress lots of hot air. If it is compressed poorly while in the combustion chamber, then that results in weak engine power. Reaction Engines had to manage to find a solution to cool air extremely efficiently before it reached the turbo compressor. Thankfully, at the end of last year, the company found an answer. It managed to cool the extreme heat without creating frost, which is critical for the engine to work properly. This was seen as a remarkable achievement in engineering and a true breakthrough amongst space startups.
The Last Hurdle is Adequate Funding
Reaction Engines has gone a long way to come to where it is now. Its concept design of the Skylon jet managed to win over the European Space Agency with its innovative solutions. It approved the technical side of the project and even invested a total of $92 million together with the British government. However, while that is a great start, it is by no means enough to make the Skylon dream come true. Reaction Engines will have to come up with another $3.6 billion to complete the building of the Sabre engine. If their plan of finding private investors succeeds, then test flights could start within the next four years. Completing the Skylon craft is the next planned step. That will require a whopping $14 billion. If the test flights succeed, it is hopeful to think that Reaction Engine’s efforts will gain more traction in the public eye. That could help to pave the way to attracting sufficient investments and getting Skylon up into the air. Reaction Engines estimates that the Skylon aircraft could make 100 flights every year.
The concept of the Sabre rocket engine is indeed amazing because of its versatility. It could be used for more than just space tourism. It could revolutionize reusable satellites, carrying space cargo, and even optimizing the efficiency of regular flights. The Sabre engine technology opens up the possibility for supersonic aviation. According to Alan Bond, planes equipped with the new engines could reach any spot in the world in less than four hours.
It is evident that there is a strong thrust to make commercial space flights available to the public. Be it famous billionaires or the revolutionary engineers from Reaction Engines; the combined efforts are reaping clear results. If you keep a watch out for the skies in the UK, satellites may soon enough get confused with the hybrid engineering miracle that is the Skylon. We sure live in exciting times because science is developing at exponential rates. Would you consider going on a roundtrip to space? At what price would you buy a ticket?
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