Space Antiproton Decelerator

The Antiproton Decelerator is a unique machine that produces low-energy antiprotons for studies of antimatter, and “creates” antiatoms. Isolated and stored antimatter could be used as a fuel for interplanetary or interstellar travel as part of an antimatter-catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion or another antimatter rocket. Since the energy density of antimatter is higher than that of conventional fuels, an antimatter-fueled spacecraft would have a higher thrust-to-weight ratio than a conventional spacecraft.

It is very difficult to create and store antimatter on earth while a collision between any particle and its anti-particle leads to their mutual annihilation. An ideal location to create and store antimatter would be where there is no matter in the first place. The vacuum of space is an ideal location. The South Atlantic Anomaly is an area where Earth's inner Van Allen radiation belt comes closest to Earth's surface, dipping down to an altitude of 200 km. This leads to an increased flux of energetic particles in this region.

My proposition is to create a robotic space station that would create antimatter in space. Like in ISS it would be composed of sections. One of the sections would be Antiproton Decelerator. Its orbit would pass over the South Atlantic Anomaly to harvest the highly energetic particles already created by the sun. Ideally, it should be powered by nuclear batteries in order to reduce drag of solar panels at lower altitudes.

To have particle accelerator on earth and anti-particle decelerator in space makes sense.

Rocket Drafting

If you have watched a bicycle race, you should have noticed the drafting of the riders. Drafting is an aerodynamic technique where two moving objects are aligning in a close group to exploit the lead object's slipstream and thus reduce the overall effect of drag. This technique is exploited by the migrating birds as well as in the form of wake updraft. Airbus believes an aircraft can save 5-10% of fuel by flying in formation, 2.8–3.7 km behind the preceding one.

This technique can be used by the space rockets as well. The countries that only have small rockets with limited payload can launch several rockets in formation to increase payload. This technique can also be used on high energy space missions such as geostationary satellite launches, lunar and planetary missions. A single stage rocket with an aerodynamic nose cone can fly ahead of the main rocket to reduce its fuel consumption and increase its payload capacity. Wake updraft would only work for the first stage of a rocket while the rocket still travels through the thick air.

It would pave road to swarm of space rockets. Swarm satellites are already in use by NASA’s Starling mission, A Multi-CubeSat Mission to Demonstrate Autonomous Swarm Technologies.

Alternate SR-72

The Progressive Rocket I proposed can be altered to function as a SR-71 replacement. Rise of anti-access/area denial tactics and counter-stealth technologies renders speed more promising than stealth for penetrating protected airspace. Therefore, a hybrid rocket, ramjet, scramjet plane would suffice the requirements. The main difference of my design compared to SR-72 (SR-71 replacement) is that it will utilize rocket engines instead of turbofans at low speed.

Inefficient but much lighter rocket engines (compared to turbofans) will be fired on takeoff until the adequate speed is reached for the ramjet to fire. Once ramjets are fired, the rockets will be shot down. Beyond certain speeds, the ramjet will transform to a scramjet for efficiency. Transformable ramjet is much lighter and simpler than a turbofan engine. This reduces the R&D and manufacturing cost of the plane.

The plane will have multiple wings like a biplane. Reduced thickness of the wings will not have a drag penalty compared to traditional wings. This will increase the lift capacity of the wings so that the plane can fly at higher altitudes. Additionally, vertical sections supporting the wings will double as vertical stabilizers. The presence of liquid oxygen on board will also allow the plane to fly at higher altitudes by supplying oxygen to the engines.

In order to compensate for extra fuel consumption, the plane can be build larger. Simpler design (compared to SR -71) of the plane allows easy scalability. My design also allows fast servicing times and reduced preparation times compared to the original SR-71. It can also be refueled in air by a tanker version of it.

The plane’s common technologies with the progressive rocket, reduces the R&D budgets and manufacturing costs for both of them.

The Progressive Rocket

Based on the ideas I proposed earlier, I would like to define the progressive rocket I mentioned previously. The objective of this rocket is to utilize earth’s atmosphere for the reusable first stage of the rocket. As a result, the first stage will have wings and additional ramjet engines to assist the rocket engines.

The first stage of the rocket will utilize RP1 as fuel and LOX as oxidizer. The rocket will takeoff like a plane from an airfield. Initially, the rocket engines of the first stage will be fired. This will give fast acceleration to enable shorter take off. When the rocket reaches minimum speed for ramjet to operate, the ramjet engines will be fired and some of the rocket engines will be shot down for efficient flight. Plane like takeoff will require much less thrust compared to a vertical one. Therefore, there will be fewer engines on the first stage. Also, the engines will not be throttleable and will not have gimbal. The ramjet engines will have thrust vectoring. During takeoff ailerons will be used.

Ramjet nozzles will have regenerative cooling which will preheat liquid oxygen before being injected into the ramjet engines. At low altitudes, ramjet engines will utilize external oxygen. As altitude increases, liquid oxygen will be injected to maintain thrust. The air entering the ramjet will be accelerated by the exhaust gases which will increase its efficiency compared to a rocket engine even at higher altitudes. However, most of the thrust will still come from the rocket engines.

The wings of the rocket will enable it to takeoff with much less thrust compared to a vertical takeoff. The lift generated by the wings will also reduce the thrust lost to counteract the gravity. Additionally, the wings coupled with ramjets will reduce the fuel requirement for the return to base flight. It will be also much easier to land the first stage of the rocket with wings. The first stage of the rocket will be like a biplane. Unlike traditional wings that are thick to generate lift. These wings will be thin to reduce drag. Airlift will be generated by angle of attack. Thin vertical sections supporting the wings will double as vertical stabilizers. The upper stages of the rocket will also have much smaller wings to improve the stability of the plane.

The first stage of a rocket usually reaches Mach 8. Ramjets cannot operate efficiently at those speeds. The engine would need to transform into a scramjet during flight. If that wouldn’t be possible the flight trajectory and final speed of the first stage would be adjusted accordingly.

The previous attempts on this idea tried to come up with a magical engine that would do everything. However, I propose the existing engines which would support one another to improve fuel efficiency.

Progressive Rocket

Yesterday I read about progressive rock and listened to “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band”. Then, I decided to write this article. Progressive rock style emerged from psychedelic bands who abandoned standard rock traditions in favor of instrumental and compositional techniques more commonly associated with jazz, folk, or classical music, while retaining the instrumentation typical of rock music. A landmark work of British psychedelia, Sgt. Pepper is considered one of the first art rock LPs and a progenitor to progressive rock.

That’s what we need to do with our rocket designs, abandoning standard rocket design and add more innovation to every piece of the design. Reusability is one good example. However, it is a single, we need an album. For example, in my previous articles I had proposed wings for the first stage, cascaded propellant tanks for liquid methane and oxygen, high bypass nozzle for the first stage and many more.

Today’s advanced simulation technologies allow radical designs to be tested with minimal cost. AI can be used to perfect the details as well. We need to break through from the traditional approaches to achieve our ambitious space exploration goals.

Orbital Flight Trajectory

I would like to say few words on orbital flight trajectory. The orbiting of an object relies on the centrifugal force counter acting the gravity. When a rocket propels itself away from the earth, the earth's gravity effecting on the rocket doesn't change much within couple of hundreds of kilometers. On the other hand, if that thrust is diverted to increase the rocket's horizontal speed, the centrifugal force would reduce the effect of gravitation on the rocket. That's why the rocket trajectories are designed to increase the rocket's horizontal speed even at denser lower atmosphere.

A complex alternative to reach orbital speed would include the use of light weight but sturdy wings on the first stage of the rocket. Close to 1 g of the rocket's thrust is lost to counteract the gravity. The wings would reduce that need while they would contribute to the lift passively. However, they would induce drag. That's why I stated that the design would be complex. A perfect design which would have less drag compared to the positive lift it generates can be developed. I think it is totally feasible. One benefit of the wings is that they would help the first stage of the rocket return to the launch site safely with less propellent and less complex engines.

Aviation Strategy

I was looking at the comparison of orbital rocket engines. There was so much different design. It reminded me of mobile phone manufacturers that would use tens of different cameras on their product line where as Apple would perfect a sensor for years. If a country has billions to spare there is no problem with experimenting with so many different designs. However, I would like to propose strategies for countries with limited budget.

Within the aviation sector, space has a considerably small percentage. There are more than 100 thousand one-way flights daily worldwide. The main cost of these flights is jet fuel. In the meanwhile, most space launches still use RP1 as the rocket fuel. Which is a more refined version of jet fuel. My proposition for the countries is that they should invest more on jet fuel refining to reduce the cost of RP1 and increase its production. Even though, liquid methane is becoming a new standard as a rocket fuel, RP1 has still have many advantages that would never go away. Most important of being a liquid at room temperature and having higher energy density per volume. This allows simpler engine design and smaller propellant tank for the same thrust.

The countries with considerable military budget should also invest on solid boosters as well. While most of the missiles use solid boosters on their initial stages. Additionally, solid boosters give so much thrust with simpler design compared to liquid rocket engines. Therefore, the rockets with solid boosters would require fewer liquid engines which would simplify the design. It is also important to establish a solid booster manufacturing facility that is consumed regularly. The produced missiles are mainly stocked pilled and only a few are tested regularly. On the other hand, regular space launches would allow the process to be continuously tested in real life. Establishing strong civilian roots for military is important. They would reduce the costs and keep high production capacities alive in peace time. That's why I propose RP1 as rocket fuel which has its root on jet fuel and solid boosters which has its root on military missiles.