Solar Surrounder Satellite Network

The planets of the Solar System rotate around the sun on a plane. When we send research vehicles to these planets, communication with them is only possible if there is direct line of sight. When the vehicle is on the other side of the Sun communication is interrupted. Depending on the periodicity of the orbit of the vehicle these dead times can be months or years. Therefore we need relay communication satellites rotating around the sun that enables Earth link between anywhere on our Solar System at anytime. 

Earth's orbit is the path in which the Earth travels around the Sun. Earth lies at an average distance of 150 million kilometers from the Sun and Earth travels 940 million kilometers around the Sun. That is a challenging task. Astrophysicists need to come up with solutions that even the farthest satellite could be launched with the current space rockets. Finally the Solar Surrounder Satellite Network should be complementing the planetary Low Orbit relays for every planet and moon we plan to explore. 

Why We Should Go to Venus

The solution to the world's energy problem as well as long range space travel is Fusion. There are numerous research conducted on the topic. However the progress is very slow and not promising. I propose to search the solution close to the Sun, the Fusion source of our Solar System. There are two planets on the way to the Sun. Mercury and Venus. Going and coming back from Venus is much easier than going to Mars or other planets. Venus is the closest planet to the Earth. While travelling to Venus, the Sun's gravity acts positive. Also path to Venus has much less meteorites on the way compared to Mars. Establishing a research base on Venus is much easier while the energy is abundant and free, the heat of the atmosphere. It is like working in an oven. Dense atmosphere allows air travel so large distances can be covered on the surface. When you have continuous high energy source, you can mine anything and can convert them to anything to build your base as well as convert them to rocket fuel to explore Mercury and beyond in order to come up with a feasible Fusion solution.

When you succeed in developing a Fusion Rocket, sending humans safely to Mars and moons of Saturn and safely bringing them back would be much easier. 

Sometimes in order to solve a problem you have to go to the opposite way.

Energy Generation for Biological Implants

Energy source is a problem in all body implants. We need to come up with a system that can generate high power without frequent external refueling. This can be achieved by mimicking the body's energy source. Adenosine Tri-Phosphate (ATP) captures chemical energy obtained from the breakdown of  sugar molecules and releases it to fuel other cellular processes. We can try to create electricity from sugar. A prototype sugar fuel cell was build by Sony in 2007. I believe we should keep working on this idea and improve it. In human body electric generators with higher power output  would solve many health problems (artificial heart, hearing aid … with build battery).

https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/News/Press/200708/07-074E/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ4qTMfKDRU

Magnesium Rocket

I had previously proposed a flying wing for a Space Ship design. Unfortunately it is technically impossible to build a single stage long range space ship with chemical propulsion. However my flying wing design can still be used as a reusable first stage Space Ship. This stage would reach Low Earth Orbit (~300km) with heavy cargo. As a second stage I propose a single use rocket with solid fuel. The second stage rocket will be made of Magnesium which also serve as the solid fuel. Mg/CO₂ propellent is studied by NASA in 2007.  https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20080002287/downloads/20080002287.pdf  CO₂ can be easily stored in solid form making it a total solid fueled rocket. The third stage of the Space Ship would be released from the second stage before the structural Magnesium outer shell of the second stage is consumed. The second stage would keep burning till most of it is consumed including its outer shell. This yields minimum Space Debris. The final speed of  the second stage would exceed the escape velocity so no debris would fall on the Earth.

EQR - Equalizer Quattro Race

All sports competitions are separated for men, women and disabled. I thought about a motor racing platform that utilizes an Equalizing Racing Car, so men, women and disabled can compete with each other in the same race. It will be league based competition. There will be total of four leagues, first, second, third and fourth league like in football. The competition will comprise of sprint and endurance races. There will be four sprint tracks and these four sprint tracks will be partially connected together to form the endurance track. All sprint tracks will be 4 km and the endurance track will be 16 km in length. Each league will have four sub categories; men, women, disabled men, disabled women. In each sub category there will be 16 competitors. All competitors will drive the same car The Equalizer. The aim of these competition is to compete the racers not the cars. The Equalizer will be all electric car with minimum automatic racing support system. The controllers within the car will vary according to the users disability if it exists and these controllers will not give additional advantage to the driver. Each car will have the same weight with its driver. Additional weights will be added to each car to achieve this. The racing season will start in January and end in December. There will be 4 sub-seasons within the season. Ex: Winter Season, January, February, March. In the first four weeks of the season there will be sixteen sprint competitions with multiple races, four in every week. The sprint races will be 40 turns on a 4 km sprint track, total of 160 km. In every competition day. The morning session will be ordering race to determine the starting position of each racer. Each sub category racer will compete within itself first. Therefore first four races of the day will be among each sub category. The final and the fifth race of the day will be among the first four racers of each category. The ordering will be determined according to each racers performance of their subcategory race. The first four racers will attend the award ceremony. Racers will earn point in every race they attend. After four weeks there will be a week of resting and on the first weekend there will be the endurance race. The first endurance race of the sub-season will be 100 tours around the 16 km track (1600 km). There will be 16 teams formed among the racers according to their position in their subcategory for that sub-season. Ex: The first place racers will form the race team 1 and have the door number 1 on their cars. Unlike traditional endurance races each racer will use their own car. Therefore each team will have four cars and four spare cars. Each racer will earn point according to their own performance and their teams overall performance. After the endurance weekend there will be another week of rest. Than there will be four weeks of sprint races again. After that another week of rest and on the first weekend there will be the endurance race. It will be the second endurance race of the sub-season. It will be a 24 hour race around the 16 km endurance track. The team formation will be the same as the first endurance race but the ranking will be based on the total points earned in that sub-season. After the race there will be week of rest and the sub-season will end. In each sub-season only one sprint track will be used by the league members. The teams will move to the next sprint track after each sub-season. At the end of the fourth sub-season the overall season will end and the Season Champions will be announced based on their subcategory.

VTOL Transportation

I believe in VTOL passenger planes. The reason is that it takes several hours to fly from one destination to another. However it takes more to get to and from an airport, wait for to take off, wait for the luggage …  We have to come up with a transportation system to optimize the overall time not the time on air.

VTOL plane would utilize 3 or 5 engines. 1 at the back and the rest on the wings. Engines would have thrust vectoring for VTOL. LOX (liquid oxygen) would be used to boost thrust at take off. The luggage would be carried in cages underneath the plane and automatically transferred to the basement underneath the plane's landing point. Passengers get their luggage from the basement without a carousel and leave the VTOL airport.

Nanometric Semiconductors

The transistors inside a digital chip are in nanometers scale. The electron travelling doped semi conducting part is in the order of several nanometers. The main purpose of the rest of the semiconductor on a wafer is to form a mechanical base and insulate electron flow. I propose this doped semi conducting part to be created individually for each transistor. Therefore larger chips can be more economically build in real 3d, transistor above another transistor would be possible. Creating each transistor individually may look like a slow process but single machine chip manufacturing can be a reality and overall chip manufacturing speed would be higher. Microchips are made by building up layers of interconnected patterns on a semiconducting wafer. The microchip manufacturing process involves hundreds of steps and can take up to four months from design to mass production.

Mission To Venus

Venus is the closest planet to Earth (min distance of 40 M km vs 56 M km for Mars). One of the major problems of a Lander (Rover) on another planet is the energy source. Solar panels are sensitive and their efficiency drop with dust and heat. On the other hand surface of Venus is about 465 °C. My proposition of direct heat to electricity conversion would generate continuous high power for the Venus Lander and negate the need of a bulky battery. (https://fabsole.com/TEG.aspx) Venus has about 465 °C temperature, almost 100 ATM pressure and highly acidic atmosphere on its surface.  That's a challenge for the Lander designers however it is possible with todays technology. Electric motors and magnets wouldn't work at that temperature. Therefore the Lander should utilize pneumatic systems with stainless steel pipes and pistons. Lander's movement and drilling would be conducted using pneumatic hydraulic systems. Thermionic generators keep inside the robot cool and generate continuous electricity. Even than SiC chips should be used instead of Si for reliability. The dense atmosphere of Venus helps lifting of the Lander easier. Therefore the Lander can fly and walk like a fly and explore much larger areas than a Lander on Mars can achieve. Finally I believe there are more life forms can be found on Venus than on Mars. (Animals found living underground near deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Life flourishes around the vents - including giant tubeworms reaching lengths of 10 feet (3 meters), mussels, crabs, shrimp, fish and other organisms beautifully adapted to this extreme environment. The giant tubeworms do not eat as other animals do. Instead, bacteria residing in their body in a sack-like organ turn sulfur from the water into energy for the animal.)

Balloon Borne Space Station

Building and maintaining a Space Station like ISS is very expensive and engineering vise very complicated. I propose hydrogen filled Space Station. Compared to 408km altitude of ISS it would have 50km. It would be robot operated and for safety measure it would be above a sea or an ocean. It would compensate for atmospheric drag using its hydrogen propulsion engines. It would be build using multiple sections like ISS, so balloons need precise positioning system on them to rendezvous and lock together. It would be solar powered but hydrogen fuel cells can also be utilized. It will be periodically resupplied with hydrogen. A platform like the offshore oil platforms would be generating hydrogen from the sea and transfer it to the station using balloons. The station would accommodate telescopes and other scientific research equipment onboard. Because of its fixed position relative to ground, communication to and from it would be higher bandwidth than ISS. Multiple Balloon Borne Space Stations can be deployed around the world. Balloons will be cascaded together to increase the lifting capacity that enables a space launch platform to be mounted. LEO micro satellites can be launched from these stations at a lower cost.

GNP Increasing Products Road Map

GNP (Gross National Product) is the value of all finished goods and services produced by a country's citizens, both domestically and abroad. Short lifetime non serviceable products reduce GNP of nations. The consumers keep spending money on the products but the GNP stays the same because total number of products active stays the same as the short lifetime non serviceable products fills landfills and drop from the GNP of the nation. I recommend nations to come together and develop and mandate standards for longer lifetime and serviceable products within their countries, especially EU. The operating systems and firmware deployments could be centralized. Companies intellectual property rights could be protected with pre defined standards for software deployment. These standards would fix most product failures due to software issues, else these products turn to bricks. For critical failure parts more reliable parts should be used, ex: stainless steel screws instead of easy rusting cheap metal screws, some critical parts can be replaced by metal parts. Avoiding propriety standards by companies, ex: old iPhone jack. Developing reliable and durable connections for communication and power transfer, at the moment all standards use cheap technologies for electro mechanical contact including all USB and HDMI technologies. The inflated cost due to increased standards can be overcome by direct sales of these products eliminating the intermediary resellers, making them modular and splitting the outlook from the technology, ex: change the color of a speaker via colored shell not by producing each colored product individually.

Radium Rocket Engine

For traveling longer ranges in space chemical reaction based propulsion is not feasible. Here I propose a nuclear propulsion system using Ra₂₂₄ (Radium 224 isotope). The idea is to fission Radium to emit alpha radiation and Radon 220 which is a noble gas. The basic mechanism of all rocket engine is to emit high gas from a nozzle. In this rocket design the gas is Radon 220 and heat source is the fission reaction of Radium 224. Radon is a heavy atom which would increase the efficiency of the rocket engine. The fuel is solid therefore the volumetric efficiency of the fuel is also high. 

Thorium 232 is quiet abundant on Earth and is not radioactive like Uranium.   Turning Thorium 232 into Thorium 228 is not easy but can be achieved. Later Thorium 228 can be turned into Radium 224 which is much easier. Here is the Thorium decay cycle.

This rocket engine can even be used on earth. Rocket emission Radon 220 decays to stable Pb 208 (Lead) with a half life of last than 12 hours. Lead is not environmentally good but dispersion on a large area would be less problematic compared to other Nuclear rocket engine emissions that have much longer half lives and pollute the land for centuries. 

The Sustainability

A sustainable roadmap that is financially viable roadmap that relies less on the tax payers. The first Spaceship can be constructed in small size (~20m wingspan) and can be used for military and meteorological surveillance purposes. With minimum investment the idea can be checked. If successful a bigger version would be built that can deploy low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites like Starlink (550km from Earth). The velocity of the LEO satellites to stay in orbit is around 28,000 km/h. The Spaceship does not need to reach that speed. Once it reaches the required altitude, slightly above the target orbit, Spaceship releases a small rocket that carries the satellite and Spaceship returns to earth like a plane. The small rocket will be one time used simple rocket utilizing the same thrusters of the Spaceship. It will only operate in space so no need to have features required for atmosphere passage. Once the satellite reaches the required speed the small rocket will release itself and burn in the atmosphere. With this approach the satellites do not need to withstand high G and can be send to space in the final form and do not need to have complicated folding mechanisms that open up in space. Once this version of Spaceship succeed it would generate revenue for LEO satellite deployment. The next phase would be a bigger Spaceship that can deploy satellites to geosynchronous orbit (GSO) with similar design that include a smaller rocket for satellite deployment. Once this is successful and generate revenue by satellite deployment the final Spaceship can be build. For the location of Lunar Base, I propose somewhere near Apollo 11 landing site. Lunar landing sites are historic places and need to be preserved therefore there should be a no construction zone. Why I chose Apollo 11 site?

- It is the most famous of all the Lunar sites

- It has the smallest are that need to be preserved later missions covered and left marks in more area.

In the initial missions to Moon, construction robots and Spidercam (cable-suspended camera system) setup material would be deployed. A Spidercam setup would be mounted around the Apollo 11 site which would record the are in close detail without disturbing the footsteps. Things that can fund the project while building the base:

- The broadcast of the footages from Apollo 11 site

- Lunar tourists visiting Apollo 11 site

- Late Night Shows live from the Moon

Much comfortable travel (low acceleration) would allow more people to be a space tourist.

Space Construction

Space construction know how starts on earth. We should be able to utilize fully autonomous and swarm operating construction robotics on earth first. I propose a robot design as follows:

- It should fit within a half container for easy transportation.

- It should be modular and each part should be self-containing. The removable legs should have its actuators build in. Mecanum wheels should have hub motors build in.  The removable arms should have removable extenders to be used for different purposes. Robot runs on batteries that are removable.

- The robot should be able to replace all these removable parts by itself. Therefore, each removable part should have mounting mechanism that is easily controllable by robot’s arm extenders.

- The robot moves on train using its legs that have paws to grasp the ground firmly. Legs are replaced with Mecanum wheels on the road.

- The robot digs the ground using drill bits like in a CNC machine. They will not be like excavators that have buckets.

- Some of the arm extenders: spindle motor for attaching drill and carving bits, modular part mounting mechanism, sensors to examine the ground (Sonar, X-Ray…)

The Fuel Consumption of The Spaceship

Here are some points regarding the amount of LNG (liquid natural gas) and LOX (liquid oxygen) required for Earth to Moon cargo transfer using the Spaceship I propose. High aspect ratio wing design of the Spaceship will ensure high lift-to-drag ratio and increase the efficiency. With less fuel more weight will be lifted. Also, lower take off speed and shorter take off distance. Therefore, the thrusters do not need to be very powerful. LNG and LOX can flow into the combustion chamber with gravity, conservation of inertia and gas pressure. No complicated pumps and mechanical parts required, improving the reliability. The Spaceship will climb up the sky in a helical pattern and increase its ground speed slowly so that the outside of the plane does not get hot. Stainless steels low heat conductance will be beneficial. After the Spaceship leaves the atmosphere, it can climb vertically while the wings do not have an effect anymore. The Spaceship will keep accelerating even with the same thrust because as the distance from earth increase earths gravitational slowing force decrease and the Spaceship gets lighter while consuming LNG and LOX. The acceleration will continue up to a precalculated velocity. At that point the thrusters will stop and the Spaceship will decelerate due to earths lessening gravity until the Lagrange point (point where Moons gravity cancels Earths gravity, neutral point). The Spaceship will reach the Lagrange point with almost zero velocity. After that point Moons gravity will accelerate the Spaceship with thrusters off. It is a freefall to the Moon. Close to the point where the Spaceship will orbit the Moon the thrusters will fire and increase the velocity of the Spaceship to maintain its orbit around the Moon. Once in orbit the thrusters can be turned off.  The unloading of cargo to the Lunar Transporter will happen in this orbit. After cargo transfer, the Spaceship will fire the thrusters for the translunar injection. It will be a short burst. It will be just enough for the Spaceship to reach the Lagrange point. After that point Earths gravity will accelerate the Spaceship with thrusters turned off. Here comes the point where the Spaceship will consume LNG and LOX to decelerate before entering the earths atmosphere. Apollo programs didn’t consume fuel for deceleration and burned the command module to hell and splash on the ocean. The Spaceship don’t use expensive heat shield that requires complex maintenance procedures instead uses its thrusters and its aerodynamic design to lower its speed so that the outside of the plane do not get too hot. Overall, you don’t need to burn LNG and LOX continuously throughout the whole journey. 

Lunar Transporter

The Spaceship will not land on the moon to transfer its cargo. Instead, there will be a Lunar Transporter.  The Lunar Transporter will be a much bigger version of the Lunar Descent module used on Apollo program. It will be able to descent on and ascent from the Moon. The Spaceship after reaching the Moon will circle on an orbit like Apollo’s Service Module. In the first mission the Lunar Transporter carrying the construction robots will be deployed. The second time the Spaceship brings cargo from Earth Lunar Transporter will ascent from the Moon service with no load. The Lunar Transporter will than reach the orbit where Spaceship circles and land on the Spaceship where a hatch will be opened like in a ship and after Lunar Transporter lands it will close. Inside the Spaceship the Lunar Transporter will be refueled and the cargo from Earth will be placed on the Lunar Transporter. The Lunar Transporter will utilize a similar rocket engine used in the Spaceship. The fuel will be LNG and oxidizer will be LOX. After refueling and cargo loading the hatch will open and the Lunar Transporter will be released which will ascent on the Moon. The Spaceship later will return to Earth. The Spaceship will land on the airfield it took off from. It will have to consume fuel during landing to reduce its speed. The surface of the Spaceship should not heat much which improves reliability.

Road To A Lunar Base

The Lunar Base requires several critical problems to be solved and a clear sustainable pathway.

1. Spaceships to transport construction materials and machinery. 

2. The construction technology to utilize materials available.

3. The swarm working construction robotics.

4. The Sustainability (Less burden on tax payers)

1. The Spaceship

As a Spaceship I propose a flying wing design but with no extending stabilizers. It will be a giant thick wing. The advantage of this design is high lifting efficiency so less fuel consumed to lift off and lower take off speed. Complicated stability control will be solved by thrust vectoring of the thrusters. I propose no flaps, ailerons, elevators, slats, rudders or stabilizers. Reaction control system (RCS) thrusters will accomplish the stabilization on earth’s atmosphere as well as on space. Spoilers can be used the reduce the ground speed of the Spaceship during landing. The main thruster engine and RCS will be LNG (LCH₄) powered rockets. The main difference from a conventional rocket engine is the thrust will be lower; the fuel and oxygen will be pumped slowly. It is actually a flying super LNG tanker. The goal is to use Natural Gas (LNG, LCH₄) as fuel and Liquid Oxygen as oxidizer. LNG is the ideal fuel due to its abundance and mature liquification technology. It has the best Energy Density based on volume, and cost. The outer shape of the Spaceship will be a giant plane but inside would be like a ship and shell like an armored vehicle. The Spaceship needs protective shell as well as sections like a ship. The multi hull design will minimize the impact of space dust or similar small particles hitting the spaceship. The hulls can be made of Stainless Steel while it is tougher and have much lower thermal conductivity than Aerospace-grade aluminum. The hulls can be packed with small SiC plates for light armament. Stainless steel hulls will allow flexibility for structural stresses, SiC plates the armament. The spaceship will be divided by bulkheads to form hatches. Hatch design will also minimize the impact of a space debris.   The Spaceship will not travel at the Escape Velocity. The goal is to propel the Spaceship slowly for a much longer time like a conventional plane. Therefore, the Spaceship does not need to withstand high G stress and high temperatures. It will be as close to a traditional plane construction technology as possible. This will reduce the cost of building and required engineering know how as well hard to source high engineering material. The nozzle of the engine does not need to reach extreme temperatures due to reasons above. The Spaceship will be like a cargo ship that will work for many years therefore it needs to be simple and reliable. It does need to stay in one piece like a sea ship which differentiates it from conventional multi stage space rockets. Low maintenance cost and low R&D cost will pay off for the large fuel consumption.

Why design a Spaceship like a big plane and ship combo not like a space rocket? The reasons are as follows:

- Simplify the engineer complexity. The famous saying “It’s not rocket science” referring the rocket design as very complex. Finding experts to develop traditional space rockets is difficult and expensive. When you simplify the problem, sourcing the experts will be much easier and it will be cheaper. In my belief sourcing qualified people will get harder and harder every year because of every new generations lack of concentration on a topic and increasing number of alternatives for the genius minds.  Therefore, decreasing the complexity makes the roadmap more feasible and sustainable.