Space Station with Gravity 😊

After Russia patented space station designed to generate artificial gravity, I received a question about the feasibility of the idea.

Generating gravity does not require magic and is not impossible like cold fusion. However, generating a LEO space station with gravity does not make sense. Most of the research conducted on ISS is related to microgravity. If you have gravity on your research center than it is much cheaper and easier to conduct the experiment on Earth. Other than microgravity a sealed and air-filled ISS does not provide much over a research facility on the ground.

With the availability of frequent launches to ISS, the people working in microgravity environment can be replaced frequently. During their stay they can have rotating beds to experience gravity for several hours. Rotating a bed is much simpler than rotating the hole space station. People are dreaming and even willing to pay money to experience microgravity so as the scientists who are willing to conduct an experiment there. Then, you spend billions of dollars to evaporate the dream and bring back gravity to LEO which is available for free a couple of hundred km below.

From my article on February 21, 2025

I propose we build an International Extraterrestrial Space Station at LEO like the old ISS but for robots only. It would be modular but the main difference would be an asteroid like rock formation with lunar regolith on its surface. This formation would be held in a transparent shell guided by the control modules. The shell containing the asteroid can be rotated on its axis to create artificial gravity on its surface to mimic the gravity of the Moon, Mars or an Asteroid. The closed shell can also be filled with appropriate gases to simulate the atmosphere and the pressure. The transparent walls would allow Sun rays to penetrate inside.

A Lunar or Mars rover would then be tested on this setup.

Very High Bypass Aircraft Engine

I would like to simplify the “Hybrid Turbofan Engine” I proposed earlier. My latest proposal simplifies the design and reduces the overall weight of the engine. Allowing easy rotation of the engine for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL).

The frequent launches of space rockets resulted in mass production of high efficiency rocket engines. These engines burn pure fuel and oxygen quite efficiently compared to a typical turbofan engine that burn a jet fuel with the available ambient oxygen.

The engine I propose would have a ducted housing like all turbofan engines. Instead of a fan, there would be a big propeller in the front. It would be powered by a turbo engine, similar to the turbopumps of the rocket engine. Compared to a fan, the propeller would induce less drag and allow more air flow efficiently. Behind the propeller there would be a rocket engine with pre-burners for liquid methane and LOX. The engine would not have a nozzle. Instead, the by-passing air from the propeller would be heated to generate thrust. The bypass ratio would be higher than a typical turbofan engine. The cooling of the rocket thrust chamber would be done by the bypassing air. High amount of air bypassing the engine would result cooler exhaust gas. Additionally, the duct casing of the engine would not heat up, hence can be made of light weight composite materials.

Even though the rocket engine and the turbo prop would consume liquid oxygen, which is not the case with traditional turbofans, the very high bypass ratio of the engine would increase the efficiency of the engine. Additionally, it would make the engine performance independent of the ambient oxygen level. The turbo prop and the rocket engine would be independently controllable unlike a turbofan where the duct fan and the compressor engine are connected with a shaft. My design allows lighter and higher thrust engines to be manufactured using the current technologies. Whereas the turbofan engines are hard scale up after a certain point.

The thrust of the engine would come from low-speed large amounts of air instead of high-speed small amounts of air. This is important for a VTOL. I propose this engine to be used on VTOL construction drones. In such a use case, hot exhaust gases would melt the surrounding area. 

Cohesive Society

Based on my observations, I would like to propose an analogy. Like every analogy, mine is also not perfect. My analogy is, a society is like a metal. Societies stay together like the molecules of a metal stay together.

In a metal, the valence electrons are delocalized throughout the crystal, providing a strong cohesive force that holds the metal atoms together. Valence electrons in a metallic solid are delocalized, providing a strong cohesive force that holds the atoms together. The strength of metallic bonds varies dramatically.

Within a society when the individuals act together and share values, the bond between them would be strong. It would take quite some effort to break up the society into individuals. On the other end, the values of a society change over time. When too much individualism and polarity arise among the individuals, the society weakens. It’s like heating a metal. As you heat up, the electrons are not shared anymore and the bonds break up and the solid turns into a liquid and then into a gas (individual atoms).

Nowadays, I see too much individualism and polarity among societies with so many causes; this signals a total break up in the near future.

Solution is a Cohesive Society.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst   
Are full of passionate intensity.

“The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats

Surfin' U.S.A.

Pioneers create their own wave from still water and surf above it. The others try to surf on the wake of the leading surfer and they usually fail.

My proposition is create your own wave and surf on it. My words are especially aimed at Europe. Where everybody is talking about the U.S. surfers and none is brave to create his/her own wave.

An ROV From the Past

Many years ago, I had thought of an ROV design. The objective of the ROV was to record high quality footage of the coastal underwater and in the meanwhile gather scientific information. I tried to base my design on already available parts.

To enable remote operation over a large area, I proposed the ROV to have two sections. A remotely controlled catamaran and an ROV attached to it. The catamaran would carry the battery pack, solar panels, GPS and a cellular communication module on board. Both bots would be operated by cellular network remotely. The solar panels would allow continuous operation. Utilizing a catamaran would shorten the tether of the ROV and allow it to cover larger areas.

As the communication between the catamaran and the ROV, I chose ethernet over powerline. This simplified the ROV’s tether so that both power and signal would be transmitted over two wires. I thought of using a coaxial cable as tether which would have some sort of buoyancy. I checked different powerline adaptors. Some worked down to 40 Volts. Therefore, 50V would operate the ROV motors and the powerline adaptor. I know that motors induce a lot of noise on powerlines. That was the tricky part of the problem. I didn’t have chance to solve it.

There would be a Wi-Fi controlled professional camera inside the ROV. It would be controlled by an Android installed pc module which would communicated above water via ethernet over powerline. The camera would be powered by the powerline as well. Negating the need for a battery. Additionally, there would be scientific sensors on board.

The buoyancy of the ROV would be controlled by a carbon dioxide filled cartridge and a bike inner tube. By releasing the pressurized gas into the inner tube, the ROV would be made to float. Exhausting the gas inside the tube made it sink.

Recordings of the ROV would be broadcast online to attract public attention and generate money via sponsors and advertisements. As a result, the scientific research would be funded without begging for money from government or institutes.

The Wood Stove

I’ve been watching Canadian YouTuber Jay Legere’s channel for some time. I got inspiration from his obsession for wood stoves. I came up with a wood stove design of my own for the campers. My goal is to solve as many problems of a camper as possible without complicating the design too much.

As an aluminum alloy fan, I thought of the stove to be made of aluminum. It would be more durable, lighter and better conductor of heat compared to its sheet iron counterparts. The stove would have glass on its front door. Placing the glass in front would make the fire visible from outside, radiate the infrared light better to heat and illuminate the tent better. The design of the stove would direct the soot to the back of the stove to keep the front glass clear. The baffle would have traps to burn soot. The flue would have two dampers. The first one would control the flue gas flow to control the wood burning rate; the second one would connect the paddle box to the flue. Having a removable paddle box above the cooking section of the stove allows odorless cooking inside the tent. The paddle box would be covered by a removable fireproof sheet so that it can transform into a cloth hanger. This allows easy drying of cloths above the stove.

The temperature of the stove and the cooking area would be measured using an accurate digital thermometer. It would be powered by a Peltier electric generator. I also thought of adding a small electric generator on the chimney operating by the flue gas. It would be used to charge the lanterns and the mobile devices within the tent.

Antarctic Updrift

While I was thinking of alternative ways to generate solar updrifts, I came up with this awkward idea. Building an air pipeline that carries to warm tropical air to Antarctica to generate renewable energy. One end of the pipeline would open up to the tropical warm water current and intake warm air. The other end would be on the coast of the Antarctica. The pipeline may float above water for most of the distance. Once it approaches the cold continent, it would go underwater to utilize the isolation of the water. The pipeline would have insulation on the section very close to the continent. This setup would only work when the outside temperature is below zero Celsius. The air inside the pipeline would be kept around zero degrees thanks to water. The colder the outside air is, the more the air flow would be. Hence more electricity can be generated with the increased air flow. The exhausted warmer air would also be used to keep the external equipment above the freezing point such as snowmobiles.

Utilizing the water as insulator and laying the pipeline mostly above water where there is no marine traffic, reduce the cost of the project and simplifies its deployment.

Solar Updraft Tunnel

I thought of a way to generate continuous air flow using the temperature difference of air. This is not a new idea. My research yielded solar updraft towers. My idea relies on tunnels instead of towers.

A vertical operation optimized tunnel boring machine would drill a tunnel upright within a mountain. There would be two openings of the tunnel. The one at the bottom of the mountain, where the warm air is sucked, would be used to generate electricity from the continuous air flow. The other end of the tunnel would be at the top of the mountain at a much higher altitude. The warmer side of the tunnel would be facing the sun and the colder side of the tunnel would be facing the shadow side of the mountain for maximum temperature difference.

Vertical drilling would require special boring machines that would be lighter and should hold itself up by grasping itself to the walls of the tunnel. The excavation waste would be removed from the bottom with the help of gravity. The vertical and the longest part of the tunnel would experience minimal weight of the tunnel and require minimal strengthening. However, the tunnel would require isolation on its walls to maintain the temperature difference between its openings.

Given that most small cities are located at the base of a mountain facing the sun, this design would be ideal for them. One important thing is to have multiple intake locations to minimize the wind inside the city.

Launch Hill

In Orbit Assembly requires frequent deployment to LEO. The modules making up the rocket do not have their own thrusters to stay in orbit. They all rely on the Base Module’s thrust which may not keep the heavy rocket assembly in orbit for so long. In order to solve this problem, I thought of a new generation of launch facility that allows simultaneous launches to speed up the in-orbit assembly.

Like the giant international airports that have multiple runways that support parallel takeoff and landing, the next generation launch sites aimed for planetary missions should also support parallel launches and landing. To minimize the dangers of a rocket launch, I thought of placing the launch site on a hill or mountain like the rock of Gibraltar on the seaside. The massive rock formation would prevent the debris of a launch explosion to affect the other launch sites.

There would be three launch sites surrounding the hill to maximize the distance between them. The rockets would be assembled and fueled in cavities inside the hill. The launch platforms would not have fueling or other dangerous infrastructure on them. They would be inside the mountain. As a result, an explosion on or above the platform would have minimal damage. In case of accident, the platform would be easily replaced.

Launching multiple rockets simultaneously or in very close succession allows them to be in almost the same altitude when an accident happens. In that case, the remaining rockets would be flying away from the falling debris. If the rockets are quite mature with very low failure rate, then the rockets may fly in the drafting formation to reduce air drag (I had written an article on Rocket Drafting, 18 September 2025).

Concentrating the rocket assembly and servicing to one central location (under the hill), speeds up the launch process.

The hill would provide some kind of protection against the falling debris in case of an accident. Additionally, during disputes critical rocket launch site would be protected against the enemy missiles.

Small Can Be Better

I don’t want to be contradicting with my previous articles. I had previously stated that we needed bigger and more staged rockets to be able to explore the Moon and beyond. This proposal is true if we are planning to conduct high energy missions or deploy large modules to the orbit with a single rocket launched from ground. On the other hand, if we plan to assemble a high energy rocket in orbit, then the rockets can be two staged and comparably small.

Falcon 9 is a very good example. This rocket is enough to build a robotic base on the moon and even on Mars. The advantages of smaller rockets are they can be easily mass produced and their launch process can be simpler and less time consuming. These advantages speed up an in-orbit assembly. Additionally, smaller rockets are more effective on deploying LEO satellites. They can concentrate on one target orbit and efficiently deploy its payload there. Finally, smaller rockets can be easily launched from a military ship in case of a conflict compared to much larger ones.

My suggestion to countries or agencies that are planning to build their own reusable rocket. Take the payload capacity of Falcon 9 as reference. Develop a rocket engine that can be turned on and off multiple times and more precisely throttleable which allows the rocket to be reusable. Choose liquid methane as the fuel. Utilize this engine with slight modifications on the second stage as well. Also utilize it on Orbit Assembled Rocket. When you have the capability to mass produce this engine and the rocket, you can explore the solar system with advanced robotics. I propose no human missions while they are way more expensive for what they achieve.

Instead of developing multiple less capable rockets, it pays off to design a single proper one. The right rocket size allows higher launch frequency. In my point of view, this is the key to success. Additionally, put your effort on robotic missions to achieve more.

Lunar Base Deployment

I thought of a robot only Lunar Base and how to deploy it in sections. The missions would be conducted using the Earth orbit assembled rockets.

The first thing to be deployed on Moon would be a robot spider. It would have two main purposes. The first would be as a landing gear that brings the vehicle to rest while preventing toppling, absorbing the landing impact energy, and limiting loads induced into the main structure. Because its extension legs are motor controlled, it can level itself on uneven terrain by adjusting its legs positions. Once the lunar module lands safely, the robot would eject itself and work as a surface explorer and transporter robot. Its legs would allow it to navigate on almost any surface unlike a wheel. Its arms would be used to move and place Lunar Base sections. Once the robotic spider is up and running on the moon, it would serve as a landing platform for the successive missions. Reducing the weight of the landing gears and increasing the success rate of landing safely.

The very first lunar base section to be deployed would be the high gain Earth Communication Relay (ECR) and solar panels powering it. All surface modules, including the spider would be communicating with earth over ECR. This would reduce the power and large antenna requirements on the modules.

The successive modules would be the Lab Modules and more solar panels to power the modules and charge the robotic spider.

Lab Modules would allow the lunar samples to be analyzed on the moon. Negating the need to bring samples to Earth. The technological know-how on how to build and operate a lab on a celestial body would be used to build Mars Research Base. As a result, the humanity would learn more about the red planet without the need to send humans or bring samples to Earth.

Now is the Time for Earth Orbit Rendezvous

During the Apollo program, there was a debate for Earth Orbit Rendezvous (EOR) and Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR). We all know that LOR was chosen and the program was successful.

After more than half a century, things have changed considerably. Now we have reusable rockets that deploy payload to LEO more than 3 times a week. Building very large rockets is not an easy task. Mass manufacturing them is way harder. It’s best to assemble a high energy mission rocket in Earth Orbit.

I propose a LEO Assembled Rocket design. There will be several modules in the process.

- The Base Module: It acts as the basis for the rocket assembly. The module would contain thrusters to maneuver the hole rocket assembly for each module attachment rendezvous.

- The Engine Module: It has the liquid propulsion engine with a small propellant tank.

- The Propellant Tanks: Depending on the mission, several tanks would be cascaded on top of the engine module.

- Planetary Transfer Module: Depending on the mission it would be deployed in two sections. Descent only or Descent and Ascent Modules.

- The Payload: The payload of the mission.

In orbit rocket assembly allows un-aerodynamic rocket design. The thruster would be strapped next to the Payload section. Allowing stages to be added to the main thruster without affecting the payload placement.

With my design, consumed propellant tanks would be ejected once they run out of fuel. The pressurizing gas inside the tanks would be used to eject the empty tanks. As a result, multi stage thrust would be achieved by a single engine and multiple tanks.

I propose this design to be tested and perfected on Moon missions first before being used on planetary missions.

Deep Space Boosters

Accelerating a spacecraft on its trajectory is not an easy task. I named the process as Space Rendezvous. I want to clarify it further.

When the exploration phase of a mission is complete, the humans and the samples would be transferred to a spaceship orbiting the source planet. Trajectory injector rockets would than put the spaceship into target planets trajectory by accelerating the spaceship to escape velocity of the source planet. After these boosters are consumed, the spaceship starts to decelerate due to gravity of the source planet.

Spaceship when considerably slowed down and moved away from the source planet can receive boosters to speed up the journey to the target planet. Spaceship can only receive one speed boost on its journey. It would be almost impossible to strap boosters to a fast-moving spaceship. As a result, depending on the distance, multiple boosters would be assembled before the rendezvous with the spaceship. The booster would have multiple propellant tanks and few engines (for redundancy). The booster does not need to overcome any gravity. Therefore, the engines do not need to generate high thrust. Instead, they need to be efficient. There would be multiple propellant tanks that would be ejected as they are consumed. However, the engines would stay until all the fuel is consumed. This would be possible by strapping the booster to the spaceship on its side. Due to deep space travel, there is no aerodynamic consideration.

As the spaceship approaches the target planet, it would accelerate further by the gravity of the planet. In order to slow down the spaceship, it’s trajectory would be adjusted to overshoot the planet and use its gravity to slow down the rocket. Afterwards, Spaceship settles into an orbit around the planet. There, Planetary Transfer Module would transfer the humans and the samples to the target planet’s surface.

Sample Retrieval from Venus by Plane

I would like to propose a method to retrieve Venus’s ground samples from a plane. Initially, the plane would parachute a rover to the ground. The rover, controlled by the people on the plane, would gather surface samples and puts them on a bag. Close to the mission end, the rover would inflate a small balloon. The balloon would rise up to allow the plane to catch it during flight. It would have a small beacon to assist the plane for a perfect catch. The plane would have a fork like moving arm attached to its bottom. That arm catches the balloon and raises up the sample bag attached to its other end. The balloon only lifts the carbon nano tube wire attached to the sample bag to allow it to be raised by a low altitude flying plane. Once the sample bag is retrieved, the mission would be completed. The ascent stage attached to the plane would be fired to raise the humans and the surface samples to the orbiting service module.

The discarded plane would keep gliding over Venus like a glider until it crashes on the ground. The surface rover would also keep operating until it runs out of battery and becomes nonoperational due to immense heat on the surface.

Giant Leap for Mankind Without a Step

One small step was a giant leap for mankind in 1969. Setting foot on a planet is a much harder goal to achieve. I would like to propose a much simpler alternative to achieve a similar impact for mankind. Fly a plane on Venus. The astronauts would observe the planet from a low altitude plane. Special tricks can be developed to bring back small samples as well.

Venus clouds do not allow proper exploration of the surface of the planet. A low altitude plane would be able to gather valuable data about the planet. Additionally, humans would be inside the plane, well protected from the hazardous atmosphere and surface of Venus. Humans do not need to set foot on the planet for such a big achievement.

Depending on precise timing, Venus is the closest planet to Earth. Additionally, its dense atmosphere allows much higher airlift that allows longer aerial observation with limited fuel.

Venus mission would require multiple launches described on my previous articles. The major difference would be the Planetary Transfer Module. It would be a Delta Wing with multiple sections. There would be a retrorocket in the front. It would be used to decelerate the Delta Wing while orbiting the planet. Once the speed is lowered for atmospheric entry, the section will be released. Delta Wing would then decelerate in dense Venus atmosphere like a normal airplane using spoilers and flaps. When the cruising speed is reached, high bypass turbofan engine would be fired and the plane flies at its minimum power speed. This would allow large areas of the planet to be explored up close. When the fuel level is low, the plane would climb up in the atmosphere to assist the ascent stage. Then the ascent section of the delta wing will take the humans back to the orbiting service module like in the Apollo mission.

Delegating some of the slow down to the Delta Wing, reduces the fuel need for the descent stage. Additionally, cruising in the air using highly efficient high bypass turbofan engines would allow longer stay on the planet and avoid complex space suits for the astronauts.

This is a much feasible mission compared to any mission to Mars. One big bonus would be, Venus mission allows a disabled person to be among the first humans to explore a planet.

Space Rendezvous

Apollo Program solved many problems to achieve its goal. One of the key solutions was the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR). On my previous article I proposed a feasible approach for a human planetary mission. A straight forward solution would be a giant rocket with almost ten stages. However, it would be almost impossible to implement it. On the other hand, building mediocre rockets and sending the required modules to the destination planet ahead solves most of the problems. Each module sent would require a planetary orbit rendezvous to succeed.

Current spaceships have successfully conducted Earth orbit rendezvous mainly to ISS. However, no new rocket has been tested for a Lunar Orbit Rendezvous yet a rendezvous on another planet.

My previous article also mentions a Space Rendezvous. It is a booster module docking to a Living Module (LvM) which is on a trajectory to Earth. Such a docking has not been conducted before. The objective is to supply additional thrust to the Living Module on its way home to reduce the travel time. Depending on the distance, more than one such rendezvous may be necessary.

1960’s Dr. John Houbolt was convinced, like several others at Langley Research Center, that LOR was not only the most feasible way to make it to the Moon before the decade was out, it was the only way. In case of the planetary human missions; Space Rendezvous is the only way.

Feasible Approach to Human Planetary Missions

I had previously stated a five staged rocket for planetary human missions. However, a feasible mission cannot be achieved by a single rocket. At least five separate launches should be made for the success.

The feasibility of the mission is improved mainly by increasing the average speed of the journey from Earth to the destination planet. Before the launch carrying the humans, preliminary rockets will be launched. The payloads of these rockets will be placed into orbit of the targeted planet.

One launch will deploy a Planetary Transfer Module (PTM). PTM would be like Apollo Lunar module. Composed of two stages. Descent stage lands the payload on the surface. Ascent stage lifts the payload to the orbiting Living Module (LvM). Depending on the gravity and the atmosphere of the planet, PTM would vary.

Another launch would deploy a Living Module (LvM) fully loaded without humans inside. LvM would be the living space for the humans during the voyage. It also contains the necessary supplies on board.

Another launch would deploy a Planet to Earth Injection Module (PEIM). This multi-stage module would put the LvM into trans Earth injection. It would dock to the fully supplied unoccupied LvM.

Once the rocket stage (LvM) carrying the humans reach the targeted planet, it will dock with the orbiting PTM. The humans would then transfer to PTM. Afterwards, the abandoned LvM serve as an orbiting observatory and communications relay until it falls on the planet.

When the humans complete their surface exploration, they would ascent and dock to the orbiting fully supplied LvM using the PTM. The living module (LvM) would then be injected into the trans Earth trajectory using the attached PEIM boosters.

This approach also requires additional launches depending on the inter planetary distance, to supply additional thrust boost to the LvM. I call them Space Rendezvous and will clarify it on my next article.

As a conclusion, the objective of my approach is to separately deploy necessary stages to be utilized later on the mission to the targeted planet in advance. This negates the need for a giant rocket with almost ten stages.

Molten Salt Nuclear Rocket

The Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) was a nuclear thermal rocket engine development program that ran for roughly two decades. Its principal objective was to "establish a technology base for nuclear rocket engine systems to be utilized in the design and development of propulsion systems for space mission application". It used hydrogen as the mono propellant. I would like to propose an alternative to this design.

The main objectives of my design are to improve the scalability of the design and reduce the environmental risks of a nuclear rocket. The scalability would be achieved by the use of liquid air as the mono propellant. Liquid nitrogen and oxygen have one of the highest expansion ratios. Cost of generating large amounts of liquid air and storing that is way cheaper than hydrogen. Additionally, due to high nitrogen content of the liquid air, it is much less corrosive compared to pure oxygen and hydrogen. This allows giant rockets to be built with high number of stages that can accelerate to very high speeds to reduce the time to reach the planets.

The environmental risks are reduced by a vertical trajectory, explained in my previous article. Additionally, the always on feature of a nuclear reactor compared to a combustion engine allows thrust to be generated upon entry to Earth’s atmosphere. While a rocket stage falls vertically on Earth, the aft skirts and interstages compress and push the ambient air into the engine. Then the air would be heated and pressurized by the nuclear reactor core and exhausted from the nozzle. This design requires the engine to be fed selectively by the mono propellant tank or the ambient air. The thrust generated by this approach would not be enough to land the stage safely on the ground. However, it would dramatically reduce the propellant reserve required for landing.

Finally, I propose molten salt reactors to be used as the reactor core. This allows more control on the nuclear reaction. Additionally, in a molten salt reactor the gaseous fission products (Xe and Kr) have little solubility in the fuel salt, and can be safely captured as they bubble out of the fuel. These byproducts can be pumped to the final stage of the rocket to be used as ion thruster propellant. Which are very expensive to obtain otherwise.

Key Features of a Nuclear Rocket

My previous article was about a nuclear engine design to be used on the very last stage of a rocket. It would provide low thrust for years. A true nuclear rocket with all stages nuclear should have some distinct features separating it from the rest.

The major difference would be the flight trajectory compared to trajectories with gravity turn. Gravity turn consumes less fuel compared to a vertical approach. The reason I am insisting on this less efficient path is because of safety. The probability of a rocket failing and exploding on the sky is not zero. A rocket with a nuclear reactor orbiting the earth and dropping its used-up radioactive stages on several location on earth is not a feasible option. In case of a vertical trajectory, used-up stages would return close to the launch site. Allowing better handling of nuclear waste.

Russia’s Luna spacecrafts were sent to the Moon without intermediate LEO. In an article it states that the inefficiency of the trajectory can be reduced, if the rocket has high thrust to weight ratio (TWR). The current rockets have TWR close to one. High TWR would require more engines and faster consumption of the mono propellant. They may even require more stages to maintain high TWR. As the propellant is consumed, TWR increases. There is a limit to that, else too much acceleration would shatter the rocket and its payload.

The vertical path is applicable until the rocket reaches the escape velocity of the Earth. Beyond that the rocket can follow any path. This guarantees no stages of the rocket would fall outside the launch peripheral.

A nuclear rocket would generate thrust by pressurizing the mono propellant by heat. This is a huge saving from the heavy weight of a fuel tank. Unlike a combustion engine. The heat generation of a nuclear reactor continuous even after all the propellant is consumed. As a result, the consumed stages of the rocket can generate thrust while they are falling on Earth. This allows all stages prior to the escape velocity to be recovered and even reused. I will detail it on my next article.

Nuclear Engine Rocket

I had previously proposed nuclear rocket engines. After reading about the “Thin Film Isotope Nuclear Engine Rocket (TFINER)”, I wanted to re-emphasize my idea.

TFINER’s basic concept is to manufacture thin sheets of a radioactive isotope and directly use the momentum of its decay products to generate thrust. The baseline design is a ~10-micron thick Thorium-228 radioisotope film which undergoes alpha decay with a half-life of 1.9 years. The subsequent decay chain cascade produces daughter products with four additional alpha emissions that have half-lives between 300ns and 3 days. A thrust is produced when one side of the thin film is coated with a ~50-micron thick absorber that captures forward emissions. Multiple “stages” consisting of longer half-life isotopes (e.g. Ac-227) can be combined to maximize the velocity over extended mission timelines.

My proposition is to use the same Thorium isotope. However instead of letting the decay particles scatter around almost uncontrolled, I propose to collect them in a pressure chamber. Thorium-228 undergoes alpha decay, which is basically a Helium atom with no electrons. Due to its positive charge, it would repel other Helium ions which increases the internal pressure. The decaying of Thorium yields Radium atoms which also undergoes an alpha decay (half-life of 3.6 days) and yields Radon gas. As a result, all decay particles and yields can be exhausted from the nuclear engine as pressurized gas. Decaying also generates heat which accelerates the gas atoms further.

The advantage of my proposition is higher thrust generation and more compact design. A spacecraft that unfolds and covers large area is susceptible to micrometeoroid impacts compared to a smaller one. My proposition also allows throttling of the thrust and simpler thrust vectoring.

The Solar Hitchhikers

For the title of this article, I thought of two alternatives. The first one was Ticket To Ride (inspired by The Beatles song), but I opted for the second one. Which gets its inspiration from Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”.

Japanese Hayabusa2 spacecraft had successfully brought back asteroid samples to Earth in 2020. I believe such missions should get the highest priority if we want to learn more about our solar system. Focusing on a single planet or Moon can only reveal limited information. The Near-Earth objects (NEO) especially the Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHO) are invaluable for understanding the solar system we live in. They are travelers like Marco Polo, and they carry traces from every corner of our solar system.

I opted for PHO while their close proximity requires less distance to be travelled by the spacecraft. The samples brought back by Hayabusa2 were contaminated. My proposal instead is to analyze the samples on the celestial body. I call these spacecrafts as Solar Hitchhikers. They will jump on the PHO like a person jumping on a moving train. The landing stage will double as an analysis lab and a communication base. The surface exploration will be conducted by a light weight agile rover. The samples collected by the rover will be analyzed on the stationery base. The base will also function as a communication relay between the rover and Earth. This will allow lighter and less energy hungry transceivers on the rover. The base will also analyze the nearby celestial objects with the onboard telescope and sensors. PHOs usually flyby the planets, their moons and the Sun. The spacecraft will be safer in deep space compared a small satellite navigating with its limited propellant. The hitchhiker spacecraft will be stationary on a celestial object like a train passenger. Inspecting the celestial body, it resides on and the nearby objects.

Given the frequency of PHOs, such missions can be conducted frequently compared to a Mars mission.

Deadlock

When the society’s wealth increases with increased profits, any cost increasing measure creates a strong opposition. Especially in the latest decades with the concern for the environment, companies have to pay for their environmental impact. Coupled with the higher wages, the productions shift to less environmental conscious regions which happen to pay little attention to their own people and let them work for nothing. Production is vital for all the nations. Trying to bring back the production to homeland creates a dilemma.

When you have limited time to solve problems and show results to the society, like in case of politicians, the scientists are blamed and one of the cost burdens on the companies can be lifted temporarily.

Like Galileo’s famous words “E pur si muove” (And yet it (Earth) moves). Even if we shot down all climate monitoring stations on Earth, the truth of climate change stays the same.

It’s a complex problem with no definitive solution. The solution should be developed for each special case. The question is “How can we develop production technologies that have minimal environmental impact and still maintain low production costs. I don’t know if anyone have asked it to the mighty AI engines.

From my point of view, the biggest problem for the environment is the human population. As with the advancement in technologies and the modernization of the societies, humanity do not require a lot of people to maintain its existence. More population means more junk needs to be produced to satisfy all these people. Which requires cheap manufacturing and short product life. Resulting more pollution from production and waste. Higher population also lowers the average intelligence of the society which shows its reflections on the politics.

Lunar Kugelhaus 2028

Das Kugelhaus was a ball-shaped house building in Dresden designed by the architect Peter Birkenholz in 1928. It was demolished by the Nazis in 1938.

This futuristic building inspired me for a lunar structure, Lunar Kugelhaus 2028. Inflatable structures had been proposed for the space. However, they are not very practical while even a tiny hole from a micro meteorite would deflate it and make it useless. On the other hand, a spherical two walled structure filled with lunar regolith would be an adequate solution. I got my inspiration from the sandbags used in tranches to stop bullets. The lunar regolith filled walls would protect the inner structure from micro meteorite showers. Contribute to the thermal insulation of the walls. It may even stop tiny air leaks. Only the inner wall needs to be airtight. The outer wall would just hold the regolith in place.

Lunar Kugelhaus would be send to the moon folded like an umbrella. Once landed safely, it would be unfolded to form a structurally strong spherical shape. This design increases the living volume compared to the cylindrical ones. Eliminating thick and heavy shields reduce the weight. The lunar regolith can be lifted to the top of the structure using a bucket elevator.

This foldable spherical structure can also be used on Earth. The inner void can be filled with the most abundant material available in the surrounding. In Antarctica with ice (like an Igloo), in Sahara with sand. Filling the void with such material makes the light weight structure stronger and stable against the snow and dust storms compared to traditional tents.

The Lunar Kugelhaus can be deployed on the moon in 2028 just at the centennial of the original one.

Pallas

Ulysses was a robotic space probe whose primary mission was to orbit the Sun and study it at all latitudes. Ulysses was put to orbit using "gravity assist" of Jupiter through a long adventurous journey. It was launched in 1990 and stayed in operation until 2008.

The Solar Orbiter is a Sun-observing probe which will also perform close observations of the polar regions of the Sun. It performed two gravity-assist maneuvers around Venus and one around Earth to alter the spacecraft's trajectory. It was launched on 2020 and planned to operate until 2030.

Pallas is a dwarf planet which orbits the Sun every 1,680 days (4.60 years), coming as close as 2.13 AU and reaching as far as 3.41 AU from the Sun. Pallas is about 513.0 kilometers in diameter. It completes a rotation on its axis every 7.81 hours.

With an orbital inclination of 34.8°, Pallas's orbit is unusually highly inclined to the plane of the asteroid belt. The high inclination of the orbit of Pallas results in the possibility of close conjunctions to stars that other solar objects always pass at great angular distance. This resulted in Pallas passing Sirius on 9 October 2022, only 8.5 arcminutes southwards, while no planet can get closer than 30 degrees to Sirius.

The summary of all of these is, a space telescope deployed on Pallas can be used to observe our solar system and beyond from a perspective no other satellite could achieve. There are no complex and time-consuming gravity assists needed to go beyond the solar plane. Just land an explorer with a telescope on Pallas while it crosses the solar plane. Much lower gravity of the dwarf planet would allow a smaller and lighter lander stage. Additionally, its relatively small diameter allows the moving space telescope to be positioned on the extremes of Pallas. Placing the explorer on the sun opposing pole would allow deep space exploration like James Webb telescope. Moving to the other extreme would make it a solar probe.

Ceres

Dwarf planet Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and it's the only dwarf planet located in the inner solar system. NASA spacecraft Dawn approached Ceres for its orbital mission in 2015. Dawn found Ceres's surface to be a mixture of water, ice, and hydrated minerals such as carbonates and clay. Ceres is one of the few places in our solar system where scientists would like to search for possible signs of life. Ceres has something a lot of other planets don't: water.

From an average distance of 413 million km., it takes sunlight 22 minutes to travel from the Sun to Ceres. Ceres takes 1,682 Earth days, or 4.6 Earth years, to make one trip around the Sun. As Ceres orbits the Sun, it completes one rotation every 9 hours, making its day length one of the shortest in the solar system. Ceres' axis of rotation is tilted just 4 degrees with respect to the plane of its orbit around the Sun. That means it spins nearly perfectly upright and doesn't experience seasons like other more tilted planets do.

Ceres is more similar to the terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) than its asteroid neighbors, but it is much less dense. One of the similarities is a layered interior, but Ceres' layers aren’t as clearly defined. Ceres probably has a solid core and a mantle made of water ice. In fact, Ceres could be composed of as much as 25 percent water. If that is correct, Ceres has more water than Earth does. Ceres' crust is rocky and dusty with large salt deposits.

Ceres is covered in countless small, young craters. The lack of craters might be due to layers of ice just below the surface. Within some of Ceres' craters, there are regions that are always in shadow. It's possible that without direct sunlight, these "cold traps" could have water ice in them for long periods of time.

Ceres has a very thin atmosphere, and there is evidence it contains water vapor.

I guess this is enough information to justify a mission to Ceres compared to searching for water on Mars.

The Asteroid Belt

In my previous articles, I proposed a planetary rocket. It would be used to explore our solar system further. After making some research, I concluded that conducting preliminary research on protoplanets in the asteroid belt would be more beneficial for the humanity compared to researches conducted on Mars. Protoplanet exploration requires slightly more powerful rockets compared to Mars missions like the one I proposed earlier.

The asteroid belt is full of space bodies with different characteristics. With a distance between Mars and Jupiter, lots of scientific research can be conducted. The asteroids have way less gravity compared to the planets and their moons. As a result, safely landing on them does not require big and heavy landing stages. Additionally, their way smaller surface area allows thorough exploration of the space body.

Only Mercury, Venus, Mars and the moons of the outer planets allow surface exploration. Mercury is very hot. Venus is also very hot and have a very chaotic and dense atmosphere. The moons of the outer planets are very distant from Earth. That leaves Mars and the asteroid belt as a feasible research zone.

Some of the protoplanets in the asteroid belt have interesting properties well forth exploring for.

1 Ceres, 2 Pallas, 4 Vesta

The Fourth Stage

Since the beginning of space exploration, humanity could only send surface explorers to Mars with few exceptions. Main reason for that is the time it takes for a payload to reach the planets. We need to increase the payload’s average speed during its long voyage. In my planetary rocket design, I dedicated the fourth stage for that. This stage needs to generate high thrust like the previous stages.

An option can be to have a liquid methane engine to generate high thrust. For this task, a highly efficient but small engine can be developed. As a result, the thrust would be generated over a longer duration and the rocket would not be stressed by high g-forces.

Another option would be to use ion thrusters. However, a special engine needs to be developed to generate enough thrust for the heavy rocket. The gasses used in ion thrusters are quite expensive and supplying large volumes to satisfy the thrust requirement can be quite expensive. Additionally, ion thrusters require electricity for the thrust. While travelling away from the sun, not much electricity can be generated and protruding solar panels may not be reliable.

My proposal is a rocket stage filled with dry ice and Plutonium 238 heated nozzles. The idea is to convert small portions of dry ice into carbon dioxide and eject it from a tiny nozzle. The details are shown on the diagram. A Pu 238 tube with tiny holes on its sides would be used to heat the dry ice and pressurize it to generate thrust. The tube would be initially covered by an insulator low melting plastic that leaves no residue. This shield would prevent the dry ice from premature melting. The delay is the duration for the lower stages to complete their duties. Once the insulation melts away by the heat of the isotope, the rocket would start generating thrust. This is a much simpler and reliable design compared to the rest. Utilizing heat generated by radioactive decay gives the stage high ISP. The carbon dioxide gas would be exhausted from a tiny hole to accumulate higher pressure inside. This also increase the duration of the thrust generated.

The stage would be covered by a detachable heat shield. This shield would keep the dry ice cold during the atmospheric escape. Once the rocket is in LEO, the shield would be released to reduce weight. The released shield would than burn away in the atmosphere.

This simple stage can be cascaded to generate even more thrust.

Five Stages of a Planetary Rocket

The planetary space missions are the most complex and energy intense missions of all. By planetary missions I mean deploying a probe or explorer on the surface of a planet. Due to limitations of current rockets, only small probes and rovers could be send. With a purpose build rocket, we can explore our solar system better.

As a starting point, an economical rocket family can be developed. It would be configurable to suit missions. As a single rocket, it would be able to deploy LEO and geostationary satellites with its first stage recovered. Most probably a rocket with a maximum diameter of 5 meters would be enough for the task.

It’s not economical to recover stages beyond the first stage. As a result, the upper stages should be optimized for single use only. The objective of the second stage would be to put upper stages into low Earth orbit. LEO and geostationary missions would only have two stages.

In order to deploy heavy payload to the moon, at least three first stage rockets would be strapped together. The second stage would be a single rocket, so as the third stage.

Ideally, the first three stages of the rocket would utilize liquid methane engines with optimized nozzles. Utilizing the same engine in all three stages lower the costs and increase the reliability of the rocket while you can perfect a single engine compared to multiple ones.

The fourth stage would be used to accelerate the upper stages further to reduce the time to reach the planets. Ion thrusters can be an option. I also would like to propose a simple dry ice thruster powered by Pu 238 (details on my next article).

The fifth stage is a question mark. It would be used to safely descent the payload to the surface of the planet. It would be fired after many months of space travel. I don’t know if a liquid methane engine can be cold started in such a circumstance.

The Forgotten Stages of Rocketry

I have recently proposed a Mars Research Base. An adequate rocket is required to implement it. The rocket should have five stages. The first one can be a reusable heavy lift rocket. The second one would put the upper stages into LEO. The third one would free the upper stages from Earth’s gravity. The fourth one would guide the upper stages during the long journey to Mars. The fifth one which carries the payload would be used to descend the payload safely on Mars.

Almost every spaceflight company on Earth is working on their reusable first stage. Some even try to reuse the second stage as well. However, the upper stages get almost no attention. “The chain is only as strong as its weakest link”

Companies claim that they would conquer Mars with their two stage rockets. I give no chance to such designs. Even the government agencies are in the same mindset. The physics of rocketry has not changed since the Apollo program. An efficient rocket needs to get rid of its additional weight during it journey in space. That’s the reason we have stages.

On my next articles I would like to detail the upper stages of a high payload planetary rocket which are omitted by the others.

The Analyst

In recent years, I started to see more and more poorly designed product and services. I attribute the problem to poorly executed cost cutting measures and too much reliance on AI. The company's profit comes from the service they provide and the products they sell. Poor services and products result in reduced profits which intensifies the company’s cost cutting measures. In my opinion, the last place a company should cut costs should be the development of products and services. If this department is under employed and lower salary subpar employees are hired, then the company should prepare itself for bankruptcy or takeover.

From my observations, I conclude that the key role within a company is The Analyst. When analyses are made correctly which includes finding the alternative solutions, the success is inevitable. The complex engineering calculations and coding can be delegated to AI. However, it requires proper analysis which is a human task.

Analysis requires knowledge of many subjects. Good analyst doesn’t need to excel in any of them. However, need to be able to combine these knowledges whenever necessary. A good analyst should be able to ask the right questions to gather information which would guide him/her during his/her inductive reasoning, like Sherlock Holmes. When a company bases its products or services on successfully conducted analysis, the company would easily differentiate itself from the competition.

Previously, this role was assumed by non-engineers. AI has taken over most of the engineering tasks. As a result, new engineers should be taught to be good analysts who can look at the world from a wider perspective.

Better analysis solves more problems instead of creating new ones. This is beneficial for the societies that struggle in ever increasing number of problems.

Mars Research Base

I had recently proposed a Mars Lab Station. It would allow samples gathered all around Mars to be analyzed in orbit. However, transferring the samples from ground to the orbit requires single use expensive rockets. Sending one for every sample would be prohibitively expensive. I would like to propose an alternative based on my previous ideas.

A Mars Lab Base that would be deployed to a central location on Mars can serve as a stationary analysis base. The samples would be collected by the Mars STOL airplane. Once the samples are gathered, the aircraft would return to the base. The samples would then be transferred to the Lab using Mars Service Robot. The service robot would also conduct simple maintenance work for the aircraft. It would patch small holes, clean and oil parts.

The Lab Base, the aircraft and the service robot would utilize Plutonium 238 as the energy source. (explained in previous articles)

This setup requires at least three independent missions to Mars. One carrying the Lab Base, the second carrying the STOL aircraft and the last one carrying the service robot and maintenance materials. In order to cover more areas, these three missions would be repeated for each additional region.

Mars Lab Station

Mars rovers have limited payload. Therefore, they cannot conduct all kinds of analysis on the samples. That is why, Mars sample retrieval missions are planned. However, bringing samples to Earth requires big rockets with multiple stages. Such rockets do not exist at the moment. More importantly it takes months for a sample to reach Earth. During this time some of the samples may degrade even with proper preservation.

I propose a Mars Lab Station for robots only. It would orbit the planet like ISS orbiting the Earth. This lab would turn any sample retrieval mission to an LMO (Low Mars Orbit) mission compared to a mission from Mars to Earth. This would require much simpler retrieval rockets. Additionally, the samples would be processed much faster with minimal degradation. Finally, moving advanced lab equipment to the lab from the surface rovers would make the rovers simpler and more agile.

Mars has stronger gravitational anomalies than Earth. As a result, any orbiting object requires more maneuver and more fuel to stay in orbit. NASA had thought of missions to deploy satellites to Mars, but abandoned them all. However, establishing an orbital lab is more beneficial for the future compared to single shot missions to retrieve samples to be analyzed on Earth.

This idea can be generalized to other planets such as Venus and Mercury Lab Stations.

Mars Mission 1

I thought of a series of Mars missions which allow the humanity to gather much more information compared to the total of previous missions. The key to achieving this goal is to plan a bigger mission composed of smaller missions to achieve it. The key to explore more of Mars depends on the energy source of the surface explorers. Unfortunately, solar energy beyond Earth is very limited and creates a bottle neck for the missions. Like Earth, Mars also has day and night and seasons which dramatically affect the already low solar energy capacity.

I had previously proposed Plutonium 238 as the critical energy source for space missions. Previous space missions (to the moon) that utilized this isotope tried to generate electricity directly. This resulted in very poor energy conversion rates. However, Mars has atmosphere where Moon lacks. It is mainly carbon dioxide which has the highest vapor pressure of any gas. Heating the cold carbon dioxide gas with Pu₂₃₈ to generate pressure is very feasible. The generated pressure would be used to operate the pneumatic actuators and generate electricity. This method has way higher energy conversion efficiency compared to other methods and the solar energy. A proper planetary robot which has legs instead of wheels would be able to explore large areas on the surface of Mars. The additional explorations can be conducted on the shadows and at night. Even underground caves can be checked briefly. This method of electric generation would not be affected by the ambient temperature while it requires no chemical batteries. The consumable carbon dioxide gas is available all around the planet which pose no travel restriction. More energy means more distances can be travelled, drilling can be deeper and other energy intense tasks can be conducted.

On my next article I will explain how is it possible to analyze the Mars samples in detail.

Life on Planets

The formation of life is a complex and long process. In summary, life forms where there is water or similar liquid that is solvent and transporter of molecules. The temperature should be adequate for chemical reactions to happen and stable enough for sustained chemical cycles. This last one is my addition, the medium where the organic materials converge and form a living cell should be relatively still like the puddles. Once an organism is formed and it starts reproducing itself, it can spread to harsh environments and stay alive there as well.

When we look at the planets in our solar system, there is no planet that satisfies all these criteria other than the Earth. The planets and their moons beyond Earth are cold and wouldn't allow complex organisms to form. There may be primitive organisms that adapted to their extreme surroundings. Jupiter and Saturn moons that have geysers have the highest potential for life. Planets closer to the sun are too hot for life forms to form. The clouds of Venus may contain traces of organic material. However, the turbulent atmosphere of the planet is not still enough for such molecules to combine and form life.

I am not an expert on the topic. I derived my conclusions, based on the scientific materials I read and my observations. There would definitely be life on exoplanets similar to Earth. However, due to laws of physics, these life forms cannot interact with each other because of the immense distance between them.

Mars STOL Aircraft

I had previously proposed a flying aircraft for Mars. Daniel Riley’s YouTube video on “Blown Wing STOL Plane” inspired me for a new design. Daniel had proposed hidden air blowers inside the wings to increase Coandă effect and enable STOL (short takeoff and landing). In my design, air entering from the intakes below the wing will be accelerated by the heat of Plutonium 238. Mars atmosphere is mainly carbon dioxide that has the highest vapor pressure of any gas. This improves the efficiency of the system. The forward thrust will be achieved by Plutonium 238 powered Carnot engines that drive the duct fans. Air blown on the wings reduces the takeoff and stall speed for the plane. Therefore, the heat generated by the Plutonium 238 isotope would be enough the fly the plane.

The aircraft will have bicycle like spoked wheels. These will enable the plane to accelerate on the ground and protect the wings in case of crash. The wheels should be elastic enough to return to their original shape after impact. The central wheels will have the spokes covered. They will double as vertical stabilizers during flight. The wheels will have larger diameter than the wings to protect them against the surface rocks. Plutonium will produce continuous thrust which will keep the wings in the horizontal orientation even on the ground. The plane will navigate on the ground using this thrust. The maneuvering will be achieved using differential thrust.

The small fuselage of the plane will contain the central control unit and the scientific research bay which is powered by Plutonium 238.

Mars STOL aircraft will be deployed to Mars inside a cylindrical capsule, an ideal shape for a space payload. The capsule will have four engines to slow down the capsule after entering the Mars atmosphere. The propellant tanks will be placed inside the empty spaces between the wings and the wheels. Once the propellant is depleted, the aircraft will be released from the capsule to let it fly by itself. The empty capsule will than crash on Mars.

On the Healthcare Industry

My recent negative experience on healthcare system, led me to write this article. In recent decades, healthcare industry started to be treated as a profit center for countries like tourism. This led to building of charming architectural buildings, named modern hospitals that are poorly designed in terms of functionality (complex layout for the patients who need to move between services). Additionally, too much focus on profitability led to inflated treatment costs and subpar service quality.

As a result, public healthcare deficit increased dramatically. This is a problem I couldn’t find a proper solution to. The key part of the solution is not to treat healthcare system as a profit center for the country which inflates the costs. Actions should be taken to reduce the treatment costs which includes the time and money.

Another topic regarding healthcare is the lack of multidisciplinary thinking. Human biology is too complex for any individual to master it perfectly. Additionally, a solution that works in most cases doesn’t mean that it would work in all cases. I have a very bad experience with that. My dad had ALS disease. A month ago, he started to choke while eating. The choking didn’t stop for a while and we called for ambulance. The healthcare personal injected medicines to improve his respiration. However, due to his ALS disease the medicines had the opposite effect and he needed to be intubated which led to his death. I am not a fan of applying AI to everything. However, in my case if the doctors have consulted AI, a different medication could have been used.

My proposition is that we need multidisciplinary doctors who can see the big picture. They would be able consult and coordinate with the specialists and AI during their treatment. New generation of doctors should be thought to work in coordination with AI. Critical point on this approach is to develop the coordination process such that the doctors should not turn into dummy users who just repeat what AI had told them. This is also a security problem for a country. Too much reliance on AI may be taken advantage by the enemy hackers and manipulated AI results would result big healthcare problems.

How To Protect Your Rocket?

The satellites are critical for a country’s military defense and offence. However, their launch is very susceptible to interception by a ballistic missile. During launch and at lower altitudes, the rockets are protected by the fighter jets. However, compared to the journey of a rocket, this protection is very limited.

During World War 2, the vulnerable bomber planes were escorted by fighter planes against the enemy attacks. This was the norm until the introduction of B17 Flying Fortress. B17 could defend itself and didn’t require fighter escort. This idea can be implemented on the space rockets as well. Not all rockets need to be in this configuration. However, during time of dispute and war, such self-defending rockets would be very beneficial.

A self-defending rocket can be implemented using the synergy rocket formation I proposed earlier. In short, it is a rocket formed by strapping at least three similar rockets together in a closed loop formation. With such a configuration, the rocket can carry different payloads in each of the independent payload bays and one can have anti-ballistic missiles.

Trafalgar in Space

The satellite clusters orbit the earth like a railway train pointing at the same direction. I imagined a satellite outside of this cluster at a higher orbit perpendicular to this formation. It reminded me of the Battle of Trafalgar. Then, I thought of an offensive tactic to annihilate the enemy satellite cluster.

The offensive satellite would orbit at a higher altitude than the targeted satellites. It would not have protruding solar panels to minimize damage from space debris. It would be mainly a flying propellant tank with liquid hydrogen and oxygen. The liquid hydrogen and oxygen would be used to maneuver the satellite during attack and power the electronics on board with hydrogen fuel cells. Carbon nanotube bullets would be used to shot down the enemy satellites. The bullets would be accelerated using the hydrogen and oxygen on board.

The offensive tactic would be simple dive into the targeted satellites orbit with the use of liquid propellant thrusters. During this dive the satellite would retain its orbital speed. It’s like a floating submarine dive underwater using its propellers. Once the propeller stops, the submarine would slowly surface again. In case of satellite, high orbital speed (centrifugal force overcoming the gravity) would push it back to its higher orbit slowly. Due to attacking satellite’s higher speed compared to the other satellites in that orbit, the attacker would pass over them. As it passes by it would shoot back at the satellite in target like a Mongol Archer shooting back while riding his horse. This would allow the debris to be left behind and opposite momentum generated by the bullet fire to add to the satellite's forward momentum.

Once the attacking satellite’s fuel is depleted, it would Kamikaze dive on an enemy military satellite.

The Sounds of The Universe

We have been sending explorers throughout the solar system for many years. Those explorers contained many sensors onboard. Unfortunately, microphone was not one of them (Martian Perseverance rover carries two microphones). I would like to propose a series of small solar and planetary explorers that carry multiple microphones on board. There would be different types of microphones to capture different wavelengths. Even though, the space is vacuum and sound waves cannot travel in vacuum; the electromechanical sound sensors would pick up noise. The noise would be induced by the cosmic rays, gravity fields, and many more.

People are fascinated by the highly computer enhanced images captured by Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. This fascination can be extended by the surround sound of the universe. The microphones are more durable and can operate at more extreme conditions compared to video cameras. Additionally, it is much easier to capture surround sound and play it. Almost all sound systems are stereo and there are more surround sound systems on earth than 3D TVs.

Venus and Mars have atmosphere. Martian Perseverance rover has recorded the sound of Mars. However, it is in mono and microphone’s sensitivity is limited. Flying small planetary explorers can be built to explore Venus and Mars which would record the sounds of the planets as they explore them on air. Venus’ extreme temperatures and dust storms make it difficult for a camera to operate. However, the conditions are acceptable for surround high bandwidth sound recording. Additionally, sound recording would require less electrical and processing power compared to video capture. Allowing smaller and lighter flying explorers.