Balloon Relays For Communication Since 1891

I had many times emphasized the importance of utilizing balloons for wireless communication and defense. I made some research on the topic and found the following.

The first one is a patent by Thomas Alva Edison 1891, Means for transmitting signals electrically. 

"I have discovered that if sufficient elevation be obtained to overcome the curvature of earth's surface and to reduce to the minimum the earth's absorption electric telegraphing or signaling between distant points can be carried on by induction without the use of wires connecting such distant points."

"Fig. 4, a diagram of a portion of the earth's surface, showing communication by captive balloons; Fig. 5, a view of a single captive balloon constructed for use in signaling."

The second one is a DARPA feasibility study, Long Duration Balloon Technology Survey. 

"The use of free-floating balloons to relay signals over great distances was visualized almost a century ago as evidenced by Patent No. 465,971 granted to Thomas A. Edison in 1891. Since then, both electronics and systems technology have been developed which would permit the establishment of a worldwide communications and surveillance network using free-floating balloons in the stratosphere. The availability of such a system is extremely desirable, particularly for military applications. When compared to an orbiting satellite network which is vulnerable during any trans-attack scenario, the free floating long duration balloon network represents an extremely economical, rapidly deployable, and relatively transparent system."

"The results of this Phase I effort clearly demonstrated the technical feasibility of developing a reliable super pressure balloon platform capable of supporting 50 pounds at 120,000 feet for extended periods. There were no insurmountable technical obstacles identified in Phase I. The Emblem® film is a dramatic improvement over films used for this purpose in past studies. (The major obstacle overcome was the susceptibility of prior films to pinholes which limits balloon life.) The MIS shape also promises to minimize balloon size and weight." (MIS shape is displayed below)

What are we waiting for to realize this idea?

Modular Second Stage LEO Satellite

Increased population of LEO satellites are turning LEO into a giant space debris. The solution requires new approach to sat designs. My recommendation is to use the second stage of the rocket as the LEO sat.

I propose a rocket that can only send a single LEO sat to orbit. The first stage will do most of the work. Therefore, the second stage will be much smaller and lighter. The second stage will be designed as a LEO sat. Its outer shell be covered with solar panels. These cells would be covered by protective material which would melt during ascent and further cleared out by the UV light in space. As a result, no protruding solar panels will be required. The satellites maneuvering thrusters will utilize the same fuel as the main engine. Much larger size and weight of the sat would require more fuel to maintain the orbit but larger fuel tank would be enough.

The electronics, making up the sat will be grouped into two. The ones which require update due to technological advancements will be placed on the Tip of the rocket sat. The rest will be placed on the body.

The first stage of the rocket will be reusable which is much easier to achieve compared to the second stage. The second stage will be the satellite therefore will stay in orbit.

The sat in orbit will be serviced by a second type of rocket. It can be built by combining four of the first rocket I proposed. This would increase the payload to orbit. The second stage of the rocket will be a space fuel tanker with a sat Tip on its nose. The space tanker will refuel the sat in orbit to extend its lifetime. The Tip of the sat will have micro thrusters to allow it to attach and detach from the main sat body. The new Tip will replace the old one and make the satellite state of the art. The old Tip will be retrieved by the space tanker and brought back to Earth. This requires the space tanker to have enough fuel left on itself to slow down safely to be retrieved by the Catcher In The Fly I proposed earlier.

The end result is No Space Debris, the satellites are kept state of the art and have much longer life.

How to Convert Trains To Trucks

Space sector has some big players with big budgets and human resources. They are like trains with high momentum. However, they can only go on pre laid tracks. Their approach to problems is usually old.

On the other hand, trucks are flexible on their path. Once they find a profitable path the railroads lay new tracks to divert the trains. Like SpaceX's reusable rocket approach, all the companies are trying to copy that. It's just another rail track for the trains.

How can we turn these trains into trucks?

The big space companies should have research (manufacturing and testing) facilities to test new ideas from innovative people. The innovators shouldn't need to establish a company. They should be hired with special contracts to test and verify their ideas. The big companies with their manufacturing resources and testing facilities would speed up the iterations. As a result, the innovative people wouldn't need to spend their time on establishing a company, looking for funding, hiring people, arranging production facilities, looking for test locations, ...

Then the trains would turn into trucks and establish their own paths.

Designs Optimized For Robotic Construction

Almost all of my renewable energy ideas require robotic construction. Enthought there are some giant renewable energy companies. They mainly produce the equipment in mass quantities and this makes them giant. Unfortunately developing new methods are not their core competence. Sector relies on startups for that and the startups almost never reach mass production. Industry requires vertically and horizontally integrated companies that develop new approaches fast and in large scale.

The future is robotic based construction. This includes robotic buildable wind turbines. Current turbines are not optimized for robotic construction. Erecting more renewable energy generators require too much non-renewable resources. This is a flawed approach.

Unfortunately, the sector is not open for such new approaches and waits for their SpaceX like disruptive company to change their mindset.

Here is a demonstration of a tower build using robots. What I see from this video is, too little have been put into robotic construction technologies and the current status is far behind to construct wind turbines.

Robotic construction will change the world more than the AI. These robots do not need to be super intelligent. What is required is to find the optimal point where the constructional and robotical complexities meet.

Drone Build Vertical Wind Turbines

I always emphasize the importance of, all robot built wind turbines. I thought about one using stacked vertical wind turbines. The electric generator will be a hollow shaft brushless dc motor. This allows weight carrying tower to continue to the upper sections and loads no weight on the motors. The blades will be composed of vertical and horizontal sections. Horizontal blades extend the vertical blades outside the tower to capture the wind. Horizontal blades design allows them to generate vertical lift as they turn. This reduces the weight on the motor bearings and allow the turbine to operate at higher wind speeds.

The stacked design allows more wind to be captured from a single tower. Decreases the weight and dimension of each section to be air lifted by a high-power drone.

The tower will be drone build and drone serviced. Therefore, the tower will not be hollow inside making it thinner and compact. Each section will be carried by drones and mounted on top of each other. Some towers will have less sections to accommodate high power drones to charge themselves.

Vertical turbines can be erected close to each other. They can generate electric from lower wind speeds compared to horizontal wind turbines. Each sections turbine blade design will be slightly different to differentiate the sound pattern of the section from the others. This will reduce noise accumulation.  As a result, these towers can be erected close to residential areas. The build process will be fast and will only use electric generated by the wind turbines themselves.

Low Bypass Aerospike Engine

The optimal size of a rocket engine nozzle is achieved when the exit pressure equals ambient pressure, which decreases with increasing altitude. Classical bell-nozzle rocket engine can only be optimized for a single altitude. The aerospike engine on the other hand is a type of rocket engine that maintains its aerodynamic efficiency across a wide range of altitudes.

Designing aerospike engines is not easy due to high temperature built up on their aerospikes. Latest 3d printing technologies allowed effectively cooled aerospike engines to be manufactured.

I am taking this idea further by combining it with my sliding rocket and low bypass engine designs. In the sliding rocket design, the second stage of the rocket slides inside the first stage and pushes the propellent into the combustion chamber at high pressure. I propose addition of air canals between the sliding rockets. The air entering will be guided to the center of the aerospike engine. There will be no aerospike section at the center of the engine but a one-way air inlet from sliding gab. The flowing air will guide the thrust generating gases like a physical aerospike. As the rocket accelerates, more air will be pushed out of the inlet improving the aerospike effect. The additional inlet gas will contribute to the total thrust of the engine like in low-bypass turbofan engines improving the efficiency of the engine.

The engine I propose will not be gimbled. Instead, multiple engines will be differentially throttled to achieve thrust vectoring.

Global Data Bank

The social media has an important part on modern people's life. Something this critical is unfortunately in the hands of few firms in the States. Data is today's money. Like financial services there should be proper alternatives.

I propose the development of standards for this decentralized global data management. These standards would allow fast and reliable aggregation of data between different service providers. The end user should be able to choose between securing his/her data by paying for the service or sell his/her data to pay for the cost (that is the only option with current social media services, they sell your data and on paper you pay nothing).

With this platform one can host his/her data (posts, comments, images, video) on a service provider which they trust. No worrying about their data will be deleted or banned. Each service provider would have different terms like a Swiss bank versus a French or German bank. Each service provider would of course need to comply with the hosting country's data privacy terms.

Robots For The Space

ISS is close to end of its life; Artemis Program's future is unknown.

Why do we insist on human based space exploration. There are immense number of things waiting to be discovered in space. Budget is limited. We should utilize more robotics in space. One major benefit of developing advanced space robots is that they can also be utilized on Earth. Therefore, return on investment would be high due to additional value creation on Earth.

We try to return samples to Earth. I guess it would be much better to send more research equipment to space. For that we need to enhance the equipment to be space transportable and operable. This know how would also be beneficial for Earth.

Finally, the space agencies approach to space robotics has a major flaw. They are not modular and self- repairable. The robots, alone in the space should be able to fix themselves. Easiest way of achieving this is to have interchangeable modular design. A robot can easily swap interchangeable modules itself depending on the job or in case of a malfunction. CNC machines with auto tool changers are doing it for decades. Unlike a traditional design where you have to unscrew thousand tiny screws and connectors just to swap a tiny part.

The modules of a robot only ISS can fit inside Falcon9 payload bay. Lunar Pole research can be conducted by robots which can be launched by Falcon9 as well. If you design appropriate robots for space, current rockets are enough to explore more.

International Extraterrestrial Space Station (IESS)

The future of space exploration heavily relies on robots making research, mine and construct on extraterrestrial bodies. We need more realistic test environments for the development of these robots.

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.

Danny Kaye

That is how organizations should be working, Professionally.

Less dependent on the upper managers and the wealth more evenly distributed among the employees.

Danny Kaye ❤️

Danny Kaye conducting "Flight of the Bumblebee" for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, 1981

Point Nemo

The spacecraft cemetery is a region in the southern Pacific Ocean where spacecraft that have reached the end of their usefulness are routinely crashed. The area is roughly centered on "Point Nemo", the oceanic pole of inaccessibility, the location farthest from any land. At least 264 spacecraft were disposed in this area between 1971 and 2016 including defunct space station MIR soon to be accompanied by ISS.

It is a dilemma. The space junk can be deorbited to the outer space which would require extensive amount of space launches which would pollute the land. Either we pollute the oceans with falling space junk or the land with more space launches to push the junk further away from Earth.

Will we see extraterrestrial corals forming on the space junk in Point Nemo in the future?

Space Capsule Slow Down Using Suction

The flow-field around the reentry capsule inspired me of slowing down the capsule by creating vacuum behind it.

I had previously suggested using Dry Ice as reentry capsule fuel. Carbon Dioxide has the highest vapor pressure making it a good rocket fuel in presence of high heat. The outer shell of the capsule can be made of Aerospace Grade Aluminum which is light and conducts heat very well. Dry ice would be sandwiched between the outer and inner shell of the rocket. 

As the capsule reenters the atmosphere, the air drag heats up the outer shell. Which turns dry ice into high pressure carbon dioxide. The pressurized gas would be laterally streamed from the back of the capsule. This would minimize the formation of recirculating flow at the back of the capsule which creates very low-pressure zone.  The low pressure creates suction effect at the back and slows the rocket.

Finally, with no moving parts, the inside of the capsule would be kept cooler by dry ice shield and the capsule would be slowed down using dry ice lateral jet stream.

Rocket Engine with 0 - 100% Throttle Range

I wondered why the rockets couldn't accelerate slowly until they reach higher altitudes to minimize air drag and surface overheat. Here are the specs of the two famous rocket engines:

SpaceX Merlin Engine (Falcon9) throttle range is 40 - 100%

SpaceX Raptor Engine (Starship) throttle range is 40 - 100%

With such throttle ranges you cannot accelerate slowly. Here is a NASA paper explaining the reasons limiting throttle ability. A Historical Systems Study of Liquid Rocket Engine Throttling Capabilities

The sliding rocket engine I had proposed earlier can be throttled to almost zero level because it lacks a turbopump and propellent cooling. In combination with the Piezoelectric injectors, the rocket can be accelerated extremely slowly. Here is an article on the new type of injectors Simulation of Piezoelectric Injectors on Rocket Engines. 

The advantages of slow acceleration: Less energy loss due to air drag, less heat on the rocket casing, much less air drag allows larger diameter payload deployable.

Catcher In The Fly Using the Slider Rockets

The sliding rocket design I had proposed can be first tested on the Catcher In The Fly (the flying rocket stage catcher). Rocket Catcher does not require the thrust of a rocket and is single stage.

The first rocket stage after it separates from the main rocket slows down. When its vertical velocity is zero it starts to fall down to Earth. At certain speed the first stage would deploy its parachute to slow down. The Catcher In The Fly would approach the falling stage and catch it using the carbon fiber fishnet. Then deploy its own parachutes to slow the rocket stage further. Finally, the first stage is brough back to the Base to be refurbished.

The advantage of using rockets instead of drones help to catch the second rocket stage as well. The second stage can be caught much higher in the atmosphere before it speeds up further. Additionally, the Rocket Catcher can keep up with the second stage's very high horizontal speed. Allowing more gradual slowing down of the recovered stage to minimize the damage during recovery.

The Ultimate Sliding Rocket

I am improving on my collapsible rocket idea. I propose the use of encapsulated liquid acetylene as the fuel and liquid nitrous oxide as the oxidizer. The boiling point of acetylene is -84 °C and nitrous oxide is -88.5 °C. At -89 °C both are liquid. Both the fuel and the oxidizer will be stored inside Kevlar-Kapton bags. Both materials are strong at very low temperatures, flexible and light weight.

The second stage of the rocket would slide inside the first stage over the Teflon railings to minimize friction. The new design allows solid rocket casing with no deformation and aerodynamic change during flight. The liquid propellent would be squeezed out of the flexible bags. The weight of the second stage and the payload would provide the pressure needed for thrust. This design removes the need for complex turbo pumps, propellent cooling and pressurizing Helium tanks. The propellent remains liquid throughout the flight due to constant pressure and decreasing container volume.

The stage would be much lighter than a traditional rocket stage. All the fuel inside the stage can be burned. The reusability would be achieved by the Catcher in the Fly and the stage would slow down using the on-board parachute.

During stage separation the outer walls of the first stage would act like a barrel of a cannon which would repel the first stage (slowing it down) and transfer more forward momentum on the second stage compared to traditional rocket designs.

This design can also be used on the second stage as well. This time the payload would slide inside the second stage and provide the weight pressure on the propellent.

ARIANE 6x0 and 6x4

Motivation is the fuel of engineering challenges. I propose Europe to come up with quick solutions to improve the motivation of the scientists and the engineers. During World Wars such quick solutions helped to win the war by gaining time for the major improvement.

Europe's Ariane 62 rocket has two solid boosters besides the main Lower Liquid Propulsion Module. I propose Ariane 6x0 rocket with solid boosters removed. The rest of the rocket remains the same. It can be Europe's first reusable rocket using the Catcher In The Fly Design I had proposed earlier. The payload would be considerably lower but reusability and its motivation would compensate for that. 

When this idea is tested and justified, another variant can be released with 4 x Ariane 6 connected together from the Lower Liquid Propulsion Module (First Stage) and the Upper Liquid Propulsion Module (Second Stage). The Payload Fairing can be a unified large dome. This would increase the payload to orbit and allow larger but lighter louds to be deployed such as a space telescope.

Finally, a new Lower Liquid Propulsion Module would be designed to accommodate 5 x Vulcain engines to form the first stage of a planetary rocket.

Collapsible Ballistic Missile

My previous idea on a collapsible rocket design may not be practical for space. However single use miliary ballistic missiles may give it a try. Simplicity of design, reliability and mass manufacturability would be key advantages.

The special pattern that allows the outer casing to collapse vertically can be turned into a mold. The inners of the mold would be covered with carbon fibers for strength. Using the mold, the casing would be manufactured in mass quantities (like collapsible water bottles). The rocket can be throttled using the valves coming out of the propellent tanks. The collapsible casing of the rocket minimizes the lateral wind drag as the rocket gets shorter.

Collapsible Rocket

Liquid Rockets are complex and have reliability problems due to their design. Liquid fuel and cryogenically cooled oxidizer need to be pumped super-fast using turbopumps. Turbo pumping heats the propellent which need to be cooled to improve the thrust. Therefore, I look alternative ways of eliminating the use of turbo pumps and cooling.

What if we could squeeze out the liquid propellent out of its container. For this idea to work, the walls of the rocket should have certain patterns. It should only collapse in one direction, vertical, not horizontal so that the aerodynamic shape of the rocket is not affected much. Carbon fiber would be woven inside the collapsible rocket walls to improve the strength.

While the rocket is in the launch pad, it would be supported from its upper section which would minimize the stress on the collapsible first stage. Because the liquids cannot be compressed and the tanks are full, the rocket would stay in its maximum height. Once the rocket is ignited, the propellent tanks would empty and the weight of the second stage and payload would squeeze the first stage. Coupled with the thrust coming from the bottom of the rocket, the propellent would be squeezed out and generate enough thrust. The rockets forward momentum would also push the propellent out, due to law of inertia, contributing to the thrust. The rocket doesn't need to be totally flattened out. The engine section would remain at its original dimensions.

After the first stage is released, it can deploy parachutes and recovered by the Catcher In The Fly, I had proposed earlier. The stage's engines can be reused but the collapsed casing would need to be recycled.

Super cool temperatures make the material brittle. Therefore, only RP-1 fuel can be used. The inner Liquid Oxygen (LOX) container which need to be collapsible as well would require a special alloy. If not found, nitrous oxide can be used which has a boiling point of -88 °C, much higher than oxygen.

Even though this idea may not work on the first stage, the second stage may utilize it. 

The World Autonomous Air Cargo Way

I propose a modern day Silkroad connecting the two ends of Eurasia over the air. The battery powered Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) planes can work autonomously between the East and the West. Even with today's battery technology VTOLs can carry heavy cargo to a distance of 100 km or more. The VTOLs should have wings for higher efficiency and speed (therefore they are not a quadcopter or similar).

Wind turbines would be erected every 100 km which would be supplying power to the charging towers nearby. The VTOLs would recharge their battery on top of these towers. It would take approximately 100 wind turbines and 100 charging towers to cross a 10,000km distance. (100 km x 100 hubs = 10,000 km) The wind turbines and the charging towers can be similar in design. While the wind turbines are also top heavy. The blades and the electric generator weight approximately same as the VTOL with its payload.

There would be branches coming out of this path to connect other cities. The floating wind turbines would allow ocean passage. Therefore, America continent can be connected over the Atlantic and the Pacific creating a circular around The World Autonomous Air Cargo Way.

This air way is not an alternative to air cargo while it would take approximately four days to reach from one end to the other. It can be an alternative to the trains. Maintaining thousands of kilometers of infrastructure is not easy. Maintaining a hundred wind turbines and hundred charging towers is much easier. It would be easier to defend against a sabotage as well. The numbers can be increased to allow higher traffic. Additionally, the advancement in battery technology would speed up the journey.

We should think out of the box. The wind turbines should not just provide electric to the cities. Some of them should be turned into autonomous robot charging and maintenance hubs.

The Chain Reaction

The excitation energy for nuclear fission of a single Uranium 235 atom is 5.7 MeV. That is the minimum energy needed to start a nuclear chain reaction. If you distribute 5.7MeV excitation energy to a thousand Uranium atom with a 5.7 KeV each, you get nothing in return.

Space exploration has high barriers for success. If you scatter the resources among tiny startups, you can only achieve small goals. The logical approach should be to reorganize the big agencies to work more efficiently, award the innovative employee properly and aggregate the production phases to speed up the iterations and lower the production costs.

Renewable Energy Where We Should Start

For a Sustainable Environmental, Renewable Energy is very important. Is renewable energy generation sustainable on its own? Here is a chart displaying How much concrete and steel is needed to build new wind turbines, measured by MWh?

Each wind turbine requires a lot of raw materials, energy to transport the materials and the labor to the deployment area, energy for the construction. We should make this whole process sustainable first. The wind turbines should be first installed near the steel, copper, aluminum and concrete manufacturing facilities. Electric operating drones, trucks and construction machinery should be utilized during the construction process. The money is poured into the personal use electric car manufacturing which is a luxury compared to the construction machinery which still heavily rely on carbon fuels. All the commercial use public buses, trucks, construction equipment should be 100% Electric First.

In my previous articles I proposed drone-based wind turbine construction. If we keep burning fuel to build wind farms, it would be hard to sustain the Renewable Energy movement in economical down turns.

Supersonic Flight

Ramjets and Supersonic Combustion Ramjet (Scramjet) are the engines for supersonic flight. They are both air breathing engines. Air breathing engines have higher specific impulse than the rocket engines due to exhausting the inlet air which is not taken into calculations because it is an external source.

I thought about the idea of using Scramjets as the first stage of a rocket and came to the conclusion that it is not that feasible. These engines rely on external air. If the elevation is too high, the oxygen level would be too low to ignite the fuel efficiently. At lower altitudes the loss of energy due to drag would negate the advantage of high specific impulse.

On the other hand, the aviation can utilize these engines to decrease the flight times. Several things can be done to make it more feasible. Using cheap fuel like liquid methane or liquid natural gas. Using liquid oxygen to support the combustion at lower speeds and higher altitudes. Variable nozzle (expansion area) design to optimize the performance at different speeds.  With these key points a Scramjet can be used for supersonic flights at affordable rates. At low speeds the Scramjet would not work properly even with oxygen injection. To solve this problem, I propose slight modifications to the Scramjet design to make it work like a valveless pulsejet at lower speeds and transform into a scramjet at higher speeds.

Snowman Rocket

Space flight is a long journey. Only the initial small part of it is through the dense atmosphere where the aerodynamic design matters. The rest of the journey is in vacuum where the weight matters the most including the beginning.

A sphere has the minimal surface area to volume of all possible closed surfaces. It also has spherical symmetry, which means the curvature, and stress, is the same at every point. I propose a Snowman like staged rocket design. This design would maximize the ratio between the propellent and the dry weight of the rocket. Coupled with the cheapest fuel available (liquid methane or liquid natural gas) the cost of spaceflight can be lowered considerably.

The precise throttleable rocket engines would lift the rocket vertically at lower speeds to minimize the loss due to non-aerodynamic design. At altitudes where the air is thin enough, the rocket would speed up horizontally to achieve orbital velocities.

Encapsulated Propellent Tank Design

Rocket fuel and oxidizer are usually stored at cryogenic temperatures within the rocket. This creates a huge thermal stress on the tank walls. The boiling temperature of methane is -162 °C, oxygen is -183 °C and hydrogen is -253 °C. I propose embedding the coldest tank inside the less cold one. For example, liquid oxygen tank inside the liquid methane tank. The temperature difference between the boiling points of methane and oxygen is just 21 °C. Therefore, the thermal stress on the inner tank would be much less and it can be made thinner and lighter. Same is true with the hydrogen and oxygen combo which has only 70 °C difference. Additionally, the casing of the methane rocket in the worst case would experience -162 °C to ambient temperature difference compared to -183 °C to ambient with the traditional rocket design. More pronounced difference for the hydrogen rocket; -183 °C to ambient versus -253 °C to ambient temperature difference for the fuel section of the Ariane rocket.

Carbon Fiber Lattice Vertical Wind Turbine

Big Vertical Wind Turbines receive almost no R&D attention. I believe on the potential and keep improving on the design. Large diameter vertical wind turbines can be developed using carbon fibers and special aerodynamic shape. The vertical design allows even distribution of the weight of the turbine blades. The electric generator would be at the top center of the tower and its center of gravity would be lower than a horizontal wind turbine. These design improvements lower the structural strength requirement of the tower. Coupled with the carbon fiber lattice design for the tower, the overall weight of the wind turbine would be considerably lowered. I propose to cover the tower with durable tent material. Only the lower section would be covered with solid plates for security purposes.

The horizontal support beams would be like helicopter blades. Therefore, when they turn, they would produce some lift. This would reduce the turbine blade weight on the generator shaft. As the wind speed increase the lift would increase. Therefore, the turbine could operate at higher speeds than a horizontal turbine. Coupled with the vertical turbine's low speed wind operability results in a wider wind speed operation compared to a horizontal wind turbine.

Finally, the whole wind turbine would fit inside a container and have low total weight. This would allow cheaper aerial transport for rural areas.

Improvement on The Dry Ice Reentry Engine

I had proposed the use of dry ice as a second stage reentry rocket fuel due the carbon dioxide's high vapor pressure. The heating of the monopropellant would be done by the casing around the dry ice from the air drag at high speed. I update this idea as such. The casing of the second stage would be Aerospace Grade Aluminum. Beneath this shield would be a heat pump setup. The heat pump would gather the overall heat on the shield and concentrate it on the dry ice container. As a result, even the casing temperature is only hundred degrees Celsius the heat inside the dry ice would be more than a thousand degree Celsius. This approach allows earlier firing of the braking dry ice engine. Additionally, the casing would stay at a much lower temperature and doesn't require expensive heat shields.

The shape of the second stage would be like a delta wing. This increases the air lift which counteracts the gravity. As a result, the second stage with more than 20,000 km/h speed can be slowed down to land safely without needing too much additional weight. Finally, the stage would be catched by the "Catcher in the Fly" I had proposed earlier. This reduces the complex and heavy landing gear on the second rocket stage.

European Fresh Water Network

Europe should start building a freshwater pipeline network like the one they created for the natural gas. It would serve many purposes. To transfer fresh water from available resources to the non-available regions for human, animal and agricultural consumption. To divert flooding due to heavy rains.

As always, I propose the use of all electric autonomous construction machines to build this infrastructure. The use of exported fuel consuming machinery and expensive labor makes such projects prohibitively expensive. The labors should work in comfortable factories to build these robots, and the robots should do the dirty work on the field 7/24.  Construction robots and established pipeline pumps would run from renewable energy resources. As a result, the project cost and the export requirement would be lowered.

Europe's industrial regions and some poorly planned cities pollute the groundwater resources. The groundwater routes should be mapped countrywide not case by case. More important, nationwide actions should be taken for problems. Such big actions would have more effect and would cost less compared to just solving several cases. Fresh water and groundwater pollution is a global problem. The solutions and know how would then be sold as services worldwide. Europe should sell more such services. The services should be complete solutions not just a printout report.

EU, come up with through solutions to your problems and sell the complete solutions globally!

Medium Earth Orbit Breeder Reactor

Nuclear energy is critical for further space exploration. I recommend a safer way of achieving this goal.

Current nuclear reactors use enriched Uranium and Plutonium. Which are quite radioactive. If the space rocket fails during a launch, they would pollute the environment. High altitude dispersion would affect large arrays. One approach could be to use Thorium. Thorium 232 half-life is greater than the age of the universe. Therefore, in case of an accident the environment would not be polluted by the decaying radioactive particles.

I propose a Medium Earth Orbit (MEO, altitude between 2,000 and 35,786 km) robot only modular space station for Lunar and Planetary refueling and payload hub for space rockets. The robot only design would allow smaller diameter for the modules which could be launched using smaller rockets. Distant orbit requirement is due to space debris in Low Earth Orbit. Additionally, if the space station explodes the effect on Earth would be much less due to large area dispersion and higher falling speed would melt most of the parts.

One of the modules of the space station can be a Thorium Breeder Reactor (a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes). Thorium can be decayed into Radium and Radon to generate heat and electricity. The initial decay of Thorium requires a lot of energy. The initial reaction can be triggered by the solar energy. The breeder design would allow sustained fissile material production. As a summery, we send a mostly safe material to space and turn it into a fissile fuel in space.

Finally, the byproduct of the Reactor, Thorium 228 and Radium 224, can be used as rocket fuel. Their decaying yields heat and Radon 220 gas which would generate thrust.

Oceans for the Humanity

Oceans and the Seas are way important for humanity than the Moon, the Mars or any other space object. There are regions where our knowledge is less than the Moon. The global political trend is not in favor of scientific research. Therefore, the scientific researches should be conducted with minimum operational cost and additional efforts to increase the income. The scientists should not be beggars. But they need a proper strategical management to attain their financial freedom.

Every research ship sailing the oceans costs millions per day and cover only a small fraction of the area. As always, I propose the formation of vertically integrated company to develop autonomous robots to conduct the scientific researches remotely like the ones conducted on Mars. With fully electrified infrastructure the energy can be generated using wind and waves and no operational cost on the fuel. 

Additionally, the research vessels should have quality video equipment onboard. These footages should than be edited by the artistic film directors, not the capitalist documentary channel editors. There would be shows and live coverages. Scientists should collaborate with the artists to win the hearts of the people. Give something esthetic to the people with poetic narration. People would pay because they feel happy, not they feel pity. Once the masses are with the science, the politicians have nothing to say but cooperate.

For long term success Convince the Voters not the politicians.

Minimizing Soot Formation on Acetylene Rocket Engines

I had previously explained the use of Nitrous Oxide (N₂O) + Acetylene (C₂H₂) as Rocket Fuel. The major drawback of this fuel is high soot formation on the nozzle which reduces the performance. Directed electric fields reduce the formation of soot. There are scientific researches on that topic. However, they are not applied to rocketry as far as I know.

Effects of the electric field on soot formation in combustion: A coupled charged particle PBE-CFD framework

Recent progress in electric-field assisted combustion

I am in favor of rocket designs that do not require complex turbo pumps. High vapor pressured nature of the Nitrous Oxide + Acetylene simplifies the rocket design considerably even though needing some additional adjustment points which are not that complex to implement.

Acetylene is more expensive than liquid natural gas. I believe this engine design is more reliable than the turbopumps which increases the rocket reusability and compensates for the higher cost of the fuel.

Dry Reentry with the Dry Ice Engine

Recovering rocket second stages and sample return capsules is usually achieved by heavy duty heatshields and splashing into the ocean. With some reduced load capacity, a dry iced powered rocket engine can be utilized to slow down the rocket stage. Carbon dioxide has the highest vapor pressure as seen on the chart. Storing it as solid is easy, dry ice. The dry ice storage and the nozzle would be outside at the reentry point of the rocket. Dry ice container should have good thermal conductivity and high melting point. Alloys of copper and aluminum can be studied for that. As the pressure inside the dry ice container reaches a certain level the valve would open and release the heated carbon dioxide from the nozzle. There is no need for a chemical reaction to achieve high gas pressure for thrust. Carbon dioxide's very high vapor pressure and the reentry heat is enough. As the dry ice engine produce thrust, the rocket stage would slow down and the dry ice casing temperature stays stable. Therefore, no need for a very high melting temperature requirement for the fuel casing. The remaining of the rocket stage can be light weight heatshield.

At certain altitude the reentry rocket stage or the capsule can be recovered on air by the flying rocket catcher I had proposed earlier. The rocket engines on the rocket catcher allows high speed recovery and slowing down by the heavy-duty parachutes.

Dry landing with the dry ice!

Floating Wind Turbines for Offshore Robotic Duties

In almost all of my ideas I propose fully automated swarm robots to solve global problems. The reason being they would be cheaper to operate compared to human operated ones. Robots can source their energy from renewable energy sources and don't require refueling and food supply. Sending people to extreme locations is not easy and cheap. Furthermore, the knowledge gained from operating such robots help to design space robotics where on site human involvement is almost impossible. 

I congratulate The SeaCleaners company for their development of the catamaran, The Manta. It would clean the seas from floating plastics.

I want to improve on that idea. We should be building 100% renewable energy operated construction catamarans. They would have wind and electric propulsion onboard. Large distances would be traveled using the sails (humanity used it for centuries), the propellers would be used for small maneuvers and in harbors. Depending on the task a small catamaran with service engineers abord may accompany the robot catamarans. Once in location the catamaran would deploy floating wind turbines to supply electricity for the autonomous robots doing their duties over or under the sea. The duty can be either cleaning the sea debris, underwater mining, repairing underwater infrastructures or surveying the sea over and under.

Finally, we should be designing more mobile wind electric generators to be used on robotic work conducted on land or offshore. We should electrify the construction projects! The distances at sea are large and consuming fuel increases the cost of such projects and pollutes the environment. Same is true for transporting fuel to a remote mining area where wind is available all around.

Mobile Inflatable Wind Electric Generator

Mobile wind turbines are quite short and do not effectively generate electric in all conditions. Additionally, deploying them takes couple of workers' time. I propose the use of inflatable tubes with special shapes to utilize the wind energy at higher altitudes.  Current tallest inflatable tube is 50 meters. Therefore, reaching even higher with special materials is not that difficult. Don't forget that many wind turbines are 60 to 120 meters tall. The inflated tube would be made of durable high altitude balloon material, not the one time use meteorology balloon material. The electric would be generated by the flexible piezo electric films covered inside. The reinforcing carbon fibers used in the construction of the inflatable would double as the conductor of electricity. Piezo produces high voltage and low current which is OK for the carbon fibers non ideal conductivity.

The inflatable tube would be rolled like a fire hose. Therefore, the setup would be very compact. The deployment would be just pumping air into the tube. One advantage of piezo electric generation is that as the tube erects from the pumped air, the uncurled tube would start generating electricity. Once the pressure inside the tube is at a certain level, the pump would shut down and the tube would be air sealed. Only when the inside pressure drops, the pump would start again to increase the pressure.

Catcher in the Fly

Designing a reusable rocket costs billions of dollars and takes almost a decade to successfully implement. In the meanwhile, space agencies can do the following. Catch the used first stage on air. If the space rocket that is already in use has restartable engines then the problem simplifies. A large fishnet made of carbon fibers carried by cargo drones would catch the falling rocket on air. For this thing to be possible, the first rocket stage should disengage from the second stage with some fuel in reserve and stop its engines. The remaining fuel should be fired close to the rocket catcher rendezvous and should be shot down before falling on the net. So that the falling rocket would have much less speed and the fiber net don't get burned. This approach would have approximately 5% less payload to orbit penalty. Which is nothing compared to the cost of the rocket stage. The rocket catcher system would deploy heavy duty cargo parachutes as the rocket lands on the net. This lowers the stress on the heavy lifting drones. After the rocket is catched, it would be landed on a sea or land platform. 

If the rocket in question does not have restartable engines, more powerful net carrying engines should be used, such as rocket engines. Rocket engine powered net would catch the falling rocket much higher in the sky and gradually slow down the falling rocket. Then the rest is landing the rocket on the platform.

How To Catch Up On The Space Race

Space competition is harsh. Countries and Unions try to catch up with the USA and China. Here are some of my recommendations:

1. Concentrate on the main object (to have effective number of communication, military and earth observation satellites). The planetary and moon exploration can wait, allocate minimum resource on them.

2. Form a new organization. It should operate agile and flexible. There shouldn't be hierarchy within. It should operate like a good orchestra not a military unit. As the company's operations expand, most of the current government space agencies roles should be passed over to the new organization. To reduce the resistance, change the top management of the current space agency. No one will be unemployed. It is just the transformation of a bureaucratic structure to a Orchestra like professional working environment. 

3. Make the new organization vertically integrated. It should be able to manufacture the rockets, the satellites and the fuels all by itself. It may have more than one facility around the country or the union. The key is, they should work as one not like a separate entity.

4. Utilize the current rockets in house. Just bundle them to achieve reusability. I had explained it on my modular rocket design. Just be innovative and make a reusable rocket from what you already have. Just attach them side by side and add stability extensions. I also recommend the building of flying landing pad. Use nonflammable glass fiber cushions in the worst case to catch the returning rocket. Therefore, it doesn't need to land perfectly. 

5. Develop quick and dirty solutions. It is the method of startups because they don't have resources. Don't insist on human space flight until you progressed. Satellites are much more important and their failure is just financial. Include scientists and engineers from poorer countries. They would look for cheaper solutions. Also, partial lack of knowledge helps. Such people would look for engineeringly easier solutions, like I do.

6. Try the achieve the same goal with fewer number of satellites and lower mass to orbit. Multipurpose the satellites (military, communication and earth observation combined).

7. Use very high-altitude balloons for some of the earth observation, communication, military and space exploration tasks. Balloons would solve much more of the space problems then you would believe. Don't try to solve every space related problem with very expansive space launches. Balloons are also a part of the new space agency I proposed!

Delta Wing Rocket

Since the beginning the rockets were long cylinders. As the reusable stages are the current norm, it is time to change the shape. I propose a delta wing shaped rocket design. The main objectives of this design are to utilize the air lift capacity of the lower atmosphere and to improve the stage recoverability.

I propose the use of Nitrous Oxide (N₂O) + Acetylene (C₂H₂) Rocket Fuel (NOA) as I discussed earlier. This design does not require complex turbopumps, is throttleable and has relatively high specific impulse. The lifting force of the air due to wing shape and low-bypass nozzle design would reduce the fuel consumption of the first stage. The wing design would allow the rocket to stay airborne at lower speeds. As the altitude increases the rocket's speed would increase. Slower acceleration would reduce the stress and heat on the rocket body.

Important note! This is not a giant space shuttle. I just change the casing shape of the rocket from cylinder to wing shaped triangular form.

The rocket would lift of vertically and quickly transform into spiraling ascent mode. However, the returning stage would land on an airstrip to reduce the fuel needed for vertical landing compared to a horizontal one. Unlike the old space shuttle, the stages will have fuel left on board which would allow proper maneuverability and slowing down. The wing design would also allow the very fast second or third stages to be safely land close to the launch site.

Finally, two or more of these rockets can be connected with spacing to carry large objects to the space. At the moment the diameter of the payload is restricted with the diameter of the rocket. Lower speeds at dense air allows non aerodynamic shapes to be transported to the space as well. Such as space telescopes.

Nitrous Oxide (N₂O) + Acetylene (C₂H₂) Rocket Fuel

On NASA research paper nitrous oxide (N₂O) / propane (C₃H₈) (NOP) / acetylene (C₂H₂) (NOA) rocket engines are analyzed. (https://tfaws.nasa.gov/TFAWS06/Proceedings/Aerothermal-Propulsion/Papers/TFAWS06-1026_Paper_Herdy.pdf) Here are some remarks from the paper:

Most propellants commonly used today have relatively low vapor pressure (lower than the rocket chamber pressure) and consequently have to be pressurized. This is accomplished in one of several ways. Turbo pumps are used for launch vehicle applications. The pumps are driven using onboard propellant and form part of the thermodynamic cycle for the system. For space applications, expulsion systems are used to pressurize the propellant and drive it out of the propellant system. Expulsion systems use high pressure gas (either helium or nitrogen) to pressurize the liquid propellant. 

In contrast to these systems the NOP/NOA propellants are self-pressurizing due to their relatively high vapor pressures (higher than the rocket chamber pressure). Consequently, they do not require separate expulsion systems and the entire tank volume can be used to store propellant. The vapor pressure of nitrous oxide is approximately 750 psi and that of propane is 125 psia at ambient temperature.

The non-toxic nature of the NOP/NOA propellants will serve to reduce operating costs due to the handling issues associated with the hypergolic propellants currently in use for space applications. The NOP/NOA propellants are benign and not highly reactive. They remain so until the nitrous oxide is catalytically decomposed and combined with the fuel. Exhaust products consist mainly of nitrogen, water, and carbon dioxide. The NOP/NOA propellants are storable over long periods of time without degradation. Inadvertent decomposition is one of the main technical obstacles for hydrogen peroxide use in space propulsion systems. 

Environmentally Friendly Rocket Engine Test Facility

Rocket engine design requires many tests. During these tests, the rocket engine releases fast and hot exhaust gases. I propose the recovery of some of the energy released using a steam turbine. Steam turbines can withstand hot and fast gasses and are quite efficient in electric generation. The end of the turbine can be connected to a steam condenser where part of the exhaust gases (water vapor) can be recovered. Some of the electric generated can be used to clean out the exhaust pollutants, the rest would be consumed within the facility.

Modular Adventure Camera

I like photography and used pocket camera, DSLR, action Cam and underwater camera. However, they all have many flows in their design. I propose a modular adventure cam. It is designed for worst case scenarios and utilize quality mechanical connectors. The quality connectors allow compact attachment points. For example, to attain same strength as a titanium attachment point you need to increase a plastic parts thickness which makes such modular designs bulky. A camera consists of many parts and these parts do not have the same life cycle. Therefore, the modularity makes the platform more environmentally friendly and increased cost due to high quality materials can be less expensive in the long run. Here are some of the features:

- All mechanical attachment points of a module should be titanium or similar material (due to durability and light weight). The rest of the module can utilize other materials.

- The modules should be self-protective. For example, the display should have built in tempered glass on it. The lenses also should have a built-in protective glass on their front which is taken into consideration during their optical design. All modules of the Adventure Camera should be Adventure proof (unlike the delicate designs of action cams). The display would not be touch enabled. A special touch sensor can be added later which would work with any glow and underwater!

- Energy transfer between modules will be wireless. (I had even designed such systems using SMD inductors. The cross section of the transfer area is around 1sq cm). This eliminates the risk of oxidation or short circuiting of power contacts. This would increase the power consumption which is OK with an Adventure Camera. When a module is detected the wireless power transfer would be started. The wireless power contact area will be sealed with rubber so that once the modules are assembled there should be no air gab in between. This design allows battery swapping underwater, rainy and snowy environments.

- The data transfer among modules will also be wireless. It can be a light-based communication or short distance concentrated area rf based. The reason is the same as the power connectors.

- The camera control buttons should be mechanical and separate from the sensor and the lens. It would be like a wired remote control. This allows the camera sensor and the lens to be mounted on an extension rod or a helmet and the user can control everything with an appropriate remote.

- Depending on the use, the control (buttons) module would have large buttons to allow gloved controlling. Additionally, there would be specialized controllers for disabled people with injured or no hands. They can be controlled using eye movements, brain waves, with mouth and teeth...

- There would be different types of batteries with different chemical designs. For example, temperature independent ones that are less effected with cold or heat. The batteries can be attached using a wire extender. This allows the batteries to be placed in a back pack to reduce the weight on hand or a stabilized gimble.

- Any extension cord separating the modules should be made of fire proof tough skins. I had seen such cable skins in military communication wires.

Lunar Plasma Transporter

We can start building a Lunar Base now. Current spaceships are capable of achieving this goal. I propose we deploy a Lunar Plasma Transporter (LPT) in LEO. It can be assembled in space in 4 sections: 

1. Plasma Thrusters and solar panels (also the controller), 

2. Fuel reserve (can be split into two sections), 

3. Lunar Plasma Ascender / Descender (LPAD)

4. Lunar payload

The LPT will utilize plasma thrusters. The fuel can be any gas (CO₂ can be used to clean our skies) and will be powered by solar panels. Much higher specific impulse than the liquid rockets, no need for an oxidizer. Even oxygen generated from oxidized metals on the lunar soil can be used to power the rocket. 

Once the LPT is fully assembled in LEO, it would increase its speed using its plasma thrusters and the Suns energy. As the speed increases LPT's distance from Earth would increase and at critical point trans-lunar injection would be triggered. Once the LPT reaches the Moon, it would start orbiting the Moon. It would than release the LPAD, which would safely descent the lunar payload on the Moon's surface. The initial payloads should contain setup to extract gas (can be oxygen or another gas) from the Lunar surface.

The LPT after deploying the LPAD would return Earth. Once LPT is close to the Earth, it would use its plasma thrusters to slow it down to LEO orbiting speed. Then the LPT is refueled in orbit and a new Lunar payload is assembled. The gas generation setup on the moon may require many payloads to be deployed. Therefore, LPAD may need to be refueled by the Lunar Plasma Transporter when it ascents from the lunar surface to retrieve the payload. Once the lunar gas generation is active it would refuel the LPAD on the Moon.