The Earth Followers

A heliocentric orbit is an orbit around the barycenter of the Solar System, the Sun. All planets, comets, and asteroids in the Solar System, and the Sun itself are in such orbits, as are many artificial probes and pieces of debris. The list of artificial objects in heliocentric orbit. Ulysses was one of them.

I had previously proposed Solar Surrounder Satellite Network to allow communication with the regions behind the sun. Sending probes and rovers to other planets makes more sense if we can keep in touch with them all year long.

The closest mission to my proposal was STEREO, a solar observation mission. However, my proposition is to deploy satellites that would follow Earth on it's orbit around the sun and relay the signals. Most probably it would be achievable without requiring gravity assist of another planet.

The Odyssey Of Ulysses

Ulysses was a robotic space probe whose primary mission was to orbit the Sun and study it at all latitudes. It was launched in 1990 and made three "fast latitude scans" of the Sun in 1994/1995, 2000/2001, and 2007/2008. The direct injection of a space probe from the Earth into a polar orbit around the Sun is not possible with current rocket technologies. Therefore, Ulysses was put to orbit using "gravity assist" of Jupiter through a long adventurous journey, Odyssey. 

Further reading Wikipedia and European Space Agency.

Ulysses' journey is the journey I had proposed for another perspective to the solar system. It shows how difficult it is to go beyond our solar system. Hope we can build new Ulysses that orbit much closer to the sun so that solar panels and sails can be utilized as well. Venus gravity assist is proposed in this article Baseline trajectory design for solar polar detection using gravity assists.

Note: Ulysses is the Latin translation of "Odysseus".

Future of Space Depends on Synchronous Rockets

The computer-generated spacecrafts, Moon and Mars habitations look amazing on screen. On the other hand, for more than six decades the rockets and their payloads didn’t change that much. The objects taken to the space are mainly cylinders with their diameter restricted by the diameter of the rocket. Compare these cylinders with the dreams of people regarding the future of space. Current roadmap of rockets would NEVER yield such results. However, such space structures are not impossible.

The solution requires synchronous rockets taking odd structures to the space slowly through the atmosphere and then accelerate them to necessary speeds. These odd structures can be taken to space using “Yurt Rocket” type rockets or even with more complex configuration of rockets.

The future relies on these single stage rockets attached to each other. Some of these rockets would be used as the first and second even third stages of the overall rocket. At takeoff, all rockets would be fired to achieve the required thrust. As the propellent deplete and the overall weight lowers only the first stage would be left running. The rockets should have high specific impulse (efficiency). The maximum thrust would not be that critical. As the aerodynamic design becomes less important, the rockets would simply be propellent tubes attached side by side. The casing, the upper stages and the payload bay would be eliminated. The rockets would be attached to each other and to the payload using carbon fiber structures that is light and flexible.

The synchronous rockets would also be useful on earth. The initial designs would be used to lift and mount wind turbines and architectural structures. Hence, they serve dual purpose.

Wind Based Dry Ice Maker

Renewable energy is valuable for a greener world. I would like to enhance this even further. Integrating dry ice making facilities close to the wind turbine farms. Dry ice making process absorbs the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and freezes it into solid. The process requires a lot of energy which would be supplied by the wind farms close by. The production rate would be adjusted to balance the energy production by the wind. The surplus energy would be stored as dry ice. This process cleans the atmosphere and the resulting dry ice is used to extinguish fires, especially wildfires. Hence, further contributing to a greener world.

Lunar Photo Team

A basic photo team comprises of a photographer and a person carrying a reflector for optimal lighting adjustment. I propose one for the moon.

A satellite carrying the scientific imaging equipment on board with a solar sail on the sun synchronous orbit of the moon followed by a satellite carrying a giant sun reflector with a solar sail. Moon's lack of atmospheric drag allows the satellites with solar sails to approach closer to the surface of the moon. Sun synchronous orbit allows continuous energy source and solar wind for acceleration.

Closer moon orbit requires very fast rotation speeds. Therefore, the cameras should be able to capture at high frame rates. The solar reflector provides the necessary lighting to allow such high frame rates with minimal loss of quality. Additionally, the same regions will be photographed over and over again but, much closer each time. This allows computers to easily enhance the images as they are captured.

Light assisted close up images would yield almost Google Street view like images of the moon. All The Dark Sides Of The Moon would be captured in detail. Revealing the hidden ice in the shadows and the decades of human debris on the moon, including the Apollo missions. The copyright of all these images would easily payoff the cost of the mission and the scientific observations would have no cost on the space agency.

Further lunar missions can be synchronized with the lunar photo team to capture the real time footage of the landing from a different perspective. This additional perspective may improve the landing performance of the landers as well.

Solid RP1 Tank For LOX

Liquid Oxygen (LOX) is the unrivaled oxidizer of all the liquid propulsion rockets. It is stored in cryogenic high-pressure tanks inside the rocket. High-pressure tanks are heavy and bulky. RP1 on the other hand is stored in room temperature. RP1 storage tanks need to be thick especially at the bottom in order to withstand the weight of the liquid. I propose using solid RP1 as the storage container for liquid oxygen.

Solid materials maintain their shape and do not require thick containers for storage. Therefore, the rocket casing carrying solid RP1 and liquid oxygen can be made thinner and lighter. RP1 freezes around -60 °C and RP2 around -50 °C. Solid RP fuel would serve as a temperature barrier between the liquid oxygen and the ambient air. Additionally, it maintains the pressure on liquid oxygen, preventing it from changing states.

Once the rocket is ignited on ground, the heat from the combustion chamber would be used to melt the RP1 and vaporize the oxygen. As both propellent are consumed, the solid structure would slide down and restrict the liquid oxygen from expending. Negating the need for high pressure Helium tanks.

When all oxygen is consumed, the stages of the rocket separate. The remaining solid RP1 would then be used to slow down the free-falling stage as a warm gas mono propellent. This setup can be used both for the first and the second stages.

Disabled People Are Critical For Future Space Missions

Human space exploration is the most critical and valued part of all space missions. Due to cost and technical constraints, only few people were assigned for such missions. The human explorers are mainly alone in deep space and bad accidents have actually happened during such missions. The senses and limbs may become dysfunctional within seconds. The interiors, controls and warnings are designed mainly for healthy people. Therefore, temporary or permanent disablement during mission can be lethal.

I read at least two cases where the astronauts became temporary blind, but were talented enough to save their lives. One is Louis Armstrong during Gemini 8 mission.

I propose more disabled people to be involved in the design and development of human space systems. I also propose more disabled people to go to space and experiment the systems in real use. The disabled people should also help train the astronauts what to do in case of such accidents.

Maple Seed Space Capsule

In recent years we started to see alternative re-entry space capsule designs. I had also proposed several designs that used dry ice to cool the shielding and included warm gas propulsion to slow down the capsule during re-entry. My new idea is a little simpler. It is inspired by the maple copter seed. The idea is to use helicopter like blades to slow down the capsule.

The re-entry capsule will have curved canals on its surface to direct the air flow. As the capsule falls, the directed air will rotate the capsule in certain direction. The capsule will fall its tip pointing the ground and its bottom pointing towards the space. Small copter blades will protrude from the bottom section. The rotation of the capsule will induce lift effect on the blades reducing the fall speed of the capsule.

The blades would be opened in space before touching the atmosphere. Also, the capsule would orient itself for re-entry trajectory using on board cold propulsion. This propulsion would also be used to start the spinning of the capsule. Therefore, lift effect can be initiated much higher in the atmosphere. The spinning of the capsule would stabilize the re-entry trajectory as well. The spinning design would require special parachutes to be used to further slowdown the capsule.

Maple seed inspired re-entry capsule would be used to retrieve samples from space. It wouldn’t be suitable for human use.

Fully Integrated Space Hub

My proposition is for any country that wants to excel in the space race. A space hub that is vertically and horizontally integrated. All the facilities do not need to be completed at the same time. However, their location should be reserved and establishment roadmap planned in advance.

Fully integrated Space Hub should contain all the R&D and manufacturing facilities. It should include the housing and supporting facilities of the employees with their families. The manufacturing facilities should be scalable to allow expansion. CNC and 3d printing facilities should be 7/24 operational to speed up the R&D cycle. This is critical especially for Europe where the working hours are limited. The propellent production and storage facilities should also be established such as RP-1 or methane and oxygen.

The hub would manufacture rockets as well as satellites. Ideally, the rockets would be reconfigurable to allow various space missions. Additionally, standardized satellites would be manufactured in high volume. Individual companies would alter parts to differentiate them, however their outer shape would be the same for efficient payload occupation.

The hub should have connection to railway, highway, airport and harbor. The railway connection can be single lane. Airport can be a medium length runway. The harbor would be used to transport exported materials such as fuel and heavy raw materials.

The hub should have a university campus as well. All the departments would be related to space. The education level would be masters and above. It would have summer schools and similar programs for successful foreign students as well. It should have enough accommodation for all the students.

A nice to have feature for the hub would be a theme park. It would have the space museum, hotels and mini rocket launch site where students and amateurs periodically compete.

When the country has a space strategy that relies on companies distributed all around, the R&D process takes much longer. Additionally, it would be difficult to achieve high production rates to allow frequent launches. Non-standardized satellites reduce the number of satellites put to orbit for every launch.

Finally, the hub would be powered mainly by the renewable energy sources.

Strategic Military Rockets and Launch Platforms

The military maneuvers in space reduces the life expectancy of any satellite in orbit. Therefore, there is a need to launch military satellites on demand in short notice. I propose a platform for strategic military rocketry.

At the moment, the rockets are launched from well-defined locations. This poses a weakness against the enemy in case of a dispute. I recommend the design of a two-stage rocket and it’s launch platform as an alternative. The objective of this rocket is to be able launch a small military satellite or four communication satellites to LEO. They will also double as ballistic missiles when their payload is switched with a warhead. Two staged design is ideal to confuse the missile defense systems.

The rocket would be launched from a specially designed submarine or a ship. Therefore, the rocket needs to be compact and launchable with an angle other than 90 degrees. Ideally, the naval vessels would be nuclear powered and the rockets RP-1 and LOX. If the country does not have nuclear naval capability, the ships can be powered by RP-1 as well. The liquid oxygen can be stored in tanks or the seawater can be electrolyzed on demand to generate oxygen.

Synergy Rocket

A High-Bypass Turbofan is a jet engine characterized by a large fan at the front, which generates most of the thrust. The majority of the air drawn in by the fan bypasses the core engine (combustion and turbine areas), flowing around it rather than through it. This bypass air increases the fuel efficiency of the commercial planes.

I had previously proposed ways to have bypass on rocket engines to improve the first stage’s fuel efficiency. Here is a new one. It is an extension of the Yurt Rocket I had explained earlier. My new proposition is to attach small rockets side by side to form a ring. The empty hole in the center will serve as the bypass air intake. As the rocket accelerates to the sky, the air passing through this passage will be further accelerated by the heat from the exhaust of the surrounding rockets. Hence contributing to the thrust of the rockets without additional fuel consumption.

My proposition is to combine standalone rockets to create synergy. Only the first stages of the rockets will be connected to each other. The second stages would be free to continue their journey after they are released from the first stage. Therefore, independent missions can be conducted without affecting each other.

Lowering the Complexity of Problems

The latest geopolitical developments enforced countries to focus more on local manufacturing both commodities and high-tech products. I had thought about “Local Manufacturing System” many years ago as a much important revolution compared to Industry 4.0. It relied on developing new manufacturing systems that can achieve economies of scale at a lower volume and ultimately manufacture products individually. Therefore, manufacturing facilities can be distributed around the country. Development of new technologies and establishing new facilities fast required one critical thing, qualified humans. The standard solution relied on increased education expenditure. Education is important; however, the humans are so diverse that obtaining the right people in right numbers is not possible. I propose an alternative solution to this problem. 

Lowering the complexity of problems to allow even the less qualified person to achieve the expected goal.

Current automation systems and software development platforms are very complex. Additionally, the software platforms change so frequently that finding the right person is almost impossible. Humanity needs more stable and simpler platforms to progress faster. If I make an analogy to the current situation, it would be like changing the grammar of a language every year and forcing the writers to rewrite their books over and over again.

Lower the complexity and immediately you have more people meeting your criteria.

Manufacturing Thermoelectric Generators on the Moon

My favorite book is Jules Verne's "L'Île Mystérieuse". In the novel, shipwreck survivors build a civilization from scratch using mainly what they find on the island. So many talk about colonization on the moon and Mars. However, I don’t see a proper action in the right direction. The key to settling on a new location is to utilize the local resources. We keep sending lunar landers that only work on solar panels and conduct scientific experiments only. We should start testing manufacturing on the moon. The key to all manufacturing is the energy. We should send small lunar explorers that have legs (some of them double as arms) that operate with nuclear batteries. I propose these robots to try manufacturing electric generators using the materials found on the moon. 

A thermoelectric generator (TEG) is a solid-state device that converts temperature differences directly into electrical energy through a phenomenon called the Seebeck effect. I read an article that studied TEG using Silicon and Magnesium (High-Performance p-Type Magnesium Silicon Thermoelectrics). These two elements are abundant on lunar crust. The lunar explorer would manufacture thin sheets of magnesium and cover it with silicon. Additionally, it would manufacture aluminum sheets to be attached on top and bottom of the Magnesium Silicate sheets like seen on solar panels as an electric conductor. (Manufacturing semiconducting solar panels would be very complex. Also, phosphor used on n-type semiconductors is not that common on the moon compared to magnesium.) Silicon, Magnesium and Aluminum are all in oxide form. Therefore, as pure metals are produced, byproduct oxygen can be stored in a container for future use.

The lunar explorer would manufacture these TEG sheets close to the edge of a crater. Therefore, TEGs would receive sunlight efficiently. The manufactured TEGs would be rolled down the edge of the crater. This reduces the energy required to deploy them.

I propose this experimental manufacturing to be conducted on a LEO robotic space station first. The robotic space station would have a rotating section that has lunar soil on the ground. The rotation creates small gravity to mimic the moon. As a result, the machine and the process can be perfected much faster before it is deployed on the moon.

Electric generator manufacturing is a positive feedback process. As you build more, the rate of manufacturing increases.

Rocket With Pistons

Liquid rockets require turbopumps to feed propellent into the combustion chamber at a very high rate. This requires the propellent tanks to stay at a high pressure. This high pressure is created using Helium. Helium is expensive and has a reducing effect as the tank depletes. I want to take my previous ideas one step further. I propose the use of pistons to pressurize the propellent tanks.

I had previously proposed the encapsulated propellent tank design due to the following advantages. 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. 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. Additionally, the outside liquid reduces the pressure of the inner liquid on the inner walls. As a result, the inner wall can be made thinner and lighter.

Addition of pistons with graphite rings leave no room for the liquid propellent to evaporate. The pistons do not need to be very heavy. The forward acceleration of the rocket increases the apparent weight of the pistons on the liquids. As the pistons go lower the empty tanks would create vacuum effect. This vacuum will be filled with the outside air let by the controlled vents. Rocket’s increasing altitude ensures higher air pressure inside the empty tanks compared to outside air. If the pistons apply too much pressure on the liquid propellent, then the vents would open and allow the air inside the empty tanks to escape outside, reducing the internal pressure. This would create a vacuum effect on the pistons and reduces the pressure on the liquids.

The liquid propellent inside the tank sloshes as the rocket accelerates. Tank slosh is the transient movement of liquids within a confined container or tank. The piston by continuously reducing the effective volume of the tank, eliminates the sloshing even at micro gravity. Finally, the piston allows the propellent to be totally consumed.

Lunar Transporter

After analyzing the Apollo lunar landers and the Mars rover landers, I thought about an ultimate Lander design. In Apollo mission, the command module orbited approximately 100km above the lunar surface at a speed of 5760 km/h. The lunar module was a two-stage vehicle designed for space operations near and on the Moon. The spacecraft mass of 15103 kg was the total mass of the LM ascent and descent stages including propellants (fuel and oxidizer). The dry mass of the ascent stage was 2445 kg and it held 2376 kg of propellant. The descent stage dry mass (including stowed surface equipment) was 2034 kg and 8248 kg of propellant were onboard initially (Apollo 11 Lunar Module).

I propose a multipurpose design for a lunar transporter. Descent, ascent and rover all in one. This design would have a significant payload penalty. However some of it can be mitigated. In order to explore the craters of the moon properly the transporter should have legs and claws. The rocket engines would be attached to the legs like the jet packs attached on the arms of a human. The thrust vectoring of the engines will be achieved by the movement of the legs. The engines should have aerospikes instead of bulky vacuum optimized bell shaped nozzles. Due to lack of air, the transporter do not need an enclosure. The astronauts would sit with their suits on during ascent and descent (not shown in picture).

Independently adjustable engines attached on the flexible legs would allow the transporter to land on any terrain, including the slopy hills. Once the transporter lands, the empty tanks carrying the propellent for the descent can be removed to lower the weight of the transporter. The transporter would then be used as a legged rover to explore the moon. It would be powered by nuclear batteries instead of solar panels not to limit is operation. It would carry all the test equipment on board. Therefore, the tests can be conducted as the transporter travels.

When the mission is completed, the transporter would ascent to rendezvous with the command module to transfer the astronauts and the samples. Then, the transporter would descent back on the moon. Once landed, it would eject the remaining fuel tanks on board to minimize its overall weight. Afterwards, the transporter would keep exploring the moon as a remote controlled rover. With careful design, the payload penalty due to single stage design can be minimized.

As a result, unlike the classical lunar descent, ascent stages and lunar rover that are used once, the transporter would keep servicing for the humanity after it accomplishes its main objective and create minimum lunar debris.

O-Ring Sun Synchronous Satellites

Active space debris removal doesn't have a single solution. However, it requires many solutions to be combined to have an affective result. My previous proposal of using solar sailed cleaners had one major flaw. Large solar sails generate drag when they are operated close to earth. Therefore, they are not an ideal solution for LEO debris cleaning. However, they can be utilized for higher altitude debris removal.

I thought about utilizing the earths magnetic field. Satellites at sun synchronous orbit almost follow the earths magnetic field.  An O-Ring shaped satellite can adjust its velocity buy applying current around the O-ring to generate magnetic field. Depending on the direction of the magnetic field generated compared to earths magnetic field, the satellite can adjust its speed and position without needing propellants. The sun facing surface of the O-ring would be covered with solar panels to supply the necessary electricity.

If the O-Ring satellite can be made large enough (a folding design would help), the controlled generation of magnetic field can be used to slow down and deorbit small metallic space debris by generating eddy current on them. I was inspired by a magnet slowing down while falling down an aluminum tube.

Additionally, O-Ring satellite design can be used as an alternative to the more traditional sun synchronous orbiting communication satellites. Lower earth orbits allow earths magnetic field to be utilized for a propellent less navigation. An alternative to solar sails at lower altitudes. The O-Ring shape can also double as a large antenna.

Alternative Design Thinking for the Rockets

For several months, I have been developing new ideas on alternative rocket designs. I want to explain my design thinking. I divide the journey of the rocket into two stages. First, travelling through the atmosphere of the earth and the second is travelling in vacuum.

The main advantage of atmosphere is its lifting power which helps to counteract against the gravity. Its main disadvantage is the drag especially at higher speed. I thought about designs to utilize the advantage and minimize the effect of the disadvantage. Using a multi-wing plane as the first stage of a rocket reduced the thrust requirement on the first stage. Vertical take-off requires approximately ten times more thrust compared to horizontal take-off from a runway. The plane design also allows slower ascend speed which reduces the losses due to supersonic speeds. The high altitude lifting first stage can also be used alone to send space tourists much more comfortably than the current rockets can. Additionally, it is much easier to land a plane safely on a runway compared to a long and thin first stage of a rocket vertically. 

Another alternative for the first stage was to place the rockets around a circular belt (Yurt Rocket). This design allowed almost infinite expendability for the payload. Smaller perimeter for smaller payload. Larger diameter for larger payloads such as space telescopes and space station modules. You simply add more rockets side by side to increase the lift capacity. At the moment bigger payloads require a complete design of the rocket which takes decades. Additionally, multiple small rockets allow gradual acceleration to lower the drag due to un-aerodynamic design.

I also proposed alternatives to rocket’s propulsion design. Most notably, the sliding mechanism that decreases the volume of the propellent tanks as they are consumed. This design was mechanically complex and required the whole rocket to withstand high pressure like the solid boosters. I also thought about an altered version to be used on solid boosters which only required the lower section of the rocket to withstand high pressure. Limiting the area of the high-pressure zone improves the specific impulse of the rocket and lowers the weight of the casing.

Finally, aerospike nozzle design looks to be the future for the rockets. They can only be manufactured on 3d printers. Once a printer with much higher printing volume is developed, they will be the dominating nozzle design. Especially for the rocket stages that travel in vacuum where the bell-shaped nozzles are huge and bulky.

Space Scooter

Yesterday in my dream I saw a space scooter. Most probably inspired by the scene from the movie "Dr. Strangelove" where Major 'King' Kong would ride a nuclear missile. I Googled the term "Nasa Space Scooter" and found the concept developed by Nasa in 1970s. The astronauts, out of the station would utilize ‘space scooter’ to ferry them around, such as for docking with another satellite. Here is the link to the full article Nasa's vision of the future in 1970: Space station illustrations reveal plans for artificial gravity and a 'space scooter'

Anyone volunteering to turn this idea into reality. The scooters would also be used by the space tourists as well. Like the Jet Skis on a touristic resort.

From Pale Blue Dot To Pale Yellow Solar System

I had previously proposed a space telescope to observe the solar system from another perspective. Today, I am improving on that idea. Actually, going beyond the solar plane is not that difficult.

First, the solar space telescope would be launched to the sun synchronous orbit (SSO). Then, booster sections would be added to the telescope to form a multi stage rocket in space. This rocket would be fired when the orbit has perpendicular speed to the solar plane. The objective is to accelerate the telescope beyond the earth's escape velocity. Beyond this speed, the solar telescope would travel almost indefinitely without needing further propulsion. Therefore, increasing its distance from the solar plane. Additionally, the sun synchronous telecom satellites would relay the signal from the telescope to the earth allowing long range communication.

It would have been nice to capture the whole solar system in one frame. However, the planets reflect sun's light mostly in the solar plane and very little in the perpendicular direction. Therefore, the telescope most probably could not detect the individual planets besides the sun.

Finally, one day the solar telescope would transmit an image showing the solar system as one pale yellow dot.

Solar Wind Based Space Debris Cleaner

Space debris cleaning requires huge distances to be covered. No satellite would have required fuel to maneuver that much to deorbit tiny space debris. I propose solar synchronous orbiting (SSO) space cleaners. The satellites in SSO see the sunlight continuously. Therefore, they can utilize solar sails to continuously locate small space debris. Deorbiting would be done using solar wind concentrators.

Solar radiation is the radiation from the sun which includes all wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation coming from the sun. The solar wind is a stream of charged particles (a plasma) released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. It mostly consists of electrons and protons. Therefore, special solar wind concentrators need to be developed.

The concentrated solar wind would be used to deorbit the small particles. This would require less energy compared to melting the objects which has its own downfalls.

Compared to laser-based debris cleaners which require giant solar panel arrays to power the laser, solar wind-based cleaners require mainly mechanical concentrators and sails that are less affected by the micro meteoroids compared to solar panels.

As a result, a solar wind-based space debris cleaner can operate for many years without needing refueling and cover large distances.

Modern Windmills

Most valuable renewable energy source, wind, is almost exclusively used to generate electricity. We should thing beyond that. In the old times windmills were used to grind wheat to form flour. This design should be adapted to modern times.

All developed nations need to keep producing and for that they need constant supply of raw materials. Mining and recycling from the landfills should be thought over. I propose staged grinding of the ores and the landfills to separate them into their elementary molecular forms. As the grinder produces smaller particles, they will be separated using X-ray fluorescence (XRF). Depending on the composition, the grinding will be further conducted using mechanical grinders or ultrasonic crushers. The particles with high purity (XRF reading), will be dumbed into sperate containers for further processing by different facilities. As a result, considerable portion of the ore purification process will be conducted using the energy of the wind on location. No consumable chemicals will be used and no heating that produce toxic gasses. This know-how is also important for space mining where you have limited resources.

Wind turbines require a lot of raw materials to be manufactured of which some of them are exported from limited suppliers. Windmills on the other hand can be manufactured using the local resources. They output raw materials that can be used to build more windmills which is a self-sustaining system.

New Generation of Military Satellites

Space is heating up once more after the cold war. This time, there are more players with more advanced technologies. Unlike the fighter jets and the aircraft carriers, the technologies developed are not clearly broadcast. Some of my propositions most probably have already been deployed.

Surveillance satellites are the key to the military satellites. As the space is getting more crowded, sneaking around with no disturbance is almost impossible. The key satellites will need to be able defend themselves like the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. Instead of turrets with machine guns, they would have laser guns.

Space is monitored continuously for debris tracking. Being stealth would be an advantage like the B-2 Spirit. They would be nuclear battery powered without solar panels and antennas to minimize the radar footprint. They would only communicate optically. Having a lot of LEO telecom relays that also have optical transceivers on board would help the stealth sat to communicate with minimum tracking.

LEO telecom relays are also a good cover. Military satellites hidden inside the body of a telecom relay would be hard to distinguish from the real ones.

Finally, we would have giant satellites like the aircraft carriers. They would be able to deploy and retrieve small satellites based on their mission.

Space is a very tough battlefield. You can’t just shoot or bomb around you. Also, it is full of mines, the space debris.

Vertical Production Facilities

Production facilities are the key for the modern societies. As the local manufacturing is trending, I propose sustainable vertical production facilities. The goal is to harvest the wind energy better by building the vertical wind turbines on the facility itself. Additionally, enhance the air logistics to minimize the dependency on the ground infrastructures.

The facilities would be built as twin towers. Vertical wind turbines would be mounted on the suspension bridge formed between the two towers. The roof of the towers will double as the aerial logistic gates of the facility. Electrically operating drones will carry the raw materials to the facility and take away the manufactured goods. In the meanwhile, they will charge themselves from the sustainable electric supply. The facility will have dual elevator system, one carrying the raw materials and the other finished goods, that counterbalances each other to minimize the power consumption. The vertical wind turbines will have slightly different geometries to alter their sound signatures to minimize the accumulation of noise.

Finally, the unified vertical construction reduces the land requirement which is an important factor for the developed societies. Horizontal factories coupled with widely separated horizontal wind turbines, eat up a lot of valuable land space. Additionally, generating the electricity where it is used, reduces the transmission losses and the infrastructure cost.

The Mysterious Stranger

"The Mysterious Stranger" is a novella by the American author Mark Twain. Twain wrote multiple versions of the story; each involves a supernatural character called "Satan" or "No. 44".

In 1590, three boys, Theodor, Seppi, and Nikolaus, live relatively happy simple lives in a remote Austrian village called Eseldorf. One day, a handsome teenage boy named Satan appears in the village. He explains that he is an angel and the nephew of the fallen angel whose name he shares. In the village and in other places around the world where Satan transports them magically, the boys witness religious fanaticism, witch trials, burnings, hangings, deaths and mass hysteria. Finally, Satan vanishes after explaining:

Strange, indeed, that you should not have suspected that your universe and its contents were only dreams, visions, fiction! There is no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream—a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought—a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!

The mysterious stranger, and other stories

Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Floating Jammers

Latest geopolitical tension increased the attacks on satellite communication on the ground. Additionally, new techniques are being developed to confuse the military surveillance satellites.

I thought about floating carbon nanotube (CNT) balls that could jam the radar and radio signals. It is a more modern version of the second world war aluminum foil radar jammers used by the allied forces. CNTs are good radar and radio frequency absorbers (Carbon-based radar absorbing materials: A critical review, Pristine Carbon Nanotubes are Efficient Absorbers at Radio Frequencies)

The idea is to manufacture very thin CNT hemispheres. They would be joined in vacuum to form a floating balloon. No need to weld or glue them. External air pressure would keep them together like the Magdeburg hemispheres used in 1654 experiment. Unlike the copper hemispheres used in the experiment, very strong and light weight CNTs can form a floating sphere. These CNT balloons would then be released from an airplane to create long lasting air camouflage against the electromagnetic frequencies.

Modular Space Telescopes

Space telescopes are very important for humanity to solve the mysteries of the universe. However, their size limit their deployment.

Space telescopes can be designed to be modular like the DSLRs. The optics, the sensors, the control electronics and the propulsion system. Usually, the diameter of a space payload is the restricting factor. Therefore, I propose the sections that need to be frequently updated to have smaller diameter such as the electronics and the propulsion. Additionally, each section should have folded solar sails on them. Once the section's economical life is over, it would be released from the telescope. The section then deploys its solar sail and sails towards the sun to be destroyed with no space debris left behind.

The electronic and sensor technologies evolve so fast. However, the space telescopes have a long life. Therefore, their technology falls way behind during these years. Modular design would allow such parts to be changed more frequently. The propulsion section would also be changed, to allow more maneuvers, so that the telescope can be oriented frequently.

Lagrangian Stereo Space Telescopes

After seeing Dr. Brian May's Cosmic Clouds 3D Book, I thought about stereo space telescopes. How fascinating it would be to deploy two space telescopes on the fourth and fifth Lagrange points. Initially on the Earth-Moon and then on the Sun-Earth.

"Lagrangian points L4 and L5 lie at 60° ahead of and behind the Moon in its orbit with respect to the Earth. These Lagrangian points are stable for the Earth-Moon mass ratio. As so, these Lagrangian points represent remarkable positions to host astronomical observatories or space stations." (Alternative transfer to the Earth-Moon Lagrangian points L4 and L5 using lunar gravity assist)

I propose my Yurt Rocket design to deploy these telescopes.

Defragmented vs Standardized Approach to Space

Independent approaches to Earth observations and scientific researches fill the LEO with chaotic mass, like the interiors of an old tube radio. If we want to generate less space debris and pollute Earth less with frequent rocket launches, we should be more organized, like the interiors of a quality amplifier.

Too much defragmentation...

The Space Hypes

The Space encourages our imagination and on the other hand we live in reality. Dreaming is something, putting tax payers' money and valuable human resources on dreams is something else.

I keep reading more on more on space mining. It is an infeasible dream. Earth has all the minerals we need. Earth is full of abandoned mines and millions of tons of landfill waiting to be recycled.

The movies are full of fantastic spaceship designs. The spaceship reality in the past seven decades is shown below. At the end of the day, for almost a century the spaceships are giant gas tanks with couple of instruments attached on them. Additionally, they leave big junks behind on their journey.

If we want to see radical changes in Space, we need vertically integrated big organizations that keep experimenting new ideas. Startups are driven by venture capitalists who want maximum return on their investment in minimum time with minimum risk. As a result, seeing radical designs from them is almost impossible. They wouldn't get funded and have enough resources to innovate multiple new components that make up a radical change.

The Space Portal and The Sea

I want to take my Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) idea one step further.

A space portal situated on a shore would generate the required fuel for a space flight except for the mini-Nukes. Offshore wind turbines would be used to generate hydrogen and oxygen from the sea water to be used in the first stage of the rocket. Later stages would utilize the NTP and liquified air as the mono propellent. Liquified air would also be generated by the offshore wind turbines.

This space portal would only launch high energy missions such as Geostationary Satellite deployment, lunar and planetary missions. The second and later stages of the rocket are not recovered in those missions. Therefore, no risk of radioactive space debris to fall on Earth.

The first stage of the rocket would directly lift it to the ionosphere with no lateral speed. Then, the second stage would be fired and the first stage would free fall to Earth with parachutes attached. Due to vertical only displacement, the stage would fall close to the launch site where it would be recovered for reuse.

Emitting radioactive gas from the second stage above the ionosphere is not a big risk for the Earth. The ionosphere is bombarded with Sun's radiation and is already full of high energy particles. As the rocket increases its distance from the Earth, the risk would be reduced considerably. The magazines containing the mini-Nukes can be made of fire proof materials that can be safely recovered in case of an accident.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

I want to further detail my Nuke based space exploration idea. You can simply think of it as dropping Mentos inside a cola bottle. Instead of Mentos, a tiny Nuke is dropped. The end result is the same, pressurized carbon dioxide. Mentos rocket would not generate enough thrust but a Nuke can. Most probably during the Cold War area such miniature Nukes have been developed just to scare and panic people. Generating pulses of burst energy reliably for long durations, open up the door for human planetary missions. The most important part is that, the technology to achieve it is already available. Some of the stock piled Nukes can be converted into tiny Space Nukes reducing the Nuclear threat on Earth and increasing the success of the Space Exploration.

Pressurized carbon dioxide based thrust allows aerospike nozzles to be used instead of bulky vacuum optimized bell shaped nozzles. Bulky bell shaped nozzles can easily be damaged during landing which would end the mission. The aerospike nozzles protrude very little from the rocket bottom. The lack of combustion (compared to traditional rockets) near the nozzle, allow simpler aerospikes that do not require complex cooling schemes. Finally, the removal of bulky bell shaped nozzles, free up space in the payload area to be utilized for something useful. 

Additionally, the pressurized carbon dioxide gas can be used to turn turbines to generate high power electricity. An alternative to Peltier based nuclear batteries.

Mars Sample Retrieval

The distance between Mars and Earth varies between 55 to 401 million km. Mars is closest to Earth every 780 days. If we want to explore Mars further, planning missions every 2 years is not an option. We should be able to launch missions more frequently. In the worst case 400 million km is not that much if we want to explore the solar system further. Saturn's moon Titan is more than a billion km away from Earth.

I propose a four stage rocket for Mars missions. The first two stages would be classical rockets that launch geostationary satellites. The third and the fourth stages will have Nuclear-Thermal-Propulsion (NTP). Unlike the NTP's developed earlier (see image below), I propose a much simpler and reliable design.

NTP I propose uses tiny gun-type fission bombs that are activated by explosives. These bombs are simple in design and do not require complex timing circuitry of plutonium implosion type. The idea is to heat liquid carbon dioxide to generate high pressure gas using nuclear fission. The Nukes are more efficient, reliable, simpler, smaller and lighter in generating heat from fission compared to much complex nuclear reactors.

The mono propellent, solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) will be partially liquified and poured inside the pressure chamber. Then from a magazine, a pill sized Nuke will be dropped inside. After a chemically delayed explosion, the fission reaction will pressurize the carbon dioxide gas. Which will then be exhausted from the aerospike engines to generate thrust. In order to generate continuous thrust, two pressure chambers will be used in succession. Interplanetary missions require engines that can be fired multiple times. My design allows that.

The third stage of the rocket will put the rocket into Earth to Mars trajectory. The fourth stage will slow down the rocket for landing on Mars. After the landing, a robot will gather the samples. In the meanwhile, the rocket's dry ice maker (powered by nuclear batteries) will refuel the dry ice tank from the Martian atmosphere which is mostly carbon dioxide. Partially filled tank can lift the rocket from ground and let it fly over distant terrain to collect more samples before returning to Earth. Once the sample collection ends, the dry ice tank can be fully loaded. Then the rocket can lift off and start it's return journey.

Monks for Space Colonization

As Charles Darwin had stated, those who survive are the ones who most accurately perceive their environment and successfully adapt to it. The resources of space colonies will be much limited compared to resources on Earth. The modern humans require so many things to keep them motivated and happy. With limited resources and confined spaces, the probability that the modern humans will be depressed in the long run is high.

On the other hand, the monks discipline their souls over the years. They adapt themselves to live with minimum resources. They require very little to stay motivated and happy. They also have strong relation with the nature and the plants which is important for space colonials as well.

There are astronaut training facilities in the wild. Living in such environments for several months can be enough for ISS, but not for Mars and beyond.

I propose Space Monasteries to raise future space colonials. This would take time so as the technology to establish the colonies.

Leslie Speaker in ISS

I was watching a video on Leslie Speakers and I thought. How a Leslie Speaker would sound in ISS. Creating a concert room effect in confined space. Floating around as it rotates.

Micro² Gravity Space Station and Production Facility

In the movie Men In Black, The Arquilian Galaxy fits inside a necklace. That inspired me. Does everything related with space has to be big? We have CubeSats for example.

Why don't we build a space station to make micro gravity researches that can fit inside a space capsule. We have Lab-on-a-Chip technology and advanced MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems). Instead of making research in grams we can make the micro gravity research in micro grams scale. Reduced scale would require less power that can be supplied from nuclear batteries. 

The objective of this idea is to decrease the size of the space station so that it can be deployed with smaller rockets. Additionally smaller size (lack of large solar panels) reduces the probability of a space debris impact. The capsule design (including the heat shields) allows the station to be safely recovered after its useful lifetime with no space and earth debris. Additionally, micro gravity manufacturing and recovery would be possible at a lower cost.

Holographic Humans for Space

Sending humans to space is a very challenging task. Why don't we send holographic humans instead?

Like Arnold Rimmer of Red Dwarf