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.