Hypervelocity launching and frozen fuels as a major contribution to spaceflight
Acting as a virtual first stage, a hypervelocity launch together with the use of frozen hydrogen/frozen oxygen propellant, offers a Single-Stage-To-Orbit (SSTO) system that promises an enormous increase in SSTO massratio. Ram acceleration provides hypervelocity (≈2 km/sec) to the orbital vehicle with a gas gun supplying the initial velocity required for ram operation. The vehicle itself acts as the center body of a ramjet inside a launch tube, filled with gaseous fuel and oxidizer, acting as an engine cowling. The high acceleration needed to achieve hypervelocity precludes a crew, and it would require greatly increased liquid fuel tank structural mass if a liquid propellant is used for post-launch vehicle propulsion. Solid propellents do not require as much fuelchamber strengthening to withstand a hypervelocity launch as do liquid propellants, but traditional solid fuels have lower exhaust velocities than liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen. The shock-stability of frozen hydrogen/frozen oxygen propellant has been experimentally demonstrated. A hypervelocity launch system using frozen hydrogen/frozen oxygen propellant would be a revolutionary new development in spaceflight.
Duke Scholars
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Related Subject Headings
- Aerospace & Aeronautics
- 5101 Astronomical sciences
- 1605 Policy and Administration
- 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences
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Published In
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- Aerospace & Aeronautics
- 5101 Astronomical sciences
- 1605 Policy and Administration
- 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences