Progress Report on Project Throb
Conception
Over the past years I have been in awe of many of the accomplishments of the NASA space program, the Apollo and the shuttle launches were always things that stayed in my mind as I grew up. But I've always thought that there must be an easier way to jump the boundry into space. I was intrigued by the way that heluim balloons seemed to defy gravity and rise into the sky. It is differcult for me now to explain how I came to the conclusions that a new space craft was required but I set about designing it in my head.
Project Start
In my head is where it would have stayed had not a friend of mine named Owen Humphries had not quizzed me when I proclaimed that NASA had been doing it all wrong
for many years (he was getting nicely drunk on a bottle of wine before we went to the pub) and asked me to explain how. He was so enthusastic about my idea I decided
to write this web page to get the project off the ground (pardon the Pun). We talked about how things would work and discussed how a concertina of rubber might be used
to expand the rocket without having a stretching material (like a Balloon). As you get on the suspension covers of a motorbike.
I have considered getting the hydrogen to warm up throughout the envelope and have designed an aluminium base to conduct heat into the envelope then use a fan to transfer the heat into the hydrogen gas, similar to a cpu fan but with the fan blowing the other way and a lot bigger. But discounted this as the increase in volume is minimal.
Work List
Ok so what needs to happen now, how can I move this project along and develop this idea of mine, find its flaws and discover how to bypass them. This is where you can contribute. I would like help with the design and development of this project can you help?
- Design
- Model
- Materials
- Funding
- Prototype
- Re-Entry
I would like to keep this open so any contributions will be open to all, to comment and discuss.
Max Emerson
Design
My current thoughts on design are :
A wide rocket shape with concertina rubber sides to allow for expansion of the gas,
a cone shape at the top to pierce the air and limit the air resistance (The Drag Factor),
some curved fins along the side to stabilize the rocket and spin it during flight,
some long tubes to pass the hydrogen from the cone to the engine and to give the craft structure.
At first I thought that heating the hydrogen to increase lift would be a good idea but now
I think that the gains made by heating the hydrogen may not be worth the extra
weight required. Hydrogen is so light that heating it to 273 Degrees only makes it
twice as light! The extra lift is minimal. Calculations show only 3.5 per cent extra
lift from this heating.
(1.16 kg/m3 as opposed to 1.12 kg/m3)
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Engine Design
Engine design is crucial to my rocket, I have an idea of rotating fans drawing the oxygen into the engine and cooling it at the same time, to prevent these fans from just spinning the balloon I envisage two fans in counter directions, a parabolic shape will direct the thrust downwards when the engine is firred up.
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Problems that I can foresee :
- Hydrogen is a very small atom and may be able to pass through the membrane of the craft
- Hyrdogen is a very flammable gas and can ignite spontanously on contact with air.
- Re Entry into the atmosphere has not been discused and may be differcult
- At the heights I want this craft to travel there may be very fast debris
or asteriods
- Nobody would fund the construction of a new space vehicle in Britain today
- The heat of the Hydrogen and the coldness of the Upper Atmosphere will stress the
components to breaking point
- Because the air gets thinner as height increases the craft may have to be infeasably large
- To achieve orbit the space capsule has to reach speeds of 17,000 mph which is why NASA's vehicles burn up when re-entering the atmosphere. To prevent burn up We would have to slow the craft down in space and then re-enter the atmosphere at near zero orbital velocity which is a great waste of fuel (carried oxygen)
- Due to its size to mass ratio the craft may be very susceptible to the solar wind, (A mixture of mainly Hydrogen, Helium and high-energy protons accelerated by the light from the sun to an average of 450 km/s.)
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Model
| To produce a model I will use helium as the gas (non explosive but shows the how the first stage might work.) The canopy will consist of the largest balloon I can find |
Prototype
| Firstly I want to produce a model. |
Funding
| No Funding has been obtained up to this point. |
Construction
| No Construction date or Location. |