The British company Reaction
Rockets, led by Alan Bond, is developing
the Skylon
single stage to orbit spaceplane. The key
enabler of this vehicle is the innovative
Sabre
engine, which Reaction Engines says
is a unique hybrid engine that can “breathe”
air when in the atmosphere, like a jet
engine, and become a rocket engine when
in space. In air-breathing mode air is
first cooled by a revolutionary heat exchanger
pre-cooler before being compressed and
fed to the rocket engine to be burned
with hydrogen fuel. When in rocket mode
the hydrogen is burnt with liquid oxygen.
They
believe that successful development
of the vehicle would lead to drastic reductions
in the cost of access to space:
We expect mission costs to fall
to about $10 million per launch for high
product value cargo (e.g. communications
satellites) $2-5 million for low product
value cargo (e.g. science satellites) and
for costs per passenger to fall below $100k,
for tourists when orbital facilities exist
to accommodate them.
The firm recently obtained funding from
several sources, including the European
Space Agency (ESA), to develop further the
Sabre engine technology: The
Rocket that Thinks It's a Jet: The SKYLON
spaceplane is one step closer to realization
thanks to European Space Agency and UK Government
support for revolutionary British propulsion
technology - Reaction Engines Limited
- Feb.19.09. Once the Sabre engine approach
is proven, the development of the Skylon
would take about 10 years and $10B according
to Bond.
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