a ship that eats its fuselage to use it as fuel

While the vast majority of the aerospace sector is moving towards reusable rockets, there are companies that have taken a completely different path. A group of engineers from the University of Glasgow They created a rocket that destroys itself like a wax candle that uses your own body as fuel.

This type of technology may include some significant benefits for a sector hungry for new ideas to reduce its impact on space debris. For example, there is noticeably less debris from this type of rocket than from a conventional launch vehicle, which usually remains in orbit for a limited time – until it burns up upon re-entry – and even roams space in search of remains.

Another positive thing that can be taken from the British rocket is weight saving. The mass of each component is a critical issue on every liftoff due to the high cost per kilogram launched into space. If part of the rocket body is also part of the propellant used in flight, more payload can be carried on board without sacrificing performance or increasing costs.

Expendable rocket

The autophagic engine design, as explained by the university, works by using the residual heat of combustion to consistently melt your own fuselage plastic during shooting. This molten plastic is “injected into the engine chamber to serve as additional fuel and burn alongside regular liquid fuel.”

This translates to reducing the amount of fuel you need to take on board missile tanks and “the released mass could be attributed to the payload.” “Destruction of the fuselage could also help prevent the problem of space debris from worsening,” they explain, which accumulates around Earth and hampers missions.

“In general, you get Higher Efficiency May Help Autophagic Missiles For example, including multiple nanosatellites—very small satellites—in each launch without having to share space with more expensive rockets that use only propellant.

The engine concept is far from a modern idea. A self-propelling rocket was proposed and patented in 1938.. However, as the University of Glasgow explained, not a single prototype reached the launch stage until the same British academic institution, together with the University of Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine), reached this milestone in 2018.

Engineers currently involved in the project are supported by Kingston University and have been able to demonstrate “that more energetic liquid fuels can be used and that plastic fuselage withstands the necessary forces power the engine without warping.”

The latest experiments have now been published in paper presented at a scientific forum in Florida (USA), where they describe what was observed with the Ourobourous-3 engine. This rocket “uses polyethylene plastic pipes as an autophagic fuel, burning it along with the main rocket fuel: a mixture of oxygen gas and liquid propane.

Stable combustion

In addition to achieving 100 N of thrust, these recent tests have shown that Ourobourous-3 is capable of carry out stable combustion throughout the entire autophagy stage. “A key requirement for any rocket engine,” they say. The above calculations show that approximately 20% of the fuel used corresponds to the plastic that covers the rocket.

Through testing, they were also able to verify that the combustion could be successfully controlled. Could speed it up and restart it in an on/off pattern. “All of these capabilities could help future autophagic rockets control their ascent from the launch pad to orbit.”

“These results are a fundamental step towards developing a fully functional autophagic rocket engine,” said Patrick Harkness, professor at the University of Glasgow and leader of the scientific team leading the project. “These future rockets can have a wide range of applications this will help strengthen the UK’s ambitions to become a key player in the aerospace industry.”

“The structure of a typical rocket makes up 5 to 12% of its total mass,” he says. “Our tests show that Ourobourous-3 can burn a very similar amount of its own structural mass as fuel.” Investigations are aimed at transfer this percentage to the ability to bear a larger payment load on board. “This would be an attractive prospect for future rocket projects.”

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