Unreferenced date February 2009 Image Aerospaceplane.jpg thumb 300px Aerospaceplane 1 artist conception . Lab research showed hydrogen fueled airbreathers could be used for space launch. The US Air Force s aerospaceplane project encompassed a variety of projects from 1958 until 1963 to study a fully reusable spaceplane . A variety of designs were studied during the lifetime of the project, including most of the early efforts on liquid air cycle engine s LACE and even a nuclear propulsion nuclear powered ramjet . The effort was started largely due to the work of Weldon Worth at the Wright Patterson AFB , who published a short work outlining a manned spaceplane. AF officials were interested enough to start SR 89774 study requirement for a reusable spaceplane in 1957. By 1959 this work had resulted in the Recoverable Orbital Launch System , or ROLS , based around a LACE engine, known at the time as a Liquid Air Collection System , or LACES . Further work showed that more performance could be gained by extracting only the oxygen from the liquid air , a system they referred to as Air Collection and Enrichment System , or ACES . A contract to develop an ACES testbed was placed with Marquardt Corporation Marquardt and General Dynamics , with Garrett AiResearch building the heat exchanger for cooling the air. The original ACES design was fairly complex the air was first liquified in the heat exchanger cooled by liquid hydrogen fuel, then pumped into a low pressure tank for short term storage. From there it was then pumped into a high pressure tank where the oxygen was separated and the rest mostly nitrogen was dumped overboard. In late 1960 and early 1961 a 125 N demonstrator engine was being operated for up to five minutes at a time. In early 1960 Air Force offered a development ... a review suggested that the basic concepts of the aerospaceplane were far too new for development ... when any such aerospaceplane could ever be built, and funding was wound down in 1964. Category ... more details
Refimprove date June 2008 Andrews Space is a small aerospace company based in Seattle , Washington, founded in 1999 to develop space systems. Andrews provides aerospace services for commercial, civil, and military clients. Current projects Rocketplane Kistler K 1 Vehicle K 1 reusable space vehicle Air Collection and Enrichment System ACES Proposes to generate Liquid Oxygen fuel in flight from the atmosphere Citation needed date July 2010 Gryphon RLV vehicle HTHL spacecraft MicroX Microsatellite Citation needed date July 2010 NASA s Cislunar Flight Experiment Citation needed date July 2010 Andrews Cargo Module Unmanned cargo logistics system and candidate for NASA COTS Citation needed date July 2010 Future projects Andrews Space was chosen as one of six finalists for NASA s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services COTS program, though they were not selected for funding. Citation needed date July 2010 In November 2010, Andrews Space was selected by NASA for consideration for potential contract awards for heavy lift launch vehicle system concepts, and propulsion technologies. ref cite web title NASA Selects Companies for Heavy Lift Vehicle Studies url http www.nasa.gov home hqnews 2010 nov HQ 10 292 Heavy Lift.html publisher NASA accessdate 8 November 2010 ref See also Reusable launch system Commercial Orbital Transportation Services List of private spaceflight companies References reflist External links official http www.andrews space.com http www.youtube.com watch?v hVHSm80lYqI Video animation Peregrine Spaceplane http www.andrews space.com images videos Gryphon.wmv Video animation Gryphon Aerospaceplane Category Aerospace companies of the United States Category Companies based in Seattle, Washington tech company stub de Andrews Space fr Andrews Space ... more details
expert subject 1 Spaceflight date August 2011 A Propulsive Fluid Accumulator is an artificial Earth satellite which collects and stores oxygen and other atmospheric gases for in situ refuelling of high thrust rockets. This eliminates the need to lift oxidizer to orbit and therefore brings significant cost benefits. A major portion of the total world payload sent into low earth orbit each year is either liquid oxygen or water. Propulsive Fluid Accumulator PROFAC In the period 1956 to 1963, S.T. Demetriades proposed methods of atmospheric gas accumulation by means of a satellite moving in low Earth orbit , at an altitude of around 120 km, or propellant accumulation by stations on the surface of a planet or by gathering and exploiting interstellar matter ref JBIS, Vol 17, p114, 1959 1960 ARS Preprint 2438 62, Part I, 14 16 Mar 1962 Parts II, III and IV not to be found in the open literature also National Archives ARC Identifier No. 1250057 and 1250058 ref full ref 1963 McGraw Hill Yearbook of Science and Technology ref request quotation date November 2011 . In its simplest form, Demetriades proposed satellite extracts air from the fringes of the atmosphere, compresses and cools it, and extracts liquid oxygen. The remaining nitrogen is used as propellant for a nuclear powered magnetohydrodynamics magnetohydrodynamic electromagnetic plasma thruster, which maintains the orbit, compensating for atmospheric Drag physics drag . ref name Demetriades1962epc cite journal last Demetriades first S.T. title The Use of Atmospheric and Extraterrestrial Resources in Space Propulsion Systems, Part I journal Electric Propulsion Conference, American Rocket Society year 1962 month March ref This system was called PROFAC PROpulsive Fluid ACcumulator . ref name Demetriades1962jbis . Several systems were studied, e. g. PROFAC S for Surface, PROFAC C for Orbital, PROFAC A for combination with aerospaceplane making one reusable stage to orbit possible, etc. Several inlets e. g. conical a ... more details
Infobox Aircraft Begin name X 30 NASP image Image X 30 NASP 3.jpg caption Artist s Concept of the X 30 entering orbit Infobox Aircraft Type type SSTO aerospaceplane manufacturer Rockwell International designer first flight introduced retired status Cancelled 1993 primary user NASA more users produced number built 0 unit cost program cost developed from variants with their own articles developed into NASA X 43 X 43 The Rockwell X 30 was an advanced technology demonstator project for the National Aero Space Plane NASP , part of a United States project to create a single stage to orbit SSTO spacecraft and passenger spaceliner. It was cancelled in the early 1990s, before a prototype was completed, although a lot of development work in advanced materials and aerospace design was completed. While a goal of a future NASP was a passenger liner capable of two hour trips from Washington to Tokyo, the X 30 was planned for a crew of two and oriented towards testing. Development The NASP concept is thought to have come from the Copper Canyon project, in DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA , running from 1982 to 1985. In his 1986 State of the Union address , President Ronald Reagan called for a new Orient Express that could, by the end of the next decade, take off from Dulles Airport , accelerate up to 25 times the speed of sound, attaining low earth orbit or flying to Tokyo within two hours. Research suggested a maximum speed of Mach 8 for scramjet based aircraft, as the vehicle would generate heat due to atmospheric friction, which would thus cost considerable energy. The project showed that much of this energy could be recovered by passing hydrogen over the skin and carrying the heat into the combustion chamber Mach 20 then seemed possible. The result was a program funded by NASA, and the United States Department of Defense funding was approximately equally divided between NASA, DARPA, the US Air Force , the Strategic Defense Initiative Office SDIO and the US ... more details
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