Jan 10, 2024After a rocket uses up its fuel, the tank generally just becomes dead weight, but a prototype rocket that burns its own fuselage as propellant could solve that problem. A team of engineers has built a prototype of one of these “autophage engines” for the first time, which could free up capacity for transporting more important science projects and supplies into space.
Oct 21, 2020 #starship #elonmusk #spacexA team of engineers from the University of Glasgow and Oles Honchar Dnipro National University in Ukraine has built and test-fired a new style of "autophage" rocket engine that eats its own structure from the bottom up during the flight. They believe it could lead to cheaper, more efficient, and less wasteful small satellite launches.Rather than using a heavy tank to store its fuel, the autophage rocket's main structure is a cylindrical propellant rod consisting of solid, strong plastic fuel on the outside with a core of powdered oxidizer.As the rod is pushed into the hot engine, it gets vaporized, producing thrust via exhaust gases as well as more heat to burn the next bit of the propellant rod. So the rocket gets shorter as it eats itself from the bottom up.Many solid fuel motors, the researchers say, don't have the capability of being throttled. With the autophage engine, that's not a problem. You simply increase the speed at which you're feeding the propellant rod if you want more thrust.
ETV Phase 1 - Preliminary Design Review of the Economical Transfer Vehicle, Meridian Space Command x Alpha Impulsion (France) - £150,000This project will advance the development of the Economical Transfer Vehicle (ETV), the world’s first “self-eating” spacecraft. he ETV is a next-generation logistics and payload-hosting spacecraft powered by an autophage engine that actively consumes its own structural tank during flight. Designed for high delta-V missions, it will transport payloads across Earth orbits and beyond, supporting future in-orbit servicing, infrastructure, and deep space logistics.
As part of the PDR, Alpha has teamed up with Meridian to study how the propulsion system could effectively create a cheaper OTV, by reducing the overall weight necessary to reach further orbits. The study will assess both the technical feasibility and economic viability of the proposed ETV.On the technology front, Alpha and Meridian have a good idea already of what a typical ETV mission could look like.The ETV is expected to have a payload capacity of up to 50 kg, with a total launch mass of about 250 kg.The spacecraft is expected to have a Delta-v capability of around 4.5 km/s, giving the ETV the ability to change its inclination by up to 30 degrees within LEO. It can also reach MEO, GEO, and even lunar orbits.The idea is to have the ETV hitch a ride on a cheap rideshare flight to LEO or SSO and then power itself to its final trajectory, reducing its total mass the entire way.
