XCOR and the Lynx rocket

[AlanRex54]

I would think Xcor would get more out of this if they at least have there spacecraft test fire it's engine in the craft on the runway  -  prior to the superbowl.  I thought they were aiming for a 1st Qtr flight test but haven't seen anything yet this year.

[Lars_J]

Yes, this could backfire if they aren't ready...

[simonbp]

Yeah, they had been talking about at least a taxi test by the end of the year. Though, that was before they announced the move to Texas, so the schedule may have been changed by that...

[Robert Thompson]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/01/26/company-seeks-to-capitalize-on-space-tourism/1866889/

"XCOR and other companies give "very high-wealth individuals the spaceflight experience. Climb Mount Everest or go into space. These are the choices a lot of these folks are making," Salonen said. "The market is there, and it's substantial, and it can sustain multiple providers."

Nelson is not worried about the competition. He compares it to a roller-coaster fan visiting various theme parks.

"If you ride roller coasters, do you just ride one roller coaster?" Nelson said. "No. You ride them all.""

[Danderman]

Silicon Valley Space Center to Develop Suborbital Payloads for Lynx

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2013/03/20/silicon-valley-space-center-to-develop-suborbital-payloads-for-lynx/

The Silicon Valley Space Center will develop four scientific payloads to fly on the XCOR Lynx spacecraft, which is currently under construction in Mojave, California.

“The Silicon Valley Space Center is proud to support the Citizens in Space program,” said Dr. Sean Casey, co-founder of the Silicon Valley Space Center. “This is a unique opportunity to leverage the technical expertise of the Silicon Valley community in support of citizen science and the emerging suborbital spaceflight industry.”

Citizens in Space has acquired an initial contract for 10 flights on the XCOR Lynx. This initial flight campaign will carry 100 citizen-science payloads and 10 citizen astronauts who will act as payload operators.

The experiments being developed by the Silicon Valley Space Center will serve as pathfinders for those citizen-science experiments.  “When a developer is learning a new programming language or technology, he starts out by building a ‘Hello, world’ application,” Casey said. “These payloads serve as ‘Hello, world’ apps for space. They will provide a starting point for citizen scientists who are just getting started in space science.”

The Silicon Valley Space Center is currently reviewing candidate experiments in microgravity materials processing, fluid physics, life sciences, and other fields. Experiments built by the Silicon Valley Space Center will be featured at a series of “Space Hacker” workshops for citizen scientists, the first of which is scheduled for May 4-5 at the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View, California.

“We are pleased to welcome the Silicon Valley Space Center as a partner,” said Edward Wright, project manager for Citizens in Space. “The Center brings the scientific experience and knowledge of the Silicon Valley culture needed to make this program a success.”

“Payload designs will use open-source hardware wherever possible,” Casey said. To achieve this goal, the Silicon Valley Space Center is teaming up with Infinity Aerospace, a Silicon Valley startup that offers Nanorack-compliant and certified technologies for research experiments and commercial activities aboard suborbital and orbital facilities. ArduLab, an Arduino-based microgravity platform developed by Infinity Aerospace, will serve as the underlying hardware for experiments developed by the Silicon Valley Space Center.

[Lars_J]

Any progress yet on the Lynx aircraft itself?

[yg1968]

XCOR Aerospace Announces Significant Propulsion Milestone on Lynx Suborbital Vehicle:
http://www.xcor.com/press-releases/2013/13-03-26_XCOR-lynx-propulsion-milestone.html

[gin455res]

XCOR Aerospace Announces Significant Propulsion Milestone on Lynx Suborbital Vehicle:
http://www.xcor.com/press-releases/2013/13-03-26_XCOR-lynx-propulsion-milestone.html

This press release, claims that these piston pumps are 'game-changing'.

Why is that?
 (Does it reduce the lower bound on the size of pump fed stages?)

[jongoff]

XCOR Aerospace Announces Significant Propulsion Milestone on Lynx Suborbital Vehicle:
http://www.xcor.com/press-releases/2013/13-03-26_XCOR-lynx-propulsion-milestone.html

This press release, claims that these piston pumps are 'game-changing'.

Why is that?
 (Does it reduce the lower bound on the size of pump fed stages?

I think the claim is that their piston pumps are almost as good mass-wise as turbopumps for small-scale engines, but much cheaper, and much, much more easily reused. They haven't demonstrated 10s of thousands of flight cycles on the engines yet, but that's what they're trying to get to. Make it work reliably and reusably first, then start bringing the performance up as high as you can without hurting reusability.

~Jon

[simonbp]

And to further Jon's point, the major differences is that piston pumps can move a lot more fluid at a given RPM than a turbopump. That means you can run the piston at a much lower RPM, reducing the mechanical wear and extending its life.

Piston pumps are typically larger and more complex than a similar power turbopump, and so ICBMs and the ELVs derived from them used turbopumps. For an RLV, though, the design lifetime matters much more, and so Xcor's piston pump.

[yg1968]

Here is the video of the test:
http://www.xcor.com/blog/?p=99

[go4mars]

This press release, claims that these piston pumps are 'game-changing'.

Why is that?

Re-read the quote from Jeff Greason.  Takes away the need for (heavy) high-pressure tanks...     Also, IIRC, when they had the release related to the testing on the motorcycle, they couldn't figure out what a wear mechanism would be.


Looking forward to a vast future for XCOR!  Well done.

[xanmarus]

Some info about this piston pumps
http://www.xcor.com/products/pumps/

[crab nebula2]

Does anyone know how the piston pump on these tests was driven? The pump description mentions a proprietary thermodynamic cycle, but I am wondering if a high pressure gas might be used for this prototype setup.

[deltaV]

And to further Jon's point, the major differences is that piston pumps can move a lot more fluid at a given RPM than a turbopump. That means you can run the piston at a much lower RPM, reducing the mechanical wear and extending its life.

Piston pumps are typically larger and more complex than a similar power turbopump, and so ICBMs and the ELVs derived from them used turbopumps. For an RLV, though, the design lifetime matters much more, and so Xcor's piston pump.

Jet engines use high-RPM turbines and turbopumps and are among the most reliable engines on the planet. In fact they're more reliable than aviation piston engines. My point is that pistons are not inherently more reliable than turbopumps. IANARS but I bet that margins have a greater impact on pump reliability than turbopump vs. piston does.

[krytek]

New Research Platform to Fly on XCOR Lynx Space Plane

Lynx Cub Payload Carrier Being Developed at Texas A&M
College Station, Texas (Mar. 28, 2013) – A new payload carrier promises to dramatically reduce the cost of access to space for small scientific and education payloads.

The Lynx Cub Payload Carrier was announced today by the United States Rocket Academy.  The Lynx Cub Carrier will fly on the XCOR Lynx space plane, now under construction at the Mojave Air and Space Port, and carry up to 12 experiments on each flight.

“The Lynx Cub Payload Carrier is a versatile system that installs in the Lynx cabin, behind the pilot’s seat, allowing small experiments to be carried as secondary payloads on any Lynx flight,” said United States Rocket Academy chairman Edward Wright. “The Cub Carrier can be installed and removed quickly for frequent, low-cost flight opportunities.”

Citizens in Space, a project of the United States Rocket Academy, will fly the Lynx Cub Carrier on 10 Lynx missions beginning in late 2014 or early 2015. The Lynx Cub Carrier will also be made available to other XCOR customers, as ready-to-fly hardware or as an open-source hardware design.

“XCOR Aerospace is pleased to welcome the new Cub Carrier to the Lynx family,” said Khaki Rodway, XCOR Director of Payload Sales and Pperations. “The Lynx Cub Carrier is an ideal platform for small materials-processing, fluid-physics, life-science, and engineering experiments. University teaching and research, K-12 education, citizen science, government and industrial R&D will all benefit from the convenient simple interfaces, rapid integration, and affordability of Lynx Cub experiments.”

The Lynx Cub Carrier is being developed by the United States Rocket Academy and the Space Engineering Research Center, part of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), with support from XCOR Aerospace. Design and fabrication are being done by Texas A&M faculty and students and TEES researchers.

“Lynx Cub payloads are based on the popular 1U, 2U, and 3U CubeSat form factors, which are de facto international standards for small scientific payloads,” said Chip Hill, Director of the Space Engineering Research Center. “The payload carrier provides physical accommodations, electrical power, and limited thermal control for Lynx Cub experiments.”

The Lynx Cub Carrier will be flight-ready in September 2013 and will be included in the XCOR Lynx flight test program.

“For the test flights, we will load the Lynx Cub Carrier with payload simulators, accelerometers, gyroscopes, and environmental sensors,” Wright said. “While XCOR is proving out the vehicle, we’ll be gathering baseline data on the thermal environment, the acoustical environment, acceleration, vibration, etc. – data that will help guide experimenters in their payload design.” 

“The Space Engineering Research Center has put together a first-class team for this development program,” Hill said. “The involvement of Texas A&M industrial and systems engineering students as key team members, under the mentorship of Dr. Justin Yates and direction of technical lead Dr. Frank Little, provides an excellent opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience with real space hardware.”

A&M student Cress Netherland said, “Developing the Lynx Cub Carrier presents a challenging and unique problem. We are extremely excited about the opportunity to apply our studies to a real world application.”

The Space Engineering Research Center, part of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station in College Station, is also a member of XCOR’s global network of payload integrators, which provides value-added services for Lynx payload developers. TEES is an engineering research agency of the State of Texas and a member of The Texas A&M University System.

XCOR Aerospace, which is developing the suborbital, fully reusable Lynx spacecraft for a variety of scientific and commercial missions, is currently headquartered in Mojave, California. The company will relocate its headquarters to Midland, Texas later this year.

The United States Rocket Academy, a non-profit educational organization that studies and promotes the scientific, military, and commercial applications of human spaceflight, is also located in Texas. Citizens in Space is the United States Rocket Academy’s flagship program.




http://www.newspacewatch.com/articles/new-research-platform-developed-for-xcor-lynx-space-plane.html

[Lurker Steve]

This press release, claims that these piston pumps are 'game-changing'.

Why is that?

Re-read the quote from Jeff Greason.  Takes away the need for (heavy) high-pressure tanks...     Also, IIRC, when they had the release related to the testing on the motorcycle, they couldn't figure out what a wear mechanism would be.


Looking forward to a vast future for XCOR!  Well done.

I don't understand taking away the need for "high-pressure" tanks. You want to carry as much fuel in as little volume as possible, right ? Doesn't that pretty much guarantee that your fuel will be condensed / pressurized as much as possible ? Sure, you may not need to maintain that pressure over the life of the stage, but I would think high-pressure  (and tanks able to handle that pressure is a given.

[deltaV]

Lurker: liquids do not change volume significantly when under pressure.

[Lurker Steve]

Lurker: liquids do not change volume significantly when under pressure.

But Oxygen and Hydrogen must be pressurized in order to change from gas to liquid form, correct ? Maybe a low thrust engine isn't interested in pushing as much fuel and oxidizer into the combustion chamber as possible, and most of XCORs engines look to be in a small thrust class.

[Lars_J]

Is there any word on progress of their Lynx aircraft? We all know they know propulsion... Nu surprise there. But the long pole for them seems to be the actual aircraft - and until they make some progress on that, they simply aren't going anywhere.

Like others have noted before, Scaled and XCOR have opposite (or complimentary) expertise. One has what the other needs.