At the International Academy of Astronautics' symposium on private human access to space, on Thursday, Mark Hempsell of the University of Bristol, and a consultant to Culham, Oxfordshire based-Reaction Engines, which designed Skylon, set out a business plan for an orbital service. He also showed how orbital rescue could be conducted by Skylon vehicles and a detaile design for the passenger module, which could be swopped out for a payload module - see extended section for related images
on September 16, 2008 11:10 AM | Reply
Hi,
I would like to ask how such SKYLON spaceplane can make reentry from orbit to desired return spaceport having any additional electric thrusters for space manuevers as well as having any ablative materials for reentry thermal heating of its body?
Regards
Andrew
on September 25, 2008 10:10 AM | Reply
I have to admit I can't remember asking the Skylon guys about the TPS but I think it would just use a reaction control system like Shuttle for attitude changes. There are two versions of the Reaction Engines design, the suborbital London to Sydney trip in 90min version and the Mach25 orbiter version. What is currently called the A2, the Reaction Engine design for the ESA hypersonics projects, has been praised by the ESA people I know. That is some achievement in itself.
on March 29, 2009 10:42 AM | Reply
Hi,
I would like to ask how such SKYLON spaceplane can make reentry from orbit to desired return spaceport having any additional electric thrusters for space manuevers as well as having any ablative materials for reentry thermal heating of its body?
Regards
Rupashree Madhavan
on January 5, 2010 3:42 AM | Reply
Skylon is a physically large vehicle, with a length of 82 m and a diametre of 6.3 m. Because it uses a low-density liquid hydrogen fuel, a great volume is needed to contain enough energy to reach orbit. No effort is made to strongly pressurise the fuel however, as a vehicle that is both large and light has an easier time during atmospheric reentry compared to other vehicles due to a low ballistic coefficient.
In other words, Skylon would end up slowing down at higher altitudes where the air is thinner, meaning the skin of the vehicle would only reach 1100 kelvin. In contrast, the smaller Space Shuttle is heated to 2000 kelvin on its leading edge, and so employs an extremely heat-resistant but extremely fragile silica thermal protection system. The fragile tiles represent a danger, as if any one shattered in launch, it can cause catastrophic thermal disintegration of the entire craft. Skylon need not utilise such a system, instead using a durable reinforced ceramic skin. However, due to turbulent flow around the wings during reentry, some parts of Skylon would need to be actively cooled.