Author: darkdave

The ArcJet would have looked and performed similarly to the SR-72 and in fact shares simiar engine design. In Top Gun the Dark Star was a fictional version of the SR-72 and reached mach 10 before burning up at mach 10.2. However the Arcj Jet can reach those speeeds and even exceed it all the way to mach 20. Not enough to enter orbit but enough to fly to the opposite side of the Earth. The SpacePlane Corporation’s space-plane can enter orbit but that’s another design that runs on hydrogen and is 250 tons instead of 100 tons which is the mass of this sub-orbital “ArcJet”.

A: Sub-Orbital flight is a tech gap that is yet to be filled between orbital and regular flight in the atmosphere. A capability that is screaming to be  filled.

Originally intended as a private jet it could also be used for millitary for drones and/or piloted Jets to strike targets with precision. Like a non-nuclear MIRV from ballistic ICBMs.

The Arcjet was a suborbital space-plane that I felt had millitary applications but the visionary intended for civilian use as a private jet. If the airforce was just to consider adding a jet fuel powered rocket into their existing jets they could have similar performance and be able to fly over countries to strike targets. Such as Israel striking targets in Iran by flying over Arab countries(Iraq and Saudi Arabia) in the way.

Much like the SR-72 the Arcjet also would have an air intake splitter to reroute airflow from jet to ramjet. Unlike the SpacePlane (space-plane.org) from The SpacePlane Corporation it uses regular jet fuel and has a seperate rocket instead of a totally combined cycle engine system.

Euler’s method reveals how many modiefied 100MT Tzar bombs we need to signficantly altering Halley’s comet by bringining it to a complete stop. If we did it did crash into the sun, we could even cause it to hit Mercurcy or Venus should we be so inclined. Mars on the other hand requires a comet with a different orbit than Halley’s such as the one that almost hit it recently.

Near Earth Planet Killers I plan to model in my simulator.

Resource:

https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=2013%20TV135&view=OPC

UPDATE:

Proabably need 4 total starships, with 3 as tankers to get 13km/s for a 15 day transit to Mars. 2 Total Starship only gets us to 10km/s which is 3km/s shy of what’s needed. Original 2 ship idea could probably get us closer to 28 days.

Numbers: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1U_pj_0jc53wAgq37A0oYvuiZnMFLptZ3B4N1quCniVo/edit?usp=sharing

Ref: https://www.exploremars.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/0914_03-15_Bret-Drake_Trajectory.pdf

According to AI: 15 days to Mars using “conjunction class” orbital transfer with 2 Starships working together. One will be an uncrewed expendible fuel tank with it’s useful payload as additional fuel. The tanker flies in parallel with crewed ship at a safe distance or attached to it.

This allows 15 days transfer to Mars from Earth’s LEO and does not require risky aerobraking on the Martian side as there is sufficient fuel to de-celerate.

Still need to confirm underlying working using rocket equation. This is assuming there is another Starship there on Mars already sent uncrewed or as a robotic mission (with Tesla bots and AI) and fueled up using local resources on Mars. This is for the return trip.

New Mars Forum Thread on this topic:

https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=11019

UPDATE:

Oxygen is lighter than CO2 so the tunnel will need to be adjusted accordingly:

Humans can settle in the Oxygen bubble cavities that are above a lower CO2 zone that has a water lake that the nuclear thermal reactor uses as a radiator thus keeping it warm. This CO2 zone can be rich vegetation zone with algae and trees converting CO2 to oxygen that floats into the habitable region accessible by ramp.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

Considering the scale height of Mars being 11km and Earth’s 8km, the difference considering the lower Martian gravity gives us hope to live inside  rather than on Mars without preassure suits, a 55km deep tunnel on Mars with a “silo” built into the vertical shaft can allow humans to live in Mars in the lower end of the tunnel where there is 1 bar of atmospheric preassure, there and any cavity excavated out horizontally after that.

The silo could be a nuclear thermal powered structure with a built in drill bit. We can have artificial lighting powered by a nuclear thermal reactor and waste heat from it could keep the air warm by heating artificial lakes.

What is a scale height:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale_height

If built at the equator we get sunlight directly under the vertical shaft, if built at the poles we will need a system of mirrors and crystals to light the bottom portion. The poles is more guaranteed to provide us with ice and water that we will need to live on that our thermal reactor can heat and melt.

Inspiration of the megastructure from the TV series SILO:

The Space Plane Corporation

space-plane.org

Video:

https://fb.watch/xfXW2HlEqL/

Performance Summary:

MTOW: 250 tons

Dry Mass: 75 tons

Useful Payload: 5-10 tons

When considering 500km ISS orbital insertion and de-orbit fuel burn the useful payload does shrink to between 5-10 tons.

Telemetry:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zLmh4odwt-ejBSnMvJu-8BUq4YvuFtzn/view?usp=sharing

Introduction:

We can give the moon an atmosphere, how do I know this? Because Titan which is about the same size as our moon has a thick atmosphere. The difference is that Titan is cold, damn cold! So if we dig a 290km tunnel we can create a solar shielded section inside the moon that can sustain atmosphere and expand that section horizontally. The scale altitude I have worked out is 12.4km.

Main Article:

Similar to my idea to dig in Mars I figured this would be more practical and useful for the moon. If we dig 290km deep: we can sustain an atmosphere of 1 bar. This was calculated by working out the scale altitude of the moon being 12.4km.

The illustrated vertical section will be cryogenic temperature gas. This makes mining the moon from the inside out more practical and safe with an atmosphere eliminating the risk of decompression. I had to work out the scale altitude of the moon despite it being a vacuum. It still has gravity. The main difference between our moon and Titan is that Titan is colder, this is why Titan can have an atmosphere while our hot moon cannot. So I figured we might as well replicate Titan in the moon with a tunnel that the sun cannot heat up. This way we can seal the tunnel into sections. The vertical section of the tunnel in the moon can be air sealed but not to keep in or out any pressure but instead to keep the warm air in (cold air out). The hatch only needs to be thermally shielded. It does not need to be rated to keep a vacuum in our out. If the hatch breaks we have time to to repair/replace the hatch without the risk of violent de-compresion. We will only be fighting the cold. So we can suit up in suits that are less demanding that just keep us warm while we repair it. We can also have multiple doors seals as redundancy. Let me know in the comment section if you like this idea or not!

We replaced mach-11-18 with air breathing rocket mode based on paper linked below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16jeWe22zYj1rESzAH-69CrnO4X_hP__9/view?usp=sharing

UPDATE:

After more optizations, the data below is now outdated and we have improved our numbers: Useful Payload with SSTO is now 18 tons, not 13 tons.

==================ORIGINAL ARTICLE BELOW

Ascent Profie in this Spreadsheet:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J49OjoynbX2rmvTja1ZU6C87u_y0yIom/view?usp=sharing

Computer simulations have confirmed that The Space-Plane.org works. The Space Plane Corporation is a not for profit organization designing an open source single stage to orbit aircraft. Below is a link to the proof of concept on a computer simulation of the aerodynamic ascent.

https://fb.watch/wBbj8U97V6/

What this means:

We can now ride up into space in a comfortable aircraft that takes off from a runway horizontally instead of being thrust upward in a missile. This makes space travel a lot safer and more comfortable. The normal Joe can be an astronaut now. It will also make space travel cheaper than a ride on SpaceX’s Starship.

Elon Musk’s Starship has a useful payload of 150 metric tons in re-usable mode. Our space-plane can do between 12-28 metric tons however the spaceplane is single stage to orbit and is also fully reusable. Single Stage to orbit means there are no other seperate vehicles or boosters, it’s just the one piece (the aircraft) that flies up into orbit. This makes it potentially a lot cheaper to run. Not to mention it can take off from any runway long enough. No rocket pads needed or a mechanical chopstick to catch it in mid air. It just lands like a normal plane back on the runway on it’s way down.

A scaled up model might be able to compete with the heavier useful payload of StarshipX in the future.