A British scientist has created a revolutionary engine that may make space travel cheaper in future.
The brainchild of engineer Alan Bond, Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (Sabre) operates as a traditional jet engine at take-off and during the ascent, before “transforming” into a powerful hydrogen-burning rocket engine to propel a spacecraft at Mach 25 beyond Earth’s atmosphere. This allows the spacecraft to operate like a plane and re-enter the atmosphere, before landing on a normal runway.
The spacecraft to be used for this mission — Skylon — is equally revolutionary. It is built using ultra-lightweight material and will essentially be one huge hydrogen tank, making it light enough for easy re-entry. “Skylon will be operated by a (ground) crew of 50 and be able to manage a return trip with payload in just two days before people are able to go again.” Bond said, “Sabre is at heart a rocket engine designed to power aircraft directly into space (single-stage to orbit) to allow reliable, responsive and cost-effective space access and in a different configuration to allow aircraft to cruise at high speeds (five times the speed of sound) within the atmosphere.”
Sabre is the first engine to operate in two rocket modes: initially in air-breathing mode and subsequently in conventional rocket mode:
In the air breathing mode the engine sucks in air as a source of oxygen (like in a typical jet engine) to burn with its liquid hydrogen fuel in the rocket combustion chamber. Then the engine transitions to using conventional on-board liquid oxygen once it is beyond the atmosphere. In both modes the thrust is generated using the rocket combustion chamber and nozzles. This is made possible through a synthesis of elements from rocket and gas turbine technology. This approach enables Sabre-powered vehicles to save carrying over 250 tonnes of on-board oxidant on their way to orbit and removes the necessity for massive throw-away first stages that are jettisoned once the oxidant has been used up.
