DESIGN AND APPLICATIONS OF PROPULSIVE FLUID ACCUMULATOR SYSTEMS

Technical Report · Fri Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1960

OSTI ID:4163348

Demetriades, S T

The fundamental morphological study is summarized which revealed the advantages of the Propulsive Fluid Accumulator system over conventional rockets. A comparison of launch mass, energy and power requirements for . various missions where PROFAC is used with various missions where other conventional nuclear, chemical, or hybrid systems are used is presented. Frequent refuelling with propulsive fluid collected in orbit and/or on the surface of satellites or planets offers several practical advantages over an increase of specific impulse. The prepulston and other requirements of the Orbital Vehicle used to overcome the drag of collection of air in orbit at altitudes of 90 to i20 km and the characteristics of a magnetegasdynamic device for electrical orbital propulsion at that altitude are discussed. The basic design and optimization procedures for the Space Vehicles and Orbitul Vehicles making up the PROFAC system and optimization of the general single-stage electrical rocket and the mixed-stage (where a chemical stuge is followed by an electrical stage) rocket with rendezvous-and-return capability (i.e., where the electrical stage returns to rendezvous with the chemical stage and the latter returns bcth stages to the starting point). It is concluded that exhaust velocities less than 30,000 m/sec are necessary for most manned missions within the solar system unless the specific weight of the power generator is reduced to below 1 kg/kw. This nnsximum value of the optimum exhaust velccity is reduced even further for mixed- stage rockets with rendezvous-andreturn capability. The velocity requirements and the preliminary design of PROFAC systems for various orbital, lunar and interplanetury missions are presented. it appears that an order-of-magnitude decrease of the cost of space missions is possible by use of PROFAC and it is shown how for most types of missions this system is competitive with other advanced schemes such as the nuclear pulse (explosion) rocket. For example, a 44,000 Ibm payload can be delivered to the moon for every 57,000 Ibm lifted to 100-km orbit around the earth. Considerable possibilities exist for further improvement of the PROFAC system. (auth)

• Research Organization: Norair. Div. of Northrop Corp. Astro Systems and Research Labs., Hawthorne, Calif.
• NSA Number: NSA-14-019557
• OSTI ID: 4163348
• Report Number(s): NB-60-16
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

CHEMICAL REACTIONS
ELECTRICITY
ELECTROLYTIC CELLS
ENERGY
FLUIDS
GASES
GENERATORS
MAGNETISM
MAGNETOGASDYNAMICS
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
MASS
MOMENTUM
ORBITS
PHYSICS
PLANETS
PLANNING
POWER
PROPULSION
ROCKETS
SATELLITES
SPACE VEHICLES
SURFACES
USES
VELOCITY
WEIGHT