This means that as the rocket flies higher, the thinner air holds the gases less tightly and they spread out more as if the rocket bell has gradually grown larger. The principle behind the aerospike is that the air itself acts as the missing half of the rocket bell, containing the hot gases as they leave the combustion chamber. It's an idea that dates back to the 1960s and basically works by cutting a rocket engine's bell in half, then placing the two halves back to back to form a tapering spike. What ACRA is trying with the Haas 2CA is to replace the conventional engines with a linear aerospike engine, which the company claims is 30 percent more efficient than those used today. The engines in the first stage are optimized to work best at sea level and low altitude, while the second stage engine is designed for the rarefied atmosphere on the edge of space. This is a major reason why SpaceX's Falcon 9, for example, uses two stages instead of one. By using a large first stage to lift smaller upper stages in sequence and then discarding them along the way, a payload can be sent into orbit without having to lift the bulk of the entire launch vehicle as well.Īnother reason is that conventional rocket engines can only work efficiently inside a rigidly defined set of altitudes because the thrust of the rocket must work against the air as it shoots out. This is one of the reasons space agencies and private companies use staged rockets. Unfortunately, that means adding more fuel to lift the rocket, its engine and the original fuel, then more fuel to lift all that, then more fuel to lift that fuel. This takes significant energy in the form of rocket propellant, which must be held inside a rocket and burned by the rocket engine. To put a payload, like a satellite, into orbit means shooting it out of the atmosphere at about 18,000 mph (29,000 km/h). Getting into space is a very complicated affair. Dubbed the Haas 2CA after the 16th century rocket pioneer Conrad Haas, the new booster uses a linear aerospike engine instead of conventional bell-shaped rocket engines to do away with multiple stages. New Mexico-based ARCA Space Corporation has announced that it is developing the world's first Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) launch vehicle that can deliver both a small payload and itself into low Earth orbit, at a cost of about US$1 million per launch.
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