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The International Clearinghouse for Hydrogen Commerce www.hydrogencommerce.com |
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Air &
Space Propulsion |
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FIRST
MANNED FUEL CELL AIRCRAFT |
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| The Antares DLR-H2 is a research aircraft developed in collaboration between DLR and Lange Aviation GmbH. Its propulsive system is substantially based on the Antares 20E self-launching motorglider which has been built for several years now. Two additional external pods, housing the fuel cell system and the hydrogen tanks, are added underneath the specially strengthened wings. For the first time, DLR-H2 is able to take off using the energy from fuel cells. Credit: DLR |
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Antares DLR-H2: New DLR Research Aircraft |
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Cooperation between DLR and Lange Aviation In its search for new ways to reduce fuel consumption and pollutant emissions from air traffic, the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Technologie; BMWi) puts its hopes in fuel cell technology. In the context of its aeronautics research programme Lufo IV, the Ministry has commissioned the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) to conduct the required development activities. The goal of the research is to develop fuel cells for a reliable on-board power supply for wide-body airliners. Developing a high-tech aircraft to qualify fuel cells for aviation The Antares DLR-H2 research aircraft, developed in cooperation with Lange Aviation GmbH, and its propulsion system, are substantially based on the Antares 20E self-launching motorglider, which has been in production for several years already. Two additional external pods, housing the fuel cell system and the hydrogen tanks, are added underneath the wings, which have been strengthened for this purpose. In the future, the performance of the aircraft may be increased substantially by using up to four external pods, or by using fuel cells of an improved design. For the first time, DLR-H2 is able to take off using the energy from fuel cells. Fuel cells are not expected to be usable as primary propulsive energy sources for passenger aircraft within the foreseeable future. Instead, the DLR's research is aimed at developing fuel cells under real operational conditions so they can be used as reliable on-board power supplies in civil aviation. As a first step, the DLR in cooperation with Airbus Germany successfully implemented a fuel cell system as the auxiliary power supply for the hydraulic pumps of the steering system of the DLR's research aircraft Airbus A320 ATRA. As a second step, the permanent deployment of a fuel cell system as on-board power supply in wide-body airliners is envisioned. The Antares DLR-H2 flying test bed provides a cost-efficient test environment for developing fuel cell systems for this purpose, optimising the test time of the DLR's research aircraft Airbus A320 ATRA. Partnership between DLR and Lange Aviation The flying high-tech test bed is developed and built by project partner Lange Aviation in Zweibrücken. A fuel cell system, specially prepared for this purpose by the DLR Institute of Technical Thermodynamics (DLR-Institut für Technische Thermodynamik), is used as the primary propulsive energy source. This system is almost identical to the fuel cell system to be used in wide-body aircraft for on-board energy supply, and it supplies the electrical energy for the powertrain developed by Lange Aviation, which consists of power electronics, motor, and propeller. The cooperation between DLR and Lange Aviation has been set up as a long-term partnership between equals, so that the research aircraft are available to the DLR until 2017. The DLR defines and evaluates the research assignments and provides the primary power sources. Lange Aviation GmbH builds the Antares research aircraft and operates it for the DLR. In doing so, the company can build upon many years of experience in developing and building aircraft with electrical propulsion. Further applications may arise from the combination of fuel cell systems and other regenerative energy sources as propulsive power sources for so-called HALE (High Altitude Long Endurance) aircraft. According to the current state of knowledge, these HALE aircraft will be equipped with electrical propulsion. Contact Dr.-Ing. Josef Kallo German
Aerospace Center Institute of Technical Thermodynamics, Electrochemical
Energy Technology |
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Boeing Successfully Flies Fuel Cell-Powered Airplane VIDEO Boeing April 3, 2008 |
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MADRID, Spain -- Boeing [NYSE: BA]
announced today that it has, for the first time in aviation history, flown
a manned airplane powered by hydrogen fuel cells. |
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The Green Concorde? |
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Hydrogen-Burning Hypersonic Airplane: Going Green at Mach-5 |
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The concept hypersonic jet has been developed by Reaction Engine and it is aptly called the A2. It is a Mach-5 (3,400 mph) wicked aircraft capable of holding 300 passengers and produces, get this, ZERO emissions! ...The A2 is hydrogen powered so that it discharges only water vapor and nitrous oxide through the exhaust. |
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Horizon Fuel Cell Powers World Record Unmanned Aviation Vehicle (UAV)
Flight |
| Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies of Singapore announced today that a new hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system it designed enabled a small unmanned aerial vehicle flight which was 50% longer than the previous distance record for micro UAV’s. The fuel cell integrated micro UAV, which was designed by two leading U.S. aerospace research laboratories and supported by NASA, the Dryden Flight Research Center, the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation, set a new micro-UAV flight distance record of 78 miles in Lancaster, California, exceeding by 28 miles the previous record set in 2006 in Estonia. Even more significant is that this flight record was achieved using only 25% of the hydrogen tank capacity stored on-board the aircraft. On a full tank of fuel, the aircraft’s flying range is 310 miles, enabling flights that are several times longer than previously recorded. |
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HAVE YOU FLOWN A FORD
LATELY? |
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"Forget satellites.
This is what you want." |
| It has sometimes been assumed in the military/tech press that Global Observer's prime mover is hydrogen fuel cells, but in fact Aerovironment and SOCOM are careful to avoid saying this, merely describing the vehicle as "hydrogen powered". One does note that this federal government notice dated from January says: |
| AeroVironment designed and built a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine and power-plant and successfully demonstrated it in an altitude chamber for a non-stop mission profile of five days at simulated operational environment above 65,000 feet. Hydrogen power is a critical technology to achieve the long duration requirements of the UAS. AeroVironment is currently executing a risk reduction program to develop and demonstrate a full-scale, flight prototype power-plant, propulsive motor, and liquid hydrogen fuel tank under a contract with USSOCOM. |
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Korean Scientists Build FC-Powered Flying Wing UAV |
| A team of Korean researchers has developed an unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, capable of flying more than 10 hours on one charge of its hydrogen fuel cell. |
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US Army Funds Hydrogen-fuelled Drone Aircraft to Join DARPA Airship Robot
Flotilla 12 Miles Up |
| According to Flight International, the engine itself is no more than a supercharged Ford car engine modified to burn hydrogen. |
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Orion HALL Aurora
Flight Sciences |
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refine storm path prediction methods and increase advance
warning, giving citizens in the storm’s path more time to evacuate. When a natural disaster strikes, Orion HALL’s interchangeable payloads will enable the aircraft to take on a new mission: disaster response. Orion HALL aircraft will orbit a disaster area providing critical communications links and ISR infrastructure that will help coordinate rescue efforts. Infrared and electro-optical sensors will provide imagery that will help locate survivors and provide an unprecedented view of the devastation that will help disaster recovery officials quickly assess the scope of the disaster and allocate resource to the hardest hit areas. Because Orion HALL will operate above 65,000 it will not require deconfliction with civilian and military air traffic miles beneath it. ORION HALL VEHICLE SPECIFICATIONS: |
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| Providing continuous power over the night is a significant technological challenge: Fourteen days of darkness is a long time to run off batteries! One solution has been proposed by Lisa Kohout at the NASA Glenn Research Center. During the daytime, the solar arrays electrolyze water, and the hydrogen and oxygen produced are liquefied and stored in highly insulated cryogenic tanks. Over the night time the hydrogen and oxygen are recombined to provide power to run the base. Prominently visible in Figure 3 are the waste heat radiators used to reject the heat from liquefying the reactants. In the background are solar arrays tracking the Sun. Also visible is a large radio telescope, undoubtedly the first of many such telescopes to be built on the lunar surface, where the absence of atmosphere and radio noise makes it an ideal platform for astronomy. Photovoltaic Power for the Moon NASA |
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NASA Plans
Lunar Outpost |
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The moon
settlement would ultimately be a way station for space travelers headed
onward, and would provide not only a haven but also hydrogen and oxygen
mined from the lunar surface to make water and rocket fuel. |
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The Condor was rolled out in March 1986, with first
flight on 9 October 1988. It set an altitude record for piston-powered
aircraft of 66,980 feet during its 141-hour flight test program, and
stayed aloft for two and a half days during one of its test flights. -
Greg Goebel
Boeing Develops Liquid Hydrogen UAV Boeing has tested a hydrogen-fuelled propulsion system for a high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) unmanned air vehicle that would stay aloft for 10 days. Although fuel-cell propulsion has also been investigated, conventional piston engines modified to burn liquid hydrogen are the favoured powerplants, says George Muellner, president, advanced systems, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. The HALE UAV, which uses the wing design from the 200ft-span Condor flown by Boeing in the late 1980s, would fly at 65,000ft. |
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UTC Power Fuel Cells Heading |
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Each fuel cell is capable of providing 12 kW continuously, and up to 16 kW for short periods. Each power plant contains 96 individual cells of the alkaline (KOH) electrolyte technology, which are connected to achieve a 28-volt output. |
| "Our fuel cells have demonstrated outstanding reliability – more than 99 percent availability – since the Shuttle era commenced in 1981," said Jan van Dokkum, company president. "As a company, we are extremely proud of the durability and energy efficiency of our environmentally advanced products, whether applied for use in space or on the ground at buildings or in automobiles and buses." | |
U.S. Air Force Working On Stealthier Unmanned
Aerial Vehicle Powered by Fuel Cells
Federal Information & News Dispatch/FuelCellWorks
October 3, 2005
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 Proton Energy RFC |
Made of space- age materials and powered by solar powered electrical engines, each Stratellite will reach its final altitude by utilizing proprietary lifting gas technology. Once in place at 65,000 feet (approx. 13 miles) and safely above the jet stream, each Stratellite will remain in one GPS coordinate, providing the ideal wireless transmission platform. The [unmanned Stratellite] will have a payload capacity of several thousand pounds and clear line-of-sight to approximately 300,000 square miles, an area roughly the size of Texas. - Sanswire |
| "The RFC provides a key capability to enable the Stratellite to stay on station for long periods of time," said Timothy Huff, Chief Executive Officer of GlobeTel. "To power the airship overnight in windy conditions requires an energy dense storage solution, and the RFC has the potential to fill that requirement." Mr. Huff further commented that: "Pioneering advanced fuel cell technology will put us in an advanced position among others, in fact, we will be the first to employ this technology to the rigid airship. We will continue to partner with technology leaders to provide a low cost communication platform to the world." more | |
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Tiny
Aircraft that Just Eat and Go |
| Aircraft the size of bees that get the energy they need
by feeding themselves a diet of dead flies could be buzzing around the battlefields and
motorways of the future, thanks to research in southwest England. The aircraft, up to 15cm
long and equipped with sensors and cameras, could have a number of uses in civilian life
and modern warfare, including reconnaissance missions, traffic monitoring or fire and
rescue operations. By "digesting" its own fuel, the aircraft could become
autonomous and operate without the need for refuelling, changing batteries or recharging
from the mains. Professor Chris Melhuish, Director of the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory at the University of the West of England, says, “We are interested in developing robots that are intelligent and autonomous which means they do the right thing at the right time and without human intervention. One of the big problems with autonomy is that of energy; they have to get their energy from somewhere. “To do this they need to get energy from their environment which could include sunlight or water, but in our case it is organic matter”. The 1kg Ecobot doesn’t move at any significant rate, about 30 metres per hour, but its ability to power itself by digesting its fuel is a major advance in the way such units have been designed so far. Insect-sized aircraft could be possible in the future, says Professor Melhuish, “The biological fuel cell would have to be made into a soft system which might, in the future, be able to do some sort of movement at a small level, a small insect level.” |
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BIZARRE!!
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| US NATIONAL AERONAUTICS & SPACE ADMINISTRATION November 16, 2004 |
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| NASA's X-43A research vehicle screamed
into the record books today, demonstrating an air-breathing engine can fly at nearly 10
times the speed of sound. Preliminary data from the scramjet-powered research vehicle show
its revolutionary engine worked successfully at approximately Mach 10, nearly 7000 mph, as
it flew at an altitude of approximately 110,000 feet. "This flight is a key milestone and a major step toward the future possibilities for producing boosters for sending large and critical payloads into space in a reliable, safe, inexpensive manner," said NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe. "These developments will also help us advance the Vision for Space Exploration, while helping to advance commercial aviation technology," Administrator O'Keefe said. - NASA |
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RETURN OF THE |
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HYDROGEN AIRSHIP? |
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| CONNECTICUT PROTON ENERGY SYSTEMS | September 22, 2004 |
| Distributed Energy
Systems Awarded SBIR Phase II Contract for Advanced Regenerative Fuel Cell Development
Distributed Energy Systems Distributed Energy Systems Corp. (Nasdaq: DESC), announced today the award of a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase II contract from the U.S. Army Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to continue development of lightweight regenerative fuel cell technology for high altitude airships. The goal of this 2-year, $749,999 contract is to demonstrate a multi-kilowatt-capable closed-loop hydrogen-oxygen regenerative fuel cell and is a continuation of work completed in Phase I of this project. This regenerative fuel cell can generate pressurized hydrogen and oxygen electrochemically, without mechanical compression. MDA plans to apply this technology for energy storage for high altitude airships, which will be used as platforms for sensors and communications vital for missile defense and homeland security. The Phase I contract, completed in April 2004, demonstrated key lightweight components for electrochemical cells. This contract is part of a MDA program to develop a lighter than air, high altitude airship (HAA) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) prototype. The program goal is to show the engineering feasibility and potential military utility of an unmanned, un-tethered, gas filled, solar powered airship with the potential to fly at 70,000 ft. and self deploy from the continental United States to worldwide locations. Proton Energy Systems, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Distributed Energy Systems Corp., has performed work on NASA SBIR Phase I and Phase II contracts as well as its ongoing contract with the Naval Research Laboratory funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. These contracts have facilitated the demonstration of regenerative fuel cell operation as well as the ability to electrolyze water to generate hydrogen and oxygen gases at pressures exceeding 3,000 psi. The efficient compression of these gases, a key feature in aerospace, high energy density applications, is made possible by Proton's solid-state electrolysis cell stack design, called HIPRESS(TM). High
Altitude Airship (HAA) Global Security |
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| UNITED STATES NASA AEROVIRONMENT January 2004 | |
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| EXCERPT: "At about 30 minutes into the flight, the aircraft encountered turbulence and morphed into an unexpected, persistent, high dihedral configuration. As a result of the persistent high dihedral, the aircraft became unstable in a very divergent pitch mode in which the airspeed excursions from the nominal flight speed about doubled every cycle of the oscillation. The aircraft’s design airspeed was subsequently exceeded and the resulting high dynamic pressures caused the wing leading edge secondary structure on the outer wing panels to fail and the solar cells and skin on the upper surface of the wing to rip off. The aircraft impacted the ocean within the confines of the PMRF test range and was destroyed. The crash caused no other property damage or any injuries to personnel on the ground. Most of the vehicle structure was recovered except the hydrogen-air fuel cell pod and two of the ten engines, which sank into the ocean." | |
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Burt Rutan's
Spaceship One, nestled between the twin fuselage of the White Knight, is carried aloft on
its record-making flight to outer space. Photo: VIMS |
THE END OF NASA |
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On the morning of
June 21, 2004, maverick aircraft designer Burt Rutan's White Knight carried Spaceship One to its ignition altitude near 50,000 feet, where the
winged spaceship released and shot to 328,491 feet, just 411 feet above the official
"edge of space."
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| SpaceShipOne
Makes History: 1st Private Manned Space Mission Scaled Composites June 21, 2004 |
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| UNITED STATES PROTON ENERGY NASA Wired | June 8, 2004 |
| The Water Rocket: Water to Boost Satellite Snooping
John Gartner The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is working with Proton Energy Systems on the Water Rocket program, which would develop a satellite that exploits a "closed loop" regenerative fuel cell: Solar power electrolyzes water into hydrogen, then the hydrogen is converted into electricity and water. The electricity would be used to power the thrusters and any other mission-specific operations. |
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Russia's Proposed
"Cosmoplane"
New aircraft 'could fly Moscow-New York in under an hour'
Ananova November 4, 2003
Helios
Crashes Into Pacific
Helios, the solar-powered experimental aircraft test
flown by remote control from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, crashed into the Pacific
off the coast of Kauai Thursday morning during a NASA test flight. Helios is a large but
delicate flying wing without any conventional fuselage. It has two sources of power: solar
panels and hydrogen fuel cells.
Pacific Business News
June 26, 2003
Helios Recovery Operations Conclude: Investigation Under Way
Dryden Flight Research Center July 1, 2003
Among debris recovered with the help of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility and the Niihau Ranch were the two hydrogen fuel tanks carried by Helios in a quest to validate fuel cell electric power technology for airborne applications. Helios team members say none of the recovered pieces will be reusable because of damage and salt-water contamination.
"We were flying at about the 8,000-foot altitude west of Kauai over the ocean and the aircraft simply broke up."
Alan Brown
NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center
Record-Setting Solar Plane Breaks Apart AP
NASA's Helios Comes Down in the Pacific SpaceRef.com
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Flight Path for Fuel
Cells
E4 Engineering (UK) May 2,
2003
Although question marks remain over the likelihood of hydrogen-powered cars becoming a reality, fuel cells could be the answer to reducing pollution from aircraft, said Peter McCallum, deputy head of NASA's propulsion and power projects. 'We think that fuel cells offer the greater long-term benefit if they can be made to work because they have a higher inherent thermal efficiency than conventional aircraft engines,' he said.
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Fuel-tank
Insulation Capable |
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Nuclear Fusion Could
Power NASA Spacecraft
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Researcher Hopes
to Power Shuttles with Refined Landfill Gas
December 10, 2002
COBRA CANCELLED
Lost Pratt Deal Costs 54 Jobs
by Stephen Pounds Palm Beach Post (FL) October 5, 2002
CDI Engineering Services is laying off 54 engineers by the end of the year after its major local customer, Pratt & Whitney, lost a big contract with NASA.
...The project was called COBRA, short for co-optimized booster for reusable applications, a lengthy name for a future booster rocket that would run on hydrogen and send the next-generation space shuttle into orbit. NASA has decided to concentrate its backing on research into a hydrocarbon-fuel engine being designed by rival Rocketdyne in Canoga Park, Calif.
September 2002 |
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Hydrogen
Storage for Aircraft Applications Overview Hydrogen is a very high energy density element that holds much promise as a potential fuel for aircraft. The energy density of hydrogen, which is around 120 MJ/kg, is more than double that of most conventional fuels (for example natural gas: 43 MJ/kg and gasoline 44.4 MJ/kg). The main issue with using hydrogen in aircraft is its very low density. At ambient conditions 1 liter of hydrogen contains only 10.7 KJ of energy. Even in its liquid state the volumetric energy density of hydrogen (8.4 MJ/liter ) is less then half that of other fuels (natural gas 17.8 MJ/liter, gasoline 31.1 MJ/liter). Storing a sufficient amount of it for use in most applications requires a large volume. Therefore, in order to make it practical for aircraft applications, the storage method utilized must increase the density of hydrogen. |
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.Hydrogen Scramjet
Success Australian
Scramjet Test Fails November 2, 2001 Researchers from the University of Queensland said on Friday the prototype engine is to be fired off into the upper atmosphere on October 25 -- sent to an altitude of 314 km (196 miles) on the back of a booster rocket and allowed to plunge back to earth. "HyShot" project member Susan Anderson said it's hoped the engine will ignite on the way back down at 37 km (23 miles) above the earth and reach a speed of Mach 7.6 -- or 7.6 times the speed of sound -- before crashing into the ground. ...The Australian experiment has been eagerly awaited since the failed test in June of NASA's unmanned X-43A scramjet prototype, part of the United States space agency's US$185 million project to build a hypersonic engine. Scramjets in theory use the rush of high speeds to ignite pollution-free hydrogen and are expected to one day reach speeds of Mach 10. |
Australia
Joins Race to Test Hypersonic Engine |
HYPER-X
X43A
U.S. Hoping May
Flight Will Exceed 5,000 mph The science behind the scramjet has been one of the more difficult barriers to overcome. The common turbojet uses turbines inside the engine to compress air, which ignites with kerosene to create combustion and then thrust. Although the turbojet is efficient at subsonic speeds of conventional airliners, air flows too slowly and overheats the engine at high speeds. Ramjets are basically a hollow tube with no moving parts, resolving the temperature problem. They can propel an aircraft past Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound. Airflow into the front of the ramjet is compressed and mixed with fuel. The resulting combustion creates thrust. But the ramjet cannot power an aircraft past Mach 5. That requires a scramjet, in which gases can flow at supersonic speeds. Although it is mechanically simple, it is vastly more complex aerodynamically than a jet engine. For instance, the front end of the X-43A, such as the flat nose, helps compress the oxygen before it enters the copper alloy chamber, where it mixes with hydrogen and burns, creating pressure from the expanding gas to propel the plane forward. |
| Moscow Tests New Missile by Bill Gertz Washington Post July 31, 2001 The flight test of the road-mobile SS-25
intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) took place from a launch site in central Russia
two weeks ago. It was tracked to an impact area several thousand miles away on the
Kamchatka Peninsula. U.S. officials said the missile's flight took an unusual path:
Its last stage was a high-speed cruise missile that flew within the Earth's atmosphere at
an altitude of about 100,000 feet. |
| NASA Unveils Futuristic Aircraft - Washington Post/AP April 18, 2001 |
SkyTower Successfully Tests World's First Commercial Telecom Applications from More Than 65,000 Feet in the Stratosphere July 22, 2002 |
| The Pathfinder-Plus 121-foot wingspan, solar-powered aircraft, is a smaller version of AeroVironment's 247-foot wingspan Helios aircraft which, during NASA testing in Hawaii last summer, shattered the world altitude record for non-rocket powered aircraft by flying to 96,863 feet -- well above the 60,000 to 70,000 feet targeted for commercial telecom services. As part of the NASA development program, multi-day flight capability will be demonstrated next year with the Helios solar/electric airplane using the world's first fuel cell based aircraft energy system that enables the aircraft to operate through the night. Production versions of Helios unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) using AeroVironment's fuel-cell-based energy systems will have flight durations between landings of up to six months or more. |
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| HYDROGEN EMBRITTLEMENT?
NASA Working Overtime to Understand Shuttle Pipe Cracks by Keith Cowing Discovery June 29, 2002 Cracks a fraction of an inch in size were discovered in LH2 flowliners in Shuttle Orbiters Discovery and Atlantis. Cracks have also been found in a Shuttle propulsion test structure. Orbiters Columbia and Endeavour have yet to be examined. Discovery Inspections - Eng #1 LH2 Feedline NASA JSC 1.5 MB Powerpoint Atlantis ENG#1, LH2- Flow Liner Cracks NASA JSC 1.1 MB Powerpoint Problem Widens to Third Shuttle: Technicians Find Crack in Columbia by Chris Kridler Florida Today July 2, 2002 |
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| Airbus Project Envisions Hydrogen-Fueled Jet Seattle Post-Intelligencer May 30, 2002 A project led by Airbus to develop aircraft that run on hydrogen has gotten off to a flying start, the European Union Commission said yesterday. The project "shows use of liquid hydrogen is technically feasible, and would greatly reduce the environmental impact of aviation without affecting safety," the commission said after the first results of the EU-funded Cryoplane project were unveiled yesterday. The EU is keen for hydrogen-powered planes to be developed because they would produce far fewer emissions of greenhouse gases than conventional kerosene-powered engines. more
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"Had a liquid-hydrogen-fuelled jumbo hit the World Trade Center,
enormous damage would have occurred but the towers would not have come down. The towers
collapsed because tons of burning jet fuel softened the buildings' steel backbone,
allowing top floors to sledgehammer lower floors. Liquid hydrogen can't burn until it
vaporizes and then, being so much lighter than air, it's up and away. Structural damage,
fire and death would have been confined to the floors the aircraft struck." |
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MARS RICH IN
HYDROGEN A view of the south pole of Mars in
intermediate-energy, or epithermal, neutrons. A low intensity of epithermal neutrons
(colored deep blue in the map) provides a unique identification of soil enriched in
hydrogen. The view shown here is a Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection of the south
pole of Mars of measurements made during the first week of mapping (February 2002) using
the neutron spectrometer. |
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The Frozen Oceans of Mars
by Michelle Thaller Christain Science Monitor June 3, 2002Mars Needs Women -- and Men Too
by Jonah Goldberg Washington Times June 7, 2002Last month, scientists announced that Mars has huge subsurface deposits of ice. If you don't care about going to Mars, you might say, "Ice. Huh. OK," and move on. But if you are a member of the semi-secret army of Mars enthusiasts who dream of the day when mankind colonizes the Red Planet, this was monumentally good news.
Water is the key ingredient for colonization. Plentiful drinkable water is the least of it. H20, as the name suggests, can be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen, which can be used for breathable air and rocket fuel. Being able to exploit this fact means spaceships can be lighter, cheaper, more efficient and refuelable.
NASA's Odyssey spacecraft, tightening its orbit around Mars for a mapping mission, has sniffed out big hydrogen deposits, possibly indicating extensive water ice, according to project scientists.
New Mars Orbiter Gets Whiff of Possible Water
CNN/Reuters December 13, 2001
| Mars
Water Could Sustain Human Colonies June 22, 2000 by Paul Hoversten Space.com |
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Because of its chemical components hydrogen and oxygen, water is "a significant
resource for exploration at the planet," said John Niehoff, a planetary-program
planner at SAIC (Science Applications International Corp.) in Schaumburg, Illinois. Mars already has plenty of oxygen in its carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere. But hydrogen is exceedingly rare. "Hydrogen is a key resource in the development of fuels for all kinds of purposes. You could run surface [power] systems or fuel launch vehicles or create fuel-cell storage devices to manage your electricity," Niehoff said. "We've always been assuming we'd have to bring the hydrogen with us. But with it there, in the form of water, we can go with the equipment and have a power supply. That is a tremendous leverage." |
| Scientists Report Water In Gullies On Mars
Space.com June 22, 2000 Researchers using NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft announced Thursday that they found puzzling signs of water seeping into what appear to be young, freshly-cut gullies and gaps in the Martian surface. The startling discovery of recently-formed, weeping layers of rock and sediment has planetary experts scratching their heads. |
Powerful
Possibilities for Boeing Fuel Cells
by Kyung M. Song - Seattle Times November 28, 2001
QUANTUM Achieves World Record for Lightweight Hydrogen Storage Tanks QUANTUM Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide/PRNewswire July 12, 2002
QUANTUM Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of
IMPCO Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMCO, QTWW), announced today that it demonstrated a hydrogen storage tank with a world record 13% hydrogen weight efficiency. This breakthrough offers a dramatic weight reduction in hydrogen storage technology and will significantly improve on-board energy storage in aircraft and spacecraft applications where weight is critical. The technology will also be used in the development of lighter, less costly hydrogen storage tanks for fuel cell vehicle applications. The QUANTUM team successfully fatigue-cycled and hydroburst-tested high performance prototype hydrogen storage cylinders and achieved the new performance record of 13% hydrogen storage by weight at 5,000 psig (350 bar). This tank will be optimized for an aerospace application currently under development by NASA and AeroVironment, with the final product targeted to achieve even higher storage efficiency and high cycle life.