India Eyes New Spaceplane Concept

[Emperor_Norton_II]

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/india-01i.html

Indian rocket scientists claim to have designed a reusable space plane, dubbed Avatar, which they plan to use for launching satellites at very extremely low cost and taking tourists on rides into space The Times of India has reported.

According to the report, work on Avatar, has been conducted under tight security due to its military potential. In early July, the project was publicily announced in the United States by retired Air Cmdr Raghavan Gopalaswami, a former chairman of India's Bharat Dynamics Limited and the central figure behind the project which is being financed by India's Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO).

(more, as always, in the link)

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You know what I think about this. The floor is now open to Scorn and Mockery.

[velocity]

1. Now how much did we pay Rand for this idea????????

"Gopalaswami said the idea for Avatar originated from the work published by the Rand Corporation of the United States in 1987. "They threw the report into archives. It came to me as anunclassified document and formed the basis for our approach," he told The Times of India. Related Links"

[Emperor_Norton_II]

Wow, eight question marks.

I wouldn't happen to know, though if they can make it work I'd think the price would be worth it.

[HereSince1628]

2. Skepticism set in as I read they'll produce liquid oxygen in flight

I'm not a physicist, but that seemed a reach.

[Emperor_Norton_II]

3. It's not that outre

Supersonic flight with the right ducting systems would provide enough pressure to liquify air. The tricky part would be dumping the nitrogen and CO2 overboard while keeping the LOX and fitting all that gear into a 25-ton airplane.

Avatar might end up going with a compromise solution, using a tanker aircraft rigged to carry LOX and doing in-flight fueling operations like the Black Horse concept:

http://www.friends-partners.ru/partners/mwade/lvs/blahorse.htm

We'll see, I suppose.

[Ratty]

4. I thought we gave up on space planes

The US worked on one for decades and finally decided material science still wasn't quite where it needed to be and gave up. Do I remember correctly? They worked out all the details, including all the work of turning air into LOX fuel in-flight, but also worked with the assumption that by the time they were done with the designs there would be a super-light, strong, heat resistant material discovered that could withstand the heat and stress of hypersonic flight. But it turned out that was apparently much easier to wish for than to actually create so we shelved our spaceplane work. What is India doing on the materials front?

[Emperor_Norton_II]

5. Dunno

They might have something, or they might have juggled the numbers and come up with something that would work. Remember that the US studies were for Shuttle-scale aircraft, big honkers that could carry 20-30 tons to orbit. Avatar apparently can only carry a ton of payload. It ain't much, but it's enough for, say, a GPS or commnications satellite.

[ThoughtCriminal]

6. I agree

Trying to combine heavy-lift with re-usable seems to be a big mistake at our present level of technology. Limiting payload solves a pant-load of problems.