Our imagination went into overdrive after the U.S. President ordered NASA to establish a space station on the Moonwith perhaps the long term intention to reach out to Mars from low gravity space. But we wondered, could the lower gravity make a battery-powered rocket possible?
Imagine the Energy Savings with a Battery-Powered Rocket
Firstly, NASA could charge the power pack using energy from the sun, and thereby avoid having to ship the rocket fuel to the moon. However, was this feasible? We wondered as we paged through Google. We discovered a semi battery-powered rocket already exists. Moreover, its owner, appropriately named Rocket Lab is using it to put nano-satellites into orbit.
The spacecraft costs under $5 million per launch. Perhaps this is because they use 3D printing to make their Rutherford Rocket Engines. These then work off pumps driven by electric motors running off of lithium-polymer batteries. Therefore this is hugely green compared to smelly pre-burners, gas generators, and expanders.
More About the Rutherford Battery Rocket Engine
The Rutherford Rocket Engine increases the pressure in the rocket-fuel combustion chamber with an electric rotodynamic pump. Firstly, this bypasses the need for heavy, high-pressure tanks to get the nine rocket motors spinning. Secondly, each engine has dual brushless motors turning at 40,000 rpm, and generating 50bhp. To achieve this, the first stage battery delivers one megawatt of energy.
A similar process fires off the second stage of a battery-powered rocket that delivers the nano satellites to their orbits. Rocket Lab has a vision to make affordable rocket technology available to commercial satellite operators.
“This technology will see immense advancements in communication and imaging, it says on its website. For it has the potential to change our world drastically for the good. A battery-powered rocket could do everything from improved traffic reporting to crop planning. To even mitigating the life-threatening damages of natural disasters, and we think this is just the beginning.
Related
Lithium Polymer Batteries of Two Types
How to Make a Simple Electric Motor
Preview Image: Micro Satellites
Video Share Link: https://youtu.be/P79rY16E9s8
