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Space gun, steam rocket and orbital mirror



On cosmonautics day it is traditionally customary to dream of a high ... Dream? And at the same time there will be a little bit about the last article on the exploration of Mars.

Consider three concepts of spacecraft movement.

Space artillery. Theory of Practice


The risky idea of rocket mail before the Internet was a good, potentially cheap way to quickly deliver letters. Delivery of parcels into orbit using a gun can become a more successful “mail”, of course, if a cheaper way to deliver goods does not appear, and problems similar to missile mail will be solved!

First, a little theory. It’s worth starting with Newton’s gun.
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After the theory, it's good to see the practice of using mega-guns. The only real example at the moment is the HARP (High Altitude Research Project) project.



In the 60s, Canadian Gerald Bull led the development of light-gas suborbital guns as part of the HARP project. Three cannons of similar design were built, one of which in Barbados, and two in the United States and Canada.

The HARP guns had a caliber of 406 mm and a barrel length of about 40 meters.

The shells of these guns were high-altitude atmospheric probes that took off to a height of 100 km. For firing, a projectile weighing 180 kg was used, which flew out of the barrel at a speed of 3600 m / s (12 960 km / h), which allowed reaching the apogee of an orbit of 180 km.

The orbital flight of such a projectile without the placement of the flight correction engines on the projectile is physically impossible, and therefore, despite the gained altitude, the probe fell down. If, as in Newton’s theory, the “core” probe could be directed in a circular orbit from a height of 100 km above the surface, then such a flight could be orbital without engines.

Bull’s plans were just a project of the Marlet rocket, which could deliver a small satellite into orbit.

The HARP gun device in practice differed from Newton’s and the mixture for accelerating the “core”. Instead of powder mixtures, the technology of expanding gas (hydrogen, and sometimes helium) was applied. This was necessary in order to give maximum physical acceleration to the projectile, because ultimately the expansion of gas in the barrel for acceleration depends on its mass.

The gun on light gases acted on the principle of pneumatic, only gas was not compressed before the shot. This principle of acceleration could give the projectile a speed of up to 6-7 km / s, and in some tests it was possible to accelerate the projectile to 11 km / s!

It is interesting that the ultimate goal of the HARP project was to create a workable method of launching miniature spacecraft using guns, but due to financial problems, this idea was abandoned by transferring tests to the field of studying hypersonic technologies.

The prospects for using the gun are not limited to putting spacecraft into orbit, and research on “hypersound”. One of the exotic, but valuable goods could be ... radioactive waste!
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Steam rocket. Absurd reality.


If you tell anyone now that rockets for launching into orbit are, in a certain sense, steam, this will cause, to put it mildly, distrust ... but this is really so! And in the future there is every chance that it will be literally that way!


Theory. Is it possible to create a steam rocket capable of leaving Earth's orbit?
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William Mook, Assisted Bob Laughlin Energy & Aerospace and Aeronautical Engineering, Stanford University

The first, and so far the only example, of a steam rocket flight with a man on board was shown by the “flat land” Mike Hughes.


The flight was unsuccessful, and even at the stage of development and construction there were high risks of “not flying up”. However, he flew ... and the earth crashed against the firmament of heaven .

More successful designs of steam rockets in the 90s in the United States created Tim Pickens.
His rockets flew without passengers, and were used to demonstrate steam traction capabilities.



In addition to accelerating upwards, his rockets were also used to accelerate cars.


AQUARIUS project team launched similar missiles in Germany. Missile launches were carried out from 1992 to 2003, mainly from the Bundeswehr military training ground in Klietz. The take-off mass of missiles did not exceed 60 kg.

These missiles did not reach orbits according to understandable technical limitations, nevertheless, a steam orbital rocket engine still existed!

The idea was implemented on the UK-DMC satellite, launched in 2003.

The British company Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) together with the European Space Agency (ESA) installed a small steam engine on this satellite!

An experimental reactive steam unit weighing 13 grams consumed 3 watts to heat 2.06 grams of water. This created the basis for jet propulsion - superheated steam (up to 200 degrees).

When testing for 30 seconds, the satellite received a thrust of 3.3 millinewtons, which subsequently yielded a deviation of 55 degrees (this thrust was compensated by a special flywheel).

Orbital tests showed that steam thrust as a small thrust engine is applicable for use in nano-satellites (weight less than 10 kg).

In theory, energy for heating water can be taken with the help of orbital mirrors, which is in many spacecraft projects for ice / water production on asteroids and other minor planets. These capabilities have not yet been tested, unlike mirrors in orbit.

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The first example of a proven solar-mirror-sail is the Banner project.
Now they plan to develop the theme of solar mirrors in China.

In addition to lighting cities, the truth is now appearing more reasonable concepts.

So recently, scientists from the University of Glasgow have announced plans to use mirrors. According to their plan, the rays of light from orbital mirrors should be directed to the panels of solar power plants so that they work 24/7.

The project was called Solspace for this purpose , and it has already received a five-year grant of $ 2.75 million from the European Council for Scientific Research (ERC).

Mirrors in orbit can be used not only to illuminate the Earth, but also to accelerate spacecraft.

This acceleration occurs due to the pressure of light photons on a reflective surface, which in vacuum conditions can create traction for movement. Sunlight pressure is low - only 1 mg (thousandth of a gram) per square meter. m. A

project exploring this theory in practice is called LightSail-2.



The task for a sail on a satellite is to raise the initial orbit of the spacecraft due to the generated solar pulse. Angular reflectors are installed on the satellite to record changes in the orbit.

The characteristics of the mini-satellite are modest - the weight is 5 kg, and the open sail area is 32 square meters. The reflective film has a thickness of only 4.5 micrometers, and is made of Mylar (synthetic polyester fiber). The purpose of the project, in addition to the technology test, is that in the future it would be possible to use a sail to maintain the orbit of the cubes.

All these exotic technologies, as we see, do not work very well on Earth, but this does not mean that they are useless.

Further, as promised - about Mars. If you read the last article, you probably might have asked the question "what will be on other colonies there?" (despite the fact that the article was adapted for the first of April, there is far from all a joke).

So ... a little information about 3 stations here.
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PS - In fact, it turns out that the space gun, the steam engine and orbital mirrors can be used effectively only outside the Earth. Unless, of course, scientists in orbital mirrors have guessed how to correctly apply satellite-mirror technology in orbit.

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