'Breakthrough' for rocket engine

Darkest · **'Breakthrough' for rocket engine -** 11-29-2012, 15:36 | posts: 5,245

Looked around but couldn't find anything about this earlier. Impressive work, I can't wait to see where it goes.

http://news.uk.msn.com/odd-news/brea...-rocket-engine

Quote:

The British company heading the Sabre project said it was "the biggest breakthrough ... since the invention of the jet engine".

Congratulations to the team behind it and their 30 years of hard work.

BLEH! · **Memory**: 24GB @ 1600 @ 9-10-9-27

It's an interesting idea, basically allows a conventional jet engine to work under otherwise totally hostile conditions, and the applications for rocketry are pretty staggering, too.

k1net1cs · 11-29-2012, 15:56 | posts: 3,328

'Skylon'?
Uh-oh...prepare for a planetary exodus, peeps.

scoter man1 · 11-29-2012, 16:04 | posts: 3,389 | Location: MI, USA

"cool air entering the engine from more than 1,000C to minus 150C in less than a hundredth of a second"

0.o I wanna see what they did to do that.

Penal Stingray · 11-29-2012, 16:13 | posts: 961 | Location: JerZe

Man thats nothing my lil rocket can shoot farther up in space and fly faster lol but seriously though thats pretty impressive

BigBlockTowncar · 11-29-2012, 17:37 | posts: 1,422 | Location: USA

Brasky · 11-29-2012, 17:41 | posts: 1,305 | Location: BBQ Capital of the World

Quote:

Originally Posted by scoter man1

"cool air entering the engine from more than 1,000C to minus 150C in less than a hundredth of a second"

0.o I wanna see what they did to do that.

how's this going to effect cpu cooling?

nhlkoho · 11-29-2012, 17:46 | posts: 3,873 | Location: Washington DC

5 times the speed of sound in our atmosphere or in space? The speed of sound in space is significantly higher isn't it?

Seref · 11-29-2012, 17:48 | posts: 1,578 | Location: Miami, FL

Quote:

Originally Posted by nhlkoho

5 times the speed of sound in our atmosphere or in space? The speed of sound in space is significantly higher isn't it?

Considering that there is no sound in space...

nhlkoho · 11-29-2012, 17:53 | posts: 3,873 | Location: Washington DC

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seref

Considering that there is no sound in space...

Actually yes there is. Not that the human ear can pick up but scientist can pick up sound waves

Andrés · 11-29-2012, 18:08 | posts: 4,286 | Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Quote:

Originally Posted by nhlkoho

Actually yes there is. Not that the human ear can pick up but scientist can pick up sound waves

I'm afraid I have to say you are wrong. Sound is basically vibrations over some material, either be it oxygen or helium or water. In vacuum, where there's no medium to transfer any kind of vibration, there can be no sound. Now, if you pick up electromagnetic waves and convert them to sound signals, that's something different, but they still aren't sound waves...

nhlkoho · 11-29-2012, 18:23 | posts: 3,873 | Location: Washington DC

So what happens during an explosion in space? You're saying that no sound will travel through the debris/gas that sent flying through the universe?

Andrés · 11-29-2012, 19:05 | posts: 4,286 | Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Quote:

Originally Posted by nhlkoho

So what happens during an explosion in space? You're saying that no sound will travel through the debris/gas that sent flying through the universe?

You would hear that sound if you shared contact with the same material over which the sound is propagating enabling you to receive those vibrations. If you watched the explosion from a safe distance, you'd hear absolutely nothing. Contrary to popular belief, Star Wars battles in reality would be plain silent

Brasky · 11-29-2012, 19:10 | posts: 1,305 | Location: BBQ Capital of the World

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrés

you would hear that sound if you shared contact with the same material over which the sound is propagating enabling you to receive those vibrations. If you watched the explosion from a safe distance, you'd hear absolutely nothing. Contrary to popular belief, star wars battles in reality would be plain silent :d

damn that george lucas!

(.)(.) · 11-29-2012, 19:12 | posts: 2,214 | Location: Logd n jst 2 change avatar

wonder how long before we this tech in commercial airline like the article mentioned.

zhengzhoudave · 11-29-2012, 21:20 | posts: 596 | Location: United Kingdom

Quote:

Originally Posted by nhlkoho

So what happens during an explosion in space? You're saying that no sound will travel through the debris/gas that sent flying through the universe?

In Space, No-One Can Hear You Scream!

The Laughing Ma · 11-29-2012, 21:32 | posts: 1,927

Quote:

wonder how long before we this tech in commercial airline like the article mentioned.

The thing that will hold it up is the dynamics of travelling through atmosphere at that speed. The only manned aircraft to travel consistantly at high speeds is the SR-71 Blackbird and the design elements for this aircraft took in to consideration the high temp it would encounter at Mach +3, up to 300c in some instances.

We have no doubt all heard how the aircraft frame would shrink so much on the ground when it was cool that the panels wouldn't fit right and the aircraft would leak fuel. That the airframe and panels would only fit correctly after it had reached operational temperature.

Getting an engine to do Mach 5 is easy sticking it on an aircraft that is large enough and safe enough to move paying passengers in any form of comfort, that's gonna take another 30 years I think.

BigBlockTowncar · 11-29-2012, 23:22 | posts: 1,422 | Location: USA

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Laughing Ma

The thing that will hold it up is the dynamics of travelling through atmosphere at that speed. The only manned aircraft to travel consistantly at high speeds is the SR-71 Blackbird and the design elements for this aircraft took in to consideration the high temp it would encounter at Mach +3, up to 300c in some instances.

We have no doubt all heard how the aircraft frame would shrink so much on the ground when it was cool that the panels wouldn't fit right and the aircraft would leak fuel. That the airframe and panels would only fit correctly after it had reached operational temperature.

Getting an engine to do Mach 5 is easy sticking it on an aircraft that is large enough and safe enough to move paying passengers in any form of comfort, that's gonna take another 30 years I think.

Ben Rich from Lockheed wrote a book about the Skunkworks and there was a blurb in one of the chapters about high speed travel. His basic comment about high speed travel was that building the engines would be the easy part, finding materials needed for commercial human travel would be a totally separate challenge.

KCjoker · 11-29-2012, 23:30 | posts: 2,537 | Location: Kansas City, Mo

Sounds awesome...big thumbs up for the Brits!

Extraordinary · 11-29-2012, 23:42 | posts: 2,767 | Location: At my desk

http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/sabre.html

elkosith · 11-30-2012, 00:28 | posts: 895 | Location: Indonesia

Maybe we will see a new Concorde in a few next years

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrés

You would hear that sound if you shared contact with the same material over which the sound is propagating enabling you to receive those vibrations. If you watched the explosion from a safe distance, you'd hear absolutely nothing. Contrary to popular belief, Star Wars battles in reality would be plain silent

Yup, most space movies are absolutely wrong about the sound effects in space. 2001 is an exception though

Dustpuppy · 11-30-2012, 01:58 | posts: 4,144

Quote:

Originally Posted by elkosith

Maybe we will see a new Concorde in a few next years

Yup, most space movies are absolutely wrong about the sound effects in space. 2001 is an exception though

True, however if you were in a futuristic manned space fighter it would likely simulate audio for your surrounding environment so that you could be more aware of your environment/situation and respond to threats better.

Additionally you'd never hear any loud noises over the ships comms as that would likely be cut out to improve pilot moral. Otherwise a space battle would seem like thousands of brilliant explosions in silence punctuated by several thousand people screaming that they're burning alive or having their guts sucked out into hard-vac through small punctures in their ships.

(.)(.) · 11-30-2012, 02:45 | posts: 2,214 | Location: Logd n jst 2 change avatar

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dustpuppy

True, however if you were in a futuristic manned space fighter it would likely simulate audio for your surrounding environment so that you could be more aware of your environment/situation and respond to threats better.

Additionally you'd never hear any loud noises over the ships comms as that would likely be cut out to improve pilot moral. Otherwise a space battle would seem like thousands of brilliant explosions in silence punctuated by several thousand people screaming that they're burning alive or having their guts sucked out into hard-vac through small punctures in their ships.

WHAT! the hell did i just read, Hilarious.

Love this forum.

elkosith · 11-30-2012, 03:09 | posts: 895 | Location: Indonesia

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dustpuppy

True, however if you were in a futuristic manned space fighter it would likely simulate audio for your surrounding environment so that you could be more aware of your environment/situation and respond to threats better.

Additionally you'd never hear any loud noises over the ships comms as that would likely be cut out to improve pilot moral. Otherwise a space battle would seem like thousands of brilliant explosions in silence punctuated by several thousand people screaming that they're burning alive or having their guts sucked out into hard-vac through small punctures in their ships.

War on space? Can't imagine that would happen IRL

Btw, if sounds need to be emulated, you need the data first, what kind of sound to emulate. You don't want to hear a laser beam when the actual thing is an explosion right? To get the data you'll need a detector that can detect the sounds. The detector must be placed on your ship. Then there's the problem, how can a sound detector detects sounds if the sounds can't travel to the sound detector?

Dustpuppy · 11-30-2012, 03:27 | posts: 4,144

Quote:

Originally Posted by elkosith

War on space? Can't imagine that would happen IRL

Btw, if sounds need to be emulated, you need the data first, what kind of sound to emulate. You don't want to hear a laser beam when the actual thing is an explosion right? To get the data you'll need a detector that can detect the sounds. The detector must be placed on your ship. Then there's the problem, how can a sound detector detects sounds if the sounds can't travel to the sound detector?

You're not detecting sound, if a laser impacts a target doing thermal damage then it will scatter a large amount of light as well as vaporizing a portion of the targets surface or creating shrapnel. Even a cell phone's camera would suffice for detecting such an event. The sound generated could be arbitrary, but since it's purpose is situational awareness it'd likely be defined by intensity, type & proximity at the least.

The hard part would be simulating the trajectory of the sound waves correctly, however I can think of a few ways that could be handled.