http://www.gizmag.com/micro-laser-si...30115/pictures

http://3dmicroprint.com/

http://www.eos.info/eos_pressemitteilung_3dmicorprint

Submicron resolution over 450 mm cube - 18 inch cube.

A sphere 450 mm in diameter enclosing another sphere 284.4 mm in diameter containing 12.04 litres of LOX massing 13.73 kg. The volume between the two spheres is the difference between 47.71 litres and 12.04 litres or 35.67 litres. This contains 2.50 kg of liquid hydrogen. A total of 15.23 kg of propellant.

The sphere masses 1.05 kg and consists of an array of micromachinery capable of performing a wide array of functions, including that of a propulsive skin, phased array antenna, super camera array to create a panoramic picture in all directions that is easily explored on a standard PC, like this;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th5zlUe6gOE#t=56

http://jonaspfeil.de/ballcamera


A 1.05 kg empty weight and a 16.28 kg full weight with hydrogen oxygen propellant in an efficient nozzle design implies a final speed of a single stage of;

Vf = 4.5 * ln(16.28 / 1.05) = 12.33 km/sec.

Not bad! This system is capable of leaving the Earth altogether and flying around the moon and return to Earth, even accounting for air drag and gravity losses. This system is capable of flying around the moon and returning to Earth, but not capable of landing on the moon after leaving Earth.

Of course, this could also fly to any point on Earth, take photos, hover for a bit, and return to its starting point - causing comment among viewers at the recon point perhaps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDsXl7hAv3Q

A 450 mm diameter sphere covered with a high efficiency solar panel array operating at 55% overall efficiency produces 119.66 watts travelling through space in sunlight near 1 AU. The system using fuel cells to produce power at 100 watts continuously uses 47.6 milligrams of hydrogen and 333.2 milligrams of oxygen to produce 380.8 milligrams of water per minute. The ability to store water on board that is electrolyzed by solar powered fuel cells, and generate electricity on demand using those same fuel cells, independently of lighting conditions. 100 grams of water storage permit 4 hours and 25 minutes of operation without loss of propellant, with propellant restored using solar power.

Two spheres, one lifting the other and then separating, provides an initial boost of 2.83 km/sec. The second sphere starting at this speed attains an additional 12.33 km/sec giving a total delta vee of 15.16 km/sec.

This is sufficient to land on the moon, and give an additional 0.81 km/sec delta vee. Sufficient to land, navigate around the landing site, and visit another landing site via suborbital boost. Thus, several Apollo sites could be visited and thoroughly photographed by this system, after a soft landing.

Three spheres, one lifting two, and the second lifting the last, achieves an additional 1.68 km/sec - a total of 16.84 km/sec. Sufficient for the last sphere to land on the moon and take off again with 0.19 km/sec delta vee capability while on the lunar surface - again enough to do significant navigation around the lunar landing site.

http://baseball.physics.illinois.edu/WattsFerrerAJP.pdf

A spinning sphere is capable of inducing a L/D of 0.6 - this suggests that a 1.05 kg sphere, with 0.05 kg of excess hydrogen in the depleted tank, that is combined with atmospheric oxygen for propulsion via MEMS based hydrogen fuelled jet, would be capable of returning to the launch point when operating as either the first or second stages in the system thus described. So, all three components are fully recovered in these operations.