Armadillo Aerospace

Does anyone have any idea of the future plans of Armadillo Aerospace
beyond their X-Prize Contender ?

Their choice of Hydrogen Peroxide seems to have paid dividends in the
rapid development of their sub-orbital vehicle, I can see them
achieving the 100KM flight within the next 12 months, then extending
the altitude and speed envelope somewhat and hopefully making some
money.

However, after reading on their website that the Isp for their engines
is around 160 seconds it seems to me that even a two stage reusable
vehicle using this technology is going to struggle to reach orbit due
to the mass ratios required.

Also, they seem to have experimented with rocket powered rotor craft
initially but noting in the last couple of years, have they given up
on these ?

Alan Bloomfield

Alan Bloomfield wrote:

Their choice of Hydrogen Peroxide seems to have paid dividends in the
rapid development of their sub-orbital vehicle, I can see them
achieving the 100KM flight within the next 12 months, then extending
the altitude and speed envelope somewhat and hopefully making some
money.

I agree. Hydrogen peroxide is good choice for the
suborbital manned flight because it is safe. On
the other hand, commercial grade of the peroxide
is contaminated with hydrocarbons, which make
it unstable; it spontaneously breaks down into
water and oxygen. A mixture of the contaminated
hydrogen peroxide and a stabilizing compound
does not break down, but the stabilizing compound
contaminates the catalyst beds.

I do not know how they deal with these problems,
but I believe that rocket grade peroxide must
be free of the contaminants.

However, after reading on their website that the Isp for their engines
is around 160 seconds it seems to me that even a two stage reusable
vehicle using this technology is going to struggle to reach orbit due
to the mass ratios required.

I agree again. Specific impulse of pure peroxide
at sea level is 163 seconds.

Also, they seem to have experimented with rocket powered rotor craft
initially but noting in the last couple of years, have they given up
on these ?

Rocket powered rotor is a bad idea because you
can get the same thrust from the rocket. A
helicopter powered by a hydrogen peroxide turbine
is a great idea because it improves the specific
impulse by one order of magnitude. You can place
the platinum catalyst packs in the tips of the
blades, so the liquid propellant is compressed by
the centrifugal force like the roton propellant.
This kind of helicopter could fly slowly up to
the altitude of 30 km. Higher altitudes would
require very lightweight, gossamer propellers --
not very practical design. A large helicopter would
be cheaper than a craft using air breathing engines
and it would be more reusable than a stratospheric
balloon.

(Alan Bloomfield) writes:

Does anyone have any idea of the future plans of Armadillo Aerospace
beyond their X-Prize Contender ?

Their choice of Hydrogen Peroxide seems to have paid dividends in the
rapid development of their sub-orbital vehicle, I can see them
achieving the 100KM flight within the next 12 months, then extending
the altitude and speed envelope somewhat and hopefully making some
money.

However, after reading on their website that the Isp for their engines
is around 160 seconds it seems to me that even a two stage reusable
vehicle using this technology is going to struggle to reach orbit due
to the mass ratios required.


Armadillo does not propose to build an orbital vehicle using their
present, mixed-monopropellant, propulsion technology. The vehicle
they are working on now, is not intended to be either the upper
stage, the lower stage, or the prototype of an upper or lower stage,
of an orbital launch vehicle.

It's an X-prize vehicle, and a Let's Learn Rocket Science Without
Killing Ourselves vehicle, and 160 seconds Isp is adequate for both
those missions.


And by the time they are done, Carmack's team will have learned
rocket science well enough that they'd have a good shot at building
a much higher performance vehicle using HTP and Kerosene and thus
delivering more than twice the Isp of the mixed monoprop.

But trying to built a peroxide/kerosene vehicle *now*, would mean
dealing with twice the system complexity and more than twice the
energy density right from the start, which would more than double
the odds of running into a problem that would A: make them miss
the 12/31/04 X-Prize deadline, or B: get a test pilot killed.

And I'm pretty sure John Carmack wants to avoid test pilot fatality
if at all possible.


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