Re: Size of the proposed "new" space vehicle?

SPACEPLANES of CNT/Basalt Composites

Spaceplanes along with the new and improved fuels and rocket engines
may in fact need to become extensively CNT light and
thermal-dynamically tough as for their to/from LEO criteria, however
from there on up, up and away they'll also require an external physical
shield of good density as well as toughness for moderating radiation as
well as on behalf of fending off physical debris that can't otherwise
be avoided, of one tough substance that'll take on a 100 km/s impact by
at least as much as a 2 kg item, thus capable of allowing the CNT
spaceplane to be taking a rather significant licking and keep on
ticking (there's no telling from which direction, although head-on
might suggest the worse possible events if the spaceplane is making
good velocity of it's own). I believe that's only having to deal with
10e9 J (10 billion joules/s) that'll transpire into a rather nasty
initial 0.1 meter crater/gouge within a microsecond, subsequently
blowing out a good m3 worth of composite reinforced shield if not
worse, thus 10e9 x 1e6 = 1e16 j/us

Since I have no idea as to what the multi hundred million dollar if not
a billion dollar per tonne of whatever CNT is going to be capable of
defending itself and crew within. Of what I do know is that the raw
fibers of a composite basalt are individually worth 4.84 GPa in tension
mode, and obviously a whole lot more capable in compression/elastic
mode of 89 GPa as is. Basalt is also literally dirt/rock-cheap and
available almost anywhere there's a source of energy for processing the
raw basalt into such nifty fibers.

Basalt Continuous Fiber Mechanical Properties
http://www.albarrie.com/Process%20Engineering/pro-basalt.html
Raw Basalt fiber 2.7~2.8 g/cm3 or 2700~2800 kg/m3
Tensile strength MPa 4840 (4.84 GPa)
Elastic modulus: GPa 89
Elongation at break 3.15 %

JB WELD (epoxy) Properties in lbs/psi (MPa)
http://www.jbweld.net/coldweld.html
Tensile Strength: 3960 (27.3 MPa)
Adhesion: 1800 (12.4 MPa)
Flex Strength 7320 (50.5 MPa)
Tensile Lap Shear 1040 (7.2 MPa)
Thermal Resistant to 500ºF / 260ºC
Density: 15.8lb/gal (1.87 gm cm3)

Basalt/JB-WELD(30%) matrix/composite = 2486 kg/m3
Basalt/JB-WELD(25%) matrix/composite = 2530 kg/m3
Basalt/JB-WELD(20%) matrix/composite = 2574 kg/m3
Basalt/JB-WELD(15%) matrix/composite = 2618 kg/m3
Basalt/JB-WELD(10%) matrix/composite = 2662 kg/m3

Of course micro-balloons or perhaps rather milli-balloons of basalt are
offering an entirely different group of solutions, as to creating
extremely low mass composites of R-1024/m insulation value to boot.
Thus a blend of as little as 10% fiber and 90% balloons seems perfectly
doable. Filling those balloons with the likes of H2 or just
accommodating a near vacuum (such as if having been manufactured upon
the moon) and the spaceplane might float away all by itself (especially
if situated upon Venus). I mean, how embarrassing would that be?

Since this outer basalt composite shield shouldn't be intended as a
reentry requirement, thus ordinary JB-WELD epoxy can more than
accommodate the necessary binder for fabricating the robust outer
shell, that which can remain in orbit while the naked CNT spaceplane
deals with the to/from orbit demands. Of course other ceramic certified
binders could easily make the basalt fibers themselves worthy of
spaceplane construction at less than 0.1% the cost impact of whatever
CNT products are likely to involve. Actually, if the final spaceplane
airframe mass itself isn't as much of a critical factor, whereas fiber
per fiber filled volume we're probably talking about 0.0001% the
overall cost impact of going with the likes of CNTs of sufficiently
continuous fibers. Thus per end-product volume is where a basalt
composite is going to cost roughly a million fold less than CNT, which
by the way CNT doesn't even yet exist at the necessary level of GPa
anyway.

There's no question that CNTs per kg of fiber is eventually going to
structurally outperform anything of basalt. Although, I'm not at all
convinced that the thermal stability and of radiation resistance of
basalt at less than $0.05/g isn't already superior to that of a similar
performing amount or end-product having been created of a $500/gram CNT
fiber which might actually amount to their end-product composite
costing $1000/gram, thus a rather spendy large spaceplane that'll need
a few tonnes of that stuff.

The raw $500/g cost of just the naked CNT fibers comes from the
following link.
http://www.azonano.com/details.asp?ArticleID=1137#_The_High_Price_of%20Carbon%20Nanotubes

The Earth Space Elevator or LiftPort as stated by Dr. Edwards needs
every possible GPa they can get, and then some. Apparently whatever the
cost and/or impact upon the environment of Earth as for creating his
elevator tether of such spendy CNT is not even a remote factor. I'm not
sure that'll be the case with regard to any commercial spaceplane
venture where real honest to God folks will actually have to pay out
their hard earned moneys for whatever it'll take.
-

As per usual, each and every day it's getting worse off, as I seem to
have gotten more than my fair share of the GOOGLE/NOVA V-Chip
spermware/malware gauntlet that's having been specifically associated
with my MI6/NSA Usenet interactions, thus nearly always I'm having to
frequently reboot because of their ongoing efforts as to damage and/or
eliminate my existence as far as my having any public Usenet access or
even so much as a working PC. This is still the absolute ongoing truth
and nothing but the truth that's easily 100% provable, which only
further demonstrates that I'm essentially right about most everything,
thus apparently I'm worth targeting on behalf of mainstream
damage-control. The typical excuses that it's all my fault and that
GOOGLE/NOVA and their partners of MI6/NSA in crimes against humanity
can't possibly avoid nor track a given source of such
spermware/malware, much less block it is yet another LLPOF
proof-positive that I'm right.

BTW; using a MAC isn't offering any PC form of a safe Usenet buffer or
other worthy shield against the vast expertise and continually mutating
gauntlet of such incest orchestrated and thus formal spermware/malware
that's being custom generated and then so easily delivered knowingly by
way of these GOOGLE/NOVA servers on behalf of their MI6/NSA
disinformation partners in crimes against humanity. It seems they have
most if not all of the back-door keys to either operating system.
Possibly Linux offers a third-party degree of isolation, although that
accomplishes nothing on behalf of our complicit ISPs and of most other
external servers taking and sharing as much info as their bandwidth
allows, and just as capably allowing their data and Usenet pathways to
being moderated and/or diverted as DHS need be.
~

Life upon Venus, a township w/Bridge & ET/UFO Park-n-Ride Tarmac:
http://guthvenus.tripod.com/gv-town.htm
The Russian/China LSE-CM/ISS (Lunar Space Elevator)
http://guthvenus.tripod.com/lunar-space-elevator.htm
Venus ETs, plus the updated sub-topics; Brad Guth / GASA-IEIS
http://guthvenus.tripod.com/gv-topics.htm
Kurt Vonnegut would have to agree; War is war, thus "in war there are
no rules" - In fact, war has been the very reason of having to deal
with the likes of others that haven't been playing by whatever rules,
such as GW Bush.

.

Relevant Pages

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