The aerospace industry is on the verge of being completely transformed. Partly responsible for that are the many startups working on technologies so out of this world that they might completely reshape our future.
It is thanks to private companies that vertical take-off and landing aircraft are gaining momentum. It's them who drove forward the rise of reusable rockets for space exploration. And it will probably be them who will bring back supersonic flight for civilian applications as well.
The startup we're here to discuss now aims even higher than all of that, and promises no more no less than the advent of hypersonic flight for both civilian and military applications. And hypersonic means speeds in excess of Mach 5 - 3,800 mph, or 6,100 kph.
The company that promises this is called Venus Aerospace, and it was founded in Houston, Texas, in 2020. The company is presently working on a hypersonic spaceplane that can reach staggering speeds of Mach 9, which in numbers we can all understand is 6,900 mph (11,100 kph). That's fast enough to reach virtually any destination on this Earth from any departure point in less than an hour!
The spaceplane is called Stargazer, and it will be capable of holding a total of 12 passengers, or a total weight at takeoff of 150,000 pounds (75 tons). The thing is supposed to be powered by conventional jet engines, which will take it away from populated areas. Once it clears them, a rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) will spring to life, pushing the plane to altitudes of 32 miles (51 km) and on to speeds of Mach 9.
It is this exact RDRE that brought Venus Aerospace back in the news last week. The hardware underwent, for the first time, a long-duration test fire, proving its merits not only in front of Venus, but DARPA as well, given how the research agency is backing the program.
Considered an "important technical milestone for having a flight-ready engine," the test had the engine running for an undisclosed amount of time and at undisclosed power levels. The run comes on the heels of short-duration tests which had the engine operating uncooled and for short periods of time.
The full details of the Venus RDRE are not known, with the only available piece of info being that it uses storable and stable liquid propellants. That allows the stuff to be loaded faster, thus avoiding boil-off, which is the vaporization cryogenic fuels experience when subjected to heat transfer while in the tanks.
The detonation rocket engine works by mixing fuel and oxidizer inside a channel in the engine assembly. The mixture is detonated to the point that small explosions become self-sustaining, pushing whatever machine it powers by means of supersonic pressure waves generated by the detonations.
Such a technology could be 15 percent more efficient than traditional rocket engines, and that's why NASA itself is considering them for future spacecraft bound for the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Venus has not mentioned when we should expect the Stargazer and its revolutionary engine to become available for use. The company does say though that it has been "awarded contracts by several U.S. Government agencies to accelerate the development and potential transition of its RDRE technology for hypersonic and space missions."
Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies. Full profile
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