THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 20, 1994 TAG: 9407200410
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
Cheaper rockets are what's needed if people are to live and work routinely in space. Current rocket technology, while complex and sophisticated, relies on controlled explosions - essentially the principle behind the discovery of gunpowder and invention of firearms centuries ago.
``It takes an enormous amount of energy to get out of the gravity well,'' says Michael W. Miller, general manager of technology transfer at Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology in Herndon in Northern Virginia. CIT is a state agency charged with helping high-tech companies build business.
``There aren't these magic bullets out there that can defy the laws of physics. We're pretty much going to be wedded to chemical propulsion systems for years to come.''
Other, more exotic propulsion techniques are being considered. For instance, an electromagnetic rail gun would lob a payload into orbit after it was accelerated to Earth-escape speed down a very long track.
Then, there's what might be described as a cable car to the heavens: an extremely long, extremely strong cable that would be literally tethered in orbit. Passengers and freight would ride in a compartment along the cable to reach an orbital way station.
A more prosaic attempt is being made by McDonnell Douglas, which hopes test models of its Delta Clipper Experimental rocket, DC-X for short, can be scaled up to a much larger vehicle. The DC-X operates more like traditional rockets popularized in old science fiction movies, since it would soar to orbit in one piece and then come back again.
It's no accident the company has named the craft after its 1930s-era line of airplanes, which because of technological advance, for the first time opened up affordable air travel to passengers. But the DC-X future is clouded by technical glitches and funding problems. The rocket's development program may be canceled unless NASA steps in to replace the Pentagon as patron.
A longer-term effort involving the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton has to do with with a so-called National Aerospace Plane, or NASP.
The aerospace plane would fly to orbit from an airport runway, and return the same way. Expensive materials and yet-to-be-developed propulsion systems are required and probably won't be available for at least a decade. Langley is evaluating possible NASP design and configurations. by CNB