3D печать ракеты
Моя бредовая конструкция. Описание на англицком.
It is hard to 3D print high-performance construction and it is hard to get to space on low-performance rocket. Due to nature of Tsiolkovsky equation rocket mostly consists of fuel. So we propose to 3D print 100-1000 ton blocks of solid rocket fuel, namely ammonium perchlorate composite propellant. It is routinely cast in shape so we expect it to be suitable for 3D printing.
This block will be inserted into receiving cup of low pressure rocket engine. The pressure in chamber will be counteracted by mass of fuel and payload. Some gasses will escape through the gap between cup and fuel block but we expect that if gap is narrow enough(about 1 mm) then it will have low impact on engine performance.
The block will be printed with groves on exterior that will allow to control its introduction in combustion chamber with help of grips/brakes. They will hold fuel block with thousands of gear wheels that would mesh with grooves on fuel block surface.
On the interior fuel block will have a complex system of cavities that will increase fuel burning speed to hundreds of mm/s and allow to lower engine thrust gradually as the rocket gets lighter.
The resulting construction will provide about 2-4 km/s of delta-V and will serve as cheap and reliable first stage.
UPDATE.
It looks like idea is called autophage motor
https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/1.A34153
https://patents.google.com/patent/US3250216
UPDATE 2. Looks like the first to vice the idea was Friedrich Zander in 1911.
"In 1911, he published plans for a spacecraft built using combustible alloys of aluminum in its structure that would take off like a conventional aircraft and then burn its wings for fuel as it reached the upper atmosphere and no longer needed them." wiki
http://www.mediagnosis.ru/HISTORY/HTML/LITER/HRESTOM/C/Cander_01.htm
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Перелеты_на_другие_планеты._Статья_2_(Цандер%2C_1937).pdf
It is hard to 3D print high-performance construction and it is hard to get to space on low-performance rocket. Due to nature of Tsiolkovsky equation rocket mostly consists of fuel. So we propose to 3D print 100-1000 ton blocks of solid rocket fuel, namely ammonium perchlorate composite propellant. It is routinely cast in shape so we expect it to be suitable for 3D printing.
This block will be inserted into receiving cup of low pressure rocket engine. The pressure in chamber will be counteracted by mass of fuel and payload. Some gasses will escape through the gap between cup and fuel block but we expect that if gap is narrow enough(about 1 mm) then it will have low impact on engine performance.
The block will be printed with groves on exterior that will allow to control its introduction in combustion chamber with help of grips/brakes. They will hold fuel block with thousands of gear wheels that would mesh with grooves on fuel block surface.
On the interior fuel block will have a complex system of cavities that will increase fuel burning speed to hundreds of mm/s and allow to lower engine thrust gradually as the rocket gets lighter.
The resulting construction will provide about 2-4 km/s of delta-V and will serve as cheap and reliable first stage.
UPDATE.
It looks like idea is called autophage motor
https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/1.A34153
https://patents.google.com/patent/US3250216
UPDATE 2. Looks like the first to vice the idea was Friedrich Zander in 1911.
"In 1911, he published plans for a spacecraft built using combustible alloys of aluminum in its structure that would take off like a conventional aircraft and then burn its wings for fuel as it reached the upper atmosphere and no longer needed them." wiki
http://www.mediagnosis.ru/HISTORY/HTML/LITER/HRESTOM/C/Cander_01.htm
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Перелеты_на_другие_планеты._Статья_2_(Цандер%2C_1937).pdf