The Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support (BAAINBw) has commissioned Polaris to investigate the potential of a linear aerospike (LAS) rocket engine as a propulsion element in a space demonstrator. As the company has announced, the rocket engine of a new class is to be installed in a spaceplane demonstrator and tested in flight as part of the study.
Significant increases in efficiency are expected from LAS rocket engines compared to conventional rocket engines.
By optimizing the exhaust jet with spikes, a significant increase in efficiency is achieved compared to conventional rocket engines. According to Polaris, depending on the mission scenario, this enables a higher payload mass, a lower take-off mass of the vehicle and higher performance in terms of flight Mach number, flight altitude and flight range.
LAS engines were tested by NASA on the ground and on the back of the SR-71 reconnaissance jet in the 1990s. A LAS has not yet been tested as a flight propulsion system.
Als eine der größten technologischen Herausforderungen bei LAS-Raketentriebwerken benennt Polaris die Triebwerkskühlung, die im Vergleich zu herkömmlichen Raketentriebwerken wesentlich schwieriger sein könne. Die jüngsten Fortschritte im 3D-Druck ermöglichen jedoch neue Kühlungskonzepte, die bisher nicht realisierbar waren.
According to Polaris, the advantages attributed to the LAS, such as higher propulsion power, simpler integration, lower air resistance during turbine-powered cruise flight or gliding flight during re-entry, led to the selection of the propulsion system for the planned Bundeswehr spaceplane.
For aerospike flight validation as part of the study, Polaris is to build a custom, full-scale spaceplane demonstrator that is larger and heavier than the three vehicles built and flown to date (ESuTreported). This aerospike flight validation will be an important milestone on the way to an operational spaceplane.
For Polaris, this order is already the third study order from the German Armed Forces in the field of space aircraft. Each time, the complexity has increased, writes Polaris.
Editors / gwh
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