Key tests for Skylon space plane project has started with UK engineers have begun critical tests on a new engine technology designed to lift a space plane into orbit.

The proposed Skylon vehicle would operate like an airliner, taking off and landing at a conventional runway. Reaction Engines Limited (REL) believes the test campaign will prove the readiness of Sabre's key elements.

This being so, the firm would then approach investors to raise the £250m needed to take the project into the final design phase. "They intend to go to the Farnborough International Air Show in July with a clear message," explained REL managing director Alan Bond.

This is a British company Reaction Engines Limited (REL) uses a combined-cycle, air-breathing rocket engine to reach orbit in a single stage. The design is aiming for re-usability up to 200 times. In paper studies, the costs per kilogram of payload are hoped to be lowered from the current £15,000/kg to £650/kg including the costs of research and development (R&D), with costs expected to fall much more over time after the initial expenditures have amortised. However, the cost of the programme has been estimated by the developer to be about $12 billion.

IMHO the prediction for this rather low cost/Kg is rather optimistic, but if it is anything near £1000/Kg, it is fantastic news. Just imagine that for the price of a luxury car - £50,000 you could send a 50KG small safelight to space.

Theoretically the space will become a big junk yard, so some form of regulation to control what goes up will probably be needed when eventually this takes off.

Sabre propulsion unit is part jet engine, part rocket engine. It burns hydrogen and oxygen to provide thrust - but in the lower atmosphere this oxygen is taken from the atmosphere. The approach should save weight and allow Skylon to go straight to orbit without the need for the multiple propellant stages seen in today's throw-away rockets.

But it is a challenging prospect. At high speeds, the Sabre engines must cope with 1,000-degree gases entering their intakes. These need to be cooled prior to being compressed and burnt with the hydrogen. Reaction Engines' breakthrough is a module containing arrays of extremely fine piping that can extract the heat and plunge the intake gases to minus 140C in just 1/100th of a second.

Ordinarily, the moisture in the air would be expected to freeze out rapidly, covering the pre-cooler's pipes in a blanket of frost and compromising their operation.

But the REL team has also devised a means to stop this happening, permitting Sabre to run in jet mode for as long as is needed before making the transition to a booster rocket.

Where is this going?

The future direction of the REL project has generated a lot of excitement. One reason for that is the independent technical audit completed last year and the UK Space Agency engaged propulsion experts at the European Space Agency (Esa) to run the rule over the company's engine design.

Our science editor David Shukman watches the Skylon engine tests Esa's team, which spent several months at Culham, found no obvious showstoppers. "Engineering is never simple. There are always things in the future that need to be resolved - problems crop up and you have to solve them," said Dr Mark Ford, Esa's head of propulsion engineering.

SKYLON is the successor to Britain's HOTOL spaceplane concept, being developed by Reaction Engines Ltd (REL). It is an unpiloted fully reusable aircraft-like vehicle capable of transporting 12 tonnes of cargo into space and is intended as a replacement for expensive expendable launchers in the commerical market. (Source: www.spacefuture.com)

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