Making the Rocket Equation Work for Us

(not against us)

H. Keith Henson, Founder L5 Society

The new idea is:• A way to raise a half million tons a year

to GEO at a cost of less than $100/kg • Space based solar power for a penny a

kWh, synthetic fuels made from that power for $1 a gallon

• Enough energy to put carbon back in the ground if we need to

Pop up and push• 290t rocket, less than a 747• 320 km sub orbital apogee, • Mass ratio 3.2• 200t propellant• 50t structure, 16.5 % (Aircraft)• 40t laser stage (later 50t, ½ PL)

Laser stage• Mass ratio 2.7• 25.5 t propellant• 14.5 t payload• 5.6-15.3 km/sec Ve• 12 km/sec in 905 seconds.• No gravity or air drag loses

Delta V• Earth surface to LEO 10 km/sec• Earth surface to GEO 14 km/sec• Earth surface to 160 km sub orbital, mass

ratio 3 SSME Ve, 4km/sec less 1.4km/sec gravity and .6km/sec air drag 2k/sec net

• Need additional 12 km/sec.• Mass ratio of 3, 12 km/sec Ve, • Mass ratio of 2, 17 km/sec Ve• GEO to1986 DA 0.14km/sec

Ablation Laser•8 GW in, 4 GW out, 800 5 MW modules

•Little over 1 g•Requires 800 five ton focusing mirrors at GEO

• (bootstrap the mirrors)

Optimum split 40t, 14.5 Payload1.1 g, miles vertical axis, NM horizontal

0

50

100

150

200

250

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000

Series1

Bounce mirrors after 15 hrs

Bounce mirrors after 5 hrs

GEO

Hohmann transfer orbit 5 hr

320km perigee

Credit Dr Stuart Eves

Geometry/Geography• GTO injection about 2600

NM down range• Needs to be on Equator • Best 5000km water to east• Good choices for US, EU

Location GPS of our private airport: S. 00º 06’ W. 049TH 35'

Lasers 45 deg to the WestWinnie Texas 29°49′8″N

94°23′0″WOn I10, between Houston and

Beaumont. Alternately with a few degrees off vertical we could go

as far as Corpus Christi 97.4, Brownsville 96.5 or Laredo 99.48

Launch every 15 minutes

• 96 flts/day, 60-100 rockets• Growth with more laser• Rocket life 20 years at 600

flights/year• Aircraft type maintenance

Cost/kg• 14.5 ton payload, 1392 t/day• Half a M t/year, half a Billion kg• $40 B lasers at $10/W• $60 B rockets, launch infrastructure.• $10B/year write off, $20/kg• Double for operating cost $40/kg• Double for sub orbital lift $80/kg

Digression, Scope of the energy problem

• 27 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year from producing energy (27 cubic km as liquid CO2)

• About half from oil and gas, half from coal

FirstWe Need to

Quit BurningFossil Fuels

We have to anyway

Failing to replace the energy has dire consequences (at least some think so)

Mitigation Requires Energy

• Geo-Engineering problem is to make these sources go away by technical means

• To end use of fossil fuels, a replacement of 15-30 TW is needed. 56% to liquids

Big Energy Sources• Nuclear has well known problems • Power satellites--invented 40 years ago

by Dr. Glaser of ADL• The problem with any energy solution is

that there are fools in high places who want a collapse (Club of Rome meeting in Houston Nov. 1975 and recent)

Equipment cost? Sasol’s• 34,000bbl/day plant, $1 B• $30,000/bbl• 300 days a year, $100/bbl of

capacity• 10 year write off $10/bbl• NOT counting the CO2 capture

plant

The energy cost is in making hydrogen

2.4 MWh/bbl of synthetic oil. At 10 cents/kWh,

$240/bbl, $6-8/gal fuel. At penny a kWh, $24/bbl

US Oil use is 20 Mbbls/day

• 100 MW 1000bbls/day• 100 GW 1 Mbbls/day• 2000 GW 20 Mbbls/day• 4 times the current US

electrical capacity

2 TW is a lot of power

But at an installation rate of 500 GW/year it takes only 4 years

for enough power to replace all the oil the US uses. Five years

if we replace the coal power plants first.

The only source that scales into 500GW/yr at low unit

cost is solar power satellites (potentially anyway)

What does it take to get penny/kWh power?

• 8000 hr/year, $80/year revenue • $800 for a ten years pay off • An installed kW should not cost

more than ~$800• Compare, nuclear plants at $5000 to

$8000/kw

If half the cost is rectenna and parts and the power sat mass is 4kg/kW then lift

cost for 4kg can’t exceed $400 or

$100/kg.

Current rocket launch to GEO at $20,000/kg is about 200 times too

expensive.

Geo-Engineering Scale• Lifts10,000 t in 7 days, at 2kg/kw 50

5GW power sats/year, 250GW/year• At 4kg/kw, 125GW/year• 2-4 years to shut down US coal plants or

sell 125-250GW/year to the Chinese and Indians who don’t build additional coal plants

• Who gets carbon credits?

Crash Bootstrap Buildout

• 2015 25-50 5GW Power sats/year. Half fed back.

• 2020 100 5GW/year • 2025 200 5GW/year.• 2050 30+ TW, Fossil fuels

totally displaced worldwide

Goals for next 40 years• At least double the energy available

to humans to 30TW without releasing more carbon

• Solve climate change, stop the rise and pull the CO2 level down to where ever desired--50TW, 12 years pulls down100 ppm making oil

Hkhenson@rogers.com

http://www.htyp.org/dtc (short link)

http://www.htyp.org/Dollar_a_gallon_gasoline 

http://www.htyp.org/Penny_a_kWh 

http://www.htyp.org/Hundred_dollars_a_kg 

http://www.htyp.org/Miller%27s_method