MAB part 6

MAB stands for Microwave Air-Breathing Booster.  Sixth part of a series.  Last post here.

Speculation alert.  Actually, all of these should have that, but I got lazy.

Using atmosphere and energy for precooler for hypersonic flight

If the spacecraft is to go hypersonic and still be an airbreather, some way needs to be found to cool the air on the intake side, if I am not mistaken.  One way is to do it like Skylon does it.  Skylon will carry some extra hydrogen on-board for this purpose.


But what if you can use some of that energy that heats up the atmosphere in order to cool it down on the intake side first?  That way, you don't have to carry the mass of the hydrogen along with its plumbing and tanks.

Don't know if this is the best way of doing it, but here goes.  I figured a Sterling type device to use the energy from the microwave and running in reverse as a cryogenic cooler that will cool down the air intakes.


How to finance this thing

What would all of this cost?  I haven't the slightest idea.  Let's say $15 billion.  If you can get 150 flights out of it, that figures to 10 million per flight plus the other costs.  Let say those other costs were also 10 million per flight.  That would still be a bargain.  The Falcon 9 can launch for 50 million.  But this thing may be configured to lift a lot more than the Falcon 9.  It may lift as much as a Falcon 9 heavy.


But all of that depends upon a developmental cost that doesn't exceed this figure and a lifetime at least as long as 150 flights.  How this figures in, I don't know.

Update:

Part 7 here.