/ News
Esa test opens way to UK spaceplane engine investment
The UK government has announced plans to invest in the development of an air-breathing rocket engine – intended for a single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane – following the ESA-managed feasibility testing of essential technology.
The £60 million investment, provided through the UK Space Agency, will back technical improvements leading to construction of a prototype Synergistic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine, or SABRE.
Designed by UK company Reaction Engines Ltd, this unique engine will use atmospheric air in the early part of the flight before switching to rocket mode for the final ascent to orbit.
The concept paves the way for true spaceplanes – lighter, reusable and able to fly from conventional runways.
Reaction Engines plans for SABRE to power a 84 m-long pilotless vehicle called Skylon, which would do the same job as today’s rockets while operating like an aeroplane, potentially revolutionising access to space.
The investment decision followed the success of ESA-managed tests of a key element of the SABRE design, a precooler to chill the hot air entering the engine at hypersonic speed, in Reaction Engines’ Oxfordshire headquarters back in November 2012.
“Ambient air comes in and is cooled down to below freezing in a fraction of a second,” explained Mark Ford, head of ESA’s propulsion section. “These types of heat exchangers exist in the real world but they’re the size of a factory.
“The key part of this is that Reaction Engines has produced something sufficiently light and compact that it can be flown.
“The idea behind the engine is that the vehicle flies to about Mach 5 in the lower atmosphere using airbreathing before it switches internal liquid oxygen for the rest of its flight to orbit.
“At that speed, the air is coming in extremely fast. You need to slow it down in order to burn it in the engine, and doing so will raise the temperature of the air to about a thousand degrees, which can exceed engine material temperature limits.
“Hence the concept of the precooler is to cool the air down to a temperature that is then usable by the engine.
The idea has been around since the 1950s but this is the first time anyone has managed to achieve a working system. Nobody else has this technology, so Europe has a real technological lead here.”
Source: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Technology/ESA_test_opens_way_to_UK_spaceplane_engine_investment
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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