Space progress report

Last Thursday I gave a talk at the 3rd Space Word conference in
Frankfurt on power satellites, how to build them with laser propulsion
to get the cost down and how you build the first laser at GEO with
Skylon. (I can send the power point slides I used if someone wants
them.)

I was impressed with the people who showed up.  There is another world
out there.  They speak English (more or less) as a common language.  I
don't think I ran into anyone who did not appreciate the importance of
high exhaust velocity as the way to get the payload up and the cost
down.  That's unlike some conferences in the US where it's hard to
find anyone who understands the rocket equation.

Friday I visited Reaction Engines.  Delightful experience meeting Alan
Bond and Richard Varvill, the key technical guys.  They have (and I
saw) the precooler for the SABRE engines working.  They extract a GW
of heat from entering ram air and drop the temperature to -150 deg,
making it possible to compress the air to rocket chamber pressure with
a low tech turbine.  Miles of tiny tubes in each one, and they *don't
leak.*

I brought them the China, India, power sat news which they had not heard of yet.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-11-02/india/34877401_1_space-solar-power-space-collaboration-v-ponraj

It's difficult to decide exactly what is going on there.  I suspect
China might be thinking about heading off US opposition to them
building propulsion lasers.

Unlike Elon Musk (who has stated he hates the power sat concept),
Reaction Engines has long been upfront that their vehicle (Skylon) is
well matched to the massive payload capacity needed for power
satellites.

Keith