SOLAR FLYER
The Alec Power Solar Flyer can deliver 500kg payloads to any spot on Earth from any other location on Earth at a cost of less than $6 per kilogram ($2.75/pound). This is accomplished utilizing Altec Power Battery Systems, ballistic trajectories and a Solar Flyer with a GPS guided parachute system, that can deliver a payload within 30 meters of a target location, by use of its parachute system the Solar Flyer does not need a runway to land. The newest iteration of the Solar Flyer is 2.3 meters in diameter and 10 meters long. The Solar Flyer is designed to fit into a standard 40 foot long shipping container. The Solar Flyer could be used to deliver emergency supplies, medicine, food or anything else that can fit within the Solar Flyer drop bay. The Solar Flyer only uses clean Solar Power produced energy to get to a destination without polluting the atmosphere. When the Solar Flyer arrives at its destination the Solar Flyer slows down and deploys a parachute system similar to The Joint Precision Airdrop System (JPADS) which is an American military airdrop system which uses the Global Positioning System (GPS), steerable parachutes, and an onboard computer to steer loads to a designated point of impact (PI) on a drop zone (DZ). If the conditions are right the Solar Flyer can simply drop cargo pods from its drop bay to the intended Drop Zone. The Cargo Pods use a system similar to JPADS to land at their intended DZ. After the Solar Flyer drops the Cargo Pods the Solar Flyer will return to where it was launched from and land using its parachute system…
Utilizing the Altec Power Electromagnetic Launch System, a payload could be delivered to any spot on Earth via Solar Flyer faster than any other commercially available system and for certain deliveries at a substantially lower cost. The Solar Flyer is powered by clean renewable energy obtained by an Altec Power Solar field comprised of Altec Power proprietary solar panels that outperform currently available commercial solar panels. Every launch of a Solar Flyer is a green launch with no volatiles polluting the atmosphere. After launch a Solar Flyer can reach virtually any point on Earth within 10 hours.
The Altec Power Electromagnetic Launch System is based on similar principles to the homopolar motor which comprises a pair of parallel conducting rails, along which a sliding armature is accelerated by the electromagnetic effects of a current that flows down one rail, into the armature and then back along the other rail. Utilizing Altec Power 1 MegaWatt Battery Banks placed along the conducting rail the Altec Power Electromagnetic Launch System is able to accelerate a Solar Flyer to over 600 miles per hour. As the Solar Flyer nears the end of the launch rail the Solar Flyer activates its turbines. After the Solar Flyer has left the launch rail the Solar Flyer will accelerate to approximately 1,500 miles per hour.
The Altec Power Electromagnetic Launch System can also be used to launch 300kg payloads into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for less than $200 per kilogram. Due to the high acceleration vector of the Altec Power Electromagnetic Launch System, the Altec Power Electromagnetic Launch System is not suitable for placing humans into LEO. Altec Power has designed a variant of the current Altec Power Electromagnetic Launch System to place people into space using a variant of the current Altec Power Electromagnetic Launch System.
The International Space Station (ISS), in low Earth orbit, is a modular structure which was initiated in 1985, with the first component launched into orbit in 1998. Now the largest artificial body in orbit, the ISS, can often be seen with the naked eye from Earth. The ISS consists of pressurized modules, external trusses, solar arrays and other components. ISS components have been launched by American Space Shuttles as well as Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets at cost of over $22,000 per kilogram or $10,000 per pound. The ISS maintains an orbit with an altitude of between 330 and 435 km (205 and 270 miles).
The cost of delivering payloads to the ISS currently exceed $22,000 per kilogram or more than $10,000 per pound. The Solar Flyer can deliver food, water, electronics, tools, supplies and fuel, just name a few items, to the ISS for less than $200 per kilogram utilizing a Delivery Pod with an attached Orbital Delivery System (ODS) that would deliver it’s payload right to the ISS.
According to NASA’s core technology program for all space transportation, the Advanced Space Transportation Program at the Marshall Center is pushing technologies that will dramatically increase the safety and reliability and reduce the cost of space transportation. Today, it costs over $40,000 to put a pound of payload in Earth orbit. NASA’s goal is to reduce the cost of getting to space to hundreds of dollars per pound within 25 years and tens of dollars per pound within 40 years.
SpaceX can put payloads into space for under a $1000 a pound. John Strickland explains how SpaceX can drive launch costs to less than one tenth that of competing rocket systems:
“When people see this cost comparison, they ask all over again ‘How can he (Musk) do that?’ How can the Falcon outperform the Delta by such a wide margin? The three main reasons seem to be (1) low manufacturing cost (2) low operational cost (time efficient operations design and low man-hours needed per launch) and (3) high efficiency performance in flight. The first two have already been demonstrated by the Falcon 9, and they continue to be improved, such as a recently announced two-thirds reduction of fuel loading time. The SpaceX paradigm is one of continuous improvement.
The first reason (low manufacturing cost) is exercised again in the “Heavy” by using three nearly identical rocket stages (instead of two solids and a core stage), which means more production of the same units, thus reducing their unit cost. The SpaceX plant in Hawthorne, California, is building towards the capability of producing a Falcon 9 first stage or Falcon Heavy side booster every week and an upper stage every two weeks. Within five years, SpaceX expects to be producing more large rocket engines per year (several hundred) than all other rocket companies on the planet combined. Engine production costs will thus decline still more. (Dragon production, depending on demand, is planned for a rate of one every six to eight weeks.)
The third reason (high efficiency in flight) is partly achieved by the standard methods of making the engines fuel efficient, with high thrust and low mass, and making the overall structural mass of each stage as low as possible. Musk has apparently done this better than anyone else. For example, the two side boosters have a fully fueled to empty mass ratio of 30. Additional flight efficiency is achieved by propellant cross-feeding.”
SpaceX is breaking from industry norms by being up front about their launch prices and publishing them on the web. A Falcon Heavy launch is $83 million and the payload it will be able to carry to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is 117,000 pounds. That works out to $709 per pound, less than the $1000 per pound BTE goal for the Heavy Lifter to be used for launching the Enterprise components into space. And the ‘Falcon Super Heavy’ which is not yet shown on the SpaceX site should have an even lower launch price per pound. SpaceX is certainly blazing a whole new trail.