Virgin Galactic space travel advances in testing; biobutanol, other biofuels envisioned for mothership, spacecraft

In New Mexico, construction will commence next month on the $198 million Spaceport America, a vertical launching pad and runway facility in Truth or Consequences that will be home to the Virgin Galatic spacecraft offering commercial space tourism flights for $200,000.

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Fuels is developing biofuels that can be used to power both the mothership Eve that will launch the spacecraft from the stratosphere, while the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft will itself be designed to run on biobutanol. Branson is an investor in Gevo, a development-stage company making butanol from cellulosic feedstocks.

The Virgin Galactic team recently completed successful test flights for the mothership flying on conventional kerosene, but the spacecraft  system has not yet received FAA commercial flight certification though Virgin has received 300 reservations from scientists James Lovelock and Stephen Hawking, among others. Each flight is aimed to reach 109 km in altitude, just past the 100 km “Karman line” that the FAI marks as the barrier between Earth’s lower atmosphere and space.

Branson confirmed that the carbon cost of each flight would be less than a round-trip flight between London and New York on a conventional aircraft. Meanwhile, the spacecraft system, while undergoing tests next year, will carry NOAA instruments designed to measure carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gas concentrations in the upper atmosphere.

Ethanol and rocketry

Ethanol gel has been proposed as a rocket fuel for hybrid engines that use a liquid oxidizer and a solid fuel. Ethanol was the fuel for the V-2 missile developed by Werner Von Braun in the Second World War, as well the Redstone rocket that carried Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom, the first two American astronauts.

NASA and biofuels

Officials at NASA have proposed an algae-based solution for the production of biofuels in closed plastic bags that would be filled with sewage that the algae would utilize as a feedstock, and produce algal oil. NASA said that the proposal addressed a major limitation of closed bioreactor systems on land, which is water-storage and temperature control in addition to land acquisition. The semi-permeable membranes “allow fresh water to flow out into the ocean, while retaining the algae and nutrients,” using a technology that NASA is testing for use in long-duration space flight.

“The algae will feed on the nutrients in the sewage, growing rich, fatty cells. Through osmosis, the bag will absorb carbon dioxide from the air, and release oxygen and fresh water. The temperature will be controlled by the heat capacity of the ocean, and the ocean’s waves will keep the system mixed and active,” said NASA researcher Jonathan Trent.

Biodiesel, rocketry and Mars exploration

Researchers at Flometrics have reported the possibility of growing oilseed crops on Mars for rocket fuel, after a test of B100 biodiesel in a Rocketdyne LR-101 engine showed comparable burn characteristic to RP-1 kerosene. The test was carried out in a General Dynamics/Convair Atlas missile based on a six-second burn, and B100 developed an 820 lb thrust compared to 840 for RP-1.

Following the test, Flometrics said it would proceed with a B100 powered rocket launch.

Free Subscription to the Daily Biofuels Digest e-newsletter

Entry Information