1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,100 My Outro For My 20th Birthday 2 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:41,480 Coming up on Destination Tomorrow, NASA's HyperX program brings a trip to space a little 3 00:00:41,480 --> 00:00:46,880 closer with new scramjet engine designs. We'll also see how NASA engineers are developing 4 00:00:46,880 --> 00:00:52,240 new light-weight materials that are stronger than steel. And we meet a retired NASA engineer 5 00:00:52,240 --> 00:00:57,840 whom many consider to be the father of modern hang gliding. All this and more next on Destination 6 00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:07,120 Tomorrow. Hello everyone, I'm Steele McGonigal. And I'm Kara O'Brien, and welcome to Destination 7 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:11,600 Tomorrow. This program will uncover how past, present, and future research is creating today's 8 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:16,800 knowledge to answer the questions and solve the challenges of tomorrow. Today, flights into space 9 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:21,960 are usually reserved for trained astronauts, but a new technology being developed by NASA may 10 00:01:21,960 --> 00:01:27,360 someday allow anyone the opportunity to travel into space. NASA's HyperX program is working on 11 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:31,760 experimental engine designs that could eventually propel commercial planes into space. This new 12 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:36,360 technology may make conventional rockets a thing of the past. Tonya Saint-Romain finds out more 13 00:01:36,360 --> 00:01:45,080 about this fascinating new program. Have you ever dreamed of going to your local airport and getting 14 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:49,840 on a cross-country flight that would take you minutes instead of hours? Or getting on a flight 15 00:01:49,840 --> 00:01:55,760 that would actually take you into space? This may seem like an unrealistic idea now, but in the near 16 00:01:55,760 --> 00:02:02,760 future, these dreams may actually become reality. NASA researchers in the HyperX program office are 17 00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:09,240 working on a new vehicle. It's called the X-43. The vehicle will demonstrate technology that could 18 00:02:09,240 --> 00:02:16,200 someday allow aircraft to travel at incredible speeds, even fly into space. The X-43 has a 19 00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:22,360 revolutionary new type of air-breathing engine called a scramjet that may enable future spacecraft 20 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:27,880 to take off and land like an airplane instead of blasting off like a conventional rocket. The 21 00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:33,800 scramjet engine may also be used by commercial airlines, and that would significantly reduce the 22 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:39,000 amount of travel time between destinations. I spoke with NASA manager Vince Rausch to find out 23 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:45,240 more about the X-43 and the scramjet engine. Tonya, the X-43 is a revolutionary new kind of 24 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:50,200 airplane. What we want to do with this is prove that hypersonic flight with an air-breathing engine 25 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:55,320 is possible. Hypersonic flight means flying more than five times the speed of sound. Today, most 26 00:02:55,320 --> 00:03:01,640 airplanes fly below the speed of sound or subsonically. This airplane, the X-43, which you see here full 27 00:03:01,640 --> 00:03:07,160 scale inverted in the wind tunnel, uses a new kind of engine to do that called a scramjet or supersonic 28 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:12,840 combustion ramjet. Vince, what makes the scramjet so special compared to a typical engine? Well, the 29 00:03:12,840 --> 00:03:18,200 scramjet is very much like a jet engine as far as how it operates. However, if you look at a typical 30 00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:22,280 jet engine on today's airliners, what you see are fan blades in the front that compress the air 31 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:26,920 before it goes into the combustor section where it's mixed with fuel and burned to produce thrust. 32 00:03:26,920 --> 00:03:32,200 The scramjet engine, such as this one, uses the forward velocity of the vehicle as it moves forward 33 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:38,040 in the air to ram the air into the engine so it can do away with those fan blades. It then mixes 34 00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:42,680 the fuel, burns it, and produces a thrust. That's much more efficient at the higher velocities that 35 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:47,080 this engine operates at than using compressor blades. What's the technology that's going to 36 00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:53,800 make this plane fly into space? The technology primarily is that this engine, because it doesn't 37 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:58,760 have moving parts, is designed to operate over a wide speed range, can actually fly theoretically up 38 00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:03,400 to 25 times the speed of sound, which is orbital velocity. What we want to do with this vehicle is 39 00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:07,320 show that one of these engines actually works in flight, something that's never been done before. 40 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:11,720 So we're really excited about taking this to flight, show that it works, and then from there go to 41 00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:15,640 bigger vehicles to show that we can actually make space access vehicles that fly like airplanes. 42 00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:21,320 The scramjet engine is very different from conventional rocket engines. In order to break 43 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:26,200 free from the Earth's gravitational field, vehicles like the space shuttle use a fuel mixture of 44 00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:32,040 hydrogen and oxygen to propel the vehicle forward. Unfortunately, the oxygen and hydrogen must be 45 00:04:32,040 --> 00:04:37,320 carried in the vehicle, which significantly increases the weight, making it very expensive 46 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:43,240 and inefficient to fly to space. Since the scramjet engine actually scoops oxygen into the 47 00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:48,280 engine from the atmosphere, it doesn't need the extra tanks to carry the heavy oxygen propellant. 48 00:04:48,280 --> 00:04:52,840 The scooped air, which is traveling above the speed of sound relative to the vehicle, 49 00:04:52,840 --> 00:04:57,800 is heated up as it reaches the combustion section of the engine. It's then mixed with hydrogen and 50 00:04:57,800 --> 00:05:03,240 burned quickly to provide thrust. This process allows the vehicle to move faster and faster, 51 00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:08,840 reaching orbital velocity, enabling the vehicle to break the gravitational fields and fly into space. 52 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:14,520 We have a long history here at NASA Langley of doing scramjet research. In fact, over the last 53 00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:20,440 40 years, we've built and tested over 20 engines. We've run 5,000 tests. If you ran these tests 54 00:05:20,440 --> 00:05:24,520 end-to-end, we would actually have enough test time to fly five times around the globe. 55 00:05:24,520 --> 00:05:28,440 Unfortunately, there's some things that we can't duplicate on the ground in a facility such as this 56 00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:33,080 that we have to take to flight. So now what we're ready to do is take engines such as this scramjet 57 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:38,360 engine to flight. All right, let me get this straight. The X-43 uses an air-breathing engine. 58 00:05:38,360 --> 00:05:42,120 What makes it different from other vehicles that fly into space like the Space Shuttle? 59 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:46,280 The Space Shuttle uses rocket engines, obviously, instead of an air-breathing engine. 60 00:05:46,280 --> 00:05:51,160 What we want to do is take the cost of the Space Shuttle, which is about $10,000 a pound today, 61 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:57,080 and by using an air-breathing vehicle such as a follow-on to the X-43, drop that price down to a 62 00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:01,080 couple of hundred dollars a pound. That would mean that you and I could take a space trip, 63 00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:05,240 something that I'd very much like to do in the future. It would also, by operating like an 64 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:10,680 airplane, take off and land on a runway. It would be much more flexible, much more reliable, 65 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:15,800 and obviously much safer. So we want to really take airplane technology and apply it to space 66 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:20,920 launch technology. And the scramjet is kind of a mix of both. And we're very excited about the 67 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:24,520 potential for the future and what we're about in this program is starting to prove that that 68 00:06:25,080 --> 00:06:30,200 potential is really there. Vince, I know the X-43 is still in the initial test phase, 69 00:06:30,200 --> 00:06:34,360 but when might you and I expect that we could actually hop on one of these planes and fly 70 00:06:34,360 --> 00:06:40,120 into space? Tonya, we have a lot of work to do before we get to that point. The X-43 is the 71 00:06:40,120 --> 00:06:46,360 first step. Beyond the X-43, we hope to have an X-43C, which would be slightly larger, 72 00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:50,280 and then going from there into fully reusable systems where we test them many, many times. 73 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:55,320 I would say that realistically, we're talking about being able to make a decision on building 74 00:06:55,320 --> 00:07:02,600 a real airplane using the scramjet technology in the 2025 timeframe. Currently, the world's 75 00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:07,880 fastest air-breathing aircraft, the SR-71, cruises slightly above Mach 3. The HyperX 76 00:07:07,880 --> 00:07:12,360 research vehicle will have the ability to fly at Mach 10, or 10 times the speed of sound, 77 00:07:12,360 --> 00:07:18,440 which is roughly 2 miles per second. Up next, testing shuttle tires at 250 miles an hour 78 00:07:18,440 --> 00:07:23,880 on the ground. But first, did you know that the X-15 was the first winged aircraft to investigate 79 00:07:23,880 --> 00:07:31,240 piloted hypersonic flight? From June 1959 to October 1968, the X-15 set the world speed record 80 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:39,560 at Mach 6.7, or 4,520 miles per hour. It also set the altitude record of 354,200 feet, 81 00:07:39,560 --> 00:07:41,800 and earned astronaut wings for five of its pilots. 82 00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:49,720 The term stronger than steel used to be synonymous with great strength. But today, 83 00:07:49,720 --> 00:07:54,600 many manufacturers are using new lightweight materials called composite materials rather 84 00:07:54,600 --> 00:08:00,200 than steel. This is because composite materials are generally stronger, lighter, and much more 85 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:05,320 resistant to extreme temperatures than steel. NASA is using composite materials to make new 86 00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:09,880 spacecraft and aircraft parts that are tougher and more efficient than conventional parts. 87 00:08:10,440 --> 00:08:15,000 Derek Leonidoff takes us to the Advanced Materials and Processing Branch at NASA Langley 88 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:15,800 to find out more. 89 00:08:21,480 --> 00:08:26,280 Have you ever heard the term composite materials? Even though most people don't know exactly what 90 00:08:26,280 --> 00:08:30,920 they are, there is no doubt that these materials are being used by most of us every day. More and 91 00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:36,440 more of the goods we use, like tennis rackets, golf clubs, cars, and even planes, are made with 92 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:42,680 these materials. But do you know what a composite material is, or how one is made? Well, I spoke 93 00:08:42,680 --> 00:08:47,960 with researchers at NASA who are developing new composite materials that are not only lighter and 94 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:53,480 safer than existing materials, like steel, but also stronger. These researchers are also working 95 00:08:53,480 --> 00:08:59,240 with radical new materials called nanotubes that are thousands of times smaller than a human hair, 96 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:04,600 but they may revolutionize the way future materials are made. A composite is really a 97 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:11,240 generic term which describes a material that is composed of one or more parts, and those parts 98 00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:17,160 are combined together in a way that you end up with the final material that has better properties 99 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:23,000 than any of the individual components. An example of a composite that we see every day is a tree. 100 00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:28,920 A tree is composed of cellulose fibers that are bound together by a polymer called lignin, and 101 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:33,720 when you combine these two components together, you end up with a tree which is very, very strong. 102 00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:38,520 A composite material is made when a combination of two or more materials are combined together 103 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:44,440 to make a new and different material. Researchers take individual materials, one, a reinforcing 104 00:09:44,440 --> 00:09:50,040 material for strength and stiffness, and one, a glue or binding material, such as a resin, 105 00:09:50,040 --> 00:09:54,920 to surround and hold the reinforcement in place. When the reinforcing material and the binding 106 00:09:54,920 --> 00:10:01,000 material are combined, they make a new material. This new material usually is not only strong and 107 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:06,120 resistant to extreme temperatures, but can be much lighter than the existing material. 108 00:10:06,120 --> 00:10:11,240 Similar to the tree, an analogous synthetic material is a graphite composite. A graphite 109 00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:17,160 composite is composed of carbon fibers which are very, very strong, and to make a structural 110 00:10:17,160 --> 00:10:23,880 material using these carbon fibers, we consolidate it by combining it with this polymer matrix resin. 111 00:10:23,880 --> 00:10:28,920 This polymer matrix resin is kind of like a glue, and this is a large part of the research that we 112 00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:34,120 do here at NASA. Depending on the properties of this particular polymer, it will dictate the 113 00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:39,960 maximum temperature that you can use it at and also how strong this material is. One of the ways 114 00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:44,200 that we can use the glue that Joyce Lin talked about is to make it into little balls called 115 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:49,640 microspheres. As you can see, it's mostly air. Since it's mostly air, we have the combination 116 00:10:49,640 --> 00:10:55,320 of a strong material that's also lightweight. What we do is we take the balls and we consolidate it 117 00:10:55,320 --> 00:11:01,880 into a foam piece, and because, again, the material is strong to begin with, you now have a very 118 00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:10,280 tough, lightweight structure. We then take this structure, combine it with carbon fiber. What we 119 00:11:10,280 --> 00:11:16,360 have done now is to have a lightweight structure that improves fuel efficiency, therefore it reduces 120 00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:22,600 the cost of travel, and we also have improved safety in aircraft travel. So Mia, what is the future of 121 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:26,520 composite materials? I mean, where do we go from here? One of the things that we're looking into 122 00:11:26,520 --> 00:11:32,040 now is called nanotechnology. Nanotechnology presumes that we're able to go into the atomic 123 00:11:32,040 --> 00:11:37,320 level, move atoms, so that we can create materials in a very controlled manner. That way, we can 124 00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:42,600 design materials very precisely. In the current technology, we use wires embedded in structures 125 00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:47,960 to sense defects in aircraft parts. We are trying now to reduce the size of these wires so that, 126 00:11:47,960 --> 00:11:52,840 in effect, we have nerves embedded in aircraft structures. Because carbon nanotubes are about