Reaction Engines SABRE is an interesting concept

"You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much" (youcantellafinn) 08/20/2013 at 16:31 • Filed to: PLANELOPNIK, SPACELOPNIK, VAPORWARE

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Though probably vaporware, this is definitely an interesting concept. Hopefully it really does work out, because single stage to orbit would be really cool to see in my lifetime. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! is pretty vague, but there is more detail on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The amount of heat they claim they are taking out with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! is mind boggling.

Paul, Man of Mustangs > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 08/20/2013 at 17:12

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The heat exchangers look more efficient, but it's hard to say if they can actually achieve the kind of cooling they're advertising.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > Paul, Man of Mustangs 08/21/2013 at 14:54

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I did some more digging on the Reaction Engines site. They claim 400 megawatts of cooling for this pre-cooler. My head isn't able to wrap around how they dissipate that much energy.

To put this in perspective, a whole house air conditioner is probably around 2 tons of cooling. These pre-coolers are capable of almost 114,000 tons of refrigeration.

Paul, Man of Mustangs > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 08/21/2013 at 14:58

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Imagine how cool (fucking puns, sorry) it would be to turn one of those into an automotive radiator, provided it actually works as designed! It could be incredibly small and lightweight, using less coolant. Of course, it would be working in sort of the opposite direction, but still. A heat exchanger can work both ways.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > Paul, Man of Mustangs 08/21/2013 at 16:07

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I wonder how well it would scale though. The pre-cooler for the SABRE is something like 1 1/4 tonnes, so ~1,250 kg (2,700 lbs). This assumes that by tonne they mean metric ton and not long ton. If tonne is long ton then more like 2,800 lbs, so actually pretty close whether they mean long ton or metric ton. And if tonne is short ton then I've gone cross-eyed.

Paul, Man of Mustangs > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 08/21/2013 at 16:30

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I'm sure it's not quite a linear scale. Few things are. But, the radiator on a car is about 1/4 the size of a normal home heat exchanger. Assuming it is a linear relationship (which is a fair statement for normal heat exchangers), it would weigh, uh...carry the 3...take the 3rd integral from 2 to e...AH! Uh, .05 lbs. o_O