Another one of the X-prize contenders, the HARC Liberator, was unveiled on Monday, 24-Nov-2003 in Alabama. They are using a LOX Kerosene propulsion system, and other than that, it looks like a fairly conventional rocket.
The HARC team also used the event to provide more technical details about the Liberator and its planned flight profile than what was first announced last month. As currently planned, Liberator will lift off from either a platform in the Gulf of Mexico or a peninsula in the US Virgin Islands. The spacecraft, carrying a pilot and two passengers stacked vertically, will be propelled by a booster using two 53,400-newton engines burning liquid oxygen and kerosene. HARC acquired the engine design from a defunct launch vehicle startup, Space America. With a total mass at liftoff of about 4,500 kilograms, the Liberator’s occupants will experience an acceleration of 2.5g. That acceleration will grow to 5g before engine burnout, although Pickens said his team is looking at ways to reduce the g-loads during flight.
Not quite a gentle ride, but certainly survivable.
Posted by elkaim at November 26, 2003 3:31 PM