Here Come the
Rocketplanes!
by Steve Miller
“Good afternoon, folks. This is the captain speaking. For the
next couple of minutes you’ll be weightless. Go ahead . . .
take off your seat belts and float to a window. Looking out to the
left, you should be able to see Spain and France, and to the right
the eastern coast of Brazil. We’ll be landing in Kenya in
about one half-hour. Remember to keep all your personal items
locked down since we’ll be decelerating once we start to
descend for landing. And once again, thanks for flying TransGlobal
Rockets.”
If researchers at Pioneer
Rocketplane in Lakewood, Colorado, have their way, this is the kind
of announcement you’ll hear during your flight from New York
to Nairobi, Kenya, in the future. According to rocketplane chief
scientist Robert Zubrin, the technology exists today to build a
passenger craft that would make the trip in about one hour. He says
the rocketplane would take off and land at existing airports,
making it much easier to use than the space shuttle, which has to
glide to special landing strips.
How can the rocketplane use a
normal runway when current space launches require massive rockets
and disposable fuel tanks? By loading part of its fuel in the air.
The plane would take off using regular jet engines. At an altitude
of 10,000 meters, it would meet a big tanker plane. Jet fuel would
be already onboard. The tanker would transfer 290,000 kilograms of
liquid oxygen! Ordinary planes use atmospheric oxygen to burn jet
fuel, but rockets, including the rocketplane, have to carry their
own oxygen since they need more than is available in the upper
atmosphere.
Adding the oxygen when the
rocketplane is already moving at 800 kilometers per hour would
significantly reduce the amount of fuel needed. Zubrin says the
transfer would be no trickier than what the military does with fuel
every day. And it would be fun to watch through the
window!
Once the oxygen is onboard and the
tanker has moved away, the pilot would fire the rocket engine and
shut off the jet engines. Now you’re moving! And this is not
your ordinary airplane ride. What would the flight feel
like?
“The takeoff is no different
than that of a normal airplane on a runway,” says Zubrin.
“But once the oxygen is loaded, the plane goes to an altitude
of 128 kilometers at 2 G’s [two gravities]. There will be
several minutes of weightlessness before re-entry, so passengers
can float around the cabin. The view from the window will be like
looking out of the shuttle—a black starry sky and a wide view
of the Earth.”
After floating for a few minutes,
you would start back down, again, at 2 G’s
acceleration—similar to the gravitational force you feel
descending on a big roller coaster. After re-entering the
atmosphere, the plane would glide like the shuttle. As you
approached your destination, the pilot would start the jet engines,
and land the craft like any other airplane. But this flight
wouldn’t have taken ten long (usually boring)
hours.
Will this method of travel really
happen? According to Zubrin, it’s almost certain that some
type of rocketplane will be in use within the next decade, although
it’s not likely to carry passengers at first. It would carry
important packages that need to be delivered quickly.
So the question isn’t
whether we will someday fly around the world faster
than we drive across the town. The question is: How long do we have
to wait?
1
Which sentence gives the most important idea in
the selection?
A.
As scientists make new discoveries,
the need to fund their research will decrease.
B.
As rocketplanes become more
popular, other transportation methods will also.
C.
As technology continues to advance,
so will opportunities in the everyday world.
D.
As the demand for rocketplanes
increases, so will the demand for fossil fuels.
2
What is the meaning of decelerating in
paragraph 1 of the selection?
A.
Gaining speed
B.
Gaining altitude
C.
Losing speed
D.
Losing altitude
3
Which sentence from the selection is an example
of the author’s opinion?
A.
The tanker would transfer 290,000
kilograms of liquid oxygen!
B.
And it would be fun to watch
through the window!
C.
Passengers can float around the
cabin.
D.
After re-entering the atmosphere,
the plane would glide like the shuttle.
4
According to the bar graph, which of these
planes flies the fastest?
A.
The Boeing 747
B.
The Concorde
C.
The DC-10
D.
The SR-71