He successfully designed a self-burning rocket to avoid releasing trash into space.

Professor Patrick Harkness's design team at the University of Glasgow (UK) has successfully built a rocket that can self-burn its lower body, avoiding releasing waste into space.

British design team test-launches rocket that can self-ignite its lower body. (Source: SlashGear)

Multi-stage rockets are currently the most efficient way to deliver cargo into orbit. Each stage is designed specifically for maximum efficiency. Splitting a rocket into multiple stages allows the rocket to shed unnecessary weight and travel faster and farther through space. When a stage runs out of fuel, it detaches and falls into space, where the next stage’s engine fires to propel the rocket forward. Because of this mechanism, multi-stage rockets often end up as trash in space and Earth’s orbit.

According to scientists , the risks from space debris are enormous: it can damage satellites, easily cause collisions, increase the cost of space missions, and hinder space observation activities from Earth. The cost of handling this huge amount of space debris is extremely expensive.

The design of Professor Patrick Harkness's group, which was presented at the AIAA Science and Technology Forum in Orlando, Florida (USA) last week, has attracted special attention from researchers, because this rocket model is capable of burning its own lower body as part of the fuel to fly, thereby not having to throw these parts into space.

The team successfully designed a rocket with a thrust of 100 Newtons, and conducted a series of test launches of the rocket called Ouroborous-3 at Machrihanish Air Force Base (USA).

Ouroborous-3 uses a shell made of polyethylene plastic. During flight, this shell is burned together with the rocket's main fuel, a mixture of oxygen and liquid propane. The waste heat from burning the main fuel melts the plastic shell, and sucks the plastic into the combustion chamber to burn together with the main fuel.

Tests showed that the Ourobourous-3 rocket was capable of stable combustion (stable combustion is a key requirement for any rocket engine), with plastic parts accounting for up to a fifth of the total fuel used.

The tests also showed that the rocket’s burn could be successfully controlled, as the team demonstrated the ability to throttle and restart the rocket. These capabilities could help future rockets autonomously control their flight from launch pad to orbit.

Professor Patrick Harkness, from the James Watt School of Engineering at the University of Glasgow, is leading the development of a rocket engine that uses fuel taken from the body of the rocket. He said: “There could be many future applications for such rockets, helping to advance the UK’s ambitions to become a major player in the space industry.”

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