The aft compartment functions as an airlock. The cockpit also contains four hibernation tanks and contingency supplies for long duration missions. It is composed of two compartments the forward section is a cockpit that includes four ejectable crew seats and two folding benches for four additional passengers. The Ranger's cabin/cockpit is capable of maintaining a pressurized Earth-like atmosphere. If available, local atmospheric oxygen is collected and burned during atmospheric flight, saving its internal oxygen supply for very high altitudes and orbital maneuvering. This enables the Ranger to achieve orbit, accelerate to escape velocity, and travel to other planets, requiring little to no rocket staging. Chemical rocket engine exhaust is ionized into plasma and magnetically accelerated to very high velocities, vastly increasing fuel efficiency. The Ranger's main propulsion system are twin linear aerospike hybrid plasma engines - a marriage of two different rocket engine technologies capable of achieving high thrust while greatly reducing fuel consumption.
The Ranger is also designed to float in the event of a water landing. Simple landing struts are deployed to keep the heat shield tiles from touching the ground. Once near the surface at lower speeds, its ventral thrusters and air jets are used to softly land on a planet's surface. The Ranger is controlled by a fly-by-wire system.Īfter a de-orbit burn, the Ranger's broad underbelly heat shield is used to shed most of its velocity against a planetary atmosphere. Depending on the louver angle, airflow can be diverted, or vectored downward for precise vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) or rearward for forward flight. Incoming air is accelerated and channeled through the trailing edges of the wings and through vents on its underbelly which are covered by opening and closing louvers. High powered fans draw air from slot-like intakes near the nose and on the corners of the wing structure. The electric air jets also enables the Ranger to propel itself through a planetary atmosphere. Power is provided by twin miniaturized tokamak fusion reactors, a triple redundant fuel cell system, and high efficiency solar cells on its roof. :) Such an event is unlikely due to the installation of multiple redundant power sources and a negotiable flight computer, creating a more rugged and reliable spacecraft. If the flight control system experiences a total loss of power, the Ranger would spiral out of control and fall from the sky, requiring its pilot and its passengers, to eject. While lacking traditional flight control surfaces, the Ranger is completely reliant on its electric air jets and is incapable of unpowered gliding. This effectively eliminates a variety of moving parts such as flaps, ailerons, elevators, and rudders which would otherwise increase weight and mechanical complexity. Unlike its distant predecessor, the Space Shuttle, the Ranger uses a novel aerodynamic control system that relies on reaction control system (RCS) thrusters and electrically powered air jets to provide pitch, yaw, and roll control. The Ranger is designed along the lines of a lifting body, but is equipped with small, canted wings for additional lift and stability. Joseph Cooper was a test pilot in the Ranger program prior to the apparent dissolution of NASA several years ago. Or, vice-versa, the Ranger could de-orbit around a terrestrial world, land safely, and lift-off again to orbit. The Ranger program began decades ago to produce a viable, reusable, high-efficiency SSTO craft that could climb out of the Earth's gravity well single-handed, achieve orbit, then de-orbit to land on the planet's surface.
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