The aerospace field is coming up with astonishing achievements every year. In 2019 there are a lot of aerospace inventions that are going to make history.
The launch of Google Lunar XPRIZE participant SpaceIL spacecraft, Airbus City Airbus, Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC) by NASA and Boeing Phantom Express.
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#1 Space IL Landed on Moon
Space IL touched the lunar surface in 2019, touching the lunar surface is not a new thing for mankind but the achievement was done by the privately-funded organization. That’s why Space IL is in the list of aerospace inventions in 2019.
Google Lunar XPRIZE is a competition organized jointly by XPRIZE Foundation and prize amount sponsored by Google for privately funded moon missions. There are five private space companies listed in the final round of the competition they are Space IL, Moon Express, Synergy Moon, Team Hakuto, and Team Indus.
The challenge was to land a spacecraft on the moon and deploy and travel a robotic rover for 500 meters and transmit photos and videos to earth. The prize money for the competition was twenty million US dollars.
The deadline for the competition was ended in 2018, none of the above-mentioned teams got succeeded in the mission. On 2019 April 11 SpaceIL spacecraft crash-landed on the moon, and it became the first private space mission touching the lunar surface.
XPRIZE Foundation recognizes their achievement and the Space IL team was awarded a Moon shoot award worth 1 million USD.
#2 Airbus CityAirbus
Another aerospace invention in 2019 is Airbus CityAirbus. This project is going to revolutionize future urban mobility. The City airbus is a four-seat multi-copter vehicle designed for urban transportation.
The transportation sector is in the way of modernization, in future the concepts like drone taxi, drone-based logistics delivery will take over the industry. This aerospace invention will be a pioneering breakthrough in this field.
The city airbus is a fully electric vehicle and autonomously controlled. It is designed in a way to operate vertical takeoff and landing. The design based on the electric motor will keep a low environmental footprint.
The Airbus is claiming the design has advantages like an advanced autonomous system, less noise than traditional helicopters, three times faster than a car and an emission-free propulsion system.
The vehicle can carry four passengers with an approximate speed of 120 km/h. It is using a ducted high lift propulsion unit with rotor rotating at 950 RPM. The propulsion unit is designed in a way to reduce Noise pollution. The city airbus’s demonstration takes off conducted on May 2019.
#3 Space X Dragon Demo 2
Space X’s Crew Dragon Demo-2 is the next aerospace invention in 2019, there are many crewed missions done by NASA to International Space Station but this will be the first non-government organization doing this.
Crew Dragon Demo-2 is a test mission planning to launch by November 2019 with two crew members. This will be the first American crewed mission to orbit after their space shuttle program ended.
The Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission was planned in July 2019, but the mission was postponed due to the attesting incident that occurred in April 2019. Crew Dragon capsule from the Demo-1 was destroyed during a test done in April 2019.
#4 Deep Space Atomic Clock
NASA is planning to launch a Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC) for precise spacecraft navigation in the future. This technology will be the greatest aerospace invention in 2019. The main objective of the Deep space atomic clock is to accurate navigation of spacecraft, applications in radio science and it will be useful for Global Positioning System also.
The global positioning system is working in such a way that the Inbuilt atomic clocks inside the global positioning system satellites measure time accurately and that clock is synchronized with clocks on earth to calculate the position of GPS device on earth.
The deep space atomic clock will have more life than existing atomic clocks. It will only show an error of one microsecond in ten years. The device was launched in July 2019.
#5 Boeing’s Spaceplane Phantom
Another aerospace invention that is going to make changes in the future is Boeing’s Spaceplane Phantom Express. The main objective of this vehicle is to launch small satellites into low earth orbit and return to earth.
The project is done jointly with Boeing and U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, this technology will provide rapid aircraft-like access to low earth orbit with very little expense.
The designed vehicle has a length of 30.5 meters and a height of 7.3 meters. The propulsion unit consists of an Aerojet Rocketdyne AR-22 engine. The fuel used in this space plane is liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as the oxidizer.
As per the manufactures, the vehicles can be reused ten times. It will cost less than five million US Dollars per launch.