How to glue together a lighter spacecraft

I found this article on how to make a better craft.
Its struck me a few times how antiquated our crafts for going up are, really the shuttle is a more dangerous version than the original rocket....and thats been around since inception.

The designer Rutan won 10 million dollars in a competition to build the first private craft for 100 km altitude...the Ansari X prize in 2004.
Its believed his new suggestion is a update to this craft.

ROCKET-driven spacecraft normally use strong, heavy-metal mountings to hold their fuel tanks in place within the fuselage. But there may be a better way. Burt Rutan, the aerospace pioneer whose firm Scaled Composites is designing civilian suborbital spacecraft for Virgin Galactic, is using an alternative technique to secure the fuel tanks in order to keep the weight of the space plane down. Rutan says the use of heavy mountings can be avoided completely by careful design of the tank and fuselage.
His idea, described in a US patent granted last month, is to glue the fuel tanks to the inside of the craft. His tanks have a cylindrical composite-coated midsection that fits snugly inside the spacecraft and is bonded to the inner surface of the fuselage with a superstrong industrial adhesive. A secure fit is crucial as the tanks are connected to the combustion chamber where fuel is burned, and any movement could risk a dangerous leak.

www.newscientist.com...


Note this is for sub orbital craft.



[edit on 25-7-2009 by zazzafrazz]

reply to post by zazzafrazz


Interesting approach. I just am curious as to if the glue would be able to survive the extreme trauma sure to be caused by being exposed to the cold of space and then rapid heating upon re-entry. Interesting idea, thanks for bringing this up.