VIRTUAL AEROSPIKE ENGINE · US 12,173,671 B2 · GRANTED 24 DEC 2024

ONE ENGINE. ONE STAGE. ANY ALTITUDE.

V.A.S.E. Propulsion builds the virtual aerospike: a rocket engine whose spike is a column of gas. It stays near ideal from the pad to vacuum, so one stage can do the job.

Watch the film · 3:09 How it works ↓

AVAILABLE FOR LICENSINGACQUISITIONDEFENSE & SPACE PARTNERSHIPS

FIG. 1 · LIVEHALF SECTION

ALTITUDE0.0 KM

AMBIENT1.01 BAR

COLUMN 118100 %

Fig. 1, built from the claims: the column trims as the air thins. Open the interactive figure ↗

Stages: 1
Solid spike: None · it's gas
Compensation: Passive + trim
Envelope: Pad → vacuum
Priority: 05 Aug 2021
Granted: 24 Dec 2024

01 · THE STAGING PROBLEM

EVERY ORBITAL ROCKET TODAY BREAKS ITSELF APART.

Mid-flight, on purpose. It’s called staging, and every split is one more way to fail.

FAILURE LOG · PLAYBACK 00:00

EVERY STAGE = MORE COST, MORE PARTS, MORE WAYS TO FAIL.

SEPARATION EVENTS

Every split is pyrotechnics, latches and timing that have to work once, perfectly, at hypersonic speed.

ENGINES PER VEHICLE

Each stage needs its own engine, tuned for its own slice of the sky.

HARDWARE THROWN AWAY

Spent stages fall into the ocean, or have to fly themselves home.

02 · WHY ROCKETS STAGE

SO WHY DO ROCKETS STAGE AT ALL?

Two reasons. Both come down to physics.

REASON 01THE ROCKET EQUATION

Δv = I_sp · g₀ · ln( m₀ / m₁ )

speed gained = engine efficiency × log( full mass ÷ empty mass )

SO WE STAGE: DROP THEEMPTY TANKS MID-FLIGHT.

The rest is lighter, so it goes faster. Almost every orbital rocket and long-range missile stages.

THE TYRANNY OF THE ROCKET EQUATION

REASON 02THE NOZZLE

A BELL NOZZLE IS TUNEDFOR ONE ALTITUDE.

Thick air pinches the exhaust. Thin air lets it balloon. Both waste thrust, so every stage needs its own engine.

ILLUSTRATIVE · BELL TUNED FOR ≈ 10 KM

So why can’t one engine work at every altitude?

03 · ORIGIN · IN MY OWN WORDS

I WAS 16 WHEN I SKETCHED MY FIRST ROCKET NOZZLE.

Mumbai, 2021. One question: why can’t one engine work at every altitude?

I.
MY FIRST IDEA: ABELL-AEROSPIKE HYBRID.

Take an aerospike contour and revolve it 360°: the spike’s curve sweeps into a bell. The bell’s power, with the aerospike’s feel for altitude.
II.
I SEARCHED FOR PATENTS.NOTHING.

A clean slate. So I doubted myself, and shelved it.
III.
MONTHS LATER, BOEING FILEDA PATENT FOR NEARLYTHE SAME HYBRID.

Same core idea. Someone else filed first. It stung, and it proved the idea had weight.
LESSON LEARNED:
DON’T WAIT.

SO I WENT FURTHER.
IV.
I deleted the spike altogether and replaced it with a column of gas, spun inside a vortex of burning propellant. That engine is US 12,173,671 B2.
- PRIORITY05 AUG 2021IN 202121035262
- US FILING19 JUL 2022WO/2023/012559
- GRANTED24 DEC 2024US 12,173,671 B2
— Atharva Rajé Undire, inventor of record & founder · The full story ↗

VASE

PROPULSION

V.A.S.E. = VIRTUAL AEROSPIKE ENGINE

UNITED STATES PATENT

US 12,173,671 B2

SINGLE STAGE TO ORBIT
ROCKET ENGINE

GRANTED

An aerial vehicle engine powered by an adjustable, vortex-based virtual aerospike. A column of gases enters the combustion chamber along the axis with minimal spin. Main inlets spray fuel or oxidizer at an adjustable angle to form a vortex around it, and blanket inlets line the walls. The column leads out of the exit nozzle as a virtual aerospike that needs no cooling.

Google Patents ↗ WIPO WO/2023/012559 ↗ Issued PDF ↓ 1.2 MB

Title: Single stage to orbit rocket engine
Status: ● Granted
Granted: 24 Dec 2024
US filing: 19 Jul 2022
Priority: 05 Aug 2021 · IN 202121035262
International: WO/2023/012559
Inventor: Atharva Undire (Atharva Rajé Undire)
Classes: F02K · F02C · C23C

DRAWINGS · FROM THE ISSUED SPECIFICATION

STATUS A patented architecture, developed with CFD. There is no flight article yet: the claims are the physics, and the hardware is the next step.

05 · THE PROBLEM WITH AEROSPIKES

AEROSPIKES ADAPTTO ALTITUDE.

The outside air shapes the exhaust, so it adapts as the air thins. But the spike is a huge, red-hot surface. Cooling it costs plumbing and mass, and that eats payload.

SO I DELETEDTHE SPIKE.

No spike, nothing to melt, no cooling plumbing to carry.

AND REPLACED IT WITHA COLUMN OF GAS.

A spike that never melts, because it isn’t solid.

HOW IT WORKS · US 12,173,671 B2, FIG. 1

118

COLUMN OF GAS 118

A straight column of gas runs down the middle of the chamber: propellant, inert gas, or outside air.

CLAIMS 1 · 7 · 8

102

GAS INLET 102

Feeds the column down the axis with almost no spin, so it never mixes with the burning propellant.

CLAIM 1

106

MAIN INLETS 106 → VORTEX 114

Fuel and oxidizer spray in at an adjustable angle, so the burning gas spins in a vortex around the column.

CLAIMS 1 · 9 · 10INLET ANGLE 55°

104

BLANKET 116 + FILM COOLING 108

A layer of coolant lines the walls. Film-cooling inlets protect the nozzle.

CLAIMS 2 · 4 · 5

112

RIDGES 112 + THE VIRTUAL SPIKE

Ridges straighten the spin. Past the exit, the column tapers into a spike made of gas.

CLAIMS 6 · 7

FIG. 1COLUMN OF GAS 118

HOW IT COMPENSATES FOR ALTITUDE

DRAG THE ALTITUDE.WATCH THE COLUMN TRIM.

FIXED BELLOVER-EXPANDED

ALTITUDE0 KM AMBIENT1.01 BAR COLUMN 118100 %

VIRTUAL AEROSPIKENEAR IDEAL

THICK AIR The column runs wide. Exhaust squeezes through a narrow ring and can’t over-expand.

THIN AIR The column thins. Exhaust expands inward instead of ballooning outward.

One engine stays near ideal from the pad to vacuum. Passively.

Schematic. Claims 3 · 8 · 9: inlet pressure, velocity, angle and exit area adjust with conditions, in design or in flight. Real flight would pair passive compensation with active trim.

ONE STAGE
TO ORBIT

Efficient at every altitude, so one stage can do the whole job. Nothing dropped.

NO SPIKE
TO COOL

The spike is gas. No red-hot surface, no cooling plumbing, more mass left for payload.

PASSIVE ALTITUDE
COMPENSATION

The column’s pressure shapes the expansion, from sea level to vacuum.

TRIMMABLE
IN FLIGHT

Inlet pressure, velocity, angle and exit area can adjust with conditions (claims 3, 8, 9).

06 · MISSIONS · ONE ENGINE, ANY ALTITUDE

ONE ENGINE. TWELVE MISSIONS.

CIVIL & COMMERCIAL · 01–08

01 / 12

REUSABLE LAUNCH

Land, refuel, fly again. No stages to fish out of the ocean.

02 / 12

RESPONSIVE SMALLSAT LAUNCH

A simple one-stage vehicle, ready when the payload is.

03 / 12

POINT-TO-POINT CARGO

Suborbital hops between continents.

04 / 12

SPACEPLANES & AIR-LAUNCH

Light at any altitude. Claim 1 covers aerial vehicles.

05 / 12

SOUNDING ROCKETS & RESEARCH

A compensated climb through the whole atmosphere.

06 / 12

MOON & MARS: ASCENT & LANDING

Works in thin or zero atmospheres.

07 / 12

UPPER STAGES & ORBITAL TRANSFER

Adjustable exit area tunes expansion in vacuum (claim 9).

08 / 12 · THE FLAGSHIP

SINGLE STAGE
TO ORBIT.

No boosters. No staging. Beat the tyranny of the rocket equation: one engine, efficient at every altitude, so one stage can do the job.

ORBIT · NOTHING DROPPED

DEFENSE · 09–12 · ILLUSTRATIVE

09 / 12 · LONG-RANGE STRIKE

HARDER TO DETECT.

NO STAGE SEPARATIONS
NO SPENT STAGES FOR RADAR TO TRACK
ONE CONTINUOUS BURN
LESS WARNING TIME

10 / 12

HYPERSONIC BOOST-GLIDE

Efficient boost from sea level to the edge of space, then a long glide.

11 / 12

INTERCEPTORS & AIR DEFENSE

Full performance anywhere in the engagement envelope.

12 / 12

SUBMARINE-LAUNCHED

One stage from under the waves. Fewer failure points.

NO STAGING.

07 · THE FILM

THE WHOLE STORYIN 3 MINUTES 9 SECONDS.

Concept visualization. Depictions are schematic and illustrative; the patent’s claims govern. Made frame by frame in code with mograph.

VASE

PROPULSION

VIRTUAL AEROSPIKE ENGINE · US 12,173,671 B2 · GRANTED 24 DEC 2024