A New Method of Architecture Selection for Launch Vehicles

Abstract

During the early stages of conceptual design, decisions regarding the vehicle and system configurations will have the most impact on the program cost and vehicle performance. For a launch vehicle, this phase consists of selecting the vehicle and system architectures. Since there are several complex systems forming such a vehicle, selecting the best configuration becomes a very difficult task. Traditionally, this phase is performed by disciplinary experts who select the architecture based on engineering intuition and personal preferences. However, because of the high level of complexity and interdependency between the systems of the vehicle, this approach is very inefficient. In order to address this concern, a Rapid Access-to-Space Analysis Code (RASAC) has been developed at the Aerospace Systems Design Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The goal of this tool is to enable comparisons of launch vehicle architectures in a quick and accurate fashion. This paper will describe the underlying models of RASAC as well as an example of launch vehicle configuration selection. The benefits of this new approach will also be illustrated.

Dominant Suborbital Space Tourism Architectures

“…Our literature search on existing design frameworks parallels the one executed by Frank et al [14][15][16] and Burgaud et al [17]. We found 12 sizing and synthesis codes [14][15][16][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. They were compared in terms of computational speed, availability, ease of use, ability to explore the architectural space, and their level of abstraction suitable for conceptual studies.…”