Advanced Space Transportation Concepts and Propulsion Technologies for a New Delivery Paradigm

Robinson, John; McCleskey, Carey M.; Rhodes, Russel E.; Lepsch, Roger A.; Henderson, Edward M.; Joyner, Claude R.; Levack, Daniel J.

doi:10.2514/6.2013-3803

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…A paradigm shift in our design focus is needed 8 for space transportation to become more economical. This is an area SPST has been working for many years ( Ref 1,3,4,5, 8,9). Once this transportation cost is reduced significantly, the return on investment will become more attractive to these investors.…”

Section: What Are the Incentivesmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Freed from design features driven by aerodynamic forces and gravity losses, space ships will have entirely different configurations and be far more capable at far less cost. 9 The incentives are there and eventually all this will happen. It is important to get things going soon to help improve the economy with more jobs and added benefits from space.…”

Section: What Are the Incentivesmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Long Term Space Objectives Using Optonal Roadmaps

Henderson

Rhodes

Robinson

2013

49th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference

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The SPST has taken the position that the ultimate reason for man's establishing habitation and industrialization in low Earth orbit and beyond is to provide improved quality of life on Earth and eventually for the continued evolution and survival of mankind. The Earth cannot support its growing population without the use of resources from space. These benefits require the establishment of habitats in space as well as at the solar system's near-Earth heavenly bodies, e.g., the Moon, Mars, and Venus. The SPST also determined there are several other compelling reasons for man's exploring and/or establishing habitation beyond low Earth orbit. For man to accomplish these objectives in a way that is affordable and sustainable, it is required to first plan a structured roadmap with many options. It is the intent of this paper to provide a preliminary optional roadmap to allow others an understanding of the magnitude of such a long range objective. This conceptual roadmap will outline the need and sequence for both manned and unmanned missions and the involvement of government, industry, commercial, institutional, private and international partners. Nomenclature COTS= commercial operational transportation system GEO = geosynchronous orbit IP = International Partners ISRU = Insitu resource utilization ISS = International Space Station ITAR = international trafficking and arms control LCC = life cycle cost LEO = low Earth orbit HEO = high Earth orbit LOX = liquid oxygen NEO = near Earth objects NEP = nuclear electric propulsion OTV = orbital transfer vehicles SEP = solar electric propulsion SPST = Space Propulsion Synergy Team STEM = science, technology, engineering, and mathematics TRL = technology readiness level 1 NASA/JSC Space Shuttle Program, Advanced Studies, retired, and AIAA Associate Fellow 2

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Section: What Are the Incentivesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: What Are the Incentivesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Long Term Space Objectives Using Optonal Roadmaps

Henderson

Rhodes

Robinson

2013

49th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference

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“…24 Similarly, the community needs to know where specific operations and support functions can be reduced by design of the flight system and through greater attention to investments in this area than are normally given during the marketing and initial design of a launch vehicle, for instance. 25,26,27,28,29 …”

Section: What Is Needed?mentioning

confidence: 99%

An Analysis and Review of Measures and Relationships in Space Transportation Affordability

Zapata

McCleskey²

2014

50th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference

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The affordability of transportation to or from space is of continued interest across numerous and diverse stakeholders in our aerospace industry. Such an important metric as affordability deserves a clear understanding among stakeholders about what is meant by affordability, costs, and related terms, as otherwise it's difficult to see where specific improvements are needed or where to target specific investments. As captured in the famous words of Lewis Carroll, "If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there". As important as understanding a metric may be, with terms such as costs, prices, specific costs, average costs, marginal costs, etc., it is equally important to understand the relationship among these measures. In turn, these measures intermingle with caveats and factors that introduce more measures in need of a common understanding among stakeholders. These factors include flight rates, capability, and payload. This paper seeks to review the costs of space transportation systems and the relationships among the many factors involved in costs from the points of view of diverse decision makers. A decision maker may have an interest in acquiring a single launch considering the best price (along with other factors in their business case), or an interest in many launches over time. Alternately, a decision maker may have a specific interest in developing a space transportation system that will offer certain prices, or flight rate capability, or both, at a certain up-front cost. The question arises for the later, to reuse or to expend? As it is necessary in thinking about the future to clearly understand the past and the present, this paper will present data and graphics to assist stakeholders in visualizing trends and the current state of affairs in the launch industry. At all times, raw data will be referenced (or made available separately) alongside detailed explanations about the data, so as to avoid the confusion or misleading conclusions that occur more often than not with complex graphs or statements when such context is lacking. NomenclatureCASM = Cost per Available Seat Mile ELC = ELV Launch Capabilities Contract EELV = Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle LEO = Low Earth Orbit ULA = United Launch Alliance

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Choices for Long Term Sustainable Space Exploration and Habitation with Recommended Near Term Focus

Rhodes¹,

Henderson²,

Robinson³

2014

50th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference

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With reference to the following two previous technical papers provided by authors of the Space Propulsion Synergy Team (SPST): EXPLORATION AND SPACE HABITATIONPUBLIC SUPPORT, 48 th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference AIAA 2012-4154 and LONG TERM SPACE OBJECTIVES USING OPTIONAL ROADMAPS, 49th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference AIAA 2013-3801, this paper addresses the issue of making choices with focus on the near term to establish long term sustainability and a strong public support. There are many ways for accomplishing our objective of space exploration and habitation, but the choices we make in its pursuit will determine our sustainability for long term success. Last year's technical paper presented some of the infrastructure building blocks to achieve the objective of achieving affordable and sustainable exploration and habitation of space. This paper will present functional requirements for these building blocks and provide a listing of some of the technologies that will be required with development through flight demonstration. The paper will also present some of the "Life Support" and "Space Replacement Hardware" functional requirement development needs as there will be no physical ground support available when traveling beyond earth orbit. These basic building blocks must be developed, deployed and operational in space to serve as an effective and efficient space infrastructure to enable the exploration and eventual habitation of space. The paper may focus on why there is a need for long term visibility to place a perspective on which major task should be developed first, e.g., reusable space tug or a propellant depot or trying to assemble a large space transportation system in orbit vs. providing an orbiting platform to perform such large tasks in space. The paper will place focus on the phasing of the long term roadmap such that the element options for development would be visible to any of the interested stakeholders for funding and execution. Nomenclature IP= International Partners ISS = International Space Station LCC = life cycle cost LEO = low Earth orbit

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Advanced Space Transportation Concepts and Propulsion Technologies for a New Delivery Paradigm

Cited by 4 publications

References 3 publications

Long Term Space Objectives Using Optonal Roadmaps

Long Term Space Objectives Using Optonal Roadmaps

An Analysis and Review of Measures and Relationships in Space Transportation Affordability

Choices for Long Term Sustainable Space Exploration and Habitation with Recommended Near Term Focus

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