Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-1996

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Aerospace Engineering

Major Professor

Gary Flandro

Committee Members

Garrison, Schulz

Abstract

There are many launch vehicles around the globe that can deliver payloads to space. However, there is significant room for improvement in space launch services in terms of availability, reliability, operability, and economics. The space launch service industry is a service business. The customers vary in type from national governments and public universities to international consortiums and private companies. Even more variety can be found in the types of payloads carried and their orbital destinations. An ambitious company with the desire to fill not only the United States launch needs, but the needs of diverse customers all over the globe, could design a new system to meet these needs. Such a space launch service must, above all, be operationally efficient. A space vehicle can perform its mission flawlessly, but if it is not operationally efficient it will not be able to compete in the global market, offer the high degree of availability and flexibility desired, and respond quickly to the dynamic needs of the space launch service market. Designing a vehicle for operational efficiency will require a strong focus on operational issues from the very beginning. This investigation uses information from a wide variety of vehicle design studies in the United States and abroad* to determine the impact of specific design choices on the operability of the vehicle. Improving operations means improving the maintainability of the spacecraft, enhancing the vehicle's intact abort capabilities, enabling faster turn-around times, giving the vehicle more redundant, robust features. It also means selecting the vehicle configuration and all major subsystems so that the resultant effect on the design is to enhance operability, not add needles complexity or fragility. This thesis uses the above criteria to define a vehicle configuration that takes off and lands vertically, delivers large payloads to LEO and GTO, and has excellent intact abort capabilities. The design utilizes IHM (Integrated Health Monitoring) and LRUs (Line Replaceable Units) to enhance the maintainability of the vehicle. The main propulsion system is a circular, modular aerospike engine, burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. It is a simple and rugged design, making every attempt to be more reliable, flexible, and operable than existing launch systems.

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