Highly Reusable Space Transportation Approaches For Reducing Eto Launch Costs To 100 200 Per Pound Of Payload PDF Download

Current and proposed launch systems will provide access to low-Earth orbit (LEO), and destinations beyond LEO, but the cost of delivering payloads will preclude the use of these services by many users. To develop and encourage revolutionary commercial utilization of geosynchronous orbit (GEO) and to provide an affordable means to continue NASA space science and exploration missions, the transportation costs to in-space destinations must be reduced. The principal objective of this study was to conceptually define three to four promising approaches to in-space transportation for delivery of satellites and other payloads, 3,000- to 10,000-lb class, to GEO destinations. This study established a methodology for evaluating in-space transportation systems based on life-cycle cost. The reusable concepts seemed to fare better in the evaluation than expendable, since a major driver in the life-cycle cost was the stage production cost. Curtis, L. A. and VanDyke, M. K. and Lajoie, R. M. and Woodcock, G. R. Marshall Space Flight Center GEOSYNCHRONOUS ORBITS; LOW EARTH ORBITS; LIFE CYCLE COSTS; ORBITAL LAUNCHING; LAUNCH COSTS; UPPER STAGE ROCKET ENGINES; MULTIENGINE VEHICLES; SPINNING SOLID UPPER STAGE; MULTISTAGE ROCKET VEHICLES; SPACE FLIGHT; PAYLOADS; COST ESTIMATES; COST ANALYSIS; LAUNCH VEHICLES...