(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004-07)
Young, James J.; Alemany, Kristina; Cole, Bjorn; Depasquale, Dominic; Dvilyanski, Mikhail; Fornuff, Jonathan; Hester, Jesse; Jones, Tom; Kipp, Devin M.; Reeves, John Daniel; Schoenfeld, Michael; Suh, Joo-Kyung
In the fall of 2003 a multi-disciplinary team consisting of graduate students from the Space Systems Design Lab (SSDL), the Aerospace Systems Design Lab (ASDL), and the Elevated Temperature Structural Durability Lab (ETSDL) was assembled at Georgia Tech. This project marked the first joint venture between these labs and brought together a diverse wealth of tools, knowledge, and experience, as well as a group of individuals with keen interest in the future of access-to-space vehicles.
The Knight RIDER revolutionary aerospace systems concept was formulated in response to a mock Request for Proposal (RFP) inviting architectural designs to enable six specific Design Reference Missions (DRMs) with a small set of common vehicles and components. Effects of this architecture-level approach were anticipated to be improved reliability and significantly increased economic viability due to cost sharing between multiple customers. The RFP specified horizontal take-off and landing capability, the use of Turbine Based Combined Cycle (TBCC) propulsion, and an operational timeframe of 2015-2030. The six DRMâ s can be summarized as follows:
DRM1: Civil Cargo to Low Earth Orbit(LEO), Customer: NASA, Requirement: 20,000lb payload
DRM2: International Space Station Crew Rotation, Customer: NASA, Requirement: 2 pilots, 4 crew
DRM3: Long Range Strike Aircraft, Customer: USAF, Requirement: 8900 nmi range, 2-hour strike
DRM4: Cargo to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit(GTO), Customer: Commercial, Requirement: 10,000lb
DRM5: High-Speed Global Transport, Customer: Commercial, Requirement: 6500 nmi range, 100 pax
DRM6: Space Tourism Vehicle, Customer: Commercial, Requirement: 2 pilots, 6-16 passengers
Each DRM had the basic performance requirements listed above as well as more detailed requirements such as target reliabilities, g-load limitations, flight rates, and conformance to various government regulations. Each DRM was also coupled with specific economic requirements outlining limitations on initial investment costs, recurring costs per flight, and required return on investment.