Title:
Centurion: A Heavy-Lift Launch Vehicle Family for Cis-Lunar Exploration

dc.contributor.author Young, David Anthony en_US
dc.contributor.author Olds, John R. en_US
dc.contributor.author Hutchinson, Virgil L., Jr. en_US
dc.contributor.author Krevor, Zachary C. en_US
dc.contributor.author Pimentel, Janssen en_US
dc.contributor.author Reeves, John Daniel en_US
dc.contributor.author Sakai, Tadashi en_US
dc.contributor.author Young, James J. en_US
dc.contributor.corporatename American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
dc.date.accessioned 2006-03-17T15:58:16Z
dc.date.available 2006-03-17T15:58:16Z
dc.date.issued 2004-07
dc.description 40th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference And Exhibit Fort Lauderdale, FL, July 11 - 14, 2004. en_US
dc.description.abstract Centurion is an expendable heavy lift launch vehicle (HLLV) family for launching lunar exploration missions. Each vehicle in the family is built around a common two-stage core. The first stage of the core uses kerosene (RP-1) fuel and utilizes four staged-combustion RD-180 rocket engines. The upper stages consist of liquid oxygen (LOX)/liquid hydrogen (LH2) propellant with three 220,000 lb thrust-class expander rocket engines. The larger variants in the Centurion family will also use either one or two pairs of five-segment solid rocket motors which are now being developed by ATK Thiokol. The Centurion family consists of three vehicles denoted as C-1, C-2, and C-3. The first vehicle (C-1) is a four RD-180 core with a LOX/LH2 upper stage. The C-1 is designed to deliver a 35 metric ton (MT) CEV to a 300 km x 1000 km highly elliptical orbit (HEO). This HEO allows the CEV to more easily transfer to a lunar trajectory, while still having the ability to abort after one revolution. The C-1 also is designed to meet mission requirements with a failure of both one RD-180 and one upper stage engine. The C-2 and C-3 Centurions are both cargo carrying variants which carry 100 MT and 142 MT of cargo to a 407 km low earth orbit (LEO) respectively. The C-2 utilizes two five-segment solid rocket boosters (SRB), while the C-3 uses four SRBs. Details of the conceptual design process used for Centurion are included in this paper. The disciplines used in the design include configuration, aerodynamics, propulsion design and selection, trajectory, mass properties, structural design, aeroheating and thermal protection systems (TPS), cost, operations, and reliability and safety. Each of these disciplines was computed using a conceptual design tool similar to that used in industry. These disciplines were then combined into an integrated design team process and used to minimize the gross weight of the C-1 variant. The C-2 and C-3 variants were simulated using the C-1 optimized core with different configurations of SRBs. Each of the variants recurring and non-recurring costs were computed. The total development cost including the design, development, testing and evaluation (DDT&E) cost and a new launch pad at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), was 7.98 B FY04 dollars. The theoretical first unit (TFU) cost for the C-2 variant was 532 M FY04 dollars. A summary of design disciplines as well as the economic results are included.
dc.format.extent 702520 bytes
dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/8382
dc.language.iso en_US
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology en_US
dc.publisher.original American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
dc.relation.ispartofseries SSDL ; AIAA 2004-3735 en_US
dc.subject Heavy lift vehicle configuration
dc.subject Space launch vehicles
dc.subject Lunar exploration
dc.subject Conceptual design
dc.title Centurion: A Heavy-Lift Launch Vehicle Family for Cis-Lunar Exploration en_US
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Paper
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.corporatename Space Systems Design Laboratory (SSDL)
local.contributor.corporatename Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
local.contributor.corporatename Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
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relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication a348b767-ea7e-4789-af1f-1f1d5925fb65
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