Developing the Operational Requirements for the Next Generation Launch Vehicle and Spaceport

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Author(s)
Staton, Eric J.
Advisor(s)
Olds, John R.
Editor(s)
Associated Organization(s)
Organizational Unit
Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
The Daniel Guggenheim School of Aeronautics was established in 1931, with a name change in 1962 to the School of Aerospace Engineering
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Abstract
Currently, within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the launch vehicle design community, there is an ongoing push to develop the next generation launch vehicle. The design that is chosen will replace the aging space shuttle fleet. Some of the driving factors of any design for the next generation launch vehicle are performance and weight. The greater the performance and less weight the more capacity there is for payload. However, intertwined with performance and weight is a tug-of-war with operations. From an operation stand point there are criteria that need to be met that are in direct contrast to a vehicles design for performance. Within the design community, a balance between operational efficiency and safety and vehicle design needs to be found in order to design an effective launch vehicle. Regardless of the performance capability of a vehicle, if it is not easily maintained, costs associated with operations will make any vehicle economically nonviable. This paper looks at the design of the next generation spaceport and discusses whether the vehicles that will use it should drive its design or whether the spaceport should drive the design of the vehicles. Studying the aircraft industry over the past 100 years, we see that it was able to create airports and aircraft that work together. From the standpoints of economic efficiency, maintenance, turnaround time, personnel, and man hour requirements, the aircraft industry developed a workable method. The launch vehicle industry’s long-term goal is the development of a Space Transportation System (STS) closely mirroring that of the aircraft industry. By examining how the aircraft industry has gone about designing aircraft in order to simplify ground operations, thus making aircraft economically viable to operate, and applying these learned lessons to the space program, a new guideline or design mentality for developing spaceports and launch vehicles can be generated. These new guidelines would, for the first time, more closely integrate efficient operational realities into early design decisions. This paper takes a first step in the process of developing new guidelines for looking at the similarities between aircraft/airport and shuttle/spaceport operations. By examining the design decisions involved in aircraft design, it is hoped that similar design decisions can be applied to the development of next generation launch vehicles so that in conjunction with a spaceport, 2 the spaceport/launch process will begin to closely mirror the operational efficiency of a major United States airport
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Date
2002-04-01
Extent
Resource Type
Text
Resource Subtype
Masters Project
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