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)
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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,
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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
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Resource Type
Text
Resource Subtype
Masters Project
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