Rocket-Setting: An architecture for point-to-point travel Seth A. McKeen 12/18/2012

Rocket-Setting: An architecture for point-to-point travel

Seth A. McKeen12/18/2012

University of Southern California

;COSMIC SYNERGY Commercial Concept:Regional Rocket

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Seth A. [email protected]


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Historic Route – from days by horse and ship

With the Channel Tunnel, created in 1994, 2 hours 15 minutes with Eurostar high speed train

6 Hour Drive (no traffic) On average 1 – 1.5 Hour Flight

Paris to London


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Falcon 9 Separation63,000 ft

Falcon 9 Burnout56,000 ft

Falcon 9 Liftoff

Falcon 9 Boost-Back &

Powered Landing

A 64 person rocket riding vehicle, launched into a ballistic orbit by a

reusable Falcon 9 V1.1


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16 minutes.

Founded in 2000 CEO John Carmack Lunar Lander Competitions Suborbital Research and

Tourism Tested Super Mod Rocket to

4,000 ft + precision landing Reached >140,000 ft with

STIG-A

Founded in 2000 CEO Jeff Bezos Suborbital/Orbital New Shepard hit 45,000

ft Have performed many

“Hops”

Founded in 2004 CTO Dave Masten Lunar Lander

Competitions Suborbital Research Xaero Reached 1500 ft

w/ Precision Landing Xombie Reached 1600

ft and horizontally moved 2500 ft

Founded in 2002 CEO Elon Musk Orbital Cargo & Crew Grasshopper VTVL Testbed Looking at Fully and

Rapidly Reusable Launch Vehicle (Falcon 9 V1.1) for orbital launches.

The Vertical Take off Vertical Landing (VTVL) Commercial Scene


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Leveraging SpaceX’s fully and rapidly reusable Falcon 9 VTVL rocket technology, a private company could create a standalone passenger vehicle and partner with SpaceX for commercial launches all over the globe

The RLV would send the passenger vehicle on a ballistic trajectory and return to the launch site for refueling; the vehicle would continue on its arc, aero-brake and propulsively land.


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A fully and rapidly reusable rocket means the cost of the rocket is divided up by the number of launches, and the only recurring cost is fuel.

Falcon 9 V1.1 can send ~30,000 lbm to LEO from Cape Canaveral

S PA C E X – VTVL REUSABLE FALCON 9

With less ∆V for suborbital, the payload that can be lofted by F9 V1.1 increases and large scale passenger travel is viable


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The Business of “Hopping Around”

SpaceX Parts, UPS, Medical

R+D w/ Propulsion Modules

Cargo Military/Space Tourism

Executive Point-to-Point

Travel

32 person vehicle 64 person vehicle


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Immediate Cargo Delivery

Organ Transplantso The ability to save lives that

otherwise may have been losto Get to small towns from large cities

with better hospitals

Rapid Deliveryo UPS?/FedEx 2 Hour Delivery?o SpaceX Parts to McGregor from

Hawthorne?


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Intercontinental routes are out of the question, as the trajectory will either have an ~ 1200 km apogee, or it will require > 90% of Orbital Velocity

Choosing trajectories with smaller ∆V’s than LEO, will mean significantly greater payload

Weight of passenger vehicle is the payload for F9 V1.1 – for a given trip, there is the ∆V of getting the vehicle on the trajectory, and ∆V of boost-back/landing for F9.

∆𝑉=𝐼𝑆𝑃𝑔𝑜 ln(𝑚𝑇𝑂

𝑚𝐵𝑂)

Performance and structural mass on F9 are fixed, therefore, payload (i.e. passenger vehicle’s fuel, structure, and cargo/passengers) will vary with range. Want to maximize # of passengers you can take for each range.

To make this a flourishing business, want to minimize ticket cost so that people can afford it.

To minimize ticket cost, want to maximize passenger capacity (main cost for a launch is fuel).

Baseline passenger vehicle ∆V is that required for control, landing, and potential abort. To get this ∆V, and make tickets cheap, want to maximize engine performance (specific impulse), and maximize payload by minimizing structural weight.


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𝑚𝐵𝑂 )

Highly scalable vehicle architecture allows for interchangeable decks No vehicle redesign for different ranges (use more

decks/passengers for lower range flights – minimize wasted structural mass)

Easily upgrade passenger # for more capable launcher

32 Person Vehicle

64 Person Vehicle

Propulsion Module Composed of 4x Carbon fiber-reinforced Carbon (C/C) Truncated Aerospike Nozzles

Higher ISP at all mission conditions (abort, control, landing) Can be used as primary heat shield (TPS) Used for abort and landing (a separate abort system is dead weight that can’t be used for

payload) No auxiliary thrust vector control needed (gimbals + actuators) Overall a huge mass savings which leads to a significantly improved mass ratio


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𝑚𝐵𝑂 )

Courtesy Rocketdyne


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Wait, which way to first class? Every seat is a window seat – 8 person decks Ultra streamlined chairs start vertically and

come to flight position right before takeoff; fully utilizing volume of the vehicle

Passenger cargo is stored under the nosecone

Life support and environmental control systems are in the ID of each deck

All propulsion systems and avionics are in the floor of the propulsion module


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Passenger Vehicle Comparison

12 ft wide

100 ft long

18 ft Diameter

18 ft Diameter

17.1 ft Diameter Boeing

737 Fuselage

136 Passenger

s

85 ft long

Rocket Riding Passenger

Module64 Passengers

Falcon 9 Version 1.1 w/

5.2 Meter Fairing for GEO/GTO

Falcon 9 Version 1.1 w/ Rocket Riding

Passenger Vehicle

226 ft long

224 ft long


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Potential Coverage Regions – Europe

Europe could be fully connected – reach any other city in mere minutes.

Almost every major city is within 1200 miles of each other


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Potential Coverage Regions – CONUS

Starting with Southwest / Northeast Los Angeles to NY/Boston is feasible once

technology is matured


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Potential Coverage Regions


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Potentially a private market, but definitely a need for a government presence. Need a regulatory body to monitor and route traffic, to make sure every launch is allowed and accounted for, and to make sure these vehicles are fully mature, reliable, and safe for operation.

Autonomous GPS driven vehicles, but routing and monitoring can be covered by the FAA and similar governing bodies around the world.

What is that, a commercial vehicle or Missile Attack?!

Private / Government Relationship

Merits Opens up a new, potentially unparalleled market Incremental – allows for early capital and

developmental growth Using VTVL matures the technologies we’ll use for

multi-planetary missions Use existing airports with added launch pads – keep it

simple for the FAA, keep costs down

Limitations Trading G-Loading vs. Payload (throttle profiles) The Concord Dilema FAA Nightmare GNC Difficulties Safety/Reliability


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I’m eager for your questions and comments!

Seth A. McKeenPropulsion Development EngineerSpace Exploration TechnologiesGreater Los Angeles AreaAviation & Aerospace

LinkedIn (Social Networking)

[email protected]

Email:

http://www.spacelaunchreport.com/falcon9.html

http://freshome.com/2012/04/18/interesting-alternative-to-residential-chairs-by-martz-edition/

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/11/space-seat-shaping-has-begun/

http://ftp.rta.nato.int/public//PubFullText/RTO/TR/RTO-TR-AVT-007-V1///TR-AVT-007-V1-Report.pdf

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/rockets/elon-musk-on-spacexs-reusable-rocket-plans-6653023

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2011/09/02/blue-origin-confirms-crash-releases-first-photos-of-vehicle-in-flight/

http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/a_cost_engineered_launch_vehicle_for_space_tourism.shtml/

http://02varvara.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/01-ria-novosti-infographics-design-of-the-css-08-11.jpg

http://www.spudislunarresources.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/future-space.jpg

Sources – Engineering, Architecture and inspiring Design

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737

Rocket-Setting: An architecture for point-to-point travel Seth A. McKeen 12/18/2012

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