Literature Research on Reusable Launch Vehicles

580435 Literature Review

Current Developments on Reusable Launch Vehicles and how they Change the Space Market

Rens de Wolf

Inholland Delft

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Intentionally Left Blank

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Table of Contents

Preface ......................................................................................................................................................... iv

Summary ....................................................................................................................................................... v

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1

1.What are the working principles of a reusable launch vehicle? ................................................................ 2

2.Is reusability possible? ............................................................................................................................... 4

3.How Current Developments Affect Cost of space travel? ......................................................................... 6

4.Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 7

Note: A brief history of launch Vehicles ....................................................................................................... 8

Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................. 9

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Preface This literature review is written as part of an assignment. The subject is chosen out of a desire to

share this information. It is my believe that the current developments within the space industry are of

high importance and will shape our future. After a decline in interest in space exploration after the

landing on the moon this interest has been on a steep incline recently. Several big private companies are

developing their own way to get into space with each having their own goals, one is in it to help human

kind progress, the other wants to exploit space tourism. During this new space race new technologies

will be developed, new breakthroughs will be made and therefore help to find solutions to problems

here on earth itself. It is therefore important to me to share a small part of this through this report.

For the interested reader, I have included a Notes section at the end of this report giving a brief

history on launch vehicles. Although I don’t deem this part necessary to understand this report it will

make clear why there has always been a drive to develop a reusable launch vehicle.

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Summary The current developments in the space industry happen fast and are ambitious compared to

previous times. Looking at recent developments and the near future plans of several companies it is

clear that the space industry is growing fast, and the future looks promising.

One of the most promising recent developments is the reusable rocket powered launch vehicle

built by the private company SpaceX. They have launched several rockets that have landed with pin-

point precision and on their own power. These remarkable feats are a milestone in space technology

and proof that a fully reusable launch vehicle is certainly within reach. Another thing SpaceX has done is

proving that launching matter into space doesn’t have to be as expensive as it has always been. Already

they launch satellites into space for a fraction of the costs that NASA charges. When they succeed in

executing their future plans an even more dramatic decrease in cost will be inevitable. Combined with

private companies exploiting space tourism and the inevitable colonization of the planet Mars, it is clear

how recent developments on reusable launch vehicles have already changed the space market.

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Introduction Space exploration was booming business during the space race, but soon after the landing on

the moon interest in this frontier declined. Ever since only a handful of countries have had the funding

and knowledge to launch satellites into orbit. No manned space flight has been conducted beyond a

Low-orbit and the development of new technology practically stagnated. It is only since recently that

private companies started realizing that they can make a difference, and since the early 2000s the

interest in space exploration has been on a rise. It is therefore important to spark public interest and

make the public realize that space exploration is important. Not only important for the development of

new technologies but also for satisfying the endless human hunger for exploration and discovery, and

eventually even the survival of human kind.

This report aims at answering how these young private companies, not bound to the “old ways”

of big rusted conventional companies like NASA and ULA are changing the space market today. The use

of reusable launch vehicles will be a major step in space exploration, making it cleaner, faster and more

economical. The first steps and successes in making a reusable launch vehicle have already been made

and we will have a brief look at these developments.

In this literature review a brief explanation about recent developments on reusable launch

vehicles will be given. In the first chapter the working principles of a launch system will be explained and

also the Space Shuttle will be investigated. In the second chapter, we will address whether a fully

reusable launch vehicle is possible or not, this will be answered by looking at the recent successes

SpaceX has made with their modern FALCON 9 rocket. The last chapter will deal with how these

developments are changing the economics of space flight. In the fourth chapter a conclusion will be

given.

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1.What are the working principles of a reusable launch vehicle? To make clear why the concept of a Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) is so desirable it is

important to understand the working principles of an Expendable launch Vehicle (ELV). A

rocket engine works on the principle of accelerating mass, Fuel and oxygen is carried onboard of

the vehicle and through pumps will be mixed and then ignited. This ignited mixture creates a

stream of accelerated gasses coming out of the rockets exhaust nozzle. Newton’s third law then

comes into play and dictates that by accelerating mass away from the vehicle an equal but

opposite reaction force will be created, propelling the vehicle forwards. ELV’s make use of

several rocket engine powered boosters that separate when it’s respective booster runs out of

fuel, each separate booster is called a stage. A two stage ELV will have a first stage booster with

one or more rocket engines lifting the vehicle off the ground up to a certain height, the first stage

will then separate and will burn up and disintegrate during reentry into earth’s atmosphere. After

separation, the second stage will start its rocket engine and bring it’s payload into a

predetermined orbit around the earth. This second stage will also separate and burn up in the

atmosphere leaving the payload in orbit.

(ROSS, 2017)

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From this simple description, it becomes clear that for every object put in space, one

large rocket needs to be built and will be expended during the mission, driving up the cost every

consecutive launch. Costs per launch for the currently used Delta IV Heavy ELV is about 375

million USD (Leone, 2017).

The American Space Shuttle and the Russian Buran have been until now the only real

attempts at making a RLV, The Russian program quickly dissolved after the fall of the Soviet

Union with only one flight on its record. The Space Shuttle program has been more successful,

with 5 shuttles reaching space and completing 135 missions (Malik, 2011). However, the Space

Shuttle was not a true RLV as it had an external fuel tank that was used to power the main

engines during launch, this fuel tank separated from the vehicle and could not be reused. Also,

two external rocket boosters were used during the launch that separated from the vehicle and

parachuted down to be re-used. Once in space the orbiter vehicle only had enough fuel for its

auxiliary thrusters (small rocket engines) and a de-orbit burn which slowed the vehicle down

making it fall back to earth. It would then land like a gliding airplane having no means of

producing thrust.

(ROSS, 2017)

Although the Space Shuttle is the most versatile Space Vehicle ever built it could not

deliver the dream of reliable, cheap and fast access to space. After each mission the orbiter

needed extensive work done to prepare it for its next mission, this process reduces the amount of

launches that could be done each year. Nearing the end of the program each consecutive launch

would cost up to $1.6 billion (Wall, 2011). Looking at these figures it becomes clear that ELV’s

are actually the cheapest way of accessing space. ELV’s bring many advantageous over the

Space Shuttle program due to lower design costs, no maintenance and higher payload capacity

(RLV’s use a portion of their weight for recovery and landing).

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2.Is reusability possible? Although the Space shuttle has proven that partially RLVs were certainly possible, many

believed a true RLV to be too expensive and impractical. But some believe that the design

philosophy behind the shuttle was the mistake, it could only go into low orbit and its payload

capacity is far less than more conventional rockets. It is argued that the low performance

combined with extreme costs have prevented the start of more ambitious projects during the

shuttles lifetime. This is where the company SpaceX founded by Elon Musk comes around the

corner. Their mission statement is very clear about what they want to achieve.

“SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. The

company was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of

enabling people to live on other planets.” (SpaceX, 2017)

SpaceX is an ambitious company that is making progress in the design and utilizing of

RLV’s with already several successes on their record. To stay within the scope of this report we

will focus on their accomplishments with the FALCON 9 fully reusable booster.

(ROSS, 2017)

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The FALCON 9 is a two-stage rocket with a reusable first stage booster, after several

failures, 6 successful landings have been made since 2015 (Drake, 2016). This is a huge step for

space engineering and proves that a fully re-usable LV is certainly within reach. It must be said

that the second stage of the FALCON 9 is still expendable and to this date no first stage booster

has been re-used. However, Elon Musk; the founder of SpaceX has stated that the resources to

develop a reusable second stage are better spent elsewhere (Shit Elon Says, 2014). SpaceX is

currently developing the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS), a massive fully re-usable LV

capable of sending 100 people to Mars. The companies final goal is to colonize the planet Mars,

a far more ambitious program than the Space Shuttle program.

(Reddit, 2017)

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3.How Current Developments Affect Cost of space travel? “If one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of

access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred. A fully reusable vehicle

has never been done before. That really is the fundamental breakthrough needed to revolutionize

access to space.”

--Elon Musk

The above quote emphasizes the importance of a real RLV, the same Elon Musk has also

stated that conventional space access is like flying a Boeing 747 and throwing it away after its

first flight. That way every single ticket would be incredible expensive however, due to the

reusability of the Boeing 747 and economies of scale flying is part of our everyday live. Also,

Space access is currently a very small market and for every step that is being made a large

amount of research and development is needed. The cost of this R&D cannot be divided over a

large number of customers. Thus because of a lack of economies of scale space travel is still too

expensive to make it part of our everyday lives.

To understand the grand scheme of SpaceX it is important to understand their company

plan. This plan is illustrated in the figure below. We are currently in phase 2 hence the current

developments surrounding reusable first stage boosters. The next big step will be to mass

produce a large RLV that can carry many passengers to further reduce individual ticket prices.

(Urban, 2015)

SpaceX has already send supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) and brought satellites

into orbit for a cost of $4,653 per Kilogram, the United launch Alliance (ULA) charges between

$14,000 and $39.000 per Kilogram (Jorge, 2015). With private companies taking over the space

market since the early 2000s progress happens fast. Commercial space tourism probably

becoming available within a time span of 5 years will further help enlarging the space access

market.

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4.Conclusion We conclude that in the past fully reusable launch vehicles have never been economically

feasible. But, after almost 60 years of space exploration we are at the verge of a steep incline in

market growth. With the first real RLV’s right around the corner and a dozen different low-orbit

commercial space vehicles in development the future looks bright. And soon the first second

hand rockets will be tested. The drive to create a RLV has already changed the space access

market for the better and has re-sparked interest in space exploration. Ultimately this quest will

make human kind multi-planetary when we colonize mars, the first steps towards this goal are

visible today.

Unfortunately, it is not within the scope of this report to go through all the private

companies that are currently working on their own version of either a RLV (Amazon) or a low-

orbit space craft for tourism (Virgin Galactic). It is however, necessary to investigate all of these

companies to really grasp the bright future we have in space exploration and the changings in the

current space access market. Though SpaceX really is the biggest fish in the pond at this moment

and is responsible for the biggest change in this market. A dramatic decrease in costs to bring

objects into space has already happened and costs will keep decreasing as new developments are

being introduced.

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Note: A brief history of launch Vehicles “A rocket used to launch a spacecraft or satellite into an orbit or a trajectory.” (The

American Heritage, 2016) is the definition of a Launch Vehicle (LV) and is a fairly old concept.

The first man made object to be shot into space (that is: to pass the so-called Karman line) was a

German Wehrmacht V-2 military rocket reaching an altitude of 176 kilometers in the year 1944.

However, since this V-2 rocket was not carrying a spacecraft or satellite it is not a launch vehicle

by definition. The first launch vehicle to go up in space was the Sputnik-PS carrying the Sputnik-

1 satellite on the 4th of October 1957 (Zak, 2017).

In the following years, many expendable launch vehicles (ELV’s) were used to bring

satellites into space, and ultimately brought men to the moon. All of these ELV’s were

derivatives of ballistic missiles and so costs were not a major concern. It was thought that a

reusable launch vehicle (RLV) would bring reliable and cheap access to space, and so the first

ideas were born during the early space race. A real RLV has never been made till this day but

several hybrids we successfully developed and put to use. The best example being the 6 space

shuttles build by NASA, the first of these space shuttles called the “Columbia” reached space on

April the 12th 1981 (NASA, 2017).

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http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com:

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/08/spacex-rocket-makes-spectacular-

landing-on-drone-ship/

Jorge. (2015, 12 7). SpaceX – Lowering the Cost of Access to Space. Retrieved from rctom:

https://rctom.hbs.org/submission/spacex-lowering-the-cost-of-access-to-space/

Leone, D. (2017). Solar Probe Plus, NASA's 'Mission to the Fires of Hell.' Trading Atlas 5 for Bigger Launch

Vehicle. Retrieved from SpaceNews: http://spacenews.com/41380solar-probe-plus-nasas-

mission-to-the-fires-of-hell-trading-atlas-5-for/

Malik, T. (2011). NASA's Space Shuttle By the Numbers: 30 Years of a Spaceflight Icon. Retrieved 2017,

from Space: http://www.space.com/12376-nasa-space-shuttle-program-facts-statistics.html

NASA. (2017). First Shuttle Launch. Retrieved from NASA:

https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2488.html

Reddit. (2017). Retrieved from http://i.imgur.com/Oj9qR8a.png

ROSS, J. G. (2017). AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO SPACEX’S LAUNCH VEHICLE REUSABILITY PLANS. Retrieved

from justatinker: http://justatinker.com/Future/images/delta-iv-profile-2x.png

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musk-at-mits-aeroastro-centennial-part-1-of-6-2014-10-24

SpaceX. (2017). About. Retrieved from SpaceX: http://www.spacex.com/about

The American Heritage. (2016). Dictionary of the English Language. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Urban, T. (2015, 8 16). How (and Why) SpaceX Will Colonize Mars. Retrieved 2017, from waitbutwhy:

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/08/how-and-why-spacex-will-colonize-mars.html/3

Wall, M. (2011, july 5). NASA's Shuttle Program Cost $209 Billion - Was it Worth it? Retrieved 2017, from

Space: http://www.space.com/12166-space-shuttle-program-cost-promises-209-billion.html

Zak, A. (2017). chronology. Retrieved from russianspaceweb:

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/chronology_XX.html