Orbital Pond Hopping A Vision for the Evolution of Point to Point Travel ASTE 527: Space Exploration Architectures Concept Synthesis Studio Seth A. McKeen.

Orbital Pond HoppingA Vision for the Evolution of Point to

Point Travel

ASTE 527: Space Exploration Architectures Concept Synthesis Studio

Seth A. McKeen10/16/2012

Potential Implications of Point to Point Travel

World wide network of Ultrafast Point to Point Travel. Huge networks of global hubs, all reachable within an hour or so. Goal of the architecture: get ~ 50 essentially anywhere in the world in less than an hour.

*Transit times are back of the envelope

Seth A. McKeen | [email protected] Pond Hopping: A Vision for the Evolution of Point-to-Point Travel

Seth A. McKeen | [email protected] Pond Hopping: A Vision for the Evolution of Point-to-Point Travel

Los Angeles Air & Space Port One of many potential evolved airports that could be upgraded with P-P / Space Tourism Concourses once the market is booming.

Custom Lightweight, Reclining Seats

Global Jumper: 48 Passenger Orbital Jumpcraft; Used for commercial travel from city to fuel depot to city. Vertical Take off, vertical landing (VTVL), fully and rapidly reusable.

Top view of a typical passenger Deck on a Global Jumper

Passenger deck

Seth A. McKeen | [email protected] Pond Hopping: A Vision for the Evolution of Point-to-Point Travel

Out of the dense part of the

atmosphere. Liquid Boosters Separate and Boost Back to

Los Angeles for refueling and reuse.

Alt: 40 KM (130,000 FT.)

First Stage Separates and

Boosts Back to Los Angeles for

refueling and reuse.

Alt: 50 KM (160,000 FT.)

Ascent – All 3 Liquid First Stage Boosters are Firing, using a cross-

feed propellant scheme.Take Off Fueled Weight is roughly

2,992,207 lbm

Alt: 1 KM (3,280 FT.)

In Low Earth Orbit, ΔV ~ 9200 m/s complete. Rendezvous

with Orbital Propellant Depot

Alt: 150 KM (500,000 FT.)

The boosters are easily able to take the heating descending from just 130,000 ft, and the Reinforced Carbon-Carbon (RCC) Plug Nozzle dissipates the heat without any issue.

Simplified landing model shows only ~3.5% of the touchdown weight of the Booster’s worth of propellant is needed for soft landing for full reusability.

Wait, which way to First Class? A typical view from any of the 48

seats on the Global Jumper.

Time of Departure: 7:57 AM Pacific Time

On Orbit-Refueling Take on ~3000 lbm of propellant for propulsive landing Commercial business to resupply depots Integration of Orbital Hotels

Seth A. McKeen | [email protected] Pond Hopping: A Vision for the Evolution of Point-to-Point Travel

Concept sketch by NASAS

Seth A. McKeen | [email protected] Pond Hopping: A Vision for the Evolution of Point-to-Point Travel

Perigee Lowering Burn

Reentering the Upper Atmosphere

Atmospheric Reentry:The Plug Nozzle Takes

the bulk of the Heating

Terminal Velocity Reached: Retro-

Burn to Slow Jumpcraft’s Descent

Begins at 50% Throttle

Retro-Firing Throttled Down to 30% Throttle

Precision Landing at 5% Throttle

Alt: 200 KM

Alt: 100 KM

Alt: 40 KM (130,000 FT.)

Alt: 10 KM (33,000 FT.)

Alt: 6 KM (19,000 FT.)

Alt: 0 KM (5 FT.)

Atmospheric Reentry (Frictional Heating) Takes away almost all of the Orbital Energy

A simplified model for reentry was created to check different configurations for propulsive landing. ΔV ~ 490 m/s is required for a 48 person Jump Craft.

Touchdown at Spaceport Paris. Local time is 5:45 PM, total time of transit: 48 minutes. Time for a fresh Croissant.

Seth A. McKeen | [email protected] Pond Hopping: A Vision for the Evolution of Point-to-Point TravelThe Fundamental Architecture

Fully Reusable VTVL (No Wings) Modular (Scalable) Upgrade to Aerospike Nozzle Upgrade to Refuel on-orbit

Suborbital “Lobs”

Orbital Travel

Atmospheric Hypersonic Flight

Class of Vehicle for P-P Travel

“Wings simply add too much weight to a rocket that don't do a thing through most of the flight. And there are plenty of other ways to land safely than forcing your rocket to have so much dead weight and drag for so much of its flight.”

– John Carmack of Armadillo Aerospace

Where Are the Wings? Heavy; useless for most of the flight Using VTVL is also a great opportunity for maturing landing systems for future interplanetary missions

Seth A. McKeen | [email protected] Pond Hopping: A Vision for the Evolution of Point-to-Point TravelHow do we get there from here?

VTVL R&D Cargo Flights

Aerospike Nozzles

Military P-P Transport

Orbital Propellant

Depots

Global Jumper

Key technology developments Reinforced Carbon-Carbon (RCC)

Aerospike Nozzle Orbital Propellant Depots

Photo - Blue Origin Photo - SpaceX

Increase in ISP = More Payload to Orbit

Decrease in Weight; Shorter then Bell Nozzle and use as Heat Shield

Drive Cost Down By using a highly scalable

architecture with incremental technological developments, development cost is heavily reduced.

The better performance we get, the more payload we can carry for a given ΔV

Technology NASA might use for Interplanetary missions, used for P-P Travel

VTVL Reusable Launch Vehicles Are Already Under Way

NOW < 5 Years < 5 Years < 10 Years < 10 Years < 20 Years

Seth A. McKeen | [email protected] Pond Hopping: A Vision for the Evolution of Point-to-Point TravelCargo Transports

VTVL R&D Cargo Flights

Aerospike Nozzles

Military P-P Transport

Orbital Propellant

Depots

Global Jumper

Return on Investment Again, by using a highly scalable

architecture, we could immediately start performing “flea hops” carrying cargo city-to-city, this is earning capital to cover investment costs but at the same time is maturing the system before its used for Humans.

As soon as VTVL is fully developed, could begin sending high-priority cargo across country – package door to door in an hour. Sub-Orbital (low Delta V, good starting point). Start Regional and move to Coast to Coast

Seth A. McKeen | [email protected] Pond Hopping: A Vision for the Evolution of Point-to-Point TravelAerospike Nozzles

VTVL R&D Cargo Flights

Aerospike Nozzles

Military P-P Transport

Orbital Propellant

Depots

Global Jumper

NASA “Pulled the Plug” Though there have been years of

static testing, notably by Rocketdyne, on both annular and linear aerospike nozzles, NASA canceled all research before flight time was ever achieved.

Altitude Compensating Nozzles were originally developed in the 1960’s. By automatically correcting plume expansion to ambient temperature, a net increase in mission average ISP allows more useful payload to be carried.

Lighter, more efficient A truncated plug nozzle is also

shorter than a bell nozzle, making it lighter.

A Carbon-Carbon nozzle could be actively cooled with propellant running through a channel and utilizing bleed holes – it could then be used as a primary heat shield on reentry, grossly reducing weight

Courtesy Pratt & Whitney

Seth A. McKeen | [email protected] Pond Hopping: A Vision for the Evolution of Point-to-Point TravelMilitary P-P

VTVL R&D Cargo Flights

Aerospike Nozzles

Military P-P Transport

Orbital Propellant

Depots

Global Jumper

Programs such as SUSTAIN and Hot EAGLE could use initial manned Jumpers to carry 16 passengers anywhere in the world in under an hour 1 passenger deck, integrated life support (easily scales up). Orbital trajectories using Aerospike cluster for reentry Ideal for emergency relief (hurricanes, etc.)

Seth A. McKeen | [email protected] Pond Hopping: A Vision for the Evolution of Point-to-Point TravelGlobal Jumpers

VTVL R&D Cargo Flights

Aerospike Nozzles

Military P-P Transport

Orbital Propellant

Depots

Global Jumper

Building off of its younger brother, the military transport model and incorporating on-orbit refueling, 48 passengers can now travel anywhere in the world in under an hour.

Seth A. McKeen | [email protected] Pond Hopping: A Vision for the Evolution of Point-to-Point TravelMerits & LimitationsMerits Doesn’t use any exotic propulsion Opens up commercial market for

propellant depot refueling Matures technologies for

Interplanetary Space Travelo Propulsive Landingo On-Orbit Refueling

Highly Scalable Could Start Now Potential usage: Military, Business,

Space Tourism, Time Sensitive Packages

Limitations Potentially launching rockets over

urban areas High delta V for orbital flight On demand flight vs. scheduled? How many propellant depots in orbit,

how spaced? (Rendezvous problem).

Seth A. McKeen | [email protected] Pond Hopping: A Vision for the Evolution of Point-to-Point TravelFuture Work

Hard #’s on Price per Ticket Trajectory Optimization Preliminary Layout and Design 200 person vehicle using Rocket-Based

Combined-Cycle Propulsion (Mission Average ISP ~ 1500s)

Seth A. McKeen | [email protected] Pond Hopping: A Vision for the Evolution of Point-to-Point TravelMany, many references…

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

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20010017162_2001017589.pdf

http://reference.kfupm.edu.sa/content/s/c/sccream_(simulated_combined_cycle_rocket_125726.pdfhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_Engines_Skylon

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

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

http://www.strutpatent.com/patent/06591603/pintle-injector-rocket-with-expansion-deflection-nozzle#!prettyPhoto[patent_figures]/4/

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA539802

http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/nikos/MSAE/pdf/Munoz.S11.pdf

http://hartogsden.com/files/AIAA-2011-2229.pdf

http://utsi.academia.edu/NehemiahWilliams/Papers/1414394/A_Performance_Analysis_of_a_Rocket_Based_Combined_Cycle_RBCC_Propulsion_System_for_Single-Stage-To-Orbit_Vehicle_Applications

Seth A. McKeen | [email protected] Pond Hopping: A Vision for the Evolution of Point-to-Point Travel

http://isulibrary.isunet.edu/opac/doc_num.php?explnum_id=95

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/57516.html

http://www.spacetourismsociety.org/STS_Library/Reports_files/SpaceTourismMarketStudy.pdf

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

http://www.nss.org/transportation/Suborbital_Reusable_Vehicles_A_10_Year_Forecast_of_Market_Demand.pdf

http://web.archive.org/web/20110615104534/http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/downloads/JBIS_v57_22-32.pdf

http://web.archive.org/web/20110615133300/http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/downloads/The%20SKYLON%20Spaceplane-Progress%20to%20Realisation,%20JBIS,%202008.pdf

http://web.archive.org/web/20110615104428/http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/downloads/JBIS_v56_108-117.pdf

http://web.archive.org/web/20110615104439/http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/downloads/JBIS_v54_199-209.pdf