3304. The Many Options For Future Earth-to-Orbit Transports
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Paper
Abstract
There are many options available for earth-to-orbit transportation systems. The shuttle has made over 100 trips to orbit serving on occasion as a mini-space station but principally for cargo delivery and crew transfer. Its cargo volume and shape is so large that it was possible to deliver to orbit a large telescope (the Hubble). In addition to the shuttle, there are many excellent expendable multi-stage vehicles available. The next progression in space transportation might involve the use of an array of vehicles with greater reusability of elements. Invoking reusability, however, usually leads to greater development costs but hopefully lower operating costs. A number of approaches to launch vehicle design are shown including several with expendable upper stages but a reusable first stage; also shown are several concepts involving the use of both reusable first and second stages.
