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Earth-to-orbit transportation for solar power satellites

Authors :
Woodcock, G. R
Hanley, G
Source :
NASA, Washington The Final Proc. of the Solar Power Satellite Program Rev..
Publication Year :
1980
Publisher :
United States: NASA Center for Aerospace Information (CASI), 1980.

Abstract

The cargo transport capability and the cost of space transportation operations for transportation of solar power satellites (SPS) to space are addressed. The history of SPS launch vehicle evolution is shown. Alternative vehicle designs developed include: (1) a parallel burn, crossfeed configuration; (2) single stage to orbit airbreathing/rocket runway takeoff vehicle concept; and (3) a smaller HLLV concept. The smaller HLLV was analyzed to compare the nonrecurring cost benefits of a less challenging development with the recurring cost increases expected due to losses in efficiency associated with smaller vehicle size. The vehicle payload bay size was selected to be adequate to accommodate the SPS transmitter subarrays fully assembled. The resulting vehicle design is compared with the shuttle, the Saturn V, and the reference SPS HLLV. A nonrecurring savings of at least five billion dollars was obtained with a recurring cost penalty of 3% per SPS. The environmental benefits of the small vehicle were deemed more important than the slight increase in upper atmosphere propellant deposition. It is recommended that the small HLLV be adopted as the SPS reference launch system.

Subjects

Subjects :
Energy Production And Conversion

Details

Language :
English
Database :
NASA Technical Reports
Journal :
NASA, Washington The Final Proc. of the Solar Power Satellite Program Rev.
Publication Type :
Report
Accession number :
edsnas.19820014832
Document Type :
Report