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DESIGN REPORT OF A SPACE CRAFT ....................................................... 2 Abstract .............................................................................................. 2 Basic Design Features ........................................................................... 3 Mission Profile ...................................................................................... 5 Material selection ................................................................................. 6 Reentry of Space Craft .......................................................................... 7 Conclusion ........................................................................................... 8 References .......................................................................................... 9
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The suggested jet takeoff arrangement has been adapted from X-15 aircraft which used to take off from B-52 aircraft and one of the pioneers of space vehicles. The concept has followings advantages: 1. Rocket has a ram jet type of engine which is more fuel efficient at high speeds. On the contrary, turbo fan engine (used by the large airliners) is more efficient at speeds less than 0.8 mach. Therefore, greater fuel efficiency will be achieved using suggested arrangement. 2. By employing jet takeoff concept, the spacecraft will be able to take off from conventional runway airfields. Hence requirement of special rocket takeoff fields are avoided. The landing of the spacecraft is already like conventional aircraft. 3. As the spacecrafts own engine will start working after reaching a reasonable speed and altitude, low fuel will be required to be taken by the spacecraft itself. Hence, there would be smaller fuel tanks which will entail smaller size of the space craft. 3 | Page
A schematic drawing of the designed space craft is shown in Figure No 2. The spacecraft will be powered by two rocket motor engines. The engines use hydrogen peroxide (HTP) as fuel. These engines will also have the capability of thrust vectoring so as to maneuver the spacecraft in space. For maneuvering in the earths atmosphere, flaperons will be used. The basic dimension of the space craft are presented in Table No 1. The concept of blunt body design is employed to keep the surface from getting extremely hot during reentry.
Crew Cabin
Fuel Cells
Rocket Thrusters
Wings
Vertical Tail
Flaperons
Parameter Wing Span Overall Length Rocket Engines Empty Weight Maximum Weight Maximum Altitude
Mission Profile
The mission profile of the spacecraft has been illustrated in Figure No 3. The profile has been outlined below: 1. Spacecraft mounted on aircraft will take off from an airfield and will go through jet climb till 8000 meters. 2. After reaching a height of 8 km and a speed of 0.6 Mach, the rocket motor of the space craft will be activated and will launch the space craft from the carrier aircraft. 3. The spacecraft, after detaching from the aircraft, will be put to steep climb until it reaches its orbit at 100 km above the ground level. 4. During steep climb, the spacecraft will reach a maximum speed of 3 Mach. 5. After reaching the orbit height, the pilot will use thrust vectoring to orient the spacecraft into its orbit. 6. After completing its mission, the spacecraft will start the reentry into the earths atmosphere. For this purpose, special technique will be applied to slow the vehicle down, the detail will be discussed in separate section. 7. After being slowed down, the spacecraft will come down to the ground level.
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8. The spacecraft will land like a conventional aircraft using its wings and landing gears.
Orbital Travel 100 km 80 km Re Entry Phase
Landing Phase
Material selection
Material selection is one of the most critical tasks for design of space craft. The material 1. The outer walls of the space craft should be capable of withstanding extremely high temperatures which may occur during recovery phase. Moreover, during takeoff as well temperature may rise very high. However, the highest temperatures are expected to encounter during recovery phase. 2. Space craft requires extremely high thrust during takeoff so that it could achieve the velocity required to reach its orbit. Therefore, the 6 | Page
propulsion system is designed to generate extremely high thrust. Due to high thrust generation, the exhaust gas temperature (EGT) of the engine turbine blades is far higher than the usual temperature experienced by the aircraft turbine engines. So, special materials are required to be installed to withstand the high heat. 3. Light weight spacecrafts are easier to accelerate and more economical to launch. Therefore, the material selected for the space craft need to be light weight. 4. Space craft are subjected to high g-loads during takeoff, landing and maneuvering. This causes high stress on the structural components of the spacecraft. 5. During space voyage, the spacecraft outer skin is exposed to high sun radiation. These sun rays comprise of high energy radiations which may be damaging to many materials. Therefore, material selection is to be made keeping in mind the stated operating conditions.
3. Lift force which lifts the vehicle During reentry, the speed of the spacecraft reaches three times faster than the speed of sound. This produces enormous heat and can even melt the spacecraft structure. However, due suggested blunt body design, the shockwave remains detached from spacecraft body and keeps the high temperatures away from the skin.
Spacecraft Orbit
Flip Reentry
Outer atmosphere
Earths Surface
Conclusion
A basic design of the spacecraft was presented with salient features pertaining to flight itinerary, material selection and reentry phase. The basic drawing of the vehicle was drawn and some prime dimensional parameters were identified.
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References
1. John.D Anderson, Introduction to Flight, sixth edition, Mc Graw Hill Inc. 2. Beer and Johnston,Vector Mechanics for Engineers, 9th Edition 3. How Stuff Works at: http://science.howstuffworks.com/spacecraftreentry2.htm
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