Advanced Solid Rocket Launcher and Its Evolution

Abstract

The research on next generation solid propellant rockets is actively underway in various spectra. JAXA is developing the Advanced Solid Rocket (ASR) as a successor to the M-V launch vehicle, which was utilized over past ten years for space science programs including planetary missions. ASR is a result of the development of the next generation technology including a highly intelligent autonomous check-out system, which is connected to not only the solid rocket but also future transportation systems. It is expected to improve the efficiency of the launch system and double the cost performance. Far beyond this effort, the passion of the volunteers among the industry-government-academia cooperation has been united to establish the society of the freewheeling thinking Next generation Solid Rocket Society (NSRS). It aims at a larger revolution than what the ASR provides so that the order of the cost performance is further improved. A study of the Low melting temperature Thermoplastic Propellant (LTP) is now at the experimental stage, which is expected to reform the manufacturing process of the solid rocket propellant leading to an increase in the cost performance by a factor of ten. This paper indicates the direction of the big flow towards the next generation solid-propellant rockets: the concept of the intelligent ASR under development; and the innovation behind LTP