Status of the Advanced Reusable Transportation Technologies project

Abstract

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has established the Advanced Space Transportation Program (ASTP) to focus efforts on technologies that have the potential to greatly reduce costs of payload to orbit. The Advanced Reusable Transportation Technologies (ARTT) project at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has been established to investigate technologies associated with combined cycle air breathing propulsion through ground testing of critical components and the development of preliminary concepts for a full-size operational rocketbased combined cycle (RBCC) launch vehicle. Five contractors have been selected and are now well into their respective test and analysis efforts. Initial concept study efforts have been completed on a full scale operational RBCC-powered vehicle. Results from these studies indicate that a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) RBCC powered vehicle can be developed that will allow 25,000 pounds of payload to be delivered in a Space Station supply mission scenario. These studies indicate that the contractors preference for this vehicle is either a horizontal takeoff/horizontal landing or a vertical takeoff/horizontal landing machine that has a gross takeoff weight of approximately 1.2 million pounds and a dry weight slightly above 210,000 pounds. The vehicle is approximately 200 feet long. The average structural mass fraction of these vehicles with the engines installed is slightly below 0.8. The studies also indicated that the point at which the engine inlets will be closed and the rockets reignited for orbital insertion is favored to be in the range of Mach 8 to Mach 10.