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Defense Intelligence Reference Document Space Access Where We ve Been And Where We Could Go

Defense Intelligence Agency · 56 pages · text from the file's own layer

This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency and dated 8 March 2010, was produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It gives a historical and technical review of how to reach space and return. It covers hypersonic gliders, air-breathing and rocket propulsion, thermodynamics and materials, and launch options. It argues that reliable, schedulable access to low Earth orbit is mainly a hardware and propulsion problem rather than a technology one.

  • p. 33 …increasing the to-orbit weight ratio and gross weight and thereby making the concept less viable…
  • p. 35 …as an all-rocket reduces the liftoff gross weight of a HOTOL concept operating from atop…
  • p. 36 …LACE Air-Breathing Rocket Reduces Gross Liftoff Weight by 150 Metric Tons and Uses Existing Rocket…
  • p. 37 …in an exponential rise of the takeoff gross weight (as shown in Figure 34). The only…
  • p. 39 UNCLASSIFIED/;SflHl 8FFHil.t.L Wfili tH•LY Gross weight trends are shown for five different…
  • p. 40 UNCLASSIFIED/ ,I forced HTO mode would instead have a gross weight in excess of 1,000…
  • p. 53 …A hydrogen/oxygen rocket, vertical-launch vehicle with a 7,000-kg payload has a gross…
UNCLASSIFIED/ /FSA: SFFlil.t.k 'l!ilE 8HLV
Figure 18, radiation equilibrium skin temperature is the skin temperature that results
when the radiated thermal energy stemming from the skin temperature equals the
input aerodynamic heating minus any conduction into the airframe.
1,000°F--
"4,300'F _/
ALE :0,5 In.
1,000°F\
1,200° F \
1,500"F ·~\
.. *6,40Q°F
900'F
900° F
800°F-
\~
~2,200'F
"3,800' F
RL[ = 1.6 in.
1,000"F-
RN= 0.5 in. /'
f:0.7 _/ \2,500'F J2,400°F
2.600°F-
- - 1,2oo·F-
\_2300°F
' \__ 2,200" F
2,400°F-
Upper
Surface
I
I
I
'Lower
Surface
L2.4oo•F
Figure 18. FDL-7C/D, Model 176 Entry Temperature Distribution. Upper-surface heating is minimized by
cross-section geometry.
Figure 19 is a thermographic phosphor
image of the model in Figure 17 at a 12-
degree angle of attack (maximum L/D
ratio) at mach 12. Even at mach 12,
there are vortices embedded in the
boundary layer. The three black dots are
heat transfer gauges that were used to
establish the value for qredn Figure 19.
The stagnation heat transfer was 25
times the reference value. This
technique, when calibrated with the
reference heat transfer gauges, provided
a rapid and accurate means to determine
heat transfer distributions with a
minimum of installed gauges. The
technique was adopted by other wind
tunnel facilities, including the Arnold
Engineering Development Center at
Tullahoma, Tennessee.
19
COHOOUS> OF
Figure 19. Even at Mach 12, Embedded Vortices in
the Boundary Layer Alter the Local Heat Transfer
UNCLASSIFIED/ ,u;sa SFFIGIPL IP&'i SIik¥

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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 56 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.