Documents / Report
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.
“The Advance”12 pages
UNCLASSIFIED/ ,I forced HTO mode would instead have a gross weight in excess of 1,000 tons. so the resulting observation was "See! Air breathers are not lighter than all-rocket!" And so the rocket proponents have defeated an air-breathing solution since the first aerospace plane in 1958. Launch Options Previously, an option was presented for a mobile launch platform that was limited to an 11- to 12-metric ton (24,225- to 26,460-lb) payload. This section presents a conventional vertical launch site that provides for frequent, scheduled launches and no intrinsic payload weight. In a discussion with the author, Lozino-Lozinski questioned the practicality of the NASP, describing it as nothing more than a very large orbital- entry-protected propellant tank. His approach was to minimize the volume of propellant tanks that required orbital-entry protection. Prior to meeting DARPA's Robert Williams, the MDC had the same philosophy, as shown in Figure 35. 2,370,000 lb \ \ 512,000 lb SSTO 814,500 lb 301,000 lb I\ .:::,. ~"' \ 1 1/2 Stage 580,000 lb "1,,:0,... 1, / \\ __'-·t:(J ), '/" ., •r 2 Stage 500,000 lb Figure 35. Propellant Tanks That Are Not Reentry Vehicles Greatly Reduce System Weight. Venture star orbital maneuver rules. This was the MDC manned aerospace vehicle approach we briefed before the NASP. The size, thermal protection system surface area, and weight of the SSTO vehicle to just a stage-and-a-half concept is significant. All of the booster segments were fully recoverable and reusable with rebuilding. The cargo capsule was not recoverable. This operational concept envisioned frequent, scheduled launches at least equal in number to those of the 1964 MOL support launcher-that is, 100 to 150 launches a year. 33 UNCLASSIFIED/ 1iF9A: 9FFI&lal k I IE'lii 911k¥
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 56 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.