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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.
“Gemini 4”2 pages
UNCLASSIFIED//f81il 8fflll.t.k Wfili IH.k\f Appendix C: TAV Operational Costs Art Robinson was the deputy program manager for the MDC Manned Aerospace Vehicle Group at MDC Astronautics, Huntington Beach. Working with Art, the St. Louis part of the team prepared a work breakdown structure for servicing and maintaining an Air Force transatmospheric vehicle (TAV) based on a B-52 squadron. Larry Fogel of Decision Sciences visited several B-52 bases and discussed the operational concept and repair/maintenance work structure with the B-52 crews and maintenance personnel. The result was an estimate of the costs for operating a squadron ofTAVs that had the same flight frequency as the B-52 squadron. The result for the one-and-a-half-stage TAV is shown in Figure 45. As might be expected, orbital operations are substantially more costly than atmospheric operations (aerodynamic cruise of hypersonic long-range glide). With an operational range greater than a refueled B-52, the TAV has a lower cost than the once-refueled B-52. The orbital cannot be compared directly with a B-52 since in achieving orbit the TAV has essentially infinite cruise range and duration limited only by the crew. The concept of operations was essentially that shown in Figure 37 installed on a U.S. Air Force SAC base. Although the SAC flight crews concentrated on potential nuclear missions, the presentation focused on a wide spectrum of kinetic penetrators installed in a rocket-accelerated entry nose cone. The terminal speed of the entry nose cone was in the 12,000 to 14,000 feet/second range. At that speed the energy delivered per unit weight was much greater than a spherical charge of HBX-6 because the kinetic energy was directly delivered to the target. The weapons spectrum could address a very wide range of targets that could be disabled or made nonfunctional or be destroyed with minimal collateral damage. Cost $97,000,000 Atmospheric Crnise $251,000,000 Orbital *annual costs per DAA (14 vehicles) Cost $71,000,000 B-52 only* Sl40.000.000 Refueled B-52 Larry Fogel Dci..:ision Sciences Titan Corporation Spring 1984 Figure 45. McDonnell Douglas Astronautics (Huntington Beach)-Funded Study of TAV Operational Costs 47 UNCLASSIFIED/ ,cr1u1 8FFIIItllt ~:!E! SHE I
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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.