-
7/27/2019 Dust Off Those Air-Launched Space Concepts
1/3
Dust Off Those Air -Launched Space Concepts
Posted by Graham Warwick 4:57 PM on Oct 19, 2011Over the years,
there have been more air-launched satellite booster concepts than I
have hadcurries. Now DARPA has come up with another one -- the
Airborne Launch Assist Space
Access (ALASA) program. DARPA prides itself in having no
corporate memory, so the fact ithas tried the air-launch approach
before is of no concern to the agency.
In fact, several previous DARPA air-launch projects are among
the more than 150 pastconceptslisted in an interim report from the
DARPA/NASA Horizontal Launch Study (HLS).The study, which looks at
ideas dating as far back as 1981 (and the USAF's Air LaunchedSortie
Vehicle), is intended to identify horizontal launch system
concepts. The interim reportwas released to help bidders for the
ALASA program refine their ideas.
Focused on delivery of 15,000lb to orbit, the HLS has identified
launch system concepts andpotential subsonic flight demonstrators.
DARPA and NASA studied top-mounted launchconcepts based on 747.
A380 and An-225 carrier aircraft, as well as bottom-mountedconcepts
based on a dual-fuselage C-5 and derivatives of Scaled Composites'
White Knight.The interim report details several "point design
vehicles" like the 747-400F-based PDV-2above and a pair of
potential demonstrators including the FTD-1 below, based on
NASA'snow-redundant 747-100 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.
-
7/27/2019 Dust Off Those Air-Launched Space Concepts
2/3
The two-stage liquid-fueled PDV-2 would boost 12,575lb to LEO,
while the four-stage solid-rocket FTD-1 would lift 4,560lb - but
ALASA looks to be much smaller, based inDARPA's notice of an
industry day planned for Nov 4.
"Currently, small satellite payloads cost over $30,000 per pound
to launch. ALASA seeks tolaunch satellites on the order of 100lb
[mass] for less than $10,000 per pound, or $1 milliontotal
including range support costs," the announcement says. The ALASA
program is toinclude "development of an on-the-shelf complete
launch vehicle requiring no recurringmaintenance or support, and no
specific integration to prepare for launch."
F-15 Global Strike Eagle (Concept: Boeing)
ALASA sounds more like previous studies of F-15-based airborne
launchers able to boostpayloads from 200-600lb into orbit,
depending on whether the launch vehicle is slung under
or mounted over the fuselage(above). Or like Dassault's Airborne
Micro-Launcher concept(below), which could place a 100-150lb
payload into LEO from underneath a Rafale fighter.
-
7/27/2019 Dust Off Those Air-Launched Space Concepts
3/3
Concept: Dassault
There is also NanoLaunch, a team formed by Premier Space
Systems, Space Propulsion
Group, Spath Engineering and Whittinghill Aerospace to develop a
nano- and micro-satellitelaunch capability using a two-stage
hybrid-rocket booster dropped from under an F-15 (below,top). A
mock-up of the initial suborbital NanoLaunch 1 was unveiled in
August, strappedunder a MiG-21 (below, bottom).
Graphics: NanoLaunch
The ALASA announcement, meanwhile, outlines the advantages of an
airborne launchplatform, to include"allowing performance
improvement, reducing range costs, and flyingmore frequently, which
combine to reduce cost per pound." Also the airborne launcher
canrelocate and launch quickly from almost any major runway
worldwide, reducing responsetime, while "launch point offset
permits essentially any possible orbit direction to
beachieved...[and] allows the entire operation to be moved should a
particular fixed airfieldcome under threat," DARPA says.
