Boeing Information, Space, and Defense Systems executed a Low Cost Large Core Vehicle Structures Assessment (LCLCVSA) under contract to NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) between November 1997 and March 1998. NASA is interested in a low-cost launch vehicle, code named Magnum, to place heavy payloads into low earth orbit for missions such as a manned mission to Mars, a Next Generation Space Telescope, a lunar-based telescope, the Air Force's proposed space based laser, and large commercial satellites. In this study, structural concepts with the potential to reduce fabrication costs were evaluated in application to the Magnum Launch Vehicle (MLV) and the Liquid Fly Back Booster (LFBB) shuttle upgrade program. Seventeen concepts were qualitatively evaluated to select four concepts for more in-depth study. The four structural concepts selected were: an aluminum-lithium monocoque structure, an aluminum-lithium machined isogrid structure, a unitized composite sandwich structure, and a unitized composite grid structure. These were compared against a baseline concept based on the Space Shuttle External Tank (ET) construction. It was found that unitized composite structures offer significant cost and weight benefits to MLV structures. The limited study of application to LFBB structures indicated lower, but still significant benefits. Technology and facilities development roadmaps to prepare the approaches studied for application to MLV and LFBB were constructed. It was found that the cost and schedule to develop these approaches were in line with both MLV and LFBB development schedules.
Low Cost Large Core Vehicle Structures Assessment
1998
114 pages
Report
No indication
English
Space Launch Vehicles & Support Equipment , Launch vehicles , Low cost , Composite structures , Spacecraft structures , Low earth orbits , Manned mars missions , Telescopes , Commercial spacecraft , Fabrication , Boosters , Monocoque structures , Sandwich structures , Structural design , Schedules , Cost reduction
Low Cost Large Core Vehicle Structures Assessment
NTRS | 1998
|Ultra large castings to produce low cost aluminium vehicle structures
Automotive engineering | 1999
|Ultra Large Castings to Produce Low Cost Aluminum Vehicle Structures
SAE Technical Papers | 1999
|Condition assessment of large structures
Tema Archive | 1998
|