Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Re-usable Launch Vehicles: a wrong "good idea" ?

A very complicated question with no simple answer.
TB — (archived)

I've been working on RLV designs for many years, and the tradeoffs are all over the place.

Initial development costs vs. operating costs. Expendable reliability vs. reusable reliability (and believe me, this isn't just a matter of "cheap and simple vs. expensive and complex.") Marketing issues. Launch, landing and operational issues. Existing tech vs. cutting edge tech. Drop tanks, yes or no? LOX-LH2 vs. other propellant combinations. Mixed mode designs. Air launched designs. Scramjet concepts vs. get-out-of-the-damned-atmosphere-as-fast-as-you-can. Winged vs. ballistic recovery. HTOHL. VTOVL. VTOHL. Manned vs. cargo vs. both. Regulatory issues that vary with each design. The list goes on and on.

The real bitch is that each of the individual tradeoffs also feeds into most of the other ones.

After almost thirty years doing this kind of work, I have learned that no single launch vehicle concept, reusable or expendable, kicks ass on every tradeoff, or even most of them. In the end, you wind up with a concept based mostly around what you're going to use it for, and how much money you can spend on it.

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