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  #11  
Old 04-11-2011, 12:48 AM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Although it was never built, Philip Bono at Douglas Aircraft (he was an early SSTO advocate) designed a vehicle called ROOST (Reusable One-stage Orbital Space Truck, see: http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/roost.htm and http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/roostisi.htm ) that was planned to have a 1,000,000+ pound payload capability to orbit. The LOX/LH2 powered vehicle would have been recovered using an inflatable heat shield (not shown in these articles, but illustrated in this July 1963 "Popular Science" article, "How to Bring a Booster Back Alive," see: http://books.google.com/books?id=pS...ved=0CFEQ6AEwCQ ) that would have been inflated with the residual gaseous hydrogen from the ROOST vehicle's LH2 tank. Being buoyant after re-entry with hot (400 degrees) hydrogen gas inside its inflatable heat shield, the craft would have slowly drifted down to the ocean as the hydrogen cooled.

The S-ID core could use this method for recovery and reuse (using gaseous oxygen). One version of ROOST was "non-buoyant," which (presumably) used gaseous oxygen instead of gaseous hydrogen to inflate its heat shield.

The NLS never impressed me for the reason you mentioned--the SSME just isn't powerful enough.
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Last edited by blackshire : 04-11-2011 at 12:57 AM. Reason: This ol' hoss done forgot somethin'.
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  #12  
Old 04-11-2011, 10:07 AM
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Don't forget SASSTO... S-IVB with a plug nozzle capable of flying up to orbit and back down from orbit...

Shades of Blofeld's capsule stealing rocket in "You Only Live Twice"...

Later! OL JR
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Old 04-12-2011, 06:06 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by luke strawwalker
Don't forget SASSTO... S-IVB with a plug nozzle capable of flying up to orbit and back down from orbit...

Shades of Blofeld's capsule stealing rocket in "You Only Live Twice"...

Later! OL JR
Indeed--and that was just the "baby" of Philip Bono's SSTO design family--his later Hyperion, Ithacus, ROMBUS, and Pegasus VTOVL (Vertical Take-Off, Vertical Landing) SSTO vehicles (see: http://www.astronautix.com/fam/ssto.htm ) were very large. I think an SSTO launch vehicle is doable (even the Titan II's first stage can do SSTO, albeit with very little payload), and an expendable SSTO launch vehicle could be the first step (psychologically [to prove that it *can* be done] as well as in terms of engineering and operational experience) toward developing a reusable SSTO spaceship. Even before then, a reusable 'SSTO-type' VTOVL sounding rocket ("Single-Stage-To-Altitude," in this case) like Masten Space Systems' XA-1.0 (see: http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&...7df6ea8d325b7b2 ) would help build operational experience and confidence for developing a reusable SSTO spaceship.
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  #14  
Old 04-12-2011, 06:32 AM
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Also, the SASSTO article on astronautix.com (see: http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/sassto.htm ) has text and diagrams on a SASSTO variant intended as an improved Saturn IB and Saturn V upper stage! This paragraph says:

"Since SASSTO was loosely based on the Saturn S-IV-B rocket stage, Douglas also proposed an expendable version for use as a more capable upper stage with the Saturn IB and Saturn V launch vehicles. The expendable SASSTO stage would have had a burnout mass of 7,400kg and carried 85,729kg of oxygen+hydrogen propellant. The stage was thus of a much more lightweight construction than the standard S-IV-B (12,949kg + 104,326kg LOX,LH2) and the new aerospike engine would have been more efficient as well (464s specific impulse vs. 426s for the J-2 engine). Consequently, the Saturn V's payload capability would have been boosted by 8-11t as well. The Saturn IB's basic 15876-kilogram payload capability to a 185km orbit would have increased to 23814-25855kg depending on whether SASSTO would be flown in expendable or reusable mode. The latter version was known as SARRA (Saturn Application Retrieval and Rescue Apparatus) and was intended for returning stranded Apollo crews from the lunar surface."

For a SASSTO (or ROMBUS, Ithacus, or Pegasus) flying scale model using a working plug nozzle rocket engine, numerous Quest MicroMaxx motors could be used to thrust against the plug nozzle...
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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
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Last edited by blackshire : 04-12-2011 at 06:34 AM. Reason: This ol' hoss done forgot somethin'.
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