starship-design: New simple concepts to orbit

[KellySt@aol.com]

Ran into some info of Rascal, the Darpa project for a quick chep small TSTO.

http://cism.jpl.nasa.gov/events/workshop/Preston_Carter.pdf

http://www.darpa.mil/TTO/rascal/RASCAL_PS_Final.pdf

http://hypersonic2002.aaaf.asso.fr/papers/17_5148.PDF

Fond the programs a lot fartther along, and a lot of the technology issues 
we've ben debating have long been solved.

Darpa has been doing tests on the engines the craft would need, and is 
designing the system around off the shelf parts.  Their 0 to maybe up to Mach 6 
craft can be powered by modified versions of the engines that have been flying in 
the F-15's for 30 yeras.  No need for new rocket based commbined cyle engines 
(though they might be nice).  They just spray water into the engine intake to 
cool the incoming air to save the turbojects from overheating, and spray some 
liquid oxegen ahead of the burners to make up for the thin air.  Its like hot 
roding up a normal car engine for occasional stream racing.  Its been 
increaseing the thrust, without hurting engines for short bursts.  It will get the 
mother ship up to 200,000 feet or so where you drop of the upper stage.  

Their TSTO serves a wide range of small cargo needs from LEO to fairly high 
orbits.  But if you do the math (fairly easy to do given the off the shelf 
parts) it hakes a black horse like HTOL SSTO possible.  Or at the least a real off 
the shelfs HTOL TSTO. 



Also Andrews space is working a LOx/LH ystem that can mine all the LOx you 
would need to get to orbit out of the air.  They are proposing a TSTo that would 
cruse in the air to a launch point filing its lOX tank on route.  Its liquid 
hydrogen fueled, which makes it heavier and bulky.  But the LOX minig gear was 
demonstrated in a lab, and got god extraction rates.

So some good news in the pipe.

http://www.andrews-space.com/en/corporate/projects(200311).html

http://www.andrews-space.com/en/corporate/NGLT(200311).html