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From Airworthiness to 'Spaceworthiness'?

Filippo De Florio, in Airworthiness (Third Edition), 2016

12.2.1.4 The experimental permit

Part 431 prescribes requirements for obtaining an RLV mission licence and postlicensing requirements with which a licensee must comply to remain licensed. Part 437 prescribes requirements for obtaining an experimental permit.

Besides being a licence, an experimental permit is an authorisation issued by the FAA to allow an experimental reusable suborbital rocket to launch or reenter. A permit is an alternative to licensing that is valid for a 1-year renewable term and allows a permittee to conduct an unlimited number of launches and reentries for a particular suborbital rocket design during that time.

The FAA can grant experimental permits more quickly and with fewer requirements than licences, making it easier for the industry to test new types of reusable suborbital rockets. The scope is to expedite research and development on the vehicles intended to carry passengers on suborbital flights.

Of course, carrying any property or human being for compensation or hire is prohibited under an experimental permit.

The FAA will issue an experimental permit only for research and development to test new reusable suborbital rocket design concepts, new equipment, or new operating techniques, showing compliance with requirements to obtain a licence, or crew training before obtaining a licence.

As a part of the requirements for obtaining an experimental permit, Paragraph 437.55 requires an operator to perform a hazard analysis and provide the results to the FAA.

AC No. 437.55-1 provides guidance for applying a systematic and logical hazard analysis to the identification, analysis, and control of public safety hazard and risk associated with the launch and reentry of a reusable rocket under an experimental permit.

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Developing commercial human space-flight regulations

Kenneth Wong, in Space Safety Regulations and Standards, 2010

13.4 Licensing RLV Missions with Crew on Board

The FAA, in April 2004, issued two RLV mission-specific licenses: one for Scaled Composites and one for XCOR Aerospace in accordance with 14 CFR parts 431 [2] and 440. The FAA used its October 2003 draft flight crew guidelines to assist in these two license application evaluations because the CSLAA had not been enacted and human space-flight regulations did not yet exist. Scaled Composites won the X Prize on 4 October 2004, by being the first to finance privately, build, and launch a vehicle able to carry three people to an altitude of 100 km, return safely to Earth, and then repeat the trip within 2 weeks. Some of the lessons learned from licensing the SpaceShipOne launches were taken into consideration when the FAA later updated its crew guidelines and developed human space-flight regulations. (Note: The bill, HR 5382, Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004, which became Public Law 108-492 on 23 December 2004, was based on a previous bill, HR 3752.)

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Polymer Matrix Composites: Applications

A.A. Vicario, ... S. Arun, in Comprehensive Composite Materials II, 2018

3.4.6.1 RLV Programs

The Space Shuttle was an attempt to address high launch costs by building a reusable launch vehicle. However, the limitations of the 1970s materials and structures technologies, the high margins and complexities required for manned missions, and the extensive ground support and refurbishment costs have combined to make the shuttle less cost effective than previously planned. A fully reusable launch vehicle and rapid and efficient launch operations are keys to reducing the cost of access to space. In 1991, under the sponsorship of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO), the DC-X program was initiated to develop an inexpensive launch system capable of rapid deployment. In this program, McDonnell Douglas Aerospace (MDA, now Boeing) developed a suborbital vehicle to demonstrate vertical take-off and landing and the associated rapid low-cost operations resulting from this concept. DC-X aeroshell, base heat shield, and control system pressure vessels were made of composite materials. Eight flights were conducted between August 1993 and 3 July 1995 using a flight crew of three people and a maintenance crew of eight. Additional information on the DC-X vehicle can be found in Robinson et al. (1996).

To achieve the efficiencies that are required to place substantial payloads in orbit, a launch vehicle must have a very high propellant-to-inert-weight ratio (of the order of 90%). This requires the widespread use of composite materials. In early 1994, NASA initiated the RLV program and incorporated the DC-X in it. Under a cooperative agreement between NASA and industry, several programs aimed at developing and demonstrating technology required for RLV systems was undertaken. In one of these programs, MDA redesigned and built the DC-XA. This vehicle contained a composite liquid hydrogen tank and a composite intertank while maintaining the same aero-shell, base heat shield, engine, and other subsystems as the DC-X. Despite problems on the four suborbital flights, the DC-XA set the stage for further technology development for reusable launch vehicle. Today, NASA has undertaken several RLV programs, which include the X-33, X-34, and Future X programs.

The X-33 Program will demonstrate key 'aircraft like' operational attributes required for a cost-effective single stage to orbit (SSTO) RLV rocket system. Under cooperative agreements between NASA and industry partners, X-33 will develop technologies needed for an RLV named Venture Star. Key characteristics of the X-33 and Venture Star are summarized in Table 3.

Table 3. Characteristics of X-33 and VentureStar™

CharacteristicsX-33VentureStarTMLength69 ft (21 m)127 ft (38.7 m)Width77 ft (23 m)128 ft (39 m)Take-off weight285 000 lb (129 270 kg)2 286 000 lb (1 036 900 kg)Fuel2 J-2S linear spike7 RS2200 linear spikesFuel weight210 000 lb (95 250 kg)1 929 000 lb (874 775 kg)Main propulsionLH2/LO2LH2/LO2Take-off thrust410 000 lb (185 970 kg)3 000 000 lb (1 360 770 kg)Maximum speedMach 15+OrbitPayload to LEONA45 000 lb (20 410 kg)

The main composites used on the X-33 vehicle, shown in Fig. 13, are the carbon-epoxy composite fuel tanks, which are shown in Fig. 14.

Fig. 13. X-33 vehicle.

Fig. 14. X-33 fuel tank.

The X-34 program is a program for the design, development, and testing of a technology testbed demonstrator vehicle that can be integrated into the RLV program. The vehicle is the bridge between the Delta Clipper Graham (DC-XA) and the X-33. Again, the use of composite materials is expected to be extensive in this program, including the wing, fuselage skins, structural members, and composite fuel tanks.

Future X is a program that is just beginning. It is a 4-year cooperative agreement between NASA and the industry to develop a series of advanced technology demonstration vehicles and flight experiments that will improve performance and reduce development, production, and operating costs of future earth-to-orbit and in-space transportation systems.

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Fiber-Optic Sensors

Victor Giurgiutiu, in Structural Health Monitoring of Aerospace Composites, 2016

7.4.4.4 Chirped-FBG Filter for Ultrasonic FBG Demodulation

Reference [30] describes a compact FBG sensor demodulation system weighing less than 2 kg that was installed on board of a reusable launch vehicle (Figure 24). The system uses a chirped-FBG wavelength filter to achieve demodulation of the FBG sensor signal. The transmissibility of the chirped-FBG wavelength filter depends linearly on the wavelength of the passing light (Figure 24c). The light reflected from the FBG sensor is divided into two beams: one beam is the reference beam and is directly detected by photodetector #1. The other beam is transmitted through the wavelength filter and then detected by photodetector #2.

Figure 24. On-board FBG sensor demodulation system tested on a reusable launch vehicle: (a) schematic; (b) actual space-qualified hardware weighing less than 2 kg; (c) characteristics of the chirped-FBG filter showing a linear relationship between transmissibility and wavelength of the incoming light [30].

The intensity of the light passing through the wavelength filter is modulated in relation to the 1value of the Bragg wavelength of the FBG sensor. Refer to Figure 24a which shows two photodetectors named Detector #1 and Detector #2. The output of Detector #2 is divided by the output of Detector #1 in order to compensate the intensity drift of the reflected light. Consequently, this output ratio is proportional to the Bragg wavelength and allows the measurement of strain from the shift of the Bragg wavelength. Because this FBG sensor demodulation method has no moving parts, its frequency response is very high and is thus suitable for ultrasonic measurements. The upper frequency is only limited by the DAQ system used to digitize the output photodetectors.

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Space launch safety in Australia

Michael E. Davis, in Space Safety Regulations and Standards, 2010

7.1 Background

In 1996, Kistler Aerospace Corporation entered discussions with the Australian government to use the Woomera range for the testing of its new K-1 reusable launch vehicle. Kistler was developing a two-stage reusable launch vehicle for the low earth orbit satellite launch market. Both stages were designed to be returned to the launch site in order to be reused within a short time frame and the Woomera range in South Australia was an ideal return site. A test program was scheduled to take place from Woomera commencing in 2000. In April 1998 an agreement was signed between the Australian government and Kistler providing for the establishment of the Kistler test program and detailing the government's regulatory requirements.

Other companies also saw commercial opportunities to provide launch services in Australia to meet the surging demand for new telecommunications satellites. Asia-Pacific Space Centre Pty Ltd proposed to establish a launch facility on Christmas Island, an Australian territory to the north-west of Western Australia. The company planned to use Soyuz or the new Russian Angara rockets to launch satellites into low earth and geostationary orbits. United Launch Systems International Pty Ltd was an Australian company with a major investment by the Thai Satellite Telecommunications Company. The company proposed to establish a low earth orbit space launch facility using the newly developed, Russian-built Unity launch vehicle. The proposed launch site was at Hummock Hill Island, south of Gladstone on the eastern coast of Australia. Test launches were anticipated in 2002 with commercial operations commencing in 2003. Spacelift Australia Limited, an Australian company, announced in September 1999 that it had entered an agreement with a Russian company, STC Complex – MIHT, to establish a low earth orbit launch service from Woomera commencing in early 2001. The agreement involved the use of the Russian Start launch vehicle.

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Manned Hypersonic Missions in the Atmosphere

Pasquale M. Sforza, in Manned Spacecraft Design Principles, 2016

4.2 Transatmospheric Vehicles

Although expendable launch vehicle have been transporting humans to space with some degree of frequency and safety for over 50 years, the lure of the reusable launch vehicle (RLV) has not waned. The Space Transportation System (STS), known familiarly as the Space Shuttle, was intended to be a reusable launch system which would be flown regularly in much the same way as commercial aircraft.

Budgetary problems in the early 1970s forced the design into the mold of the X-20 Dynasoar, illustrated in Figure 4.2, a 1957–1963 program aimed at building a manned glider that could be launched into space on a rocket and then return to earth like an airplane. The X-20 was canceled before a prototype was built and the plan of a reusable STS was instead transformed into the reusable Space Shuttle Orbiter. Thirty years later, the X-30 National Aerospace Plane (NASP) shown in Figure 4.3 was envisioned to be an airbreathing scramjet vehicle that would fly from an airport to orbit and back. It too is only an artist's rendering because, like the X-20, it never was built. Since the inception of the STS there have been more than a few attempts to design and build a reusable space launch system and these are reviewed in Table 4.1.

Figure 4.2. Artist's conception of the X-20 manned glider during atmospheric entry. The overall length was 10.8 m, the span 6.32 m, and the height of the fins 2.6 m (USAF).

Figure 4.3. Artist's concept of the X-30 NASP flying through Earth's atmosphere on its way to low-Earth orbit (NASA).

Table 4.1. U.S. Reusable Space Launcher Projects

VehicleAgencyPeriodDesign LEO Payload (kg)StagesStatusX-30 National Aerospace PlaneDARPA-USAF-NASA1986–199345001Never flewDC-X Delta ClipperSDIO-NASA1991–199690001Low-speed demo flightsX-33 Venture StarNASA-Lockheed Martin1996–200129,0001Never flewRascalDARPA2000–20051362Never flewAlasaDARPA-Boeing2012–2016452Flight planned for 2016

The McDonnell–Douglas DC-X Clipper was a test bed for a vertical lift-off and landing, single stage to orbit vehicle. An 18,900 kg version 12 m high and 4.1 m wide was built to demonstrate the feasibility of the vertical lift-off and tail-down landing concept that was the staple of science fiction spaceships. A total of 12 powered tests of taking off vertically and landing vertically were carried out and a photograph of the craft during testing is shown in Figure 4.4. As noted in Table 4.1 the program, part of the research done under the Space Defense Initiative Office (SDIO), popularly known as Star Wars, was canceled as the overall program faced budgetary pressures and was realigned.

Figure 4.4. The DC-X, or Delta Clipper, shown during powered tests to study the feasibility of tail-down landing of a vertical lift-off spacecraft (NASA).

The idea of an RLV was still a much sought after goal and the next attempt at pursuing that goal took some hard-learned lessons from the demise of the X-30 NASP project. In this case, a half-scale rocket-powered suborbital vehicle, the X-33 Venture Star, was aimed at being a test bed and demonstrator of those technologies deemed required for a successful full-scale RLV. The X-33 design was based on three advanced concepts: the lifting body (Kempel, Painter, & Thompson, 1994), the linear aerospike rocket engine (Sforza, 2012), and a metallic thermal protection system (Dorsey, Chen, Wurster, & Poteet, 2004). The vehicle was planned to be launched vertically and controlled autonomously to an altitude of over 90 km and a Mach number of about 13, and returned to base to land horizontally like an airplane. The intent was to have a subscale, therefore more affordable, test vehicle that although being limited to suborbital flight could nevertheless experience the more stressful aspects of orbital entry. As seen in Table 4.1, this concept was never brought to the stage of cutting metal (Figure 4.5).

Figure 4.5. An artist's conception of the X-33 Venture Star, a half-scale suborbital rocket-powered spaceplane intended to test technologies for a reusable spaceplane.

There was a successful reusable unmanned spaceplane, the Boeing X-37B, which was launched to LEO four times aboard an Atlas V launch vehicle, the first being in April, 2010. This craft has the ability to stay on-orbit for long periods, with one flight lasting about 15 months. Autonomous de-orbit, entry, and landing on a runway have all been achieved successfully. A discussion and photograph of this craft appears in Section 12.6.3. As is obvious from the payload column in Table 4.1, only the first three projects were to carry humans into space. The technical difficulties of a reusable launch system and associated expenditures sapped the enthusiasm and confidence of the funding agencies and the manned projects were canceled. The last project in Table 4.1, Alasa (Airborne Launch Assist Space Access), is essentially a refinement of the 1985 antisatellite test in which an ASM-135 missile launched at an altitude of about 13 km from an F-15 climbing at M=0.92 successfully intercepted and destroyed a satellite in orbit at 550 km altitude. The interest in a fully reusable space launch system remains and, as will be seen in later chapters, the arguments for such a system are rooted in the idea of achieving inexpensive access to space. However, in addition to ever-present technical obstacles, the stumbling block for serious development of such a system is the lack of sufficient demand to make the economics of reusability realizable.

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Numerical Analysis of Supersonic Jet Flow from Vertical Landing Rocket Vehicle in Landing Phase

Toshiyuki Suzuki, ... Yoshifumi Inatani, in Parallel Computational Fluid Dynamics 2006, 2007

1 INTRODUCTION

As a future space transportation system, a working group at Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) proposed a concept of a fully reusable launch vehicle.1 The proposed vehicle is a single stage vertical taking off and landing (VTOL) type one. For the purpose of verification of this concept, a small-scale test vehicle shown in Fig. 1 was developed. The vehicle was named Reusable Vehicle Testing (RVT). Using the RVT, a series of flight tests has been conducted to explore the capability of the vertical landing and to acquire ground operational techniques for repeated flight. One of the most considerable issues regarding the aerodynamics of the RVT is an influence of jet flow on attitude control of the RVT. In the landing phase, the RVT ejects supersonic jet toward subsonic freestream so as to obtain enough drag force for vertical landing. However, because the jet ejection significantly disturbs the flowfield around the RVT, the flowfield is expected to be highly unsteady which characterized by massive separations and formation of large scale vortical structures. This unsteady nature of flowfield becomes a cause of oscillation of the RVT. Therefore, it is important to understand the unsteadiness of the flowfield in order to conduct attitude control, guidance and navigation while descending. For this purpose, several wind tunnel experiments have been carried out in JAXA.

Fig. 1. Flight test of small-scale test vehicle RVT. (Oct. 2003)

In the recent work of Nonaka et al.,2 a l/12-scale model of the RVT which can produce an opposing supersonic jet was built and a subsonic wind tunnel testing was made using the model to experimentally simulate a interaction flowfield between the opposing jet and freestream. The ñowfield around the model was visualized using the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique3. From the instantaneous velocity vectors deduced from the image, it was found that the opposing jet from the model produced a vortex ring around the vehicle, and that the vortex ring moved unsteadily in another moment. Due to this unsteady flow motion, aerodynamic forces measured on the model were fluctuated with time. Unfortunately, because the wind tunnel experiment could not reproduce some parameters in the flight environment of the RVT such as Reynolds number and an engine nozzle exit diameter, etc., it is uncertain whether the obtained experimental data can be reliably extrapolated to the flight environment. Therefore, a computer code is needed to be able to simulate the opposing jet flow from the RVT accurately. Such a computer code will be helpful to correlate the experimental data to a realistic flight environment of the RVT, and of a full scale reusable vehicle in the future.

Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is expected to be a powerful and efficient technique to analyze such an unsteady flowfield. It is the purpose of the present study to simulate the flowfield around the RVT by using LES to examine how the qualitative nature of the flowfield affects the aerodynamic forces on the RVT. However, there have been no prior attempts to calculate the interaction flowfield between the jet and freestream of this kind. For this reason, we first calculate the flow environment for the wind tunnel conditions in this study. Calculated results are compared with the existing experimental data2,3 to validate our LES modeling. Simulation of the actual flight environment of the RVT will be made in future work.

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Certification of new experimental commercial human space-flight vehicles

Tommaso Sgobba, Joseph N. Pelton, in Space Safety Regulations and Standards, 2010

8.3 Regulatory Control of Experimental Commercial Human Space Flights and the Issue of "Informed Consent" on the Part of Passengers

The future issue or dilemma that may need to be faced in coming years is precisely what the "written consent" of passengers on experimental commercial spacecraft really means. Although this written consent is required by law, it may very well be interpreted by the US government (DOT/FAA) in one way, the commercial organization providing the experimental flights in another, and passengers and crew yet another. Indeed, the greatest challenge to interpretation is most likely to come after a fatal accident of an "experimental craft" has occurred. The estates of those concerned might claim damages based not only on the written consent—but on whether or not that consent was "informed" or "uninformed". The issue of what is "informed consent" may therefore not be resolved until there are legal claims made and the issue is resolved in a court of law.

Meanwhile the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is currently seeking to develop rules and regulations with regard to the flight of "winged space planes" with crew and passengers aboard that may indeed seek to establish some form of certification for such vehicles. If it should evolve that the US government would authorize "experimental flights" without certification while the European regulatory agency was requiring some form of certification, this could lead to problems not only of business operation and regulatory oversight but ultimately to legal complexities and complications with regard to future compensatory claims as well.

The bottom line is that the lack of an independent safety certification for commercial human space flight appears likely to cause difficulty going forward. This is not only because there might not be a seamless global regulatory approach, but because of other practical issues as well. Certainly, the lack of an independent safety certification may deter the participation of at least some potential customers. Furthermore, the current CSLAA regime does not relieve the RLV operator of any responsibility for gross negligence. In this regard, obtaining an independent safety certification would be very much in the interest of the RLV operator in case of future litigation. The issue of certification is, of itself, a complex and problematic issue. The question is whether one would start with the certification of key subsystems to certain standards; whether certification only applies to the entire vehicle; whether, in this case, certification applies to certain types of technical, performance, or quality standards for the vehicle and its subsystems; or whether it would apply only to testing of "in-flight performance". This, of course, is quite different for aircraft—that are designed for very long duration flights and can be tested for long endurance reliability—versus the case of "space planes" where we are referring to vehicles designed to operate more like a rocket with short explosive performance rather than long-duration operations.

The FAA guidelines for "Commercial Sub-orbital Reusable Launch Vehicle Operations with Space Flight Participants", issued in February 2005, provide details about the overall process of written informed consent. They require that an RLV operator should describe to each space-flight participant the safety record of all launch or re-entry vehicles that have carried one or more persons on board, including both US government and private sector vehicles. The safety record should not be limited to the vehicles of a particular RLV operator. An RLV operator should also describe the safety record of its vehicle to each space-flight participant. The RLV operator's safety record should include vehicle ground-test and flight-test information. This information should describe all safety-related anomalies or failures that occurred and corrective actions taken to resolve the anomalies or failures. The FAA guidelines consider that the development of commercial launch vehicles to carry space-flight participants is in the embryonic or early stages.

Consequently, newly developed launch vehicles will not have the extensive flight-test history or operational experience that exists for commercial airplanes. Because of the lack of flight-test and operational experience, the risks with the RLV operator's particular launch vehicle and with vehicles like it, including both government and private sector vehicles, should be disclosed. The US House Committee on Science report, H. Rep. 108-429, clarifies that Congress intended that all government and private sector vehicles be included in this description. Because most human space flight to date has taken place under government auspices, the government safety record provides the most data. The RLV operator should provide a record of all vehicles that have carried a person because they are the most relevant to what the RLV operators propose. Likewise, because they were intended for a human on board, greater care was likely to have been taken in their design and construction. The same should be expected for commercial human space flight. Furthermore the RLV operator is required to provide space-flight participants an opportunity to ask questions orally to acquire a better understanding of the hazards and risks of the mission.

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Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids

Volume 498, 15 October 2018, Pages 173-176

The structure and properties of xZnO–(67-x)SnO–33P2O5 glasses: (III) Photoelastic behavior

Author links open overlay panelAkiraSaitohaHiromichiTakebea

Outline

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnoncrysol.2018.06.016Get rights and content

Abstract

The effects of composition and structure on stress-induced birefringence were studied for glasses with the nominal molar compositions xZnO–(67-x)SnO–33P2O5. The photoelastic constant (PEC) changes systematically from negative values to positive values when ZnO replaces SnO, and PEC ≈ 0 when x = 18.5 mol%. The zero PEC composition can be predicted from the observed coordination numbers and bond lengths of the Zn-, Sn-, and P-polyhedra using an empirical model from the literature

Space Policy

Volume 13, Issue 2, May 1997, Pages 97-107

Paper

International market for a reusable launch vehicle☆

Author links open overlay panelOlivierFerrandon

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https://doi.org/10.1016/S0265-9646(97)00008-8Get rights and content

Abstract

A reusable launch vehicle could be developed early next century if the X-33 program is successful. Its development will be funded by industry, and the vehicle will be operated privately. A critical task is to assess the future market for such a vehicle. The total number of commercial payloads could range between 40 and 60 satellites per year, taking into account the market elasticity due to the launch price reduction. The RLV would face important competition from expendable launch vehicles. However, the RLV could capture two-thirds of this market, or 26–33 commercial payloads per year.

Human is an essential cellular enzyme that is found in all human cells. As this enzyme is upregulated in cancer cells exceedingly, it is used as a target for cancer chemotherapeutic drug development. As such, producing the in-house enzyme for the purpose to speed up the search for more cost-effective and target specific hTopoI inhibitors is warranted. This study aims to compare the optimised conditions for the expression of hTopoI in KM71H (MutS) and X33 (Mut+) strains of Pichia pastoris. P. pastoris transfected with an hTopoI recombinant vector was used for the optimization of a higher level of hTopoI expression.

Results

In the process, fed-batch cultivation parameters that influence the expression of hTopoI, such as culture temperature, methanol induction and feeding strategy, were optimised in the transfected KM71H and X33 P. pastoris strains in a shake flask system. The cell density and total protein concentration (protein level) of transfected P. pastoris were compared to determine the optimum culture conditions for each transfected P. pastoris strain. A higher hTopoI level was observed in the transfected KM71H culture supernatant (2.26 ng/mL) when the culture was incubated in the optimum conditions.

Conclusions

This study demonstrated that MutS strain (KM71H) expressed and secreted a higher level of hTopoI heterologous protein in the presence of methanol compared to the Mut+ strain; X33 (0.75 ng/mL). However, other aspects of optimization, such as pH, should also be considered in the future, to obtain the optimum expression level of hTopoI in P. pastoris.

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