TABLE OF CONTENTS

DESIGN REPORT OF A SPACE CRAFT ....................................................... 2 Abstract .............................................................................................. 2 Basic Design Features ........................................................................... 3 Mission Profile ...................................................................................... 5 Material selection ................................................................................. 6 Reentry of Space Craft .......................................................................... 7 Conclusion ........................................................................................... 8 References .......................................................................................... 9

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DESIGN REPORT OF A SPACE CRAFT Abstract

Current report outlines the basic design of an space craft. Basic design features of the spacecraft have been identified along with prime geometric dimensions and propulsion system. The conceptual design comprises of the mission profile, material selection and reentry phase of flight. Mission profile was designed to ensure that optimum fuel consumption could be ensured and no special takeoff requirements are needed. For this purpose, the benchmark design feature of X-14 was taken as reference. Some of the salient features of the design have been identified which could be vital in design and have safety implications. Various material characteristics required to meet intended performance parameters have been adequately discussed.

Figure No 1: Conceptual Illustration of Jet Takeoff Arrangement

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Basic Design Features

Followings are the basic design features of the spacecraft. 1. It will be a small sub orbital space craft 2. It will carry one pilot and one passenger (researcher or astronaut) to space. 3. Spacecraft will not take of like conventional rockets. It will rather be mounted on a large aero plane (carrier aircraft) which will take off from an ordinary airfield. After reaching a reasonable altitude and speed, the spacecraft will be detached from the carrier aircraft. Figure No 1 shows a conceptual illustration of this arrangement. 4. The spacecraft will be able to land like conventional aircraft. In order to assist it in landing and lower the speed drag chute system speed brakes are equipped in the spacecraft. 5. The wing of the space craft is double inclined. This is made to avoid lift losses due to shock wave formation during supersonic flight.

The suggested jet takeoff arrangement has been adapted from X-15 aircraft which used to take off from B-52 aircraft and one of the pioneers of space vehicles. The concept has followings advantages: 1. Rocket has a ram jet type of engine which is more fuel efficient at high speeds. On the contrary, turbo fan engine (used by the large airliners) is more efficient at speeds less than 0.8 mach. Therefore, greater fuel efficiency will be achieved using suggested arrangement. 2. By employing jet takeoff concept, the spacecraft will be able to take off from conventional runway airfields. Hence requirement of special rocket takeoff fields are avoided. The landing of the spacecraft is already like conventional aircraft. 3. As the spacecrafts own engine will start working after reaching a reasonable speed and altitude, low fuel will be required to be taken by the spacecraft itself. Hence, there would be smaller fuel tanks which will entail smaller size of the space craft. 3 | Page

A schematic drawing of the designed space craft is shown in Figure No 2. The spacecraft will be powered by two rocket motor engines. The engines use hydrogen peroxide (HTP) as fuel. These engines will also have the capability of thrust vectoring so as to maneuver the spacecraft in space. For maneuvering in the earths atmosphere, flaperons will be used. The basic dimension of the space craft are presented in Table No 1. The concept of blunt body design is employed to keep the surface from getting extremely hot during reentry.

Crew Cabin

Fuel Cells

Rocket Thrusters

Wings

Vertical Tail

Flaperons

Figure No 2: Top View of Space Craft 4 | Page

Parameter Wing Span Overall Length Rocket Engines Empty Weight Maximum Weight Maximum Altitude

Value 8m 12 m Two Rocket Engines 2500 kg class 2400 kg 5500 kg 100 km

Table No 1: Design Parameters of Spacecraft

Mission Profile
The mission profile of the spacecraft has been illustrated in Figure No 3. The profile has been outlined below: 1. Spacecraft mounted on aircraft will take off from an airfield and will go through jet climb till 8000 meters. 2. After reaching a height of 8 km and a speed of 0.6 Mach, the rocket motor of the space craft will be activated and will launch the space craft from the carrier aircraft. 3. The spacecraft, after detaching from the aircraft, will be put to steep climb until it reaches its orbit at 100 km above the ground level. 4. During steep climb, the spacecraft will reach a maximum speed of 3 Mach. 5. After reaching the orbit height, the pilot will use thrust vectoring to orient the spacecraft into its orbit. 6. After completing its mission, the spacecraft will start the reentry into the earths atmosphere. For this purpose, special technique will be applied to slow the vehicle down, the detail will be discussed in separate section. 7. After being slowed down, the spacecraft will come down to the ground level.

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8. The spacecraft will land like a conventional aircraft using its wings and landing gears.
Orbital Travel 100 km 80 km Re Entry Phase

Altitude Rocket Climb

Takeoff from Airplane Jet Climb Time

Landing Phase

Figure No 3: Mission Profile of Spacecraft

Material selection
Material selection is one of the most critical tasks for design of space craft. The material 1. The outer walls of the space craft should be capable of withstanding extremely high temperatures which may occur during recovery phase. Moreover, during takeoff as well temperature may rise very high. However, the highest temperatures are expected to encounter during recovery phase. 2. Space craft requires extremely high thrust during takeoff so that it could achieve the velocity required to reach its orbit. Therefore, the 6 | Page

propulsion system is designed to generate extremely high thrust. Due to high thrust generation, the exhaust gas temperature (EGT) of the engine turbine blades is far higher than the usual temperature experienced by the aircraft turbine engines. So, special materials are required to be installed to withstand the high heat. 3. Light weight spacecrafts are easier to accelerate and more economical to launch. Therefore, the material selected for the space craft need to be light weight. 4. Space craft are subjected to high g-loads during takeoff, landing and maneuvering. This causes high stress on the structural components of the spacecraft. 5. During space voyage, the spacecraft outer skin is exposed to high sun radiation. These sun rays comprise of high energy radiations which may be damaging to many materials. Therefore, material selection is to be made keeping in mind the stated operating conditions.

Reentry of Space Craft

Reentry is the most critical phase of flight of space craft. The spacecraft has to move in an extremely high speed in order to remain in its orbit around the earth. As there is no air at the orbital altitude, the space craft cannot use air speed brakes to slow down (as used by conventional aircraft) prior to start its descend for landing. So, in order to reduce the speed, prior to make the actual descend, concept of flip reentry is employed. For flip reentry, the spacecraft leaves its orbit and descends to the outer atmosphere of the Earth. As the fast speed vehicle enters the atmosphere, it experiences extremely high drag which slows it down. However, this also produces a lot of heat and raises the surface temperature of spacecraft. So, in order to cool down, the spacecraft goes back to its original orbit. The process is repeated until the speed is low enough for a safe descend. The process is illustrated in Figure No 4. During reentry, the spacecraft experiences following forces: 1. Gravity force which accelerates the vehicle 2. Drag force which tries to decelerate the vehicle 7 | Page

3. Lift force which lifts the vehicle During reentry, the speed of the spacecraft reaches three times faster than the speed of sound. This produces enormous heat and can even melt the spacecraft structure. However, due suggested blunt body design, the shockwave remains detached from spacecraft body and keeps the high temperatures away from the skin.

Spacecraft Orbit

Flip Reentry

Outer atmosphere

Earths Surface

Figure No 5: Flip Reentry Process

Conclusion
A basic design of the spacecraft was presented with salient features pertaining to flight itinerary, material selection and reentry phase. The basic drawing of the vehicle was drawn and some prime dimensional parameters were identified.

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References
1. John.D Anderson, Introduction to Flight, sixth edition, Mc Graw Hill Inc. 2. Beer and Johnston,Vector Mechanics for Engineers, 9th Edition 3. How Stuff Works at: http://science.howstuffworks.com/spacecraftreentry2.htm

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