Space Shuttle Orbiter - Reusable surface insulation flight performance

Dotts, R. L.; Tillian, D. J.; Smith, James A.

doi:10.2514/6.1982-788

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…For example, the Space Shuttle requirements called for a lightweight thermal protection system (TPS) which could be reused 100 times during reentry with temperature exceeding 2000 degrees F with minimum maintenance or refurbishment [20].…”

Section: Methods For Reusability Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Reusability Analysis for Lunar Landers

Bart¹,

Hoffman²

2021

2021 IEEE Aerospace Conference (50100)

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As the world prepares to return to the lunar surface with the Artemis program, NASA recommended developing a reusable lunar lander to enable a sustainable exploration program. It is logical to think that reusing a lunar lander instead of building a new one for each mission is more cost-effective, but this statement only holds for some mission architectures. This work explores the principal effects of adding reusability and quantifying its impact on manned lunar lander designs. A multidisciplinary model is presented that explores the lunar lander design space to understand how reusability impacts the chosen objectives of IMLEO, life-cycle cost, and safety. The choice of reusability and the use of a cislunar space station are found to have the greatest impact on the chosen objectives. The effect of changing the refurbishment cost per mission is also analyzed. An optimization framework is then applied to the resulting model to determine the optimal lunar lander design for a given mission. For the Artemis program, an expendable design was found to be more cost-effective than implementing reusability as only five lunar surface missions are currently planned. However, if additional missions are added a hybrid implementation of reusability, which entails reusing the transfer and ascent elements multiple times but changing out line-replacement units after each mission, becomes most cost-effective. Furthermore, a fully reusable design, where the transfer and ascent elements only require consumables to be replenished between missions, was found to be less cost-effective than a hybrid design for the range of values studied. The results of this work are intended to guide the development of the next generation of lunar landers and future space systems as the model and optimization framework can be adapted to explore the benefit of reusability for a wide range of space systems.

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Section: Methods For Reusability Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Reusability Analysis for Lunar Landers

Bart¹,

Hoffman²

2021

2021 IEEE Aerospace Conference (50100)

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“…During subsequent flights, the operational performance of the Space Shuttle RSI TPS were understood and certified [10,32]. The availability of flight data allowed an improved evaluation of the analytical tools used to predict TPS thermal performance.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermomechanical Analysis of a Damaged Thermal Protection System

Friedmann

Waas

2005

46th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference

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“…5 Operational performance of the TPS obtained from flight tests of the shuttle Columbia was evaluated by Ried et. al., 6 Dotts, Smith and Tillian, 7 and Neuenschwander, Mcbride and Armour. 8 Other TPS, not used on the shuttle, have also been considered.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermomechanical Analysis of a Thermal Protection System with Defects and Heat Shorts

Friedmann²,

Waas³

2006

47th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference

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The thermomechanical behavior of damaged space shuttle tile thermal protection system is determined using the finite element method. The relative effects of damage on the thermal protection capability and the induced thermal stresses in the TPS are determined by comparing the thermal and structural response of the damaged configurations with the undamaged configurations. The TPS, consisting of 3 components (the LI-900 tile, the strain isolation pad and the underlying structure), is modeled as a discrete three-layer structure. The TPS is subjected to the re-entry heating and pressure profile of the Access to Space vehicle, and the transient temperature distribution and the resultant thermal stresses in the system are computed. Three different sizes of damage having diameters 0.5", 1" and 1.5", based on hypervelocity impact, are considered. The validity of the simplifying assumptions used in a recent study is systematically examined. Some of these assumptions are relaxed and their effects on the system response are studied in the present work. The effect of damage location on the overall behavior of the TPS is also examined. Damage changes the surface properties of the tile and increases the surface area exposed to heating. It significantly reduces the radiation heat loss from the surface of the tile, resulting in elevated temperatures in the TPS. The elevated temperatures, with the stress concentrations introduced by the damage increases the thermal stresses significantly. Results suggest that the damage considered is capable of raising the maximum temperature in the tile to beyond its melting point and may cause structural failure.

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Space Shuttle Orbiter - Reusable surface insulation flight performance

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Reusability Analysis for Lunar Landers

Reusability Analysis for Lunar Landers

Thermomechanical Analysis of a Damaged Thermal Protection System

Thermomechanical Analysis of a Thermal Protection System with Defects and Heat Shorts

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