I've been trying to design a lunar capable shuttle for awhile now and I've hit a road block.does anyone know what the fuel usage per second is for the SSME's?And could a LO2/LH2 tank fuel it in a 15 by 20 ft space?
I am using the STS as a basis for my design since it is the only operational orbital spaceplane to date.
As for getting a shuttle type vehicle lunar capable I was thinking of something along the lines of the shuttle-Saturn concept except with a SLS first stage and boosters for LEO and the external tank for TLI.
Quote from: Caleb Cattuzzo on 10/24/2017 05:25 amI am using the STS as a basis for my design since it is the only operational orbital spaceplane to date.Wrong. X-37B is also operational, and Buran was operational.
Sorry ment to add manned into that statement about the shuttle.Also the point of it having wings is so it can fly to its landing site in earth’s atmosphere making it much easier to recover
plus the size and space of a shuttle like craft means it can act as sort of a temporary orbit laboratory while landers are deployed to the surface or orbital station construction is going on.
It also makes the crew a lot more comfortable and the cargo bay allows bigger cargo to be transported to and from the moon giving it a advantage over capsules.
P.S I’m typing this at midnight so some of it won’t make sense 😂
plus the size and space of a shuttle like craft means it can act as sort of a temporary orbit laboratory while landers are deployed to the surface or orbital station construction is going on.It also makes the crew a lot more comfortable and the cargo bay allows bigger cargo to be transported to and from the moon giving it a advantage over capsules. P.S I’m typing this at midnight so some of it won’t make sense 😂
Capsules can't land on and take off from the moon either. That's why Apollo used a specially-built lunar lander, which left a part of itself on the surface.
Again the shuttle will NOT land on the moon but I see a chance for it to take multiple landers or station modules to lunar orbit and make lunar access a lot more accessible
the STS is my baseline that I am using as a basis for my own design it probably won’t even remotely look like the STS when I’m done.
So if in theory the orbiter was mounted on the top end of the rocket like the Saturn-shuttle would it be stable on takeoff and accent?
P.S I really don’t trust the ITS right now that many engines on one rocket is never a good idea like the Russian N1 moon rocket.
Here's an old Langley Research Center (LaRC) document on the subject that I found a while back:
Again the shuttle will NOT land on the moon but I see a chance for it to take multiple landers or station modules to lunar orbit and make lunar access a lot more accessible the STS is my baseline that I am using as a basis for my own design it probably won’t even remotely look like the STS when I’m done.So if in theory the orbiter was mounted on the top end of the rocket like the Saturn-shuttle would it be stable on takeoff and accent?P.S I really don’t trust the ITS right now that many engines on one rocket is never a good idea like the Russian N1 moon rocket.
The big wings of the SLS were made to allow ~3000 km crossrange for military missions that do single polar orbit and return to the launch site.
To provide the abort-once-around capability in polar orbit launches.