Economizing Electron Beam Welding--Today''''s State of the Art and Trends of Development

The ever-increasing pressure of producing at lower cost with higher quality and the competition, mainly from laser beam welding, are generating a number of new concepts of electron beam machines and electron beam generators. I would like to introduce to you some of these new developments.     

Active sidestick technology – a means for improving situational awareness

The use of an active sidestick in FBW-flight control is discussed and the specific features of both passive and active sidesticks are compared. Additional tactile information which could be provided by active sidesticks is seen as an important factor to improve the situational awareness of the pilot. An unique active sidestick concept based on the electro-magnetic actuation principle (electro-magnetic sidestick, MAGSI) is presented. This system is the key element in DLR's research programme EPIAS (Enhanced Pilot Information by using Active Sidestick) which is scheduled to be flight tested on the ATTAS (Advanced Technologies Testing Aircraft System) in-flight simulator at the beginning of next year.     

The composition of cosmic rays at high energies

Measurements of the composition of the cosmic rays at high energies, and of the energy spectra of the individual components provide the basis for the understanding of the sources, of the acceleration mechanism, and of the galactic containment of these particles. We briefly review the presently available information, and we describe a recent measurement on the Space Shuttle that we performed in order to substantially extend the range of energies in which the elemental composition is known. We present and discuss the results, and we also summarize and discuss recent data on the electron component of cosmic rays. The body of data now available contains several features that are difficult to explain within current models of galactic shock acceleration and “leaky box” containment. We emphasize the need for further measurements, and we briefly discuss possible opportunities for future work.     

Will space run out of space? The orbital debris problem and its mitigation

An appraisal of current and future risks from space debris is presented with the aid of calculations carried out by the MASTER model. The efficacy of various technical options -- such as fuel venting, de-orbiting and use of a graveyard orbit -- for counteracting the problem is discussed. The article then focuses on governmental and international cooperative measures and looks at the recent work done by subcommittees of the UN COPUOS.     

Cost Engineering – The new paradigm for space launch vehicle design

The paper describes the basic definition and application of 'Cost Engineering' which means to design a vehicle system for minimum development cost and/or for minimum operations cost. This is important now and for the future since space transportation has become primarily a commercial business in contrast to the past where it has been mainly a subject of military power and national prestige. Several examples are presented for minimum-cost space launch vehicle configurations, such as increasing vehicle size and/or the use of less efficient rocket engines in order to reduce development and operations cost. Further a cost comparison is presented on single-stage (SSTO)-vehicles vs. two-stage launchers which shows that SSTOs have lower development and operations cost although they are larger, respectively have a higher lift-off mass than two-stage vehicles with the same performance. The design of a space tourism-dedicated launch vehicle is an extreme challenge for a cost-engineered vehicle design in order to achieve cost per seat not higher than $50,000. Finally an outlook is presented on the different options for manned Earth-to-Moon transportation modes and vehicles – another most important application of 'cost engineering', taking into account the large cost of such a future venture.     

The International Vortex Flow Experiment 2 (VFE-2): Background,objectives and organization

In this paper the background and the objectives for the International Vortex Flow Experiment (VFE-2) as well as its organization within the RTO Task Group AVT-113 are described. The available test facilities and wind tunnel models, the applied experimental techniques and the program of work are outlined. Concerning the realization the close cooperation between the measurements and CFD is emphasized.     

Orbital manoeuvres of free flying platforms for retrieval by space shuttle

In a typical future mission a free flying platform will be released to space by Space Shuttle. After performing its active mission, it will have to wait for a suitable later Shuttle flight for retrieval at its original orbital altitude. To allow for the orbital descent during the total mission time of typically several months, one or several orbit raise manoeuvres have to be performed with the platform's own propulsion system. In the paper, the velocity-requirements Δv for these orbital transfers, depending on Sun activity, rendezvous-altitude, ballistic coefficient and longest expected mission time are treated.The simplest manoeuvre, consisting of one initial ascent transfer and one descent transfer at the actual retrieval date, is shown to be not optimal. Up to 25% of Δv can be saved, if several orbit raising transfers in a certain sequence are applied. A straightforward analytical treatment is presented for the optimization, while a computer program with the CIRA-atmosphere model is used for actual mission planning.     

The transcost-model for launch vehicle cost estimation and its application to future systems analysis

The first part of the paper describes the structure of the analytical cost estimation model (1982 edition) for launch vehicle development, fabrication and launch operations cost. Especially the new approach for a cost assessment of operations cost including refurbishment (in case of reusable vehicles), direct and indirect operations is presented for discussion and subsequent improvements by introduction of more reference values. The model uses the Man-Year (MY) as cost unit which is independent from inflation and currency exchange rate changes.

The second part of the paper deals with its application to future systems analysis and cost comparison with the example of a potential future European launcher (Post-Ariane-4) with 15 tons LEO payload capability: ten different two-stage launch vehicle concepts (expendable, semi-reusable and fully reusable) with storable and cryogenic propellants are analysed with respect to development cost and cost per launch.

The key problem for a future European launch vehicle is the optimum solution between the (limited) development effort and the desired minimum launch cost. More advanced (partially) reusable systems could provide an essential reduction in cost per launch, require, however, a higher development effort.

In such a case an analytical cost model based on realistic reference data can provide important data for the vehicle concept selection process.     

The impact of launch vehicle type and size on development cost

The technical development trend of future launch vehicle systems is towards fully reusable systems, in order to reduce space transportation cost. However, different types of launch vehicles are feasible, as there are

• —winged two-stage systems (WTS)

• —ballistic single-stage vehicles (BSS)

• —ballistic two-stage vehicles (BTS)

The performance of those systems is compared according to the present state of the art as well as the development cost, based on the “TRANSCOST-Model”. The development costs are shown versus launch mass (GLOW) and pay-load for the three types of reusable systems mentioned above.It is shown that performance optimization and cost minimization lead to different results. It is more economic to increase the vehicle size for achieving higher performance, instead of increasing technical complexity.Finally it is described that due to the essentially lower launch cost of reusable vehicles it will be feasible to recover the development cost by an amortization charge on the launch cost. This possibility, however, would allow commercial funding of future launch vehicle developments.     

Cost reduction trends in space communications by larger satellites/platforms

The paper analyses first the satellite growth trend in the past and the specific characteristics of communication satellites, as there are specific mass per channel and payload share vs. spacecraft mass.

With assistance of a cost model (derived from actual spacecraft cost) it is shown that larger satellites are more cost effective. The same applies to the launch cost, also showing a reduction in specific cost (per kg or per channel-year) for larger payloads.

Finally different types of communication satellites/platforms are compared (two smaller satellites, one large satellite, modular docked assemblies) for the same total communication capacity of 72 000 dual telephone channels. It is shown that for each orbital communication capacity a certain optimum spacecraft size exists which leads to minimum space segment cost.