SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Airbus, which leads production of the Ariane rocket, has a new re-usable rocket concept called Adeline.
The firm's engineers believe the basic Adeline idea could be incorporated into any liquid-fuelled launcher, however big or small.
It takes the form of a winged module that goes on the bottom of the rocket stack.
Inside are the main engines and the avionics - the high-value parts on all rockets.
The module would be integral to the job of lifting the mission off the pad in the normal way, but then detach itself from the upper-stages of the rocket once the propellants in the tanks above it were exhausted.
The Adeline module's next step would be re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. For this, it would have a protective heat shield on its bulbous nose.
At a certain point in the descent, Adeline would pull up using its small winglets, and steer itself towards a runway.
Small deployable propellers would aid control as it essentially operated like a drone to find its way home.
Herve Gilibert, technical director for Airbus’ Space Systems division, said the Adeline propulsion unit — engine and avionics — is where lies most of the value of the first stage. The Airbus team concluded that SpaceX’s design of returning the full stage to Earth could be simplified by separating the propulsion bay from the rest of the stage, protecting the motor on reentry and, using the winglets and turbofans, return horizontally to a conventional air strip.
“We are using an aerodynamic shield so that the motor is not subjected to such high stress on reentry,” Gilibert said. “We need very little fuel for the turbofans and the performance penalty we pay for the Ariane 6 launcher is far less than the 30 percent or more performance penalty that SpaceX pays for the reusable Falcon 9 first stage.
It sounds like they're planning on modifying the Ariane 6 (set to fly for the first time in 2020) to use this technology at some point, but not right away. They expect it will reduce launch costs by a projected 20 to 30 percent.
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday June 10 2015, @12:35AM
Did we recover any payloads and fly them back with disposable rockets?
Frankly, I don't remember, but we must have tried it once or twice.
It wash't ONLY about reuse of the vehicle. The Shuttle had capabilities that would
have required a one-off very expensive use-once vehicle.
The basic fact is that chemical rocket launch is still pretty ridiculous.
Personally, I think the only reasonable long term solution
is going to be runway to orbit and back again. Scaled Composites seem on the right track, and the
rest of the rocket guys are clinging to a dying business model.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by gman003 on Wednesday June 10 2015, @04:52AM
Mind elaborating on that? From my perspective, Scaled Composites is chasing a dead end. SpaceX is the only one pursuing a viable economic model, and REL is the only one looking at an actual new system design (although I doubt they'll actually succeed). But I'm interested in what your reasoning is.