Spaceport Operations Assessment for Space Solar Power Earth to Orbit Transportation Requirements
E. Zapata, NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center and Dr. J. Olds, Georgia Institute of Technology, GA
FOR THE
50th International Astronautical Congress
Presented Amsterdam, the Netherlands, October, 1999
DOWNLOAD >> SSP_IAF_99_ZapaOlds.pdf (.pdf File - 466 KB)
Abstract
This paper presents a spaceport-focused operations assessment within the context of Earth to orbit (ETO) transportation requirements to support a major Space Solar Power (SSP) satellite deployment initiative. These requirements include the delivery of over 15,000 metric tons to orbit per year at prices to the SSP system developer of only $400/kg (approx. $181 per pound). The highly reusable space transportation systems optimized around this overriding objective will be described. This process of optimization has included not only the flight vehicles, but just as importantly, the interaction of a flight system with its ground infrastructure (the spaceport). Modeled interactions included the flight vehicle’s facilities and ground support equipment requirements and costs resulting from ground operations (processing labor, replacement hardware items, propellants, etc.). Key outputs from the spaceport model included vehicle ground processing time and resultant impacts on overall fleet size.
The process of optimizing these systems and the resulting implications to costs of factors such as reliability, life and margin, and complexity, will also be explained. The model used to predict the effect of designs on ground systems and the resulting costs will be reviewed. It will be shown that investments in infrastructure as well as flight systems will be necessary to meet the SSP price goal of $400/kg.
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Edgar Zapata, NASA Kennedy Space Center
Shuttle Process Engineering Directorate, Fluid Systems Division