DIRD_06-DIRD_Space_Access-Where_Weve_Been_and_Where_We_Could_Go.pdf

UNCLASSIFIED / -2@R-OFFEGEH=USEORNEY Defense Intelligence Reference Document ME Acquisition Threat Support 8 March 2010 ICOD: 1 December 2009 DIA-08-1001-006 Space Access: Where We've Been... and Where We Could Go UNCLASSIFIED / s2@RaQEELGE Ald Salen

UNCLASSIFIED/ 4562 Space Access: Where We’ve Been... and Where We Could Go Prepared by: (b)(3):10 USC 424 Defense Intelligence Agency Author: (b)(6) Administrative Note COPYRIGHT WARNING: Further dissemination of the photographs in this publication is not authorized, This product is one in a series of advanced technology reports produced in FY 2009 under the Defense Intelligence Agency, |(b)(3):10 USC 424 Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. Comments or questions pertaining to this document should be addressed to AAWSA Program Manager, Defense Intelligence Agency, ATT…

UNCLASSIFIED / POR OPPECEHH-USE-ONEe Contents Introduction .....00008 wu eaaeeeeneeeene su ensenananeneuan euanecenanauanneenauanauanensnensneuaceceuaueuaneuaueucucnenenane v Propulsion Perspective... pu venusavereperectecsanesesesevessvevsouseverceurseruses evevavesevevers puveseees 1 Hypersonic Configuration COnCepts....ccccssescssseneseneceeatensnsnenenenacenccneneccteeneuenenensnenen 2 Thermodynamics and Materials......cscscscscsvsesesesesesevecereverevererercsarersrersseresssesnsesereres LG The Qu Tube......... sande dnancnsnenensenessecuanaeauenen desnseanaeauneavaueuecenenenananens se e…

Figure 17. Figure 18. Figure 19, Figure 20. Figure 21. Figure 22. Figure 23. Figure 24. Figure 25. Figure 26. Figure 27. Figure 28. Figure 29. Figure 30. Figure 31. Figure 32. Figure 33. Figure 34, Figure 35. Figure 36. Figure 37. Figure 38. Figure 39. Figure 40. Figure 41. Figure 42. Figure 43, Figure 44, UNCLASSIFIED / /®96-0FFEGhH=USEOner Model 176 in the McDonnell Douglas Hypervelocity Impulse Tunnel ....18 FDL-7C/D, Model 176 Entry Temperature Distribution .....::scssscceccsesecece 19 Even At Mach 12, Embedded Vortices in the Boundary Layer Alter the Local Heat Transfer ...... wena aevene…

UNCLASSIFIED / s®@R-0FFEGH-U6E-ONE Space Access: Where We’ve Been... and Where We Could Go Introduction Development of commercial access to space by our budding space- faring civilization is a straightforward effort dominated by propulsion and reliability. The initial focus should be on schedulable, dependable access to and from low Earth orbit (LEO). For years we have known the means to accomplish such a task but have lacked a dedicated organized effort. The key requirement is to develop a robust and not necessarily a low-cost infrastructure, without which commercial exploitation of LEO and t…

UNCLASSIFIED / .B@Ra@EELGH=USE-Siiey veterans responded, “It was not a technology issue; it was a hardware issue.” In a keynote address to the Aeronautical Revolutionary Concepts Workshop sponsored by the Vehicle Applications Panel of the National Research Council and held at NASA Ames in July 1984, then-Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Productivity, Technology, and Innovation Dr. D. Bruce Merrifield identified the problem of translating ideas into products as preparing technology for product manufacture. Dr. Merrifield drew an analogy between this step and Major League Baseball’s farm syst…

UNCLASSIFIED / 42@ReQEPIGIdeGE-ON a responsibility for space access, that Air Force’s focus switched to | surveillance, communication, and Global Positioning System satellites. In the late 1950s, there existed a predisposition—forced by the military competition between the United States and the former Soviet Union—to use rockets derived from military ballistic missiles. That decision curtailed efforts to develop alternatives to chemical rockets together with practical commercial developments. With the orbiting of Sputnik, the aircraft path to space, as represented by the X series of planes, en…

UNCLASSIFIED / /P Oe OP PPCRE USE OnE Propulsion Perspective In exiting Earth’s atmosphere, the propulsion system and configuration are inexorably linked. A hypersonic glider exits the atmosphere on either a rocket booster or a first stage of a two-stage-to-orbit aircraft. As such, it usually exits the atmosphere quickly, and the key exit design considerations are the high transonic aerodynamic and the mechanical loads encountered in the exit trajectory. Whether for a new rocket launcher or the U.S. space shuttle, the phenomenon is the same: the peak mechanical loads occur during exit. In this…