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Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?
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Single-stage to orbit, Single-stage to orbit - Alternative approaches to cheap spaceflight, Single-stage to orbit - Comparison with the Shuttle, Single-stage to orbit - Dense versus hydrogen fuels, Single-stage to orbit - Examples, Single-stage to orbit - One engine for all altitudes, Single-stage to orbit - The SSTO problem, Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?, HOTOL, Mass fraction, Skiffplane, Skylon, spacecraft propulsion, space transport, aerospike engine

ARTICLES RELATED TO Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?

Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?: Encyclopedia II - Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?

Many in the aerospace community have come to the conclusion that the best way to solve the problems of high cost is with an entirely self-contained and preferably largely or completely reusable vehicle. The idea behind such a vehicle is to reduce the processing requirements. This is not the case for staged vehicles, which typically have complex "range safety" requirements as the stages detach and fall back to earth. Range safety is one of the main reasons that the US launches from Florida, where the rocket's flight path takes it out o ...

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Single-stage to orbit, Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?, Single-stage to orbit - The SSTO problem, Single-stage to orbit - Dense versus hydrogen fuels, Single-stage to orbit - One engine for all altitudes, Single-stage to orbit - Comparison with the Shuttle, Single-stage to orbit - Examples, Single-stage to orbit - Alternative approaches to cheap spaceflight

Read more here: » Single-stage to orbit: Encyclopedia II - Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?

Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?: Encyclopedia II - Single-stage to orbit - Dense versus hydrogen fuels

It might seem entirely obvious that hydrogen would be the fuel of choice for SSTO vehicles. When burned with oxygen, hydrogen gives the highest specific impulse of any commonly used fuel; around 450 seconds, compared with up to 350 seconds for kerosene. However, hydrogen suffers from some notable disadvantages: - It is deeply cryogenic - it must be stored at very low temperatures and thus needs heavy insulation. It escapes very easily from the smallest gap, Having a wide combustible range, it can be easi ...

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Single-stage to orbit, Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?, Single-stage to orbit - The SSTO problem, Single-stage to orbit - Dense versus hydrogen fuels, Single-stage to orbit - One engine for all altitudes, Single-stage to orbit - Comparison with the Shuttle, Single-stage to orbit - Examples, Single-stage to orbit - Alternative approaches to cheap spaceflight

Read more here: » Single-stage to orbit: Encyclopedia II - Single-stage to orbit - Dense versus hydrogen fuels

Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?: Encyclopedia II - Single-stage to orbit - Alternative approaches to cheap spaceflight

Study after study has shown that the primary and most effective cost reduction technique across all vehicles, irrespective of technology is economies of scale. Merely launching a large total quantity reduces the manufactured costs of the equipment, in much the same way that mass-produced motor car costs are low; or large ships are cheaper than small boats per weight of boat. This has lead many others in the industry to declare that the solution to the launch-cost problem is the exact opposite of SSTO. Whereas reusable SSTOs look to sa ...

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Single-stage to orbit, Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?, Single-stage to orbit - The SSTO problem, Single-stage to orbit - Dense versus hydrogen fuels, Single-stage to orbit - One engine for all altitudes, Single-stage to orbit - Comparison with the Shuttle, Single-stage to orbit - Examples, Single-stage to orbit - Alternative approaches to cheap spaceflight

Read more here: » Single-stage to orbit: Encyclopedia II - Single-stage to orbit - Alternative approaches to cheap spaceflight

Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?: Encyclopedia II - Single-stage to orbit - Examples

Early versions of the Atlas rocket can be considered to be expendable SSTOs by some definitions. It is a "stage and a half" rocket, jettisoning two of its three engines during ascent but retaining its fuel tanks and other structural elements. However, by modern standards the engines ran at low pressure and thus not particularly high specific impulse and were not especially lightweight; using engines operating with a higher specific impulse would have obv ...

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Single-stage to orbit, Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?, Single-stage to orbit - The SSTO problem, Single-stage to orbit - Dense versus hydrogen fuels, Single-stage to orbit - One engine for all altitudes, Single-stage to orbit - Comparison with the Shuttle, Single-stage to orbit - Examples, Single-stage to orbit - Alternative approaches to cheap spaceflight

Read more here: » Single-stage to orbit: Encyclopedia II - Single-stage to orbit - Examples

Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?: Encyclopedia II - Single-stage to orbit - One engine for all altitudes

SSTO vehicles use the same engine for all altitudes, which is a problem for traditional engines with a bell shaped nozzle. Dependent on the atmospheric pressure, different bell shapes are optimal. Engines operating in the lower atmosphere have narrower bells than those designed to work in vacuum. Shape of the bell not optimized for the height makes the engine less efficient. One possible solution would be to use an aerospike engine, which can be effective in a wide range of ambient ...

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Single-stage to orbit, Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?, Single-stage to orbit - The SSTO problem, Single-stage to orbit - Dense versus hydrogen fuels, Single-stage to orbit - One engine for all altitudes, Single-stage to orbit - Comparison with the Shuttle, Single-stage to orbit - Examples, Single-stage to orbit - Alternative approaches to cheap spaceflight

Read more here: » Single-stage to orbit: Encyclopedia II - Single-stage to orbit - One engine for all altitudes

Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?: Encyclopedia II - Single-stage to orbit - The SSTO problem

An SSTO vehicle has one major problem - it needs to lift its entire structure into orbit. To reach orbit with a useful payload the rocket requires careful and extensive engineering to save weight. This is much harder to design and engineer. A staged rocket greatly reduces the total mass that flies all the way into space; the rocket is continually shedding fuel tanks and engines that are now dead weight. Single stage rockets were once thought to be beyond reach, but the rapid advances in materials technology and construction techniques ...

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Single-stage to orbit, Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?, Single-stage to orbit - The SSTO problem, Single-stage to orbit - Dense versus hydrogen fuels, Single-stage to orbit - One engine for all altitudes, Single-stage to orbit - Comparison with the Shuttle, Single-stage to orbit - Examples, Single-stage to orbit - Alternative approaches to cheap spaceflight

Read more here: » Single-stage to orbit: Encyclopedia II - Single-stage to orbit - The SSTO problem

Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?: Encyclopedia II - Single-stage to orbit - Comparison with the Shuttle

The continual pressure on the budget of NASA, along with the high cost per launch of the Space Shuttle (a vehicle ironically designed to reduce launch costs), sparked interest throughout the 1980s in designing a cheaper successor vehicle of some sort. Several official design studies have been made, but most are basically smaller versions of the existing Shuttle concept. Most cost analysis studies of the Space Shuttle have shown that manpower is by far the single greatest expense. The original idea was to have a maintenance schedule co ...

See also:

Single-stage to orbit, Single-stage to orbit - Why SSTO?, Single-stage to orbit - The SSTO problem, Single-stage to orbit - Dense versus hydrogen fuels, Single-stage to orbit - One engine for all altitudes, Single-stage to orbit - Comparison with the Shuttle, Single-stage to orbit - Examples, Single-stage to orbit - Alternative approaches to cheap spaceflight

Read more here: » Single-stage to orbit: Encyclopedia II - Single-stage to orbit - Comparison with the Shuttle

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Single-stage to orbit - W...