Search the Community

If you aren't familiar with the Chrysler SERV concept, check it out. Quite possibly the most innovative of the proposed Shuttle concepts, though it was never seriously considered. The military need for crossrange maneuvering during abort-once-around polar orbit launches, coupled with a lack of reliably restartable rocket engines, led to them adding dozens of jet engines to the design...which really doomed it. But with the air augmentation of a ducted rocket design, inner side-mounted deeply throttleable linear engines, and an overall ballistic re-entry profile, this could be promising. The crew-carrying variant would be mated at the top to a Dragon V2 capsule, while the cargo variant would hold an internal payload ducting would allow for weight-free afterburn injection to increase launch thrust for larger payloads with an extended upper fairing: The ducts at the top would allow maximum airflow and thrust augmentation without adding significant drag: The lower base would have a passive heat shield, dissipating heat both around the body and up through the heat-resistant ducting. The linear engines are positioned in such a way as to make maximal use of the atmosphere, from aerospike effect and thrust augmentation all the way up into vacuum operation, without needing to use any moveable flaps or panels: Downstream injectors (not shown) allow for added thrust at takeoff, using a denser fuel (yes, I favor hydrazine) to combust with the existing exhaust stream and the airflow. This would be used when the extended fairing holds a heavier payload and requires additional thrust. Although this requires a greater weight of fuel, thrust augmentation would be significant enough to increase the T/W overall and keep the total dV constant. Due to the possibility of afterburn-style thrust augmentation, this vehicle can have its thrust increased dramatically at the cost of reduced delta-v, making it a fantastic super-heavy lift first stage. After reaching orbit and ejecting payload, re-entry would take place using the base heat shield, landing on a hover at the launch pad with the throttleable main engines. In no case would re-entry be manned, as the capsule would re-enter separately. Since orbit would be achieved on virtually all missions (with the exception of super-heavy lift scenarios as noted above), this wouldn't have the SpaceX downrange problem or need to land on a barge; it could just abort once around and come back to the launch pad every time.