The aircraft consumes less fuel, can take off and land at existing airfields, the institute's press service said.
MOSCOW, October 15th. /tass/. Scientists at the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI) are developing a concept for an aerospace transport system for delivering payloads and launching satellites into orbit. A space plane consumes less fuel than launch vehicles, operates according to a horizontal takeoff and landing scheme, can use existing airfields and fly without detachable parts of the structure, the university's press service told TASS.
"Traditional launch vehicles, even with the current development of reusable systems, will soon reach the limit of their technical perfection and will not be able to further reduce the cost of delivering cargo into orbit. In order to reduce the cost of space launches, it is necessary to introduce fundamentally new technical solutions. In comparison with similar ongoing projects such as Skylon, the concept of its transport system [space aircraft] has less technical complexity, which will reduce financial investments and shorten the development time," said Denis Miaukin, a graduate student at the Department of Space Systems and Rocket Engineering at MAI, whose words are quoted in the message.
In order for the flight to be carried out efficiently at all speed modes - from takeoff to entering orbit - it is proposed to use a combined propulsion system consisting of three components and using hydrogen as fuel. So, at the start and for acceleration in dense layers of the atmosphere, the MAI project is supposed to use a hydrogen-vapor rocket turbine engine, then a ramjet engine, and at the final section of the trajectory, a rocket engine. The use of hydrogen will significantly increase the efficiency of the propulsion system.
Engineering calculations
"Due to the principle of their flight, fuel in rockets is spent not only to gain speed, but also to compensate for gravity, which causes large gravitational losses. In my design, there are no gravitational losses in a significant part of the trajectory, where the lifting force compensates for gravity. Combined with the use of a more efficient propulsion system, this allows for a larger payload mass in orbit. In absolute terms, this means that if both the aerospace transport system and the launch vehicle have the same launch mass of 400 tons, then the former will be able to deliver up to 32 tons of payload to a low reference orbit, while the latter will be able to deliver only up to 20 tons," the developer specified.
According to the calculations of scientists, these features will reduce the mass of fuel on the spacecraft by about 20% compared to rocket transport systems, which will potentially increase the relative mass of the payload from 5% to 8% of the launch mass of the spacecraft. In the future, such a space plane can also be used for high-speed intercontinental flights and space tourism.
Currently, within the framework of the project, a mathematical model of the aircraft has been created and calculations have been carried out to optimize the trajectory of reaching a given orbit with a height of 220 km, confirming the prospects of the chosen approach. In the future, it is planned to clarify the appearance of the device and the requirements for its propulsion system.
