DOW-UAP-D124, AAWSAP DIRD, Space Access: Where We’ve Been and Where We Could Go, March 2010

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Space Access: Where We've Been . . . and Where We Could Prepared by: Acquisition Support Division (DW0-3) Defense Warning Office Directorate for Analysis Defense Intelligence Agency AAP Person 67 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, Defense Warning Office's Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. Comments or questions pertaining to this document should be addressed tolAAP Person 1 AAWSA Program Manager, Defense Intelligence Agency, ATTN: CLAR/DW0-3, Bldg 6000, Washington,

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Propulsion Perspective........................................................................................... 1 Hypersonic Configuration Concepts........................................................................ 2 Thermodynamics and Materials............................................................................ 16 The Qu Tube ......................................................................................................... 23 Appendix A: Historical Perspective....................................................................... 43 Appendix D: Landing Ellipses for Hypersonic Gliders............................................ 48 Figure 1. Hardware Flow ........................................................................................vi Figure 2. Impact of Air-Breathing Rocket ................................................................1 Figure 3. HSVS Hypersonic Cruise Aircraft Showing True Skin Temperature ...........3 Figure 4. Hypersonic Rocket-Powered Glider Hypersonic Air-Breathing Cruiser......4 Figure 5. Delta-Lifting Body Designs .......................................................................5 Figure 7. Detailed Design Analyses Show the Weight Trends are as Much a Function of Configuration Family as Lift-to-Drag Ratio ............................9 Figure 8. High-Performance Hypersonic Glide Aircraft ..........................................10 Figure 9. NASA Langley Wing-Body Configuration WB-004 with Critical Areas for Wing Bodies Identified...........................................................................11 Figure 11. FDL-7C/D with a DuPont Retractable Inward-Turning Inlet .................12 Figure 13. Sufficient Cross Range (L/D) Means There is No Waiting to Return ..... 14 Figure 14. Hypersonic Glider Characteristics .........................................................15 Figure 15. Both Delta Planform Lifting Body (Dynasoar) and Model 176 Offer Superior Landing Performance .............................................................16 Figure 16. McDonnell Aircraft Company Roll-Bonded Titanium Structure ..............17

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Figure 17. Model 176 in the McDonnell Douglas Hypervelocity Impulse Tunnel ....18 Figure 19. Even At Mach 12, Embedded Vortices in the Boundary Layer Alter the Local Heat Transfer ..............................................................................19 Figure 20. Thermographic Phosphor Image of Model 176 at Near-Maximum Angle of Attack.....................................................................................20 Figure 21. From L/D Maximum to Maximum Angle of Attack, There Is Always a Cool Sub-layer Adjacent to the Wall .....................................................20 Figure 22. This 1988 SEP Bordeaux SiC/SiC Panel Could Sustain Temperatures of up to 3,000°F........................................................................................21 Figure 23. UBE Corporation's Tyranno Cloth..........................................................21 Figure 24. A Porous Nickel Tip Oozing Water ........................................................21 Figure 25. FDL ASSET Flight-Tested From Orbital Speeds to Evaluate 1960s Figure 26. Heat Pipe Shuttle Leading Edge Designed and Built by McDonnell Douglas Astronautics ...........................................................................22 Figure 27. Boost-Glide Strategic Vehicle with Pratt & Whitney XLR-129 Rocket Engine Installed ...................................................................................25 Figure 29. Two Rocket Air-Breathing Rocket Cycles to Mach 5.5 ...........................27 Figure 30. HOTOL Evolution: From Aerodynamic Optimum Configuration to Practical Launcher Configuration .........................................................27 Figure 31. LACE Air-Breathing Rocket ...................................................................29 Figure 32. The FDL-7 Class of Vehicles ..................................................................29 Figure 33. Takeoff and Landing Speeds of Minimum-Sized Launchers ...................30 Figure 34. Horizontal launch Not Practical Unless Weight Ratio Less Than Four ...31 Figure 35. Propellant Tanks That Are Not Reentry Vehicles Greatly Reduce System Weight .....................................................................................33 Figure 36. Simple Horizontal Integration and Vertical Launch Provides Rapid Launch Capability .................................................................................34 Figure 37. A Vertical Launch Complex Provides Vertical Toss Back Booster Recovery and Horizontal Landing Facilities for the Hypersonic Gliders 34 Figure 39. Earth's Atmosphere ..............................................................................36 Figure 40. FDL-5 Scale Model of A Stage and One-Half..........................................37 Figure 41. The FDL-7 and Model 176 Class of Hypersonic Gliders..........................37 Figure 43. Where We Are Today ............................................................................39 Figure 44. Where We Could Be If We Can Recapture the Engineering Confidence and Expertise of the Apollo/Saturn V Era .............................................40 Figure 45. TAV Operational Costs ..........................................................................47 Figure 46. Landing Ellipse .....................................................................................48 Table 1. Characteristics of Selected Flight Dynamics Laboratory Hypersonic Glider Configurations During the 1958-68 Timeframe ...............................6 Table 2. Elements of the Space Infrastructure Shown in Figure 44 .......................41

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Space Access: Where We've Been . . . and Where We Could 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 the moon will not be possible. This is a matter of skill; operational hardware based on durable, reliable, and demonstrated components; and operational systems. It is not necessarily a matter of technology. However, technology discovery and development are necessary for future space travel beyond Earth's environs. This paper addresses these issues by providing a running account of the historical details associated with the development of the myriad systems proposed and tested to provide access to space. Among the many advances in space access that will be possible in the future,1 the key technology developments will be in the area of propulsion, because without these we are confined to our solar system by flight times limited to a project team's functional life. The Pioneer spacecraft were fortunate to be monitored for 20 years. However, the issue facing our spaceflight organizations is the lack of a durable, consistent, schedulable, and frequent hardware system to and from space assets such as the International Space Station. In October 1958, the author's job in the vertical wind tunnel at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base abruptly changed; hypersonic and high-temperature flows became a new focus. What was then the Aircraft Laboratory was to become the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory (AFFDL), with a focus on space flight. Al Draper of the AFFDL began working with a select group of aerospace firms on hypersonic gliders. The initial requirement from the Air Force was to quickly find operational access to space. Technology application, hardware design and fabrication with an innovative application, and extending the industrial capabilities of the time were very much the issue, as exemplified by the Lockheed A-12/SR-71. When asked about space access at the time, a group of Aerospace Corporation UNCLASSIFIED//FOR. OFFICI CIs. flili Qllls.¥

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veterans responded, "It was not a technology issue; it was a hardware issue." In a keynote address to the Aeronautical Revolutionary Concepts