Mission design for point‑to‑point passenger transport with reusable launch vehicles

Kurzfassung

With the progress of SpaceX’s Starship system, a fully reusable launch system appears possible in the near future. With this technological advance, a new class of transport missions could become economically feasible: Rocket-propelled transport of passengers and cargo at near-orbital speeds from one point on the Earth to another. This mission type is investigated for two reference vehicles: Starship from SpaceX and the SpaceLiner concept, developed by DLR-SART. For both vehicles, the properties during reentry are assessed and the impact on the descent trajectory is investigated, including parametric studies with regard to the effect of launch heading and crossrange capability. While the SpaceLiner upper stage relies on its high hypersonic L/D to cover the majority of the distance in quasi-stationary flight within the atmosphere, the Starship relies mostly on a ballistic flight path at higher altitudes. The flight within the upper layers of the atmosphere allows the SpaceLiner to change its heading mid-flight through banking maneuvers and thus efficiently curve around populated areas. However, this prolonged flight at high velocities within the upper atmosphere does necessitate active cooling of the leading edges. An exemplary mission from Shanghai to California is optimized for both reference vehicles, with the optimization target being minimal peak heat loads. Due to the Starship’s reliance on the ballistic portion of its flight to cover range, the peak heat flux is substantially higher on westward missions, compared to the eastward return flight.