Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC
NASA has selected Boeing to build the next X-series experimental vehicle, under its Future-X programme to demonstrate technologies for low-cost access to space.
The unpiloted, reusable Advanced Technology Vehicle (ATV) - likely to be designated the X-37 - will be released by theSpace Shuttle to demonstrate autonomous on-orbit, re-entry and landing operations.
Atmospheric flight testing is planned for 2001, with a Shuttle test scheduled for 2002, when the ATV will become "-the first-ever experimental vehicle to be flown in orbit and re-entry environments", says Boeing.
NASA and Boeing will share the $150 million cost of the four-year Future-X Pathfinder programme equally. Contracts worth $24 million to conduct seven Future-X flight experiments have also been awarded to three companies and three NASA centres.
The Future-X project envisages a continuous series of flight demonstrators, flying every two years, to validate technologies to improve the performance and reduce the cost of future space transportation systems. The ATV will be designed and built by Boeing's Phantom Works rapid prototyping organisation and assembled at the company's plant in Palmdale, California.
Phantom Works executive vice-president David Swain says the technologies demonstrated by the ATV could be used for reusable satellites and upper stages. Such a vehicle could also recapture satellites for return to earth, repair and relaunch, he adds.
Features include fully autonomous landing, rapid ground turnaround capability and modularity of key systems.
Swain says the ATV has a lot in common with the US Air Force's X-40 Space Manoeuvre Vehicle (SMV), a reusable unmanned spaceplane designed to be carried into orbit piggyback on an expendable or reusable launch vehicle. Drop tests of a Boeing-built SMV model were conducted earlier this year to demonstrate autonomous landing capability.
"The X-40 is very close to the Future-X," says Swain. "We see a big synergy. The external shapes of the SMV and Future-X look a lot similar."
Swain says the USAF and NASA programmes have a different focus. "NASA wants to validate technology, while the air force wants to determine mission value and get to production quickly."
Boeing says the Future-X Path-finder programme will demonstrate 29 airframe, propulsion and operations technologies, including: a durable, high-temperature thermal protection system; storable, non-toxic, liquid propellants; and new aerodynamics.
Source: Flight International
