With the Space Shuttle still grounded and US efforts to develop a successor reusable launcher floundering, the newly constituted EADS Space Transportation is showing some radical notions for a European solution to the problem of high launch costs.
The Hopper concept for an unmanned vehicle displayed on the EADS stand (A18, Hall 2A) is designed to be launched horizontally on a sled running along a 4km track. More than 50m long and spanning 27m, Hopper would re-enter from orbit at an angle chosen to keep frictional skin heating substantially lower than that experienced by Shuttle Orbiters.
Payload
This in turn would permit the use of a simpler, low-maintenance heat-protection system. Together with a high degree of reusability, this would yield launch costs 75% lower than those of current systems, EADS says.
Carrying a payload of up to 7.5t, Hopper would be launched from Kourou in French Guiana to an altitude of 130km. Hopper would then return to an automatic landing while the deployed payload would climb to Space Station or geostationary altitude under its own power.
Phoenix
EADS says Hopper could be in service by 2020 if the European Space Agency gives the go-ahead. In the meantime, EADS is developing the Phoenix one-seventh-scale technology demonstrator. Being built at Bremen, the 3.9m-span Phoenix is made of aluminium and weighs about 1,000kg.
Wind-tunnel and other ground tests are due to be complete by the end of the first quarter of next year, with first flight, from Visdel in northern Sweden, set for the summer.
The demonstrator will be carried to an altitude of about 2,300m by helicopter and then released to glide back to an automatic landing. Flight data recording will focus on the initial free fall, the landing approach and touchdown.
Source: Flight Daily News
