SPS Launchers: A Collection

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Dec 272018

Continuing to rough out some Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle CAD models. Instead of lumping them all together I’m breaking them into “genres,” partially because my computer is starting to balk at the the size of the full collection. Below is the “Solar Power Satellite Launchers” collection. Included, from left to right, Rockwell Star Raker, Boeing TSTO, Boeing “Big Onion” SSTO, Saturn V, NASA Personnel Launch System ( a Shuttle derived design), Boeing Space Freighter, NASA-JSC HLLV. There are a few more designs that could probably be added to this collection. Suggestions?

As previously indicated, there is a good chance of a 1/288 scale model of some of the designs such as the Saturn V and the Star Raker. But *all* of them? Probably not in that scale. What seems reasonable is something akin to the old Monogram “missile collection” kits, with all of the HLLVs in something like 1/500 or 1/700 scale. A similar collection of Nova/Post-Saturn boosters is possible.

The Space Freighter would be substantially impressive in 1/288… but really rather enormous.

Northrop artificial-g space station art

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Dec 262018

A piece of concept art circa 1960 depicting a Northrop concept for a space station. Not much to say about it as there are no good scale references, nor do I think I have anything else depicting the station. It is, however, not dissimilar from a lot of other space station concepts of the time… replace the four “habitat” cylinders with a single torus, and this would be pretty much every space station from the Colliers series until the Manned Orbital Space Station concept from the early 60’s.

APR Historical Documents: December 2018

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Dec 242018

2018-12 Rewards are now available for downloading for APR Historical Documents subscribers. This month the rewards include:

1: A large document: “Sea Launch and Recovery of Very Large Rocket Vehicles,” a 1962 Aerojet report on the sea Dragon concept

2: “Ryan Aeronautical Company Plane Portraits,” information, photos and three-views of a sizable range of Ryan aircraft, manned and unmanned

3: “Nova,” a blueprint of the NASA “Saturn C-8” launch vehicle with 8 F-1 engines

4: CAD diagrams: Star Raker scrap views

If you are interested in signing up, you can do so either at Patreon or directly through PayPal. Signing up now makes you eligible for rewards starting with the *next* months rewards. The directly-through-PayPal system is new; it would probably be best to sign up after the first of the month.

That’s a lotta rockets

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Dec 222018

There are a vast number of heavy lift launch vehicles that have been designed over the years, but I think I’ve captured a pretty good selection here. Two of them, the Douglas ROOST and the Martin RENova, are depicted with their recovered configurations, but if models were made these options would likely not be included. They were done for future diagramming purposes. All of the models here are pretty basic, missing a whole lot of detail; I put these together quickly to check out scale and judge interest.

APR Monthly Historical Documents Program

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Dec 182018

For some years I have been operating the “Aerospace Projects Review Patreon” which provides monthly rewards in the form of high resolution scans of vintage aerospace diagrams, art and documents. This has worked pretty well, but it seems that perhaps some people might prefer to sign on more directly. Fortunately, PayPal provides the option not only for one-time purchases but also monthly subscriptions. By subscribing using the drop-down menu below, you will receive the same benefits as APR Patrons, but without going through Patreon itself.

Making the Saturn V look small

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Dec 172018

Below are some renders of a number of 3D CAD models of launch vehicles. Most are currently extremely basic… accurate to size and shape, but lacking details. The intent on most of them is to use them for diagramming purposes… but the possibility exists of using them as the basis for 1/288 scale display models. To that end they would probably be designed for simplicity and low parts count rather than complexity and the ability to display them with stages separate.

As can be seen, a lot of them make the Saturn V seem fairly puny. From left to right: the Boeing MLLV in its most capable form, fully stretched with a dozen 260-inch solid rocket boosters; Aerojet Sea Dragon; Rockwell Star Raker; Boeing “Big Onion” SPS launcher; Martin T10RR-3C Nova/Post-Saturn booster; early Nova “Saturn C-8;” Saturn V; Soviet N-1; Block 1 SLS; Block 1b SLS; New Glenn (scale estimated because the dimensions given for lengths and diameters don’t match up with renderings of the New Glenn).

Keep in mind, *all* of these were or are seriously considered by aerospace engineers based on the requirements of the launch market as they were then understood. Today, the markets to support these, with the possible exception of the New Glenn, simply don’t exist. But back when the Apollo program was still growing, the rocket designers of the time were seemingly convinced that the market for stuff being put into space was only going to grow exponentially.

If you might be interested in any of these as a model kit, let me know.

Shuttle-C art

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Dec 122018

The Shuttle-C of the late 80’s/early 90’s would have carried a whole lot more to orbit than the Shuttle Orbiter, but would not have been quite as capable of precise maneuvering as the Orbiter. Consequently, it might get close to a space station, but it would be unlikely to dock with it unless it was moved into position with secondary orbital maneuvering vehicles or grabbed with manipulator arms. This artwork depicts a Shuttle-C standing off some distance from a space station, with the cargo being shuttled over with an OMV.

The Shuttle-C was described and illustrated in US Launch Vehicle Projects #4.

Early nuclear-electric spacecraft

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Dec 072018

A NASA model circa 1959 illustrating the general configuration of a nuclear-electric spacecraft for the exploration of Mars. While apparently not meant to represent a serious design proposal, the general configuration is much the same as those created decades later. It features a nuclear reactor at the nose, a long boom with a pair of radiators to get rid of the heat produced by the reactor, and payload at the tail. Payload includes crew areas and an indistinct lander. The ring at the rear is the “propellant accelerator,” which is not described; presumably it is a structural ring holding a bank of ion engines or the like.

Note that the radiators are tapered. This is common in such designs: the gamma ray and neutron shields behind the reactor only block a relatively small portion of the emitted radiation. The radiators fit within that shadowed cone; if the radiators projected out into the unshielded volume, not only could the radiation do some damage to the structural materials it would also heat them up… defeating the whole point of radiators.

This basic layout would still be applicable today, with the main difference being that the engines might well be located elsewhere, firing in a different direction. The reactor could well be at the tail; leaving the engines where they are would turn the long boom into a structure in tension, meaning that the reactor would be “hanging” down. This would be structurally more efficient… after all, the reactor could certainly hang from a string, but a ship could hardly push on a string. Or the engines could be located near the ships center of gravity, firing “sideways.” This would be trickier for the boom, but if the engines are indeed low-thrust ion engines, the forces involved would be almost negligible. Or with a similar arrangement the ship could be made to tumble end over end; with the engines at the CG they could continue to fire “sideways” while the crew enjoyed at least some measure of artificial gravity.

Star Raker: Not Small

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Dec 042018

As previously mentioned, I’m tapping away at a CAD model of the Star Raker for the primary purpose of diagrams & art for the next issue of US Launch Vehicle Projects, and the secondary goal of a model kit. The plan at this time is to produce the Star Raker as a 1/288 scale model. That’s a slightly unusual scale; most launch vehicle models are in 1/144 or even 1/72 scale. But the Star Raker… she was huge. It was a horizontal takeoff airbreathing single stage spaceplane designed not to resupply a space station or any such trivial task, but to deliver to low Earth orbit the raw materials with which to build solar power satellites. it’s payload would have been small by the reckoning of most SPS launchers, which tended to have megapound-class payload capacities, but it still would have rivaled the Saturn V. To do that with a winged vehicle meant that its wings were vast, spanning 375 feet.

Here is a basic render of the model as it currently stand. the overlaid grid shows how big the 1/288 kit will be: each grid is one inch. You would not feel ashamed to have this sit on your desk or bookshelf.

My goal with this model is to have a relative *few* bits of extra details. Cockpit and landing gear would be tiny and pretty much infeasible at this scale, and there were no underslung weapons or gun turret or any such thing. Consequently the part count should be low. The model is being designed for the best simplicity possible in order to keep the price as low as feasible. A model kit is as yet not a sure thing. So if you know anyone who might be interested, let them know.

Something I think might look good, once the USLP project is done, is to continue with the diagramming and go into some detail and produce a large-format print of some kind, either cyanotype or mylar…

PDF Review: “Neptun,” the German Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle

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Dec 042018

In the late 1960’s H.H. Koelle of the Technische University Institut Fuer Raumfahrttechnik in Berlin devoted considerable effort to studying a reusable heavy lift launch vehicle. A good, well-illustrated report was put out in 1968 covering the design:

Entwurfskriterien fur groBe wiederverwendbare Tragersysteme (Design Criteria for Large Reusable Space Transportation Systems)

Note that the Neptun was *gigantic.* It was a two-stage ballistically recovered design, unusual in that rather than being circular in cross-section it was hexagonal. The individual propellant tanks were each the size of or bigger than the S-IC first stage of the Saturn V.

A number of payloads were proposed. One was a sub-orbital intercontinental passenger transport, The passenger “capsule” would land separate from the Neptun itself.

One of the more interesting payloads contemplated was a large Orion nuclear pulse vehicle, transported in two pieces (propulsion module in one launch and payload/pulse units in the other). Presumably this would be a NASA Orion hitching a ride on a West German booster; I suspect politics would have negated the likelihood of the West Germans developing a mass production line for nuclear explosives.

This fusion-powered interplanetary spacecraft is also a NASA design, dating from the early 1960’s.

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