Oct 222008
As an addendum to this post, here is some more Martin artwork (via the Glen L. Martin museum archive) showing orbital X-24 derivatives.
4 Responses to “More orbital X-24’s”
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As an addendum to this post, here is some more Martin artwork (via the Glen L. Martin museum archive) showing orbital X-24 derivatives.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
They’ve got a walloping big telescope in the cargo bay on that first cutaway.
I assume that’s supposed to be some sort of quick response recon vehicle, but unless they have some sort of extensible mirror system that comes out of the top once on-orbit, you aren’t going to get much magnification out of that layout even if it uses a Schmidt-Cassegrain optics system.
Maybe it’s a giant garbage can for a space station’s refuse.
The cockpit is surprisingly roomy, isn’t it? Looks like the 3-man crew has around 2/3rds as much room as on a Apollo CM.
One thing you don’t see in this artwork is any RCS… is all attitude and maneuvering control left to the disposable aft module?
One word: GREAT!!!!
Given its size, I assume it goes up on a Titan IIIC like the Dyna-Soar; but it looks too large even for that… Saturn-IC?
Anyone have any idea what the two big crossed box-like things in the cargo bay are in the third cutaway?
Note the strange wheel/skid main landing gear bases.
Either they were shooting for a Edwards lakebed/runway type dual landing system, like the Soviet Su-7 attack aircraft’s ability to land on a runway, mud, or ice…or the little wheels are some sort of feedback aid to anti-skid braking on the nose gear, like was used on the XB-70 main gear.
The lack of RCS on the lifting body still baffles me… this implies that the rear module stays attached till quite late in the reentry, serving like the tail on a badminton birdie, keeping the lifting body nose-forward till the X-24’s own aerodynamic surfaces can be useful in controlling it.
>I assume it goes up on a Titan IIIC like the Dyna-Soar…
Most likely. Note that that’s exactly the process shown in the previous orbital X-24 blog post. Also, in the painting in this post, the space station is clearly a Saturn S-IVB-derived station, but the cargo “trailers” are substantially smaller in diameter.