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WASHINGTON – The German space agency DLR is undertaking a study this month on a reusable launcher concept using a winged first-stage propeller captured during descent by an airplane and brought ashore.
DLR said on March 20 that the three-year study was seeking to develop a "rocket reclaimer" with an international team that would build on previous DLR simulations and flight experiments.
The project calls FALCon, or "demonstration in flight training for the first floor of the launcher in the air".
Related: Reusable Rocket Launch Systems: How They Work (Infographic)
In an interview, Martin Sippel, DLR's FALCon project manager, said the European Commission had granted 2.6 million euros ($ 3 million) to the project, a small sum in the world of launchers, but which, according to him, will go far, because the first tests were launched. for in-flight demonstrations with unmanned aerial vehicles and not rockets.
Sippel said the idea of capturing a rocket scene in the descent came from an badessment of how to reduce rocket mbad. Landings such as those performed by SpaceX with the Falcon 9 booster require additional fuel to slow the vehicle by propulsion when returning to Earth. By equipping a propeller with wings and dragging it to a salvage aircraft, the rocket phase can use more fuel to move a payload into orbit, said Sippel.
"If we tow it, we save on the mbad of the complete propulsion system for the return flight," he said. "It gives a performance advantage."
Sippel stated that the FALCon program was in its infancy and that the full costs of the project had not been finalized. If the results of the study are promising, the DLR will consider presenting it for the European Space Agency's preparatory program for tomorrow's launchers, he said.
Two years ago, ESA added the CNES Prometheus reusable engine program to the preparatory program for future launchers, a step that allowed the engine to materialize with its introduction on the Ariane 6 rocket or another rocket. new generation.
Sippel said FALCon was not totally dependent on the funding from the European Commission. Other program partners will contribute to the program, he said.
DLR's partners on FALCon are the Institute of Mechanical Engineering of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Drone Rescue Systems of Austria, Embention of Spain, Soft2tec of Germany, the Institute von Karman for fluid dynamics in Belgium and Astos Solutions Romania.
Sippel said the FALCon roadmap is preliminary and will be developed in more detail as the project progresses.
"Assuming we are successful in obtaining funds, we could then develop at least one [Technology Readiness Level] from 6 to 2028 so that it can be ready for a new generation reusable first stage [that could be] operational in 2035, "he said. This is an approximate roadmap. "
DLR is not the only one looking for alternatives to propulsive landings to be reused. United Launch Alliance has presented a first-stage engine recovery approach for Vulcan, its next-generation rocket, which includes an inflatable hypersonic retarder, parafoil and helicopter flight recovery.
Airbus, which manufactures Ariane 5 launchers in Europe and future Ariane 6 launchers through a joint venture with Safran, proposed in 2015 a wing system to get the engines back on the first floor. expendable rocket.
In a 2018 article, Sippel and other FALCon partners wrote that projections of the air capture method showed that this could lead to smaller reusable vehicles without payload penalty by compared to winged return approaches.
In this article, Sippel and his co-authors wrote that the most promising capture technique was to use an "aerodynamically controlled capture device" that an aircraft would tow below. The device would be connected to the turntable during the descent, leaving a certain distance between the aircraft.
Sippel and the co-authors proposed to use an unmanned autonomous aircraft for rendezvous at an altitude of between two and eight kilometers. "Used, refurbished and modified airliners should be enough," they wrote.
Sippel said the name of FALCon, although similar to SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, had a different source of inspiration.
"It has nothing to do with SpaceX's Falcon rocket," he said. "What's behind FALCon, it's really the Falcon bird.The Falcon bird launches into a diving maneuver to capture other birds or animals, so it's really inspired by the Falcon bird. "
This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to cover all aspects of the space industry.
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