The Future of Space Propulsion

Wednesday, October 01 2008 Significant challenges and advances in space propulsion have occurred over the past ten years. The end of the Cold War had significant impacts, both positive and negative. Operational systems now have to operate well beyond their design life. Parts and technology obsolescence are having a significant impact, as are an aging workforce and limited opportunities to develop new systems. The advent of asymmetric warfare is fully upon us. The military has to pro - ject power anywhere on the globe. In addition, there is concern that U.S. space assets are vulnerable in this new world. Furthermore, changes in acquisition policy driven by incredible cost and schedule overruns on nearly every space acquisition program will have significant impacts on the future of propulsion.

 

In spacelift, the U.S. once held nearly 80% of the launch market — today we hold only 20%. The legacy spacelift vehicles built upon the U.S.’s historical ICBM systems are gone and have been replaced by the Delta IV and Atlas V. A number of programs encountered numerous problems with parts and technology obsolescence — the significant downside of keeping some systems operational well beyond their intended lifetimes.

 

The U.S. has made great strides in technologies for space in the past 10 years. The Integrated High Payoff Rocket Propulsion Technology (IHPRPT) program has reached some significant milestones. Scramjet propulsion saw its first successful flight. Numerous physics-based modeling, simulation, and analysis efforts were started to address industry shortfalls when trying to design outside the empirical database of the past 50 years. Many commercial companies have tried their hand at entering the spacelift business with small, “cheap” launch vehicles. Microsatellites have been trying to get a foothold on space and appear to be making some headway. If we are to understand what the future of propulsion holds, we need to understand the recent past. The future holds many great opportunities, but just as many technical challenges.