Standard Reuse System for Small Launch Vehicles
Creators: name:  F. MAROQUENE FROISSART 
name:   J. MORELLE 
name:   A. JOST 
name:   L. LOURADOUR 
Publisher: name: Proceedings of  the 9th European Conference for Aerospace Sciences. Lille, France, 27 June - 1 July, 2022
Year: 2022
Subjects: REUSABLE SYSTEMS
SYSTEM DESIGN
REUSABLE LAUNCH VEHICLES

description: NewSpace is turning to be a new era for the Space Market as actors are initiating new projects and innovations to democratise access to space and make it more sustainable. NewSpace is driving for more responsible and ecological approach for developing space systems: Solutions must be found to lower space pollution, while fostering the growth of NewSpaces activities. As one of the major considerations for NewSpace activities is to aim for a no-orbits policy on ground and in-space, it is crucial to drive the small launchers market to a completely new approach: Reusable small launchers for sustainable access to space. Today, most of the operational launchers have been designed to be used only once and it is endangering the activities of NewSpace as many debris are floating in low orbits or crashing back on Earth in the sea. However, SpaceX has been changing policy about one-shot launches by introducing the first-ever reusable stage on the launcher Falcon 9. Since the first successful launch of the American launcher, the Space Market has been evolving fast and now, there are always more projects of small reusable launchers in development. To foster the development of those reusable small launch vehicles, the commercialisation of a standard reuse system should be considered to address small launchers projects as it could democratise sustainability and sobriety on the space market. The development of a generic system could be the opportunity to aim for 100% reusability at a global scale for small launch vehicles, by commercialising an agile solution adaptable to a various range of launchers and systems: Stages, boosters, fairings, adaptors, kick-stages, etc. To accommodate with a maximum of small launch vehicles, the recovery system could provide at least a parachute reuse kit to aim at first for small launchers recovery. Indeed, the development of a parachute reuse system should be significantly more affordable than other systems as it is simpler to design and to aim for using COTS and non-space systems with high maturity products. For heavier launchers, parachute might not be suitable and reverse thrust combined with intelligent recovery system could be considered. The standard reuse system should also provide logistic services for recovery, draining and transportation to address various small launchers. The development of a versatile drone ship is considered, as it would allow to recover parts of the launchers together to be shipped to the nearest harbour for recovery and qualifications. The drone ship system could be easily combined with the use of reverse thrust to catch the stages of the reusable launchers. With NewSpaces evolution, sustainability and affordability have become crucial for the development of solutions and services to access space. Commercialising adaptable recovery systems could be the opportunity to foster the development of reusable small launchers at a global scale. At Sirius Space Services and ORION Space Systems, the project development is inherent to the space market evolution and requirements: The company is focusing on commercialising sustainable services to access space and offer reuse solution for small launch vehicles. The presentation will be about defining the challenges of developing reusable systems and addressing a large variety of actors to make space more sustainable.