An Overview of the EURASTROS Study
Creators: name:  A. GULHAN 
name:   H. WEIHS 
name:   M. SIPPEL 
name:   M. WOLF 
name:   A. PLEBUCH 
name:   L. FROBEL 
Publisher: name: Proceedings of  the 9th European Conference for Aerospace Sciences. Lille, France, 27 June - 1 July, 2022
Year: 2022
Subjects: HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT

description: Astronautical space transportation is a prerequisite for the construction and operation of near?earth and lunar infrastructures and thus for the future commercialization of space travel. Private US space companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin therefore expect their commercial success primarily in astronautical space travel. SpaceX already generates a large part of its revenues from astronautical missions to the ISS and soon to the moon, while Europe\'s space industry is currently not providing astronautical transport services due to a lack of capabilities. Consequently, in contrast to the transport of payloads to different orbits, there is no independent European astronautical access to space. If Europe wants to participate in the future global commercial space market, it must be able to launch astronauts into space on its own as soon as possible. Based on the European expertise on operation of the Ariane 5 launcher system, which is also designed for astronautical space transportation, the new cost-efficient launcher Ariane 6 can be upgraded for astronautical space travel in an acceptable time period with acceptable resources. In 2020 a Think Tank joined activity has been initiated between German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Ariane Group GmbH (AGG) to discuss the needs and challenges of future space transportation. Based on the seven thesis of this initiative DLR and AGG launched a study with the title European Astronautical Space Transportation (EURASTROS) for the identification of missing technologies and infrastructures for an independent European space transportation of astronauts to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and prediction of corresponding costs [1]. Following the High-Level Requirements for an astronautical space transportation mission to LEO, which were defined in the very early phase of the study, a reference mission using Ariane 6 launcher trajectory was proposed. The European Ariane 6 launcher, with a maiden flight planned for 2022, was baselined as the reference launch vehicle to increase its launch cadence and to avoid delays caused by a potential new launcher development. A trade-off analysis concerning the use of Ariane 62 or Ariane 64 was a further reference work of the study. The existing huge data base of Apollo missions and heritage of the successful European flight demonstrator ARD were the key drivers for the choice of the Apollo shape of the capsule [4]. The main challenge of the EURASTROS study was the definition and performance prediction of the atmospheric and exo-atmospheric abort systems [2][4][3]. There is a big technological gap to develop and fly such systems within the next five to seven years. In Europe no matching service module is available. EURASTROS made use of the existing knowledge based on the ASTRIS Kick-stage layout and its BERTA engine for the definition of a service module concept [2]. To enable the exo-atmospheric abort envelope the number of engines was adapted accordingly to meet the required thrust. Another key activity carried out with significant effort was the cost analysis for recurring and non-recurring costs [5]. A development and qualification plan has been created with analysis most of activities at module level instead of sub-system level to identify module weaknesses early and to accelerate the learning curve, which is expected to lead to cost efficiency. EURASTROS study showed that from technological point of view an independent European astronautical space transportation mission can be carried out in a time frame of seven years. The EURASTROS main objective was to achieve a quickly available, development cost efficient and technologically robust astronautical space transportation service. It is recommended to elaborate more details on the commercial aspects of such a service and to consider the influence of re-usability and number of astronauts on its business model. References [1] Ali Gulhan, Marco Wolf, et.al.; Final Presentation of the Study on European Astronautical Space Transportation (EURASTROS), 15.11.2021. [2] Alex Plebuch, Pascal Marquart, Marco Wolf; System design of EURASTROS reference configurations and mission, EUCASS-3AF CONFERENCE, LILLE, FRANCE, 2022. [3] Pascal Marquardt, Markus Fertig, Thomas Reimer, Ali Gulhan; EURASTROS capsule design and re-entry analysis, EUCASS-3AF CONFERENCE, LILLE, FRANCE, 2022. [4] Kevin Bergmann, Pascal Marquardt, Ingrid Dietlein; EURASTROS ascent trajectory and abort analysis, EUCASS-3AF CONFERENCE, LILLE, FRANCE, 2022. [5] Andy Braukhane, Alex Plebuch, Thomas Renk; Cost Estimation and Development Approach of the EURASTROS Concept, EUCASS-3AF CONFERENCE, LILLE, FRANCE, 2022.