Trajectory Approaches for Launching Hypersonic Flight Tests (Preprint)

Abstract

This paper presents some approaches toward designing trajectories for hypersonic testing at up to Mach 10 speed using a reusable rocket-powered first stage. The motivation behind the paper is the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) eXperimental Spaceplane-1 (XS-1) program that is focused on low cost responsive access to space of which the first stage can also be used for hypersonic testing. Trajectories were analyzed using NASA's Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories (POST) code to look at different ways of flying to Mach 10 with a reusable first stage rocket. These trajectories are good starting points for how to setup a trajectory simulation to meet hypersonic testing needs.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2014
Accession Number
ADA609885

Entities

People

  • Barry M. Hellman

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Astronautics
  • Boundary Layer
  • Dynamic Pressure
  • Flight
  • Government Procurement
  • Governments
  • Hypersonic Flight
  • Hypersonics
  • Launching
  • Mach Number
  • Military Research
  • Payload
  • Simulations
  • Space Systems
  • Trajectories

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Combustion and Flow Dynamics.
  • Missile Defense Systems.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Hypersonics
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Flow
  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster
  • Space - Spacecraft Maneuvers