Lighter-than-air Megastructure Launch Vehicle Concept

Stephan Szyman
Chicago Astronomical Society
[email protected]

Abstract

Part of the huge costs associated with sending payloads to orbit with current chemical rockets is their limited and relatively small payload capacities. To pose a question, if Mercury-Atlas was the Wright Flyer of spaceflight, what would a 747 look like? This is a concept for a lighter-than-air megastructure aerospace vehicle inspired by the "floating city," the so-called "Cloud nine (Tensegrity sphere)" of R. Buckminster Fuller. The vehicle would sufficiently reduce payload price per pound to make feasible the integration of orbital/ solar system operations with terrestrial shipping container/ transportation systems already in place.

Performance of the megastructure LV in the Earth's atmosphere would be that of a lighter-than- air vehicle in the form of a blunted cone, which would remain at altitude for loading/ offloading of cargo. The propulsion system for launch and orbital/ interplanetary operations would be similar to the Orion concept of the 1950s. The hull would be one kilometer in diameter, with a coating thickness sufficient to withstand re-entry. It would be manufactured off-planet to take advantage of the microgravity and near-vacuum environments. Careful engineering and inspection during the forge phase would bring the reliability level to that of current commercial aviation, and it would be a valuable part of the infrastructure for both launch and landing of cargos, with obvious applications for extraterrestrial resources exploitation and waste disposal.

Presented at ISDC 2011 - Huntsville. Paper and presentation charts are not available.