Comparison of future launch vehicle concepts for cargo transportation to low earth orbit and lunar destinations

The present stable of launch vehicles represents the state-of-the-art of the sixties or seventies and are exendable vehicles with the exception of the Space Shuttle which is partly reusable. Payload capabilities reach from a few hundred kilograms to about twenty tons to low Earth orbit. The cost per launch are about 50 M$ for a DELTA vehicle up to 550 M$ for a crewed SPACE SHUTTLE. The cost effectiveness is on the order of 10,000 $/kg for low Earth orbits. To expand space activities in the next century fully reusable vehicles with larger payload capabilities are needed. This paper analyses some of the most attractive options of launch vehicles such as the single-stage-to-orbit vehicle and heavy lift launchers for near Earth and lunar missions. Government type operations as well as commercial enterprises are analysed. It is shown that the payload capabilities can be increased by an order of magnitude and the specific transportation cost can be decresed by an order of magnitude. Commerical operations will most likely more than double the space transportation cost. This report comprises 39 pages, 43 tables, 8 figures and 14 references. (orig.)Available from FIZ Karlsruhe / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman