bill anderson purdue university 23 march 2011 perspectives on launch propulsion system roadmap

Bill Anderson

Purdue University

23 March 2011

Perspectives on Launch Propulsion System Roadmap

General Comments

• Roadmap is comprehensive and appears to represent the interests of most stakeholders

• US leadership in space is not mentioned in the draft

• Apparent need for variety of launch systems provides opportunity for international cooperation

• Impact of space assembly and operations, human-rated systems

• Systems and technologies need to be optimized and down-selected - may have economic and political consequences

• Continued support of selected mature systems and more sustained investment in future technologies is sensible

• Maintaining skilled workforce and inspiring and developing new scientists and engineers should be primary

• Reliability and Affordability aspects should be done by commercial sector with NASA oversight

Propulsion System Developments

• Solid and liquid systems are proposed

• Liquid HC, methane, hydrogen engines are proposed – why not develop international partnerships for expander cycle and methane engines?

• Large lifter appears to be unique to NASA’s needs - Is it necessary?

• Green propellants, high-energy density hydrocarbons, densified cryos have limited payback

• Serving broad range of interests can compromise main mission

Liquid Rocket Propulsion System Technology Investments


8 Engines –Boosters and Upper StagesHydrogen, RP, and Methane-Fueled


• Aare

What needs to be done?

Manufacturing& Materials represent 19/26 of the “Major Challenges”


Answer is to test, test, test

Research Needs for Rocket Engines –Survey Questions

What cycles should we be working on

Technology areas needing fundamental results

What are the research needs

Objectives of the fundamental studies

Any Relative Comments

2010 JPC Panel on Liquid Propulsion

Broad Research Areas

• Mission Dependent Optimization of Engine Cycles• System Level Models

– Engines and test facilities– Efficient use of variable-fidelity tools

• Materials, Fabrication, and Joining Processes– Productive source of incremental improvements– Coatings and material systems– Thermo-mechanical strain-resistant materials

• Life Prediction and Measurement– Local, time-dependent environments– Strain-life models

• Turbomachinery– Cavitation, engine transients, and off-design margins

• Thrust Chambers and Propellants

Survey Results

• Cycles– Heavy-lift HC-fueled engines, LOX-methane, combined cycle

• Research Objectives– Fundamental experiments & detailed modeling of

combustion instability, throttling, ignition, & transients– Benchmarking: high-fidelity simulations and high-fidelity

measurements/experiments with well-known BC’s– Management and analysis of huge data sets– Properties and processes of mixtures at supercritical conditions– Life, reliability, and cost– Atomization modeling– Careful scale-up to multiple-element environments– Development and validation of robust CFD codes for design– Thermal degradation of HC fuels– Higher-energy, less-toxic mono/bipropellants– Material treatments

Additional Comments

• Sustained basic research program that supports long-term goals is critical

• Many phenomena are specific to the type of injector, cycle, and propellants that are used

• Application of high-fidelity simulations to rocket combustors is years away

• Educational opportunities need to be increased, esp for flight experiences

• Number of PhD’s entering industry and government should increase

Closing Comments

• Roadmap needs to be better focused

Closing Comments

• Roadmap needs to be focused

• Objective and rigorous study on launch needs is necessary to define optimized launch architecture and select launch propulsion systems

Closing Comments



• Development and implementation of heritage launch systems should be left to industry, NASA should continue to support foundational engineering for these systems

Closing Comments




• Development of new systems (60K expander cycle, methane engine, heavy lifter) should be conducted with international partners

Closing Comments





• Launch manifest does not support development of highly reusable system, or investment in propellant technologies

Closing Comments





• Launch manifest does not support development of highly reusable system, or investment in propellant technologies

• Strong and visible focus on advanced systems is necessary – combined cycle, ground- and air-launched – but they need to be down-selected also

Number of Graduate Students

Majoring in Propulsion in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics

2007 2008 2009 2010

Graduate Student Placement

ML PW Florida

TP Academia

JS Aurora Flight Sciences

NP ???

NN Academia

MD SpaceX

YY Blue Origin

TM PW Rocketdyne

KM SpaceX

EB Aerospace Corp

CJ Blue Origin

JW PW Rocketdyne

PH Redstone

RS Blue Origin

KL SpaceX

LD Ventions

DH Blue Origin

LO Woods Hole

SR Blue Origin

bill anderson purdue university 23 march 2011 perspectives on launch propulsion system roadmap

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