| June 3, 2010 |  |
The Space Plane: Technology In Search of a Mission?
The United States launched the X-37B, a prototype “space plane” a few weeks ago. Its technological challenges are clear. Like a miniature unpiloted Space Shuttle, it is intended to be launched on a rocket and land like an airplane. The bigger question, according to experts at the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Global Security Program, is its purpose.
The space plane concept has been discussed for many years, and U.S. development of a space plane has shifted back and forth between civil and military oversight. During that time, many different motivations and missions have been proposed for the plane.
A short UCS analysis of the space plane is now available on the UCS blog AllThingsNuclear.org. The authors of the analysis, Global Security Program Co-director David Wright and Senior Scientist Laura Grego, were unable to identify a compelling mission—either military or non-military—for a space plane, and therefore are skeptical about its value. They can envision a number of missions the space plane might be capable of carrying out, but there are more cost-effective and simpler alternatives.
Wright and Grego note that the only unique capability of a space plane appears to be its ability to return from orbit and land autonomously on a runway. Other systems that do not return to Earth can be used to carry payloads into orbit, maneuver in space, rendezvous with satellites, and release multiple payloads—and at a much lower cost.
Building this return capability into the space plane adds tons of extra mass compared with maneuvering spacecraft that are not designed to return to Earth, since the space plane requires wings as well as additional structure and heat-shielding to withstand the rigors of atmospheric reentry. That large mass “penalty” makes it more difficult and expensive to get a space plane and its payload into orbit and reduces the amount of maneuvering that it can do with a given amount of fuel.
Space Plane: Technology In Search of a Mission?
Part 1:
http://allthingsnuclear.org/post/653648499/space-plane-technology-in-search-of-a-mission-part
Part 2:
http://allthingsnuclear.org/post/653695309/space-plane-technology-in-search-of-a-mission-part
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