The Air Launch System Enabling Technology (ALSET) project is a Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) funded project whose purpose is to study air launch orbital payload delivery systems and related technologies. The project is a first step toward an operational commercial air launch system that will use a multistage solid rocket to deliver small payloads on the order of 100 to...

Over the last century chemical propellants have been the dominant fuel source for the aviation and aerospace industry, primarily because they are able to provide ample power for a limited cost. However, over the last decade as the price of chemical propellant continues to soar and their detrimental effect on our environment comes to light, there has been a surge to develop an alternative propul...

This paper presents an application of the nonlinear optimal control techniques to the design of launch vehicle autopilots. The optimal control is given by the solution to the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation, which in this case cannot be solved explicity. A method based upon Successive Galerkin Approximation (SGA), is used to obtain an approximate optimal solution. Simulation results invo...

This chapter concerns materials for expendable and reusable launch vehicle (LV) structures. An emphasis is placed on applications and design requirements, and how these requirements are met by the optimum choice of materials. Structural analysis and qualification strategies, which cannot be separated from the materials selection process, are described. A launch vehicle is an airborne system tha...

A numerical dynamic-aerodynamic interface for simulating the separation dy­n­a­m­ic­s of co­n­­s­t­r­a­i­ned strap-on boosters jettisoned in the atmosphere is presented. A 6-DOF multi body dynamic solver ،using Constraint For­ce Equation Methodology is coupled with a numerical time dependent Euler flow solver. An automatic dyna­m­i­­c mesh updating proc­e­d­ure is employed using smoothing and l...