The Potential and Economic Benefits of Composite Structures in Space Exploration
- Paper number
IAC-05-C2.P.15
- Author
Prof. Leo Daniel, University of California at Berkeley, United States
- Coauthor
Mr. Guy Ramusat, European Space Agency (ESA), France
- Year
2005
- Abstract
The initial impetus for composites was in aerospace industry where the materials compete with aluminium alloys. The preliminary markets situations were driven by military aircraft, where performance used to be the prime requirement with cost as minor consideration. Today costs is becoming an important factor in both civil and military aircraft and the introduction of carbon fibre based composite has reached about 15% of total airframe weight in civil and 40% in military use. This paper assesses the potential and economic impact of composite structures in space exploration and other infrastructures. In the aerospace industry a rule of thumb relationship is that one kilo of weight saved on an aircraft represents something between $180 and $540 savings over the life of aircraft in operating costs. In a made-to-order environment such as the space industry, it is suspected that influence of design using composite structures is much higher and may approach 70%.
The weight savings possible from using composites are extremely useful in making future reusable launch vehicle such as the Airbus series economic and the use of composite has reached a maximum with the current A380, which is so heavy that any reduction in weight is critical to get the plane off the ground.
- Abstract document