Customer Expectations versus Vehicle Performance
- Paper number
IAC-05-E3.2.06
- Author
Dr.-Ing. Robert Goehlich, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Germany
- Year
2005
- Abstract
This analysis investigates in coherences between the two disciplines of customer expectations and launch vehicle performance. For a successful space tourism flight venture it is necessary to under-stand passenger behavior and wishes on the one side and technical feasibility of space transportation systems on the other side. In most cases, a satisfaction of a customer wish is penalized by a lower vehicle performance and vice versa. For example, a launch near Equator increases payload capacity in forms of passenger seats but is less attractive for tourists due to the long journey from their home country to Equator. The study is based on test subjects who participated in STMS II. Space Tourism Market Simulation II (STMS II) is an interactive simulation covering various disciplines such as rocket engineering, economics, design, laws, ethics, art, etc. around space tourism to understand and practice coherences about this topic. Participants can choose one out of eight specific groups such as passenger, manufacturer, organization, space travel agency, investor, government, opposition or own created group. They can either cooperate or compete with other groups. The idea of STMS II is to improve participant’s knowledge and skills of space tourism in the fields of strategic decision-making, engineering, teamwork, marketing and entrepreneurial activities. Keio University’s Rocket Plane Concept is used as reference launch vehicle for STMS II simulation. The importance of the flight verification for innovative concepts or advanced technologies has been repeatedly emphasized, but spaceplane or rocket plane concepts are rarely demonstrated. The concept proposed here is a Horizontal Take-off/Landing (HT/HL) space plane powered by existing rocket engines and winged drop-tanks. For more qualitative investigation, proof-of-concept models (to be called POC model) were designed, manufactured and tested in the wind tunnel to obtain aerodynamic data. In addition, one of the POC models has flying capability with an engine and a controller to be used for demonstration of the separation process from high-speed. KEYWORDS: Customer Behavior, Multidisciplinary Aspects, Reusable Launch Vehicle, Performance, Program Planning
- Abstract document