SURYA – A Design For A New Reusable Spaceshuttle
- Paper number
IAC-07-B3.2.08
- Author
Ms. Sioe Yen Go, Technical University Delft (TU Delft), The Netherlands
- Year
2007
- Abstract
In a veritable space race, the United States and the Soviet Union developed technologies to allow human space flight and ultimately missions to the moon. By introducing space stations and because of the ageing of satellites even more manned missions are required and preferably even on a routine basis. This formed together with cost reduction the basis of the idea of a reusable launch system. The Space Shuttle is the only flying vehicle of this kind. However, the programme is suffering from the consequences of two serious accidents (Challenger accident on 28-01-1986, Columbia accident on 01-02-2003), in which the complete crew were killed. The other vehicle capable of bringing people into space is the Russian Soyuz. Although very successful, the Soyuz design stems from the 60’s and cannot easily be adapted for a different mission profile any more. Consequently, there is a market gap for a new, reliable and cost-effective manned space vehicle for low Earth orbit. In the last years several studies have been started to develop such systems, like the European Hermes and the Russian Kliper. The development of Hermes, however, has been aborted. The aim of the Surya project is to design a reusable shuttle, which should be able to transport a small group of people into space and allow them to go to space stations or repair satellites in orbit. To compete in the future space market, it should be able to launch with two different launchers (Ariane 5 and Proton M) and should be easy to build, operate and maintain.
- Abstract document