Thursday 8 November 2012

STAR-RAKER

Proposed by Star-Raker Associates, Star-Raker is a single stage to orbit horizontal take off and landing ( SSTO HTOL) vehicle intended to launch payloads of upto 50,000 lbs and 200,000 lbs in its standard and largest configurations, with an esitmated cost of $100/lb of payload to LEO.
Low altitude engines comprise of ten supersonic multi-cycle airbreather ramjets, based on current existing technology, that lift the vehicle to 100,000ft at a speed of Mach 6 from take off at a conventional commercial airport, at which point rocket propulsion takes over. The aeroshell is a tri-delta form with Whitcomb airfoil lifting sections that provide a high volume for LOX/LH storage, the conical fuel tanks imparting increased strength and resiliance to the wing sections in normal flight and volumetric properties of comparable efficiency to normal rocket fueltanks when ballistic.
A smaller potential X-Prize contender with a payload of 10,000lbs also exists.

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