Launch Vehicle Ring Elements for Descent Stabilization
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Solution Overview
Problem
The reusability of rocket systems remains a significant challenge, as existing technologies struggle to effectively stabilize and decelerate launch vehicles during descent and landing, leading to inefficiencies in fuel usage and increased vehicle weight.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of ring-shaped external elements, such as deployable flare surfaces and annular elements, which can be stowed during ascent and deployed during descent to increase drag, stabilize the vehicle, and control its center of pressure, allowing for controlled tail-down landings and reducing the need for additional deceleration forces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If conventional rocket designs are used without ring-shaped external elements, then the vehicle structure is simpler, but the vehicle cannot effectively stabilize and decelerate during descent, leading to increased fuel consumption and weight
Solution Approach 1:
The rocket vehicle is divided into functional segments: the main body and the detachable ring-shaped external elements. These elements can be independently deployed and jettisoned, allowing the vehicle to carry the deceleration infrastructure only when needed during descent, rather than permanently attached. This segmentation enables fuel savings without permanently increasing vehicle complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The ring-shaped external elements transition from a stowed configuration during ascent to a deployed configuration during descent. This dynamic transformation allows the vehicle to optimize its aerodynamic properties in real-time, deploying drag surfaces and stabilizers only when atmospheric deceleration is required, thereby reducing fuel consumption during the critical landing phase while maintaining a compact profile during powered flight.
2Reliability
If additional deceleration systems are added to the vehicle, then descent control is improved, but the vehicle weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The ring-shaped external elements are designed as disposable or recoverable components that are jettisoned after serving their deceleration function during descent. By discarding these elements after use, the vehicle avoids the permanent weight penalty of carrying heavy deceleration systems throughout the entire mission, thereby improving descent control reliability without permanently increasing vehicle weight.
Solution Approach 2:
The ring-shaped external elements are stowed within or integrated with the vehicle body during ascent, nesting the deceleration infrastructure within the existing vehicle structure. This nesting approach minimizes the additional weight and volume required for descent control systems, as the same structural components serve dual purposes: providing vehicle structure during ascent and deploying as drag surfaces during descent.
3Ease of operation
If the vehicle uses conventional stabilization methods, then the vehicle structure is simpler, but the vehicle cannot achieve controlled tail-down landings
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using conventional nose-down reentry configurations with parachutes or retro-rockets, the system inverts the approach by enabling tail-down landings through the deployment of ring-shaped external elements that provide drag and stability in this unconventional orientation. The inwardly facing surface of the ring creates aerodynamic forces that stabilize the vehicle in a tail-down attitude, allowing the propulsion system to directly control the landing without complex additional stabilization mechanisms.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution enhances the stability and control of launch vehicles during descent, reduces fuel consumption, and minimizes vehicle weight by providing additional deceleration forces, enabling more efficient and reusable rocket systems.
Implementation Method 1
deployed during descent to increase drag
Implementation Method 2
stabilize the vehicle, and control its center of pressure
Data Source
AI summary
Launch vehicles with ring-shaped external elements, and associated systems and methods. An aerospace system in accordance with a particular embodiment includes a launch vehicle having a first end and a second end generally opposite the first end, with the launch vehicle being elongated along a vehicle axis extending between the first and second ends, and having an external, outwardly facing surface. The system can further include an annular element carried by the launch vehicle, the annular element having an external, inwardly-facing surface radially spaced apart from, and extending at least partially circumferentially around, the vehicle axis. The annular element can have a first edge surface facing a first direction along the vehicle axis, and a second edge surface facing a second direction along the vehicle axis, the second direction being opposite the first direction. A propulsion system can be carried by the launch vehicle, and can have at least one nozzle positioned toward the first end of the vehicle to launch the vehicle. A controller can be in communication with the launch vehicle and programmed to direct the vehicle in the first direction during vehicle ascent, and in the second direction during vehicle descent.