SPACE ACCESS SYSTEMS DESIGN: Synthesis Methodology Development for Conceptual Design of Future Space Access Systems

The early Conceptual Design (CD) of a Space Access System (SAS) is the most abstract, innovative, and technologically challenging phase throughout the entire aerospace product development life-cycle. While it is the most important life-cycle phase which influences around 80 percent of the overall life-cycle-cost, it is also the least understood design phase. The history of space access vehicle design provides numerous examples of projects that failed due to lack of a proper technology-hardware-mission assessment in the CD phase. The present dissertation addresses this crucial phase and develops a prototype best practice solution process to advance the current state of the art of the CD oriented vehicle design synthesis systems. The solution is a generic process that can be applied to all categories of the SAS. The Vertical-Takeoff Horizontal-Landing type SAS is selected as the demonstration case-study for the solution process. The research provides a proof of concept for how the proposed prototype solution process expands the scope and application of current applications of the CD assessment vertically across the SAS system`s hierarchy and horizontally across the life-cycle phases of the SAS.