Henry Spencer wrote:
> Note, though, that the original comment was in the context of the
> long-term feasibility of turnaround using only four *man-hours*. Unless
> your base-cap-refurbishment shop is highly automated, you won't be able to
> do that with ablators.
With a TPS that doesn't require change-out every flight it should be
possible to get turnaround down to 8 people x 30 min or so (4
man-hours). I'm not stating this should be the design goal of the
first vehicle; just that it should be a goal to strive for over time.
Consider the oft-quoted "two orders of magnitude reduction" in launch
costs. If the shuttle is 4 million man-hrs, one order is 4000,000 and
two orders is 40,000 man hours. That's 1,000 people working a 40 hour
week to turn a vehicle. That's a LOT of people. At three orders, we're
down to a reasonable 4,000 hours - or 100 people working 40 hours.
THAT should be a reasonable starting point for truly reusable
spacecraft.
Anyone know what DC-X's turnaround time was? My guess is < 1000
man-hrs.
Keep in mind that like commercial aircraft, a commercial spacecraft
will likely have minimal maintenance between regular flights and an
regularly scheduled inspection and moderate to major maintenance after
specific numbers of flights or flight-hours.
Turnaround would consist of:
- unload cabin/cargo
- clean same
- health check & minor maintenance
- refuel
- reload cabin/cargo
Michael
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Michael Wallis KF6SPF (408) 396-9037 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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