| The Fluyt stage would broaden the mission range of the SKYLON spaceplane by transporting payloads from a 300km LEO to more elevated orbits including Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) and Lunar Transfer Orbit. Essentially, the Fluyt stage can perform a wide variety of space missions but ultimately it is the GEO transfer mission which drives the performance of an Orbit Transfer Vehicle. The reason for this is that it is the most energy demanding and highly desirable orbit for commercially operated space transport systems, as many types of satellite such as those designed for earth observation, military and communications, are positioned in GEO. While the feasibility design for Fluyt exposed some new engineering challenges and ideas, it is also necessary to incorporate some level of proven technologies from existing and previous space engineering practice. |
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Vehicle Configuration Diagram
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Additional fuel can then be transferred to Fluyt in LEO from an adapted ‘tanker’ version of the SKYLON launch vehicle configured purely for the job of propellant supply after every mission. An expansion to this is the possibility of an intermediate fuel depot located at the Operations Base Station (OBS) where Fluyt can refuel and undergo on-orbit maintenance. Due to the dimensional constraints of the SKYLON payload bay, size and mass limitations are also imposed on the components used within the construction of Fluyt. As a result, the vehicle is built in two sections which are then assembled on orbit, the outcome of the study shows that it is possible to construct and operate a reusable space-based Orbit Transfer Vehicle based on the SKYLON D1 configuration.
The underlying principle of having a reusable space-based Orbit Transfer Vehicle is to reduce the cost of transporting payloads to their intended orbits. Current practice is to carry the payload to an orbit using the upper stage of a launch vehicle, after which the upper stage is discarded. A reusable spaced-based Orbit Transfer Vehicle operating as part of a sustainable earth-space transportation infrastructure, as with Fluyt, would mark a huge development in commercial space operations and heavily influence the manufacture and operational capability of future satellites and space equipment. Similar vehicles could then be adapted for larger space missions by means of staging; this could provide the basis for the creation of low-cost interplanetary mission vehicles such as the vehicle proposed in the Troy study by Reaction Engines Ltd.
Fluyt Image Library
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