Ares V launch vehicle: An enabling capability for future space science missions

摘要

NASA's planned Ares V cargo launch vehicle offers the potential to completely change the paradigm of future space science mission architectures. Future space science telescopes desire increasingly larger telescope collecting aperture. But. current launch vehicle mass and volume constraints are a severe limit. The Ares V greatly relaxes these constraints. For example, while current launch vehicles have the ability to place a 4.5 m diameter payload with a mass of 9400 kg on to a Sun-Earth L2 transfer trajectory, the Ares V is projected to have the ability to place an 8.8 m diameter payload with a mass of approximately 60,000kg on to the same trajectory, or 180,000kg into Low Earth Orbit. Also the Ares V could place approximately 3000kg (13,000kg with a Centaur upper stage) on to a trajectory with a C3 of 106km~2/s~2, arriving at Saturn in 6.1 years without the use of gravity assists. This paper summarizes the current planned Ares V payload launch capability.