Non-Traditional Flight Safety Systems and Integrated Vehicle Health Management Systems. Descriptions of Proposed and Existing Systems and Enabling Technologies and Verification Methods. Final Report.

摘要

This paper describes present and future flight safety systems (FSS) and integrated vehicle health management (IVHM) systems relevant to reusable launch vehicle (RLV) design and operation. FSS design and implementation for RLVs in the launch-regime will be based mainly upon the evolving flight safety infrastructure presently utilized for expandable launch vehicles (ELV)s and the Space Shuttle. The evolution towards a more autonomous space-based range is the most significant issue within the RLV launch-phase flight safety paradigm, and the ability to confidently use Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers on both ELVs and RLVs to conduct real-time vehicle tracking and trajectory assessment is the key enabling technology towards this vision. Experiments utilizing sounding rockets to test this technology are currently ongoing.