Concept Design of an Ultra-Fast Rocket-based Delivery System for Earth Point-to-point Transportation

The scope of this paper is the preliminary study of a compact, suborbital launch system for ultra-fast payload delivery between two points on Earth, called Mirage. In this framework, architecture trade-offs have been performed paying close attention to the requirements. As an output, selected architectures comprise a lower stage based on rocket propulsion and an upper stage with gliding capabilities. The launch mission is designed to depart from Europe and to land already-existing airports located in three possible locations in North America, namely on the East Coast, in the Mid-West and on the West Coast. The payload considered has a range spanning from 10 kg to 100 kg, by design with top accelerations of 9 g, spikes included This limitation was introduced to grant the survivability of sensitive cargo across all mission phases. A comparison between two mam architectures is presented. The first one is aimed at entering the market within five years from the start of the project, in order to be compliant with the imposed constraint on development time, based on a low-efficiency glider with flight-proven technologies. The second architecture is highly innovative and cost-effective, and it is based on an upper stage with high aerodynamic efficiency technologies still under development, which considers the commercial feasibility of the Tystem: it has been found that a delayed entrance on the market, due to a longer research and development phase, can in turn lead to a better success of the product, that would have an increased efficiency and a lower operational cost if compared to the first architecture. Regardless of the choice, the mnovativeness of both solutions remains considerable, as no system like these either exists or operates in similar missions. To describe the solutions developed for the aforementioned task, the paper has been structured with an initial focus on the preview of the final design, together with a description of the mission scope. A brief market analysis follows, providing the study with detailed insights on the payload that is going to be launched with the designed delivery system new high and mid-level requirements are added, aiding in the definition of the launch system. Then, requirements are analysed, and flowcharts are introduced to give an idea of the nominal mission profile. In the end, the results obtained for the two architectures are compared and final considerations are reported. including critical aspects and further developments.