E.R.P.S. Papers

Draft Papers

• 2009/11/08 Controlled Flight Challenge 2009
  This is the proposal sent to NASA's Centennial Challenges group for a competition to fly a vehicle to 25 kilometers and land back within 100 meters of launch point in under 1 hour total time.

• 2009/11/08 Pad Durability Challenge 2009
  This is the proposal sent to NASA's Centennial Challenges group for a competition to develop and demonstrate a VTVL rocket pad material that can withstand 10 launch and landings (including 60 second hover at 2 meters) without damage or deterioration. I proposed it after seeing the damage done to various pads during the Lunar Lander Challenge this year.

• 2001/11/27 Bi-Prop_Proposal.html
  Project proposal for development of a bi-propellant powered vehicle

Published Papers

• 2009/08/20 Thinking F.A.S.S.T. - The Fund to Advance Single Stage Technology v1.06 (MS Word file)
  This paper updates the concepts in the 2003 ISDC F.A.S.T. paper below, looking back on more than five years of change in the NewSpace world.
  Thinking F.A.S.S.T. extends and clarifies the concepts, requirements, funding and opportunities available in opening afforable access to space to the average citizen.
  - submitted to the Augustine Commission

• 2003/05/28 FAST Development - Private Stages to Orbit - for the 2003 ISDC Conference - San Jose, Ca
  This paper discusses the Fund for American Space Transportation (F.A.S.T.) program - a means to provide for the development and demonstration of multiple commercially viable spaceflight capable systems with minimum government requirements and maximum benefit to free enterprise, the people and the human race's desire to reach space.

Other Papers

• 2023/09/19 Performance Benefit of Aerocapture for the Design Reference Mission Set
  Aerocapture is a maneuver which uses aerodynamic drag to slow down a spacecraft in a single pass through the atmosphere. All planetary orbiters to date have used propulsive orbit insertion. Aerocapture is a promising alternative, especially for small satellite missions and missions to the ice giants.

• 2009/10/21 GETTING FASTER: A Case for High Speed Point-to-Point Flight
  This White Paper was released at the 2009 International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight being held October 21st in Las Cruces, New Mexico. It's full title is "GETTING FASTER: A Case for High Speed Point-to-Point Flight as a Logical Transition Between Suborbital Space Tourism and Low-Cost, Reusable Space Access". Doing Single Stage Point To Point transport for cargo, and then passengers, is likely to be an essential part of any successful spaceline's business plan (IMHO).

• 2009/10/28 Augustine Commission Final Report
  This is the Final Report of the Augustine Commission on the Review of Human Spaceflight.

• 2009/09/29 Augustine Commission Executive Summary
  This is the Executive Summary report of the Augustine Commission on the Review of Human Spaceflight.

• 1997/02/?? LO2 Kerosene Design Study
  Paper written by Mitchell Burnside-Clapp comparing a LOX/Kerosene vehicle and the same vehicle configured with an HTP/Kerosene engine.

• 1995/08/18 BlackHorse-PropTransfer.html
  In-flight propellant transfer spaceplane design and testing considerations paper by Capt. Mitchell Burnside-Clapp

• 1993/02/14 Single Stage to Orbit Rocket with Non-Cryogenic Propellants
  This is the paper that started E.R.P.S. - Mitchell Burnside-Clapp's high density propellant paper from "Makin' Orbit '93".