Masten Space Systems' suborbital vehicles

Following their success in the Lunar Lander Challenge in Oct 2009 (see http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,8144.0), Masten http://www.masten-space.com/ are continuing development of their VTVL vehicles. They gave an update on their plans at the Space Access 2010 conference just finished.

Xoie is the vehicle used for the LLC. Masten are now on their third generation engine. This uses a regeneratively cooled aluminum chamber. So far they've done a free flight to nearly 1100 ft:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVo_xVcIWyI

Brutus is their next vehicle which basically puts an aeroshell on Xoie. Plan in 2010 to fly Burtus to 100k ft (36 km). A diagram of the Brutus aeroshell, as shown at Space Access, is attached.

Vehicle after Brutus will be Xogdor. This will be capable of true suborbital flights to 328kft (100 km). Animation below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJWkUPxtE_I


[Special thanks to Clark Lindsey for his Space Access summaries at hobbyspace.com]

Masten have now published a document with much more detailed info on their vehicles. The document is in response to a NASA RFI for commercial resuable suborbital research.

The NASA web page containing Masten's 7MB response (and others) is at http://suborbitalex.arc.nasa.gov/documentation.

Note there are references in the document to a vehicle called Foxie that is, I believe, the same as Brutus described above.

Update: NASA website been reorganised, info now accessible from http://suborbitalex.arc.nasa.gov/platforms; there is also a spreadsheet at http://suborbitalex.arc.nasa.gov/files/CRuSR-SuborbitalPlatformCapabilitiesMatrix.xls that summarises all the responses

According to Dave Masten, tether flights are due to resume imminently. He's also posted the following picture showing development of their first vehicle aeroshell is progressing.

FutureSpaceTourist said:

Note there are references in the document to a vehicle called Foxie that is, I believe, the same as Brutus described above.

Click to expand...

According to a friend who knows people at Masten and asked the question: "Apparently they are different. That's about all I can say at the moment."

Today Masten did their first mid-air engine relight test. Some details at http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=20905 where it's suggested this is the first ever VTOL in-flight engine re-light. Does any one know different?

Couple of videos of the flight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01FcUEjwDkk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h_MggtPdjo

Get a load of all that erosion on the launch pad where the rocket took off and landed! You could also see some small rocks get blasted up into the bottom of rocket as it lands - could this be a potential FOD problem?

I think this view of the re-light from the ground is more impressive (although I'm not yet convinced I'd want to travel on a VTVL vehicle ...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Yt5L5TlGM

On a completely different note, Masten and XCOR have announced an agreement to team for NASA landers business: http://xcor.com/press-releases/2010/10-05-25_XCOR_and_Masten_announce_Strategic_relationship_for_NASA_Landers.html. It'll be very interesting to see how this works out.

Doug Messier visited Masten on Saturday, good to see that work on Brutus is progressing: http://www.parabolicarc.com/2010/08/24/photos-masten-space-systems-brutus-vehicle-construction/.

Lower section:


Mid-section mock-up:


Engines:


Aeroshell mould:

"Xogdor?" ok, THAT is going to be one I've GOT to hear the explination for!

Randy

Masten (and Armadillo Aerospace) has just won an initial award under the NASA's Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research (CRuSR) program.

NASA announcement is at http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/aug/HQ_10-203_CRuSR_Awards.html. This contains the following information:

The Masten Space Systems' Xaero vehicle will make four flights this winter from the Mojave Spaceport in California. Two flights will reach an altitude of approximately three miles and two others will be to approximately 18 miles, with an engine shutdown during flight.

Click to expand...

Masten have their own press release at http://masten-space.com/blog/?p=549.

Total contract award is $475k ($250k/$225k split, not clear which is for Armadillo and which is Masten).

There's a progress update in the interview below with Dave Masten. First couple of CRuSR flights are due in mid-December, using a vehicle that'll be capable of 100,000 - 150,000 ft altitude. Subsequent vehicle, Xogdor, has a 150km capability and they plan to have their first suborbital flight a year from now.

As Masten's vehicles are unmanned, it could be that they'll be the first company selling suborbital services that has an operational vehicle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo9lS6sGrWg

P.S. There's a brief teaser in the interview about concept design for a more capable vehicle that could do coast-to-coast suborbital flights ...

RanulfC said:

"Xogdor?" ok, THAT is going to be one I've GOT to hear the explination for!

Randy

Click to expand...

http://www.homestarrunner.com/trogdor.html

Dave Masten has posted a couple of pictures showing Brutus coming together, test flights expected soon!

They certainly keep them small!

mz said:

They certainly keep them small!

Click to expand...

Yes I wouldn't expect much payload on that one If it's the vehicle planned for 100-150k ft then I think that's pretty good.

Masten's website says that their planned operational suborbital vehicle (ie 100+ km) can carry 100 kg of payload. No information about the size/mass of the vehicle though; I wonder what their mass fractions are.

I think it's good to have reasonably small vehicles. Operations are quick and easy and require few people or little infrastructure and you can make changes or even build new vehicles quickly.

Masten have just issued the following press release:

[quote author=http://masten-space.com/blog/?p=566]
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (November 22, 2010) – Masten Space Systems and Space
Florida announced today the signing of a Letter of Intent to explore performing
demonstration launches of a Masten suborbital reusable launch vehicle from Launch
Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

“We have been looking at Florida as a launch option for some time now,” stated Masten Founder and CEO Dave Masten. “We are excited to begin the process of determining if Launch Complex 36 is a good location for our flight operations, and hope to attempt a demonstration launch sometime in 2011.”

Masten Space Systems is a rapid-prototyping rocket technology research and development company based in Mojave, CA. Their fully-reusable, vertical-takeoff-and-landing suborbital rockets are designed to be operated frequently and affordably, flying several missions per day with a small crew.

Masten’s and similar suborbital RLVs will enable frequent, reliable, and low-cost access to the suborbital space environment. This provides scientists and technology developers with high-quality microgravity, clear observation of space phenomena, or routine contact with the upper atmosphere. “We’ve had interest from many researchers, scientists, and engineers,” said Colin Ake, Masten’s Director of Business Development. “We look forward to conducting regular flight operations in the near future, including using suborbital flights as a quality assurance ‘checkout’ for experiments bound for the International Space Station.”

Masten currently develops its vehicles and carries out flight tests in Mojave, CA. “As our vehicles near completion, we’re searching for the ideal launch location from which to base our flight operations team,” said Michael Mealling, Masten’s CFO. “While we are preparing for a flight demonstration in Florida, there are enough new space ports around the country that evaluating them will take time. Our ultimate goal is to develop enough market demand to justify flying from multiple space ports. ”

Previous accomplishments by Masten Space Systems include winning Level 2 and placing in level 1 flights of NASA’s Lunar Lander Challenge in 2009 and the first demonstration of an in-air relight of a Vertical Take-off/Vertical Landing rocket last May. Masten has completed more than 70 successful flights to date on two prototype RLVs.

“We are thrilled to have Masten looking at Florida’s Space Coast,” stated Space Florida President Frank DiBello. “We view companies like Masten as the catalysts for innovation in our state’s aerospace economy. There is significant potential for their launch vehicles to provide a valuable platform for commercial research and development, and we look forward to working with them to explore that potential here in Florida.”

Minimal construction would be necessary to prepare SLC-36 for Masten demonstration launches, according to Space Florida Spaceport Operations leadership. “Everything about our vehicle feeds directly into low-cost operations with minimal infrastructure,” said Dave Masten. “We require a small concrete pad and have optimized vehicle operations for a five person team.”

[...]
[/quote]

Masten have posted a new blog entry saying that a couple of schedule slips mean that the CRuSR flights planned for this month are now outlooking January. There's a new picture of their vehicle (attached) as well as the following info:

[quote author=http://masten-space.com/blog/?p=562]
[...]

Meet Xaero. Formerly known as Brutus, Xaero has a carbon fiber aeroshell, the latest rev of our all-aluminum engine – the Cyclops-AL-3 – producing 1150lbf, and some new electronics. This picture give a hint at what Xaero will look like fully assembled.

[...]
[/quote]

Here's a different piece of work by Masten to receive some NASA funding:

[quote author=http://masten-space.com/blog/2010/12/10/masten-wins-nasa-sbir/]
Masten Wins NASA SBIR
colinake on 12/10/2010 at 2:15 pm

NASA announced on Wednesday the list of companies that will negotiate final terms for a 2010 Phase I SBIR. We’re proud to announce that one of our submissions – a “Terrestrial Plume Impingement Testbed” made the cut!

A while back we realized the potential of our rockets as what we then jokingly termed a “supersonic post hole digger” when we dug through some not quite cured concrete on a hover test before a Lunar Lander Challenge flight. It turns out there’s actually a lot of benefit to having a vertical lander land on or near samples of lunar regolith simulant / martian soil simulant. After talking to some industry experts, we decided to write a response to an SBIR to see if NASA would fund some work in that area.

We’ll write more on our work in this area as we get more work under our belts, but it’s safe to say that there is a future for Masten’s vehicles as refined “supersonic post hole diggers” in Plume Impingement research! We’re excited to get moving on the SBIR as we move forward towards flight testing Xaero!
[/quote]

A supersonic post hole digger sounds pretty cool to me (every home should have one )