Figure VI-4.- Personnel and priority cargo launch vehicle. The characteristics of the thruster systems studied are presented in table VI-4. Attractive systems are those with the highest specific impulse, because less propellant must be transported to LEO. However, these systems (ion thrusters) are extremely low thrust units and their acquisition costs cannot be quantified with the same confidence as chemical systems. The thermal and magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) arcjets appear to enjoy relatively high specific impulse levels with significantly lower hardware weight, complexity, and cost. Because the COTV does not have human factors restrictions on transit time, it is possible to use the thruster systems with high specific impulse, even if the corresponding thrust-to-weight ratio (T/W) is extremely low and
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==