Big Dumb Booster (BDB) is a general class of
launch vehicle
A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistage ...
based on the premise that it is cheaper to operate large rockets of simple design than it is to operate smaller, more complex ones regardless of the lower payload efficiency.
[Schnitt, Arthur (1998]
''Minimum Cost Design for Space Operations''.
/ref> As referred to by the Office of Technology Assessment
The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) was an office of the United States Congress that operated from 1974 to 1995. OTA's purpose was to provide congressional members and committees with objective and authoritative analysis of the complex scien ...
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Even though the large minimum-cost design (MCD) booster is less efficient for all around operation, its total cost of operation is cheaper because it is easier to build, operate and maintain, with the benefit of high reliability because of reduced parts counts.
History
Concept work was led by proponents at Aerospace Corporation, TRW, and Aerojet General
Aerojet was an American rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer based primarily in Rancho Cordova, California, with divisions in Redmond, Washington, Orange and Gainesville in Virginia, and Camden, Arkansas. Aerojet was owned by GenCorp, ...
, beginning in the late 1950s. The typical approach included maraging steel ( HY-140) for structure, pressure-fed engines using / UDMH
Unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (abbreviated as UDMH; also known as 1,1-dimethylhydrazine, heptyl or Geptil) is a chemical compound with the formula H2NN(CH3)2 that is primarily used as a rocket propellant. At room temperature, UDMH is a colorle ...
, later LOX /RP-1
RP-1 (Rocket Propellant-1 or Refined Petroleum-1) and similar fuels like RG-1 and T-1 are highly refined kerosene formulations used as rocket fuel. Liquid-fueled rockets that use RP-1 as fuel are known as kerolox rockets. In their engines, RP- ...
, with pintle injector
The pintle injector is a type of propellant injector for a bipropellant rocket engine. Like any other injector, its purpose is to ensure appropriate flow rate and intermixing of the propellants as they are forcibly injected under high pressure into ...
s scaled up from TRW's Lunar Module Descent Engine (LMDE).Robert Truax
Captain Robert C. Truax ( USN) (September 3, 1917 – September 17, 2010) was an American rocket engineer in the United States Navy, and companies such as Aerojet and Truax Engineering, which he founded. Truax was a proponent of low-cost rocket ...
and others at Aerojet. Space Technology Laboratories, Inc. (TRW) contributed to the design effort. It was to be able to carry a payload of over 500 metric tons into low Earth orbit.
TRW (now Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and Arms industry, defense company. With 97,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $40 billion, it is one of the world's largest Arms industry ...
) developed and fired several engines, including their TR-106
The TR-106 or low-cost pintle engine (LCPE) was a developmental rocket engine designed by TRW Inc., TRW under the Space Launch Initiative to reduce the cost of Launch service provider, launch services and space flight. Operating on LOX/LH2 the en ...
, a robust, low-cost engine of 2890 kN (650 klb) thrust to demonstrate the engine technology readiness.[Dressler, Gordon A. and J. Martin Bauer (2000]
''TRW Pintle Engine Heritage and Performance Characteristics''
AIAA 2000-3871. TRW also defined a low-cost shuttle-surrogate booster to launch 29 metric tons into a 28-degree orbit at a cost of about $59 million.[TRW, Inc., “Low Cost Shuttle Surrogate Booster (LCSSB),” final report (Redondo Beach,
Calif., 15 May 1981).]
Beal Aerospace
Beal Aerospace was a launch vehicle development company founded in February 1997 by Andrew Beal, president of Beal Bank in Dallas, Texas. Headquartered in Frisco, Texas, the goal of the company was to build and operate a privately developed heavy ...
furthered the quintessential BDB/MCD with their BA-1 and BA-2 launch vehicles.[Beal Aerospace Technologies, Inc]
''Beal Aerospace''
Minimum cost design
The MCD methodology was developed by Arthur Schnitt. It is a process of making trade analyses to understand the cost versus mass implications. It is not a specific design choice like pressure-fed engines or single engine per stage. The process shows how to reduce costs by allowing mass to increase where there is a favorable impact on life-cycle cost. Some of the early design concepts were referred to as big dumb boosters, not necessarily in a favorable manner.[“Launch Vehicle Cost: A Low Tech Analysis,” J. Whitehead, AIAA 2000-3140, 36th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference, 16–19 July 2000.]
See also
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References and notes
{{reflist
Spacecraft propulsion