January 20, 2004
Great Interview with the Head Scientist for the RVT
This is a great interview with Dr. Inatani of the Japanese RVT project. Those of you who don't remember, this the Japanese version of the DC-X, and is currently the only vehicle on the planet exploring design issues for a vertical takeoff and landing rocket. It really is a neat project, and the way they are pushing incremental development is just fantastic.
Suborbital vehicle projects, such as those competing for the X PRIZE, have been criticized by many in the aerospace community as contributing very little to the development of orbital RLVs. They say the factor of 25 or so greater energy needed to reach orbit (and to dispose of on reentry) is too great and there is little overlap in hardware between the two regimes. In what ways do you think that suborbital RLV development can contribute to the development of robust, lower cost orbital RLVs?
Inatani: I do not care about X-prize flying machines. Some of them do not have space flight potential and [are] just an extension of aircraft. As stated, our study is not for building specific vehicle, but to study how to design and build the future vehicle. General or universal things such as aircraft type operation of space vehicle is the most important thing to my understanding. Again, even a ballistic vehicle can convince the people [to] recognize the benefit of reusable vehicles. I admit the direct technical succession from ballistic to orbital, but what is important is to receive the understanding of public for the future goals such as tourism and SSPS. How long do you think it takes? Technically viable things must be realized when people need it.
Posted by elkaim at January 20, 2004 7:30 PM