Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of Reusable Launch Vehicles for Different Propellants and Objectives

What is it about?

Identifying the optimal design of a launch vehicle is most important since design decisions made in the early development phase of a new launch vehicle limit its later performance and determines the associated costs. Reusing the first stage via retro-propulsive landing increases the complexity even more. Therefore, we develop an optimization framework for partially reusable launch vehicles, which enables multidisciplinary design studies. The results show that the optimization objective influences the most suitable propellant choice and the overall launcher design concerning staging, weight, size, and rocket engine design parameters.

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