Vehicle Exit From Sled Into Orbit
At the end of the acceleration run, the vehicle stops accelerating, separates from the sled, and enters a departure orbit, while the sled continues to accelerate at 3 gees until it reaches the top of the loop.
Vehicle acceleration does not end abruptly from 3 gees; the horizontal acceleration reduces smoothly from 3 gees to zero gees over one second, a "jerk" of 30 m/s³. If the vehicle and sled are moving faster than orbital velocity, there will be some upwards acceleration force as well, which is relieved towards the end of the "jerk", stretching the "one second" deployment time a little; 52 msec for a one gee upwards deployment force at escape velocity.
The vehicle rides behind the sled heat shield throughout the 6 minute (LEO) to 8 minute (escape) acceleration run. After release, the vehicle will spend a minute???? (LEO) to 30 seconds (escape) punching through most of the remaining atmosphere.
A table of vehicle acceleration and sled-relative position:
inertial |
|
sled-relative |
|||||
velocity |
displacement |
||||||
ax |
ay |
a |
time |
vx |
vy |
x |
y |
m/s² |
m/s² |
m/s² |
sec |
m/s |
m/s |
meters |
meters |
30.0 |
10.0 |
31.6 |
0.000 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
25.0 |
10.0 |
26.9 |
0.157 |
-0.4 |
0.0 |
-0.02 |
0.00 |
20.0 |
10.0 |
22.4 |
0.309 |
-1.5 |
0.0 |
-0.16 |
0.00 |
15.0 |
10.0 |
18.0 |
0.453 |
-3.3 |
0.0 |
-0.50 |
0.00 |
10.0 |
10.0 |
14.1 |
0.583 |
-5.6 |
0.0 |
-1.07 |
0.00 |
5.0 |
5.0 |
7.1 |
0.818 |
-10.9 |
0.6 |
-2.99 |
0.05 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
1.054 |
-17.4 |
2.4 |
-6.30 |
0.37 |
SledRelease.ods . . . LibreOffice Calc attachment
Sled Deploying from vehicle
The drawing is not to scale, and the nose angle may be more slender.
SledAndVehicleExit.png, 2250 pixel wide image . . . . . . SledAndVehicleExit750.png, 750 pixel wide image . . . . .
SledAndVehicleExit.odg, LibreOffice draw original
Climb-out Time, Atmosphere Density Encountered
|
|
LEO400 |
M288 |
GTO |
constr1 |
const2 |
const7 |
moon |
|
apogee target |
km |
6778 |
14420 |
42164 |
75950 |
125485 |
270067 |
384399 |
|
launch velocity |
km/s |
7.4832 |
8.7659 |
9.8769 |
10.1964 |
10.3651 |
10.5097 |
10.5480 |
|
launch velocity |
mach |
26.26 |
30.76 |
34.66 |
35.78 |
36.37 |
36.88 |
37.01 |
|
exit air density |
kg/m3 |
4.3E-5 |
3.0E-5 |
2.3E-5 |
2.2E-5 |
2.0E-5 |
2.0E-5 |
2.0E-5 |
|
power/area flat |
MW/m2 |
9.02 |
10.09 |
11.25 |
11.45 |
11.12 |
11.59 |
11.72 |
|
power/area cone |
MW/m2 |
1.05 |
1.18 |
1.32 |
1.34 |
1.30 |
1.36 |
1.37 |
20° cone |
exit air mass |
kg/m2 |
28.05 |
5.15 |
1.24 |
0.64 |
0.36 |
0.21 |
0.17 |
|
energy/area flat |
MJ/m2 |
785 |
198 |
60.5 |
33.0 |
19.5 |
11.5 |
9.7 |
|
energy/area cone |
MJ/m2 |
31.4 |
7.9 |
2.42 |
1.32 |
0.78 |
0.46 |
0.39 |
20° cone |