To Reuse or Not to Reuse: How to Analyze and Answer That Key Question

View Video Presentation: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2022-4268.vid We are at an inflection point of transporting materials into space, as new launch vehicles are being developed and launched, smaller satellites are being developed, and plans to return humans to the moon and then on to Mars are beginning to take shape. Launch vehicles are required as the first step in any space campaign. In the development and planned use of launch vehicles, the question of reusability inevitably arises. Reusability is the ability to launch, recover, and reuse launch vehicle components. In order to recover, the hardware needs to be brought back from the altitude and downrange and velocity. This involves adding hardware and/or reserving propellant for landing burns, resulting in decreased payload mass to orbit. The recovered hardware then needs to be inspected and possibly refurbished. Expendable components are simpler to design, since they will not be reused, but then the expensive hardware is only used once, burning up all the money that went into producing it. This paper will examine when reusability is logical (i.e., cost effective) and when it is not.