Why were the shuttles retired? Would the tech have evolved to make them more effective and efficient? Why was there a return to rockets? Are they as reusable?
Thanks!
In: Technology
The idea of the space shuttle was that the orbiter and split booster rocket could be rapidly reused with little maintenance done. The main problem was that was not the case at least for the orbiter. It needs to be stiped down and examined thoroughly. This is a result of the wear on the part that needed to be checked. this includes the electrical wires. If you can’t produce the orbiter with minimal work lifting it with a dry mass of 78 tonnes and a launch mass of 110 tonnes is a waste.
The cost of each launch was so high that single-use rockets would be cheaper.
It alos had a fundamental safety problem, the orbiter was on the side of the external fuel tanks and solid booster rockets. If stuff falls off the tank it could hit and damage the orbiter. Because the tank’s container cryogenic hydrogen and oxygen ice would form on the surface. Insulation that was used on it could alos fall off. There was no way the orbiter with the crew could escape if a problem like that happened at launch like the Challenger. If the damage was to the heatshield it could disintegrate on reentry like Columba did. You could not fix the orbiter in orbit so the solution during the last mission was to have another shuttle stand by to be launched that could rescue the crew and bring them back.
If the spacecraft with the crew is on the top of a rocket nothing can fall on it and damage it. You can alos add a launch escape system so if the rocket below explode or break apart the crew can get away with solid rocket boosters and survive. It has been use used twice on the Soviet/Russian Soyuz and the crew survived.
You could add some escape system to the orbiter, the first test flight did have ejection seats for the crew of 2. The Soviet Buran did one unmanned test flight and the European Hermes that was never built would have used that. The problem with the shuttle is the crew would need to be reduced both because of the weight and because they were seated on two levels. A system like that would not be as good as the launch escape system that you can have on top of a rocket.
In regards to reusability, Dragon II launched on the Falon 9 resute the capsule and the first stage. The second stage and the truck are not reused. The cost of making a few new parts is lower than attempting to recover them.
Space X Starship might be able to reuse almost everything if it works out. The question I have in regards to is will there be some crew escape system?
So the space shuttle system was never reusable in a cost-efficient way and it had inherent safety problems. Reusability is meaningless if the cost is so high that single usage would cost less.
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