Concepts
SDV concepts were proposed even before the Shuttle itself began flying. Proposed SDV concepts have included:
- Replacing the winged Space Shuttle Orbiter with an uncrewed, expendable cargo pod ("side-mount style" SDV)
- Removing the Orbiter and mounting an upper stage and payload atop the Space Shuttle external tank ("inline-style" SDV)
- Adding a large cargo container to the rear of the external tank, allowing launches of bulky materials (Aft Cargo Carrier)
- Replacing the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) with liquid rockets, including recoverable winged "flyback" boosters
- Creating vehicles from one or more Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters, usually with some kind of an upper stage
- Removing the wings of an Orbiter at the end of its useful life, permanently attaching it to a Space Shuttle external tank, and launching the combination as a space station
Several such concepts are of particular note:
Read more about this topic: Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicle
Famous quotes containing the word concepts:
“Institutional psychiatry is a continuation of the Inquisition. All that has really changed is the vocabulary and the social style. The vocabulary conforms to the intellectual expectations of our age: it is a pseudo-medical jargon that parodies the concepts of science. The social style conforms to the political expectations of our age: it is a pseudo-liberal social movement that parodies the ideals of freedom and rationality.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
“It is impossible to dissociate language from science or science from language, because every natural science always involves three things: the sequence of phenomena on which the science is based; the abstract concepts which call these phenomena to mind; and the words in which the concepts are expressed. To call forth a concept, a word is needed; to portray a phenomenon, a concept is needed. All three mirror one and the same reality.”
—Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794)
“Science is a dynamic undertaking directed to lowering the degree of the empiricism involved in solving problems; or, if you prefer, science is a process of fabricating a web of interconnected concepts and conceptual schemes arising from experiments and observations and fruitful of further experiments and observations.”
—James Conant (1893–1978)