Responsive Access Small Cargo Affordable Launch (RASCAL ...

Even though the complexity factors were set higher for the MMC design
alternative 4 has a higher TFU than alternative 5 ($464 M vs. $446 M). This is due to
alternative 5 having a much lower weight per stage than alternative 4. This weight
savings results in a cheaper vehicle than alternative four even with complexity factors
that are almost twice as high. This is due to the weight-based CERs favoring the lighter
vehicle with the high complexity factors over the heavier vehicle.
The dollars per pound of payload was also calculated for both alternatives as well
as the baseline (Figure 31). This dollar per pound of payload comparison penalizes the
baseline for only taking 52 lbs versus the 250lbs of the alternatives. As this figure shows
the two alternatives are very similar again, with alternative 5 being slightly better in case
1 and 2 and slightly worse in case 3.
$/lb
50000
45000
40000
35000
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Number of Flights per Year
Figure 31: Dollars per Pound of Payload of Optimized Trajectories.
Alt 8 Case 1
Alt 9 Case 1
Baseline Case 1
Alt 8 Case 2
Alt 9 Case 2
Baseline Case 2
Alt 8 Case 3
Alt 9 Case 3
Baseline Case 3
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