942. Ram – A Concept for Reducing Space Payload Costs
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Paper
Abstract
The post-Apollo era in manned space flight will be dominated in the short term by development of the space shuttle as an economical transportation system for payloads to low earth orbit. Availability of the shuttle will open the way to exploitation of the unique near-space environment for research and applications to the common benefit. Research and Applications Modules (RAM) are a related group of shuttle- launched carriers for such payloads which can be used many times over, thus effecting great savings over currently conventional methods of implementing a program of this type.
RAM is a time-phased evolutionary concept based on cost as the prime criterion for design selection. The resulting reduction in space payload costs will be the result of considerable rethinking as to the true meaning, in this context, of weight optimization.
