Suborbital VTO/L Cargo Lifter

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Concept Suborbital VTO/L Transport – a heavy payload sub-mach cargo carrier designed for suborbital flight in the Martian atmosphere, created for my future historical setting.

The Martian atmosphere can be considered to be a near-vacuum, atmospheric pressure on the Martian surface averages 600 pascals (0.087 psi), about 0.6% of Earth's mean sea level pressure of 101.3 kilopascals (14.69 psi). It ranges from a low of 30 pascals (0.0044 psi) on Olympus Mons's peak to 1.16 kilopascals (0.168 psi) in the depths of Hellas Planitia. This means wings cannot provide lift and there is insufficient pressure for rudders and flaps to be an effective means of vehicle control. Flight would be a matter of powered ballistic hops using vectored thrust for fine control.

The vehicle launches on a ballistic suborbital trajectory and falls in a ballistic arc. You can fire the engines as needed to extend the range of that arc. This is not flying by generating lift, it is managing the momentum lent by gravity, extending the range of that ballistic arc, adding and subtracting velocity as needed by firing rockets.

If you are interested in doing the math, a good explanation with examples of the equations for minimum energy suborbital ballistic hops is to be found here. These equations would need to be modified to account for drag on a body with an atmosphere such as Mars.

The Suborbital VTO/L’s primary missions are to ferry machinery, surface habitats, and supplies – everything a mining operation would require – and return mined processed materials to feed the growing Martian industrial base.

Vehicle ground clearance is 30 feet, with a horizontal clearance (between the duel outboard engine pods) of 150 feet, wide enough to accommodate large payload carried on pallets belly-slung much in the same manner as the Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane Helicopter. Landing gears are set wide with large skid-pads to maximize weight distribution on landing and during loading operations. Unlike the Sikorsky S-64, payloads would be mounted so as to prevent any lateral or fore-to-aft motion, and the vehicle must land to dismount payload. Flight crew consists of a pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer, and load-master. With the addition of a passenger pod (slung in place of the cargo load) the vehicle can transport personnel to and from remote mining operations.

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