A new assessment of promising concepts for ‘Low cost’ access to space

During the past decades, low cost access to space (in LEO) was one of the dominant objectives in astronautics. In spite of the nearly endless number of proposals and the actual programs initiated for developing such launchers, the expenditures are high while the progress remains small. The reason for this discrepancy results from the evaluation method - bottom up procedures, which are based on single element assessments. Improvements in cost projection require a different approach. This simple method uses a reference principle, which focuses on design variation. Thus, the promising designs for future “low cost” space transportation can be derived.