Design of mobile solid propellant launch vehicle using hybrid optimization approach

Current tendency of satellite industry to launch economically small satellites for different purposes to a low earth orbit (LEO) with high launch rates and reduced cost gives the necessity of small, reliable launch vehicles. A four stage mobile solid propellant launch vehicle (MSPLV) arises as an attractive alternative to complete this task. This paper proposes a hybrid optimization approach to optimize a MSPLV considering its particular characteristics and constraints such as maximum launch gross mass, diameter and length driven by the transport erector launcher. This type of launch vehicle gives several advantages such as independence of launch sites, modularity and survivability, among others especially for strategic purposes. The main objective is to place a payload of 200 kg to a circular LEO orbit of 800 km altitude. The proposed hybrid optimization approach combines the advantages of genetic algorithm (GA) as a global optimizer and complemented with sequential quadratic programming (SQP) to find the local optimum, a design space reduction (DSR) capability was introduced between these algorithms in order to reduce the search space and consequently the total computational time. A multidisciplinary design optimization method based on multi-discipline feasible (MDF) method was implemented along with the propulsion, aerodynamic, mass and trajectory models in an integrated framework. Despite its particular design characteristics and constraints, the obtained results show acceptable values, and the considered approach proved to be adequate for conceptual design phase of a MSPLV.