Upgrade of HyCost methodology and tool to support LCC estimation of reusable access to space vehicles

This paper aims at presenting the latest upgrades to HyCost Methodology and Tool, developed by Politecnico di Torino under funding and supervision of the European Space Agency (ESA), to support Life Cycle Cost (LCC) estimation of reusable access to space vehicles. The main idea is to support the designer in cost estimation activity during conceptual and preliminary design phases, allowing the evaluation of Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDTE) Costs, Production Costs, as well as Direct and Indirect Operating Costs (DOC and IOC), for a wide set of aerospace systems, from supersonic civil aircraft to hypersonic and, in general, high speed vehicles. Politecnico di Torino has already proposed a LCC methodology and tool called “HyCost 1.0” specifically tailored to air-breathing high-speed transportation systems. This paper discloses the upgrades of HyCost 1.0, i.e. “HyCost 2.0” methodology, to extend the methodology and tool capability to future Reusable Access to Space Vehicles. The main goal of this research activity is to evaluate the applicability of already existing parametric cost estimation relationships (CERs) to the peculiarities of Reusable Access to Space Vehicles and if necessary, to define new equations. Specifically, this new set of equations shall be able to capture the impact of different vehicle configurations (e.g. staging strategy, staging Mach number, parallel or series configuration, etc…) onto costs, as well as the impact of the most promising propulsive solutions, ranging from scramjet and combined cycle engines to rocket engines. Ultimately, this new methodology and implemented routines are applied and validated using the SpaceX Starship case study.