RESPACE Key Technologies for Reusable Space Systems

A few years ago the Helmholtz Association (HGF) consisting of 15 research Institutions including the German Aerospace Center (DLR) started a network research program called ‘Virtual Institutes’. This volume contains the main results of the three years study (2003 - 2007) of the Virtual Institute RESPACE (Key Technologies for Re-Usable Space Systems), consisting of three DLR departments and four institutes of the RWTH Aachen, the University of Stuttgart and the Technical University München. The nine topics treated with a multidisciplinary numerical and experimental approach are systems aspects of advanced space transportation vehicles, vehicle base flow, propulsion jet and external flow interaction, active cooling of hot structures, film cooling and its influence on boundary-layer flow.