Name: Valkyrie Athmospherical Transport
Desired volume: Fighter-Corvette (Most of it is empty cargo space)
Team: Brian 'O Donald, Mark Volkov, Tara Jones
Estimated time: 5 months
General description of the idea: A mostly automated Ground to orbit spaceplane. It's not equiped for prolonged use outside the athmosphere, but it should last a considerable time near the ground. The ship is build around it's large cargobay, and uses 4 Heavily Modified RAM jets, which will comfortably work up to 30 km altitude. From there, the airintakes will be shut, and the system will switch to onboard propellant. If needed, disposable boosters can be installed to make it to orbit. Once in orbit the ship immediatly docks with the station, as it's fuel reserve isn't that large.
Reentry is different. The ship takes an incredibly slow angle of reentry, resulting in minimal heating and energy expenditure, but also a very long reentry. As soon as the ship comes below 30 km, it reopens the airintake and returns to normal flight. Normal flight can be prolonged as long as need be, provided no mechanical failures occur. In case of a filter failue, the ship should be fine, as it's capable of gliding to the ground without problems.
Powersource: Fusion
Propulsion: Laserpowered Turbojet
-Rather than running on a fuel, the engine just sucks in air and heats it using a small, but powerfull laser.(similair to the working of a fusion plant actually). Once the air becomes to thin, it switches to a more conventional rocket engine, though still powered by lasers rather than a chemical reaction. Filters, both physical and electromagnetical protect the engine from invasive dust. Filter failure will most likely result in the engine's inside being glassed, with predictable results.
Flight:
-Free flight up to 30 km. Rocket assisted above that.
-Capable of gliding and hovering
Fuel: Fusion
Cargo capability: Significant
Priorities:
Focus IC cost: 3
Neglect Orbital operational distance: 2