Budget Moon Flights: Ariane 5 as SLS upper stage, page 2.

Copyright 2013 Robert Clark

Artist's rendering of the Space Launch System Block 1 sitting on Launch Pad 39B with the Orion spacecraft at sunrise.

 In the blog post Budget Moon Flights: Ariane 5 as SLS upper stage, I noted that using an Ariane 5 core stage would be a quick and low cost means of getting a higher payload capacity than the 70 mT NASA was giving for the 2017 SLS first launch. This would make it much easier to conduct a manned lunar lander mission using the SLS. However, finally, NASA has acknowledged that the Block 1, first version of the SLS to launch in 2017 will have a 90+ mT payload capacity not the 70 mT always stated by NASA:

SLS Dual Use Upper Stage (DUUS).
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20130013953_2013013757.pdf

 This is important since it means we will have the capability to do manned lunar landing missions by the 2017 first launch of the SLS:

SLS for Return to the Moon by the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11, page 5: A 90+ metric ton first launch of the SLS.
http://exoscientist.blogspot.com/2013/09/sls-for-return-to-moon-by-50th.html

  Still, because of the even higher payload possible using an upper stage, NASA might still want to consider getting a quick and low cost upper stage by using the Ariane 5 core. In that "SLS Dual Use Upper Stage (DUUS)" report are given some specifications for the DUUS. They state they want a highly weight optimized stage, which the Ariane 5 core would certainly fulfill. The Vulcain engine though has thrust size about twice that of the specified 100 - 120K lb range, and the 170 mT of propellant is also larger than the specified 130 mT propellant load. However, these are so much superior to the specified requirements it should result in significantly greater payload delivery than the stated 130 mT to LEO, perhaps to the 150 mT range.
 However, a problem is the 18.3 m specified max height. The Ariane 5 core is at 30.5 m height. Likely the height limitation is coming from limitations on the size and height of the facilities during stage integration. I'll find out if that is a firm limit.
 We could cut down the size of the Ariane 5 core to make it 130 mT in propellant load. Proportionally this would bring the height down to about 20 m, closer to the max. height. It turns out that shortening a stage is rather easy technically so this should still be doable by the 2017 first launch of the SLS.
 Another possibility would be to use the same propellant tank tooling for this DUUS stage as that used by NASA to make the 8 meter wide SLS tank, while using the other components such as the engine of the Ariane 5. However, the idea is to get a low cost upper stage in a short time frame. This might be a costly modification that might also be difficult to manage by the 2017 SLS first launch.
 This possibly though could open up an additional means of lightweighting the stage. We could use aluminum-lithium alloy instead of the standard aluminum used for the Ariane 5. NASA is also planning to use standard aluminum for the SLS core. But as I discuss in SLS for Return to the Moon by the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11, page 4: further on lightweighting the SLS core, new versions of Al-Li have been developed that could be used for this purpose.
 However, due to the natural inertia of large agencies it might be difficult to change the decision and go with Al-Li for the SLS core. But this decision might be easier to make in regards to the smaller upper stage which wouldn't need as much of the more expensive Al-Li and for which getting a lightweight stage is a much greater priority.

  Bob Clark