Lazarus SSTO

The Lazarus is a reusable vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) single-stage to orbit (SSTO) spaceship designed and manufactured by Nova Aerospace in 2059. It is used as a crew vehicle for highly efficient interplanetary and interstellar travel.

The Lazarus uses a lifting body design with a fuselage vaguely shaped like a Double-wedge airfoil to produce lift.

Instead of control surfaces, the Lazarus relies on RCS thrusters to maneuver in atmosphere, this eliminates a variety of moving parts such as flaps, ailerons, elevators and rudders which would otherwise increase weight and mechanical complexity.

As the Lazarus is incapable of unpowered gliding below hypersonic speeds, ejection seats were integrated incase the spacecraft ran out of RCS fuel. It is powered by a compact Fusion Reactor which produces around 500 Mw (500,000,000 W) of power, in the case of a complete loss of power, there is a triple redundant fuel cell system and high efficiency monocrystalline hexagonal Solar Cells on the roof of the spaceship.

In the event of a water landing, the Lazarus is capable of staying buoyant for long periods of time. Local atmospheric air can also be pumped through the engine at high velocity to get rid of a water log.

The Lazarus has an air intake on the ventral side of the ship which uses air compressors to draw air from a planet's atmosphere, the air is then accelerated and channeled through the airframe where it will be ejected to produce thrust. This process allows the Lazarus to achieve VTOL flight without using up fuel. An adaptive autopilot system will use the ship's RCS thrusters to automatically compensate for changes in roll and pitch orientation whilst in VTOL mode, this makes flying the spaceship easier for the crew.

The Lazarus' main propulsion system is twin linear aerospike plasma engines which ionizes fuel into plasma before magnetically accelerating it to high velocities, for high thrust uses when in atmosphere, local atmospheric air is ionized into plasma before being fed through a tube using its air compressors where it will be bombarded by microwaves, generating high thrust. When in a vacuum, onboard fuel is obviously needed, Water was ultimately chosen for onboard fuel because it's easier to store as opposed to Liquid Hydrogen (another considered fuel choice) and is common on planets wether as a liquid, solid or gas, allowing for In-situ resource utilization. For high thrust within a vacuum, water is undergoes the same process as local atmospheric air.

The Lazarus' cabin is capable of maintaining a pressurized Earth-like atmosphere. It is composed of two compartments; four crew seats and two folding benches for four additional passengers. The cockpit also contains four stasis chambers which use the same technology as the chambers seen on the Avalonia DSIV. The aft compartment functions as an airlock with four ports that are used for docking, an aft port, a dorsal port and one port on each side of the ship.