If you clicked this link because you wanted to know what was behind that cumbersome six-letter acronym, the short answer is "Integrated High Payoff Rocket Propulsion Technology". An all-encompassing master plan to govern all NASA and DoD-funded rocekt propulsion technology development over a twenty-year period. It began in 1993, worked tolerably well for missile and launch vehicle propulsion, somewhat less so for spacecraft propulsion. There is a longer explanation, but it is associated with an irreversible sanity loss for those exposed...

If you already know what IHPRPT is, you have our sympathy, and perhaps we can help. The industry hasn't so much moved beyond IHPRPT, but signed up for another round, through 2030. In hopes of forestalling some of the mistakes of the first version, Dr. Schilling lead the government/industry team that developed the Beyond IHPRPT metrics for the spacecraft propulsion area. Most notably, the new process is a mission pull rather than a technology push. The technology assessment metrics are keyed to the ability to deliver better overall mission performance in likely applications, and specific technical solutions are not mandated.

We can assess potential spacecraft propulsion systems or technologies agains the Beyond IHPRPT metrics and reference missions, or help integrate a propulsion research and development program with the Beyond IHPRPT process.