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More on plastic SRBs.
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/slbm/d-5.htm]Trident II sub launched solid rocket missiles are fabricated from graphite epoxy.
All three stages of the Trident II are made of lighter, stronger, stiffer graphite epoxy, whose integrated structure mean considerable weight savings.
Combine that technology with the Thiokol SRB and doesn't the payload to LEO on a 5 segment SRB with liquid upper stage improve greatly?
IIRC, the current 4 segment SRB has a dry mass of 192,000 pounds without fuel. Reduce that dry mass by 1/3 (64,000 pounds) and how much of that 64,000 pounds can be added to useful payload?
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Allegedly, the unit cost of a Trident II was $29 million. That tells me that a graphite epoxy Thiokol SRB should not be terribly much more expensive than an aluminium SRB = IF = Thiokol partnered up with the folks having the graphite epoxy patents.
Give someone a sufficient [b][i]why[/i][/b] and they can endure just about any [b][i]how[/i][/b]
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