Category Archives: Space

Political Commentary, Space

The Augustine Commission

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It’s not official, but the Orlando Sentinel has some names, including one surprising one:

Christopher Chyba – Professor of Astrophysical Sciences and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. He once held the Carl Sagan Chair for the Study of Life in the Universe at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif.

Sally Ride – Physicist and a former NASA astronaut who, in 1983, became the first American woman and youngest American (at the time) to enter space.

Lester Lyles – Retired Air Force General and NASA administrator candidate. He is an expert in military space issues and is a member of the NASA Advisory Committee.

Edward Crawley – Ford Professor of Engineering at MIT, and a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of Engineering Systems. He is engaged with NASA on the design of its lunar and earth observing systems, and with BP on oil exploration system designs.

Bohdan “Bo” Bejmuk – Respected engineer and executive at Boeing Co. and one-time executive at Sea Launch, where he helped put together and run the company’s unique offshore rocket launch system. He also assembled and led an elite Boeing engineering team to assist leading the integration of Russian elements into the Station. He was also involved in the space shuttle program from its earliest days.

Jeff Greason – President, CEO and founder of XCOR Aerospace and the Personal Spaceflight Federation. He was the team leader for engine development at the now-defunct Rotary Rocket, and previously worked at the computer chip manufacturer Intel. He has been active in lobbying to encourage support for private spaceflight activities.

Wanda Austin — President and CEO of The Aerospace Corp., an independent non-profit dedicated to assisting the nation’s space program. NASA recently commissioned her company to study whether military rockets could lift people and cargo to the international space station and the moon, and the study concluded they could, contrary to NASA’s previous assertions.

Emphasis mine. As confirmation (sort of), Jeff mentioned to me yesterday that he was going to be doing some consulting this summer, which was going to be keeping him very busy. I didn’t ask him what it was at the time, but I think I can guess now.

I think that this is great news (I know Bo Bejmuk, too, from Rockwell days). Jeff will definitely have an oar in the water to steer in a useful direction.

I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth, but I’d love to know how he was picked, and who suggested him.

Business, Political Commentary, Space

COTS Panel

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Here are the notes I took an hour or so again, when I had power and could see the show, but no Internet.

Alan Lindenmoyer of NASA speaks first. Established program three years ago: Invest to get safe reliable access to LEO and to create a market environment in which the providers were available for both government and commercial customers. SpaceX has achieved 14 of 22 objectives and NASA has paid out $234M, next milestone is to demonstrate rendezvous with a system to be launched on a Shuttle mission. Looking to first Falcon 9 demo launch later this year (Elon said at lunch that the launch had been delayed from August to late 2009).

Orbital is valued up to $170, they’ve completed eight milestones to date, and a hundred million has been paid out. Next milestone is CDR for pressurized cargo module in July. Important transition year for administration (White House) and NASA. Showing video of progress on COTS program. NASA not dictating design solutions, just program objectives. “Have need, seed money, technical expertise, and put together with capable providers, have the basis for a successful program.” Includes a PR segment from Orbital (“98% success rate in space missions over the last seven years” — I wonder what happened before that…?). Using components from existing vehicles to build COTS system. Now another one from SpaceX.

Do not confuse current COTS and additional funding from stimulus with COTS D. That will require much more money. Initial goals are just to ensure safety of ISS and of crew members. Working to best communicate crew safety requirements from NASA to new players.

OSC speaker: Head of COTS demonstration and follow-on phase for cargo resupply, and working both in parallel. Orbiter not stranger to development of commercial space systems, build satellites but also uses data buying approaches. Developing Taurus II with their own funds and leveraging money from COTS to provide end-to-end system, from ground through ISS delivery. Giving an overview of Taurus launch vehicle, and now discussing the Cygnus “visiting vehicle.” Has to have high reliability avionics, and essentially as reliable as an airliner to come into proximity of the station. It berths using the ISS arm. Describing standardized cargo bags that NASA has developed for ISS logistics. They have hired Carl Walz, ISS veteran, to help them with the program. Need for cargo supplies expanding with crew of six. They hope to help to support that need.

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX: Praising NASA program office for ease of working with them. Proposed three demo flight: Dragon into orbit and back, Dragon approach ISS, Dragon dock with ISS. Showing pictures of new Hawthorne CA facility, current manifest. Describing Falcon 9, with its propulsion redundancy. First vehicle with this capability since Saturn, and it was used on Saturn to save crew. Think that it’s a valuable feature. They expect to be building more engines than any other entity in history shortly. Showing “tic tack toe” back end of the Falcon 9. NASA saw these multiple engines as the biggest risk. They have snuck up on engine testing incrementally, and did a full nine-engine test in November 2008. Using Launch Complex 40, former Titan IV pad at the Cape. They have tested ground support by erecting and taking down the vehicle on the pad. Still working range integration issues. Dragon undergoing structural qualification (pushed and pulled on it). Hadn’t anticipated building their own heat shield but that’s how it ended up. Developed material with NASA Ames. Propulsion uses “Draco” thrusters, using MMH/N204. Designed, built and qualified thrusters in less than two years.

They’re designing Dragon to be reusable and recoverable, but NASA wants new ones each time, so they’re looking for customers for used ones, called “Dragonlab.” Useful for orbital research.

Question: Why does NASA not turn on COTS D. Lindenmoyer: no funding appropriated. Option negotiated with SpaceX for $380M, but don’t have the money.

Question: Once COTS D is operational, is there a need for Orion and Ares 1 to support ISS? Lindenmoyer: They are complementary capabilities, and Ares and Orion are designed for lunar missions. It is designed for ISS capability, but they’d prefer to divert resources needed for LEO system to the moon.

Space

Other ISDC Reporting

Doug Messier continues to add new posts (again, not a permalink, just keep scrolling). I missed the lunch talk by Elon Musk, but Doug reports that he says he can close much of the gap.

Jeff Foust says that he talked to Rep. Kosmas yesterday as well, on non-ITAR subjects.

And Jeff continues to twitter the main session.

[Update a few minutes later]

Between Jeff’s twittering and spacevidcasts, Clark Lindsey is doing a damned good job of coverage, considering that he’s a thousand miles away.

Administrative, Space, Technology and Society

Nirvana

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I have found a rare confluence at this conference — simultaneous power and connectivity. I hadn’t realized until today just how much my laptop battery sucks (HP Pavilion dv5, less than a year old, if anyone’s wondering). I started using it this morning, and checked the battery after about fifteen minutes, and it told me I had about fifty minutes left…

I don’t know if it’s the design, or if there’s a memory problem because I don’t use it off the grid much, and rarely deplete it, or what. But I might have to start carrying a spare, or get one of those things that plugs in externally as a backup.

And of course, I don’t have the ultimate, unachievable combination — power, connectivity, at a comfortable table, with something interesting to listen to. I’m sitting in a chair in the hotel lobby. Fortunately, there’s nothing I’m really hot to hear going on right now.

Business, Political Commentary, Space

Kosmas And ITAR

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“Bob-1” asked in comments whether I talked to Congresswoman Kosmas yesterday about ITAR. In fact I did. She seemed aware of the issue, or at least the word. I pointed out (in light of her praise of entrepreneurship) that it was actually a much bigger problem for the smaller companies and startups, because the big ones have staff dedicated to deal with it, and can factor it into their costs for government reimbursement, but for those small companies without such in-house expertise and not on the government cost-plus dole, it represents a formidable barrier to entry, and one that the big players don’t necessarily mind. I don’t think that she had heard this argument before, and seemed interested. She told me to talk to her staffer (who was with her) next time I was in DC. Of course, I don’t know when that will be, but if anyone else out there wants to talk to the staffer, the Congresswoman seemed supportive.

Business, Space

ISDC

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There’s no wireless in the meeting rooms, so I can’t do anything real time. I’m typing this from the patio, eating a ten-dollar pastrami sandwich (didn’t pay for the luncheon where Elon Musk is speaking, and getting a von Braun award).

What was interesting about the morning plenary session was the emphasis. In past meetings, they might have led with the wonderful things that NASA has in store for us. This year, the lead speaker was George Nield, head of the FAA-AST office, followed by Jeff Greason, CEO of XCOR Aerospace, and then Will Whitehorn, head of Virgin Galactic, so clearly, the conference programming committee considered suborbital tourism to be the headliner at this event. NASA’s plans (soon to likely be dramatically altered) will be presented tomorrow morning.

Both the Greason and Whitehorn talks were good. Jeff made his usual points, but he started to show a little gam on orbital, saying that he has started thinking about it, and dropping a couple hints. They have seriously depleted their bin of technology problems in suborbital, and are moving forward with the Lynx, but orbital promises to replenish it, so they’re thinking about how to get someone to pay them to solve the new issues, as they did with suborbital. He is clearly aiming toward a two-stage reusable system, with a flyback first stage, horizontal takeoff and land. This implies a very large first stage, or a very expensive first stage, or some combination, and he didn’t want to show us any pictures, because he wasn’t sure what direction it would go. Also no discussion of whether or not it would be an airbreather or rocket.

He also made some comments about flight test, and not to panic when something goes wrong, which is why it’s called flight test. In the days of blogs and texting, it’s easy to gin up a lot of speculation and doomsday warnings that are unwarranted, compared to the old days when no one paid any attention to what was going on at Edwards until the results were released. This was undoubtedly in reference to the recent kerfuffle over White Knight Two tail dragging. He said a lot more good stuff, but I suspect that others will have posts up. Jeff Foust has probably been twittering.

Will Whitehorn, refreshingly, didn’t bash Lynx (perhaps because he was grateful to Jeff for his flight test comments? Or perhaps he’s just realized that it’s not good marketing). He actually praised parts of Jeff’s speech. He says that there will be a flyover of Spaceport America with WK2 at the dedication this June, and captive carry of SS2 by the end of the year, perhaps with a drop and glide test. Engine integration will occur next year. He also showed video of hybrid engine tests at Capistrano. More later.

Political Commentary, Space

Suzanne Kosmas

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OK, I said I was signing off, but in a surprise, the local congresswoman is giving a brief talk.

Excited to be the newly elected congressperson from Florida 20th (the Cape), lives in New Smyrna Beach, and has watched Shuttles for years. Wants to bring other congress members down to share the enthusiasm. On the science committee not because she knows about science but because of her passion for space. Entrepreneurship demonstrated here is an important component to keeping America the premiere nation for space, and there is great synergism with the Florida entertainment industry. As a long-time business owner, thinks thatus her two-year-old son will be a customer. Bought an astronaut suit at the Dulles museum, and he fell in love with it, and now says “My shuttle, my shuttle,” since seeing the launch live. Sees partnership with private enterprise and entrepreneurship as being key. Says that commercial space is important to Senator Nelson as well, and wants to be partners with the people at this summit at the federal level, helping with regulatory issues, and looks forward to working with us.

It was a quick speech, and it looked like it was without notes and she made no news, but it was encouraging. We’re about to go to a reception with her and everyone else, where I may ask her a question or two. I’m curious to know if she’s aware of the ITAR problem.

Later.

Administrative, Space

Off For The Day

Sorry for the light summit blogging after a fast start. A combination of networking and having trouble with my setup. But Doug Messier has been taking good notes to pick up my slacking off (not a permalink, but if you’re reading this in the next day or so, just keep scrolling). Probably off line until tomorrow morning, when the ISDC starts.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Oh, one more thing. Jon Goff has some interesting thoughts on lunar COTS.

Space, Technology and Society

Immersive Simulation

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Tami Griffith of the Army Simulation Tech and Training Center is describing the use of current technology for training. Shows a video of interfacing a Wii and balance board with Second Life. Apparently a lot of people are hacking the Wii for things like this. She says that whole-body training is much more effective and memorable than joysticks or cockpit simulators.

Cool.