Selenokhod

The Google Lunar X Prize competition has seen its first entry from Russia in the form of Team Selenokhod. Selenokhod, comprising a group of engineers and aerospace managers from the Federation, plan to land two rovers and a communication package on the lunar surface in order to snag the $30 million prize. The Rovers are solar powered and combine HD cameras, rechargeable batteries and a low gain omni directional antenna to facilitate communication between the robotic elements. Nikolay Dzis-Voynarovskiy, Selenokhod Team Leader commented:

"The contribution progress of private sector in cosmonautics is worldwide trend nowadays. The previous international contest, Ansari X PRIZE, showed that non-government companies have all possibilities to create space technologies needed to achieve ambitious goals. Team Selenokhod wants Russian companies to evaluate the experience of their foreign colleagues, to understand big opportunities of private space exploration and join us in our challenging project"

Selenokhod joins 20 other teams from 44 countries in competing for the prize.

Image: Selenokhod

Team Armadillo qualify for $1M Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge

John Carmack's company Armadillo Aerospace is now well placed to win the $1 million Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge after a successful qualification flight on 13 September. Carmack, the creator of id Software ( developers of the popular Doom and Quake games), turned his attention to aerospace matters in 2000 when he contacted the Dallas Area Rocket Society to see if any of the expert amateurs wanted to join him in working for a new company he had founded - Armadillo Aerospace.

Originally inspired by the CATS (Cheap Access To Space) prize that ran from November of 1997 to November 8, 2000, Carmack decided to dedicate his efforts to try and meet the prize's criteria - $250,000 to the first private team who could launch a 2 kilogram payload to 200 kilometers. With that, Armadillo was born; it's goal - to provide cheap private access to orbit - to accomplish what NASA had accomplished but at a fraction of the cost.

Since its inception in 2000 Armadillo has gone on to develop hydrogen peroxide-powered rockets (Armadillo would later abandon hydrogen peroxide propellant when supply issues became an unsolvable problem), a path that has ultimately led them to their Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge entry - Scorpius.

Scorpius (weight 1900 lbs fully fueled) mades its maiden flight at Caddo Mills Airport in Texas - home of Armadillo's assembly plant. Resembling something like Von Braun's 1952 Moon Ship that appeared in Collier's magazine, Scorpius has already won Armadillo $350,000 for completing the Level 1 challnege in October 2008. The Level 1 challenge involved a flight time of 90 seconds and travel over a simulated lunar surface - point to point. However, the competition heated up with the Level 2 challenge which involved a flight time of 180 seconds - point to point and then all the way back to the start - twice the distance and twice as complex as the first prize winning flight. Incidentally, Armadillo have now qualified for the prize money by default - theirs' being the only craft capable of meeting the necessary criteria of the challenge.

So what does this mean for the future of private human access to space? Carmack has already hinted as to where Armadillo's trajectory now lies: "Since the Lunar Lander Challenge is quite demanding in terms of performance, with a few tweaks our Scorpius vehicle actually has the capability to travel all the way to space". Quite what this means is debatable, but one thing is now certain - amateur rocketeers are catching up with NASA - although on a vastly smaller scale, private rocketry now bears all the hallmarks of being able to deliver the seismic shift that we have all been waiting for. Carmack further added: "We'll be moving quickly to do higher-altitude tests, and we can go up to about 6000 feet here at our home base in Texas before we'll have to head to New Mexico where we can really push the envelope. We already have scientific payloads from universities lined up to fly as well, so this will be an exciting next few months for commercial spaceflight". Indeed, who knows where Armadillo's journey will end?

Image: PopSci

Excalibur Almaz

An Isle of Man company are looking into ways of using secret Soviet era space vehicle technology to send paying passengers on week long orbital trips. Excalibur Almaz has bought 'several' of NPO Mashinostroyenia's Almaz Reusable Re-entry vehicles - spacecraft that were developed to provide the Soviet Union with a manned space station capability.

Originally developed in response to the United States' Manned Orbiting Laboratory programme by Vladimir Chelomei, the Almaz (Diamond) system consists of a RRV (Reusable Re-entry vehicle) and an expendable service module that is capable of offering additional space for the vehicle's 3 crew members; the payload section can also carry up to 500kgs of cargo.

Excalibur Almaz are purportedly working with NPO Mashinostroyenia to reconfigure the company's stock of existing space hardware. EA's officials have told reporters: "A critical feature of the RRVs is their reusability, which will reduce logistical, overhead and program costs for commercial access to space". Changes are also being made to the Almaz vehicles that will bring them up to standard for future customer requirements.

Originally designed to be flown aboard Chelomei's UR-500 rocket, EA intends to adopt the Almaz system to be lofted aboard other launch vehicles. With the history of the NPO Almaz stations (christened Salyut) stretching as far back as the early 1970s, EA will now have to convince potential investors that Soviet era technology can be sucessfully adapted to provide a viable basis for a tourist/commercial vehicle. However,the task may be bolstered due to the fact that EA boasts some impressive names and expertise at its helm including former NASA astronauts Leroy Chiao and Franklin Chang-Diaz. Several veteran space officials and cosmonauts are also steering Excalibur Almaz - in the hope of EA becoming a successful, internationally backed New Space company.

Source: Space.com

Image: Excalibur Almaz/NPO

Bigelow Orion 'lite'

Bigelow Aerospace of Nevada recently pitched a version of their own manned spacecraft to the Augustine Committee; and the vehicle had a somewhat familiar look to it. Based on a stripped down version of Lockheed Martin's Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, Bigelow's incarnation of the craft promises to be an 'Earth-orbit optimised' people carrier that can be lofted aboard a converted Atlas V by about 2013 - much sooner than NASA hopes to fly its own troubled Orion system.
Atlas V is flown by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture co-owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin. With Lockheed developing Orion for NASA, ULA's study into man rating the Atlas V at Bigelow's request has obviously spurred Bigelow to adopt the Lockheed capsule design.
Key differences between the Bigelow Orion and the NASA Orion are passenger capacity and the landing system. Whereas the NASA Orion is being designed to take astronauts to the Moon, Bigelow's lite version will carry more crew(7 in total) thanks to the savings made in propellant tanks and hefty heat shields. In addition, rather than a water splashdown, Orion lite will be aircaptured using a similar system to the one used to retrieve sensitive spy capsules and payloads that are vulnerable to contamination.

Credit: Space.com
Images: Bigelow Aerospace.

Apollo 40th anniversary and why the US should aim for Mars

Before the Apollo project began America was in recession. The Apollo programme helped to drag America out of the mire; it helped to establish that nation as a preeminent technological leader. Innovations in the storage of super cool propellants and mass manufacture of rocket fuels led to cheaper fuel for oxy-acetylene welders which reduced costs in industry; the integrated circuit of the Apollo flight computer led to cheap consumer electronics; Landsat developed in the Gemini Apollo forerunner ultimately led to environmental monitoring and drought awareness/ prevention systems. Today the US faces similar challenges - another recession - yet this time the opportunity exists to reignite the US economy through a Mars programme - to follow in the footsteps of the Apollo era where every 1 dollar invested saw 10 returned. Who knows what Mars holds - perhaps even a cure for cancer as a spin-off! Mars is the kind of rescue package the US needs - not another futile bank bailout!

RazakSAT lofted to orbit aboard 5th Falcon 1

Space X of Hawthorne, California have successfully launched a Malaysian satellite into Earth orbit aboard the 5th flight of their Falcon 1 two stage rocket. Blastoff occured at 11:35 p.m EDT (0335 July 14 GMT) from the U.S. Army's Ronald Reagan Ballistic Defense Test Site on Omelek Island in the Kwajalein Atoll, Hawaii.

RazakSAT is designed to take high resolution images of Malaysia. SpaceX officials added that the satellite's role would be to: " aid land management, resource development and conservation, forestry and fish migration studies".

With Falcon 1 currently able to launch payloads for $8M per flight, the successful launch of RazakSAT is guaranteed to provide SpaceX with many new clients, including those who lack the resources to loft satellites with the more expensive launch operators. One thing is now certain -with the launch of RazakSAT, everything has suddenly changed. Cometh cheaper human access to orbit? Watch this space...

Source: SpaceX/Space.com

Elon Musk's presentation to the Augustine Commission

The Augustine Committee is Barrack Obama's attempt at putting Democratic clothing on an underfunded Republican effort - namely Project Constellation. Apparently troubled by the lack of direction in the US manned space programme the President set up the AC earlier this year to undertake a 'review' of Bush's 2004 vision which has since been dubbed Apollo 2.0, or as ex NASA chief Mike Griffin termed - "Apollo on steroids".
No one can now doubt that the US manned programme is indeed in grave jeopardy. With the Space Shuttle due for retirement in 2010 and its successor vehicle (Orion) slated to enter service in 2015, America now faces at least 5 years without a launch system and craft capable of delivering astronauts to orbit. Quite simply Bush's 2004 Constellation Programme remains underfunded and unloved by both politicians and engineers; the latter group have even challenged official NASA thinking on the Constellation Project, questioning the logic of developing vehicles (Ares I and V) that are unsuited to a simple manufacturing/development and launch transition from existing shuttle infrastructure. This problem has led to a rogue group within NASA developing the Direct Architecture comprising not the Ares I and V but the Jupiter class of launch vehicles - designs whose proponents say offers a lower development cost and quicker operational timeline. Add to this group other voices that believe that Orion can be launched on evolved expendable launch vehicles such as the Delta IV heavy and you get some idea of the problems that the Augustine Committee faces.
So what part is New Space playing in these troubling times? Have a look at Elon Musk's presentation to the AC: