SpaceX/Nasa contract

SpaceX has been granted a NASA Launch Services contract.. The contract, defined as an Indefinite Delivery/ Indefinite Quantity contract, allows NASA to utilise Space X vehicles (Falcon 1 and 5) for payload launches through to the middle of 2010. With reference to payload mass, NASA hopes that SpaceX launchers will be able to deliver over 500lbs to a 124 mile high orbit in order to aid three types of pre-defined mission variations: Exploration Systems, Science and Space Operations. This can tentatively be translated into meaning: Astronauts to the ISS,, satellite launches and Space Station re-supply.

Image:SpaceX

Michelle B

TGV Rockets of Norman, Oklahoma are making progress in developing their RT30, liquid oxygen/ jet fuel throttle able engine system for their Modular Incremental Compact High Energy Low-cost Launch Example or Michelle-B launcher. Pat Bahn, TGV’s CEO, noting that the company had played a key role in developing the joint NASA, US Defence department DC-X vehicle, described the company’s present position: “We're just a little grayer and a little balder ... a little more experienced”
So what will be the Michelle B’s role in the New Space launcher market? Earl Renaud, TGV’s chief operations executive has recently illuminated, “We're about $15 million into a $75 million development and test program. It is technology research and development primarily for Department of Defense customers” The research and development that Renaud hints at caters for tactical imaging and reconnaissance roles; Michelle-B won’t, therefore, be any kind of tourist craft. Boosting to a sub-orbital altitude, the vehicle will offer a prime sight view of locations that are of key military importance to the craft’s operators. “All of a sudden we are wildly competing with satellite-based imagery, without any latency or without any of the high-fixed upfront costs”, Renaud further commented.
TGV are notable for having sustained a small, specialised staff in a rapidly evolving launch market. Having already witnessed their first decade of development and testing, it is highly likely that TGV will reach all its goals in delivering a vehicle capable of fulfilling the numerous tactical requirements desired of the Michelle B design.

Image: TGV

Barrack Obama vs Virgle

The month kicked off with news that Virgin Galactic and Google were planning a joint private mission to Mars; after the failure of governments to commit the cash and resources to launch such an endeavour, Richard Branson, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, would finally make all our dreams come true - and we, the general public were invited to participate! Would be colonists apply within! We were even treated to a somewhat odd sounding portmanteau, Virgle; a name through which humanity’s greatest adventure might finally be realised: only after a great many of us checked our calendars, however, did the truth actually out.
You could almost hear the collective sighs across the planet as hundreds of potential colonists realised that they’d been had. Thousands of men and women who had been weaned on Clarke, Bradbury and Stanley-Robinson were already starting to pack their travel cases. Some had even gone so far as to submit short audition youtube clips as per the selection rules on the Virgle website. For those date challenged would be spacers the disappointment was clearly palpable.
So, admittedly, the plan was an April fool; a few of us laughed and a few of us cried with the realisation. However, the joke cum thought experiment did raise a few important questions. Given sufficient technology and resources, could corporations like Google and Virgin Galactic really colonise Mars?
The Virgle thought-joke was aided largely by the Mars society who contributed some much needed science to the scam. The joint corporations were to launch a 100 year plan running from 2010 to 2110: Mars would be surveyed, settled and then terraformed. Although pure fiction, the scam did its best to utilise real science in order to aid believability. The Virgle website thus headlined a detailed terrain map with possible mineral exploitation zones. Nifty graphical representations of surface bases and habitats cored out of canyon walls also served to wet our appetites. The future presented on the fools day website was unbelievable, yet at the same time, promising.
There seems to be no doubt that some future Virgle like private corporate entity could launch a mission to Mars. With Democrat hopeful Barrack Obama talking of destroying government funded US spaceflight to pay for nursery childcare, it seems that we are more likely to witness this kind of scenario than an Apollo style Mars programme backed by solid political will.
Firstly, we are likely to need a New Space derived infrastructure in Earth orbit. With private aerospace companies like Bigelow and SpaceX already working towards such a goal, it isn’t too much of a leap to imagine some future scenario whereby a Google backed Bigelow/SpaceX complex could be boosted to Mars with private astronauts on board. Manned Mars missions will cost big bucks, so planetary exploration will surely benefit from a private, low cost, non monopoly corollary, as is the modus operandi of the New Space industry.
We are unlikely to see a Virgle like plan enacted for several decades, but the overall concept of a series of privately backed exploration class missions is surely worthy of further consideration. Who knows? The next time two of the world’s largest corporation talk of settling Mars it might not be April 1st.

Credit: Don Dixon/Virgle

Spaceflight from Europe

Kiruna, a sounding rocket station in Sweden, is shaping up to become Europe’s premier venue for launching passenger carrying sub orbital rocket planes, if a recent meeting between Spaceport Sweden delegates and space tourism firm Virgin Galactic is anything to go by.
In a meeting held in Esrange, April 1, the two interests shared their comprehensive visions of a spaceport that would not only launch passengers to sub orbital space, but scientific payloads as well.
The gathering provided a chance for both Swedish science researchers, and Kiruna’s current advisors to address past, present and future spaceflight concerns: Speaking in terms of the potential launch of Virgin Galactic spacecraft, a senior advisor with Swedish Space Corporation, Sven Grahn commented: “We have studied very practical matters such as, for example, the suitability of the available infrastructure in Kiruna, the weather conditions, the possible flight profile for Virgin Galactic's spaceship when operating in Kiruna, any additional infrastructure that may be needed, the regulatory framework in Sweden and Europe for personal spaceflight, and a host of other matters. We have not encountered any major obstacles along the way and don't expect to do so either. Our next step will be to keep working on regulatory matters, and further defining the way we take care of space travellers and any additional infrastructure that may be needed”.
According to the assembled delegates, Kiruna’s history as a sub orbital sounding rocket launch facility, would also affect the overall evolution of Virgin Galactic operations at Kiruna: The Swedish Space Corporation operating through the Esrange Space Centre would, perhaps, in future utilise a modified WhiteKnight II to boost small satellites orbit; or alternatively, experiments may be flown onboard a modified Spaceshiptwo. Esrange (operational since 1966) already houses many of the crucial systems necessary to monitor space based experiments remotely, so current capabilities suggest that Virgin may utilise Kiruna for commercial/scientific ends.
The co-operation between Virgin Galactic and facilities like Esrange may yet lead to the development of sub orbital craft that are far more dynamic than any that have previously been envisaged: the chance to access the space environment from Europe will also lead to a boom for Sweden’s economy, providing new research opportunities that will only serve to enhance the reputation of European science: The chance to fly through the Aurora Borealis in a rocket ship will also recommend Kiruna to legions of future astronauts, making the spaceport a vital destination on the world map of passenger launch locations.

Image:Spaceport Sweden