New Space

Boeing CTS 100

2010-08-14T05:51:00.001-07:00

Boeing are currently developing their Crew Space Transportation craft with a view to capturing a slice of the commercial payload market. The Apollo CM style module would launch atop a man rated Atlas V or a Delta IV in order to transport crew and supplies to the International Space Station, and, possibly, to a commercial space station - the BA330 - currently being designed by Bigelow Aerospace.

Reporters at the recent Farnborough airshow were treated to a vision of, what Boeing believe will be, a competitor to SpaceX's Dragon Capsule, in the form of computer generated imaginary of a future CTS visiting a Bigelow commericial space complex.

Currently, money for the CTS development is coming is coming from NASA's Crew Development programme - a pot from which the agency hopes to draw a vehicle capable of delievring American astronauts to the ISS when the Shuttle retires in 2011. However, it remains to be seen if CD money will be forthcoming after September when the fate of Obama's commercial space plans will be decided on Capitol Hill.

Images:Bigelow Aerospace/Boeing

Falcon 9 lifts off

2010-06-10T00:53:00.000-07:00

SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, have conducted the first sucessful test flight of their Falcon 9 rocket. On June 4, the rocket lifted off at 1845 GMT. from pad SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida and began its long climb to orbit. There were a few minor problems during the flight; the second stage beginning an uncommanded roll and the first stage parachute failing to deploy properly, but never the less, the rocket's dummy payload achieved an almost precise orbit insertion - a huge boost to the company's plans to provide low cost access to orbit.

During the maiden flight a dummy payload mass was used to simulate the weight (and record flight data) of the soon to be flown Dragon Capsule - a 3.7 metre diameter Apollo CM style re-entry vehicle that will be used to fly both crew and cargo towards the International Space Station; this is in line with NASA's $1.6 bn payment to SpaceX for up to 12 Dragon/Falcon 9 flights. Each flight will likely carry around 6 tonnes of supplies to the ISS.

Although Falcon 9 is dubbed as being able to provide low cost access to orbit, analysts are still cautious as to whether or not Elon Musk can maintain a minimum cost, high flight schedule. In addition to its taxi work to the ISS, the F9 is also touted as being able to place telecommunications satellites in geosynchronous orbit - dramatically undercutting the Russian Proton and Ariane 5 launchers.

Images: SpaceX

Falcon 9 update

2010-05-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

SpaceX of Hawthorne, California continue to prepare for the inaugural test flight of their Falcon 9 rocket. After having conducted static test firings of the Falcon 9's first stage on April 13 their next task is safety.

This is where the FTS or Flight Termination System comes in. Basically, if Falcon 9 strays from its designated flight corridor after launch then the rocket requires a system that will 'split the vehicle's fuel and oxygen tanks' - to destroy the vehicle in other words - before it can descend to inhabited or restricted areas.

FTS certification is therefore a vital step in preparing for the inaugural flight.

Image: SpaceX

Obama goes New Space

2010-02-16T10:03:00.000-08:00

President Obama's 2011 budget does not include funds for Project Constellation, NASA's deep space sequel to the Apollo programme. In a move that has surprised the US aerospace community, Obama has instead opted to cancel Ares I and V in favour of outsourcing US human spaceflight to New Space companies.

While many spaceflight commentators believed that the Obama budget would heavily favour private companies to launch crew and payload to the ISS, it now seems as if New Space will be relied upon for ALL future US access to orbit and beyond; NASA it seems, are to be taken back to their routes as an essential research and development arm of the US government.

So what will the future of US human spaceflight look like? Well, it will look something like this.

Say the US government wants to return a couple of hundred pounds of rock from Ares Vallis on Mars. Instead of NASA designing and building its own rocket, NASA will instead purchase the use of an already existing Heavy Lift private rocket to accomplish its goals. Where no privately operated Heavy Lift system exists, NASA will specify its requirements and the private sector will, in turn, (without cost plus) build such a system in order to service NASA's goals - (see SpaceX's idea for a Super Heavy Falcon).

A good analogy to the new plan is airline travel. Governments don't run airlines, private companies build and operate the planes. Passengers simply pay the cost of the flight. Imagine similar for space travel and you have the gist of the Obama plan.

With many private rocket builders and operators inhabiting the market, diversity and competition will drive down costs so that the expense of space travel will begin to fall. This is the dream of all New Space entrepreneurs, but will it happen?

While the Obama 'vision' is revolutionary, it also has its detractors, who point out the need for the US government to create an operational market into which the New Space rocket and vehicle builders can move. While the ISS is a fitting target, a far more fascinating target would have been the Moon. With the loss of Constellation, there will be somewhat of a loss of energy to move beyond LEO - even if New Space does successfully make it up there. Imagine a New Space company that specialises in extracting H20 from lunar soil and you get an idea of the opportunity that has been missed with the loss of Constellation.

With the imminent launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9, we shall soon see if Obama was right in placing America's eggs in a single basket.

SpaceShipTwo unveil

2009-12-11T04:00:00.000-08:00

Monday 7th finally saw the unveiling of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo at the Mojave Air and Space Port, California. The 60 ft long craft was towed out infront of guests and dignitaries before state governer Scwartznegger broke a champagne bottle over the nose of the vehicle to christen 'VSS Enterprise'.

VSS Enterprise will now begin a gruelling 18 month schedule to certify it for passenger use.

Pictures: Virgin Galactic

Space Elevator Team wins

2009-11-30T00:13:00.000-08:00

If you've read Arthur C Clarke's Fountains of Paradise or Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy then you are no doubt familiar with the concept of the Space Elevator. Constructed of super tensile materials and stretching 100,000 km into space - until now the elevator has been a thing of science fiction. However, a Seattle-based team, LaserMotive aims to change all that, and has recently won $900,000 dollars in the Space Elevator Games - a competition set up by NASA to see if machines powered by laser beams could climb cables into the sky.

So what did LaserMotive accomplish to win the prize?

LM's cable climber actually managed to ascend a 3000 ft long cable suspended from a helicopter at a speed of around 8mph. This was accomplished some four times in two days. The best ascent time was 3 minutes 48 seconds.

The next stage of the competition involves the team beaming power up a 1/4 inch steel cable to power their platform. If LaserMotive can accomplish this at around 11mph then they stand to win the second level prize of $2M. NASA's Centenial Challenges director Andy Petro commented: "Power beaming is truly a 21st century technology"

Image: Space.com

Launcher One Satellite System

2009-11-21T04:07:00.000-08:00

Several concepts are emerging for Virgin Galactic's Launcher One Satellite System. Currently in consultation with Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) - re-known for their micro satellites - Branson's company was initially waiting to see if the UK government would contribute funding for a SSTL led launcher study; the idea being that an SSTL produced rocket could be launched from a Virgin Galactic White Knight. With the funding for the SSTL rocket study still forthcoming from the UK government, Galactic are now moving ahead with their own in-house designed launcher system.

Current satellite launch costs are something in the region of $5-10 million. If Virgin Galactic are going to move into the satellite business then they need to develop a system that can do the job for $1-2 million. SSTL currently rely on converted Soviet missiles like the Dnepr to launch their satellites - so the need for a UK led air-launch effort to ensure lower costs and limit conversion delay is paramount. Check out the images from the 60th International Astronautical Congress in Daejeon, Korea as shown in October

Images: BBC, Flight Global

Selenokhod

2009-09-28T03:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-27T09:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-22T08:29:00.000-07:00

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'

2009-08-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-11T16:03:00.000-07:00

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:

New Mexico's Spaceport America under construction

2009-06-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

Construction work has begun on New Mexico's $200m Spaceport America. June 20 saw several hundred people assemble at the site to hear state Governor Bill Richardson declare the ambitious 18 month project started. It was hoped that Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnight 2 carrier plane would make an over-flight of the gathered crowd, but, sadly, no appearence was recorded as the giant aircraft had to abort its course due to technical difficulties.

In its current form, only a balloon tethered to an anchor rope demarks the location of the planned Foster and Partners terminal and hangar building; however, in as little as two years' time the site and the planned 10,000ft runway could host as many as three passenger flights to suborbital space per day.

The location of Spaceport America has been chosen due to its distance from nearby centres of population. In addition, New Mexico also boasts that it can provide at least 350 days of unobstructed sunlight per year; an advantage that will rule out bad weather as an excuse by which to cancel launches.

Although Space America's primary operator will be Virgin Galactic, this does not preclude the runway and facilities being utilised by other New Space companies. As the space tourism market grows and expands, rival operators like Blue Origin and Rocketplane may also operate from the site.

Source: BBC

Image credit BBC and Virgin Galactic

Google Lunar X-Prize update

2009-06-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

The Google Lunar X Prize competition continues to conjur some weird and wonderful spacecraft concepts from the drafting systems of the international entrants. Perhaps one of the strangest designs comes from Team Italia, a Naples-based aerospace firm co-ordinated by the International Association for the Aerospace Culture (AICA). The inspiration for TI's entry comes from the mind of Politecnico di Milano's robotics expert , professor Albert Rovetta. Rovetta's idea for lunar exploration is based on a bio-mechanical concept that involves mimicking the body structure of an arthropod - quite literally - Rovetta wants to send a mechanical spider/crab (or even swarms of them) to explore the Moon. Team Italia is currently hoping that its Spider-Bot swarm will be radical enough to inspire a visionary sponsor.

While not quite as complicated as TI's entry, ARCA's (Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association) is no less impressive. ARCA hope to use a radical balloon system to launch a multistage rocket and payload Moonwards. Once in the vicinity of Luna, ARCA's system will deploy a simple sphere which will roll over the lunar surface. Again, funding is a key issue for the Romanians' hopes, but if their sponsorship drive is as creative as their launch concept, perhaps ARCA could be on the Moon's surface ahead of the competition.

Source:Space.com

Images: Team Italia\ARCA

Virgin Galactic tests hybrid rocket motor

2009-05-31T14:06:00.000-07:00

A hybrid rocket motor designed to propel Virgin Galactic's SpaceshipTwo into suborbital space has been sucessfully test fired in the Californian desert. In a statement which heralds the imminent arrival of the craft's test flight phase Virgin's Richard Branson commented: "SpaceShipTwo, which will air launch from Eve, is largely constructed and awaiting the start of its own test flight program later this year".

The non-toxic hybrid nitrous motor has been built by Northrop Gruman owned subsidiary Scaled Composites and its subcontractor Sierra Nevada Corporartion. An in-built safety feature will include the ability to abort the rocket engine's thrust at any moment, allowing SpaceShipTwo to simply glide back to Earth for a safe landing. If an abort is not necessary then the hybrid engine will push SS2 to over 4000 kph, allowing a flight ceiling of up to 110 km above Earth's surface.

The air-launch system, in adition, has great environmental benefits as Branson describes: "This means much less fuel is required — fuel which provides none of the toxins that are present in the solid rockets used by the space shuttle and satellite launches".

Source: Space.com/ Image Credit: Virgin Galactic

SpaceShipTwo test flight coming last qrt 2010

2009-05-17T07:30:00.000-07:00

Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn recently dropped some hints as to when the much awaited SpaceShipTwo will finally take to sub orbital space for its test flight program. In an interview with Clark Lindsey’s Space Transport News, Whitehorn indicated that we may see White Knight II and an attached SpaceShipTwo flying by the end of 2009; however, attached does not mean that SS2 will be launched on its test flight schedule by years end - rather the combination of carrier aircraft and payload will be tested in tandem…Whitehorn rather determined that the test flight program proper for SS2 will begin in late 2010, later to be followed by a US Federal Aviation Administration licensing process that should see passenger flights to sub orbital space beginning around 2011-2012.

Source: Flight Global/Picture credit: Virgin Galactic

EADS Astrium cancels work on space tourism project

2009-03-27T11:54:00.000-07:00

Flight Global has reported that due to the worldwide financial crisis, EADS Astrium has decided to cancel development work on its sub-orbital space plane concept. The ' Space Jet' is understood to have failed to inspire investor confidence after development costs of $1.4 billion were suggested.

Image: EADS Astrium

Charles Simonyi blasts off - again!

2009-03-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

Soyuz 'Expedition 19' TMA 14 launched from Kazakhstan at 7:49 a.m. ET (1149 GMT) on March 26 carrying the Hungarian-American computer executive Charles Simyoni on his second space tourism adventure.

Simonyi, who previously launched towards the International Space Station aboard Soyuz TMA-10 in April 2007 ( returning on TMA-9) will make his second visit to the ISS today, with a docking estimate of 9:15 a.m. ET (1315 GMT).

Simonyi will share his Soyuz spacecraft with NASA flight engineer Michael Barratt and Russian expedition commander Gennady Padalka.

Simonyi does not simply intend to use the his time aboard the ISS for mere weightless acrobatics, however. With an intended ISS departure set for April 7, Charles will instead spend his time performing educational outreach and scientific research. His second voyage has reportedly cost him $35 million.

Simonyi's trip could also witness the keen amateur radio enthusiast contacting schools to inform them of the wonders of human spaceflight, hopefully encouraging some of his young audience to pursue the necessary skills needed to enter industries connected to the New Space fields. Who knows who could be listening to his broadcasts back on Earth and who will be inspired to follow Charles' lead into space?

Picture credit: Space.com

Source: Space.com

Myasishchev to end space tourism imput

2009-03-15T12:05:00.000-07:00

The Russian Myasishchev design bureau is set to be incorporated into Russia's United Aircraft (UA). Myasishchev, previously responsible for exploring the feasibility of Aerospace System (AKS) M-91/ VM-T Atlant (pictured) for an undisclosed Russian group, will now solely concentrate on aircraft design work.

You may remember Myasishchev as the bureau who were involved with Space Adventures sub orbital space plane concept in february 2006. Space Adventures had agreed to work alongside a US investment company called Prodea who intended to back the develop a sub-orbital space plane concept called the 'Explorer'; unfortunately, however, Prodea could not deliver on a firm timetable for development work to begin, which ultimately left the Explorer concept floundering for want of firm backing. The project's existence was further cast into doubt when in february 2007, Russian Federal Space Agency head, Anatoly Perminov, informed a reporter for Flight Global that his agency had not been dealing with any follow-up work on the Explorer.

The Explorer is clearly dead but still remains a 'what-if' of the early New Space Age.

Source: Flight Global

Picture Credit:Myasishchev

ARCA test lunar engine

2009-03-15T11:38:00.000-07:00

Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association (ARCA) has recently conducted a propellant firing test for its Stabilo suborbital space vehicle. In addition, the company also tested the lunar injection engine for its European Lunar Explorer - a vehicle that the company hope will be able to soft land on the Moon's surface. ARCA, who joined the X-Prize competition in 2002 have so far concentrated their efforts on two main projects: demonstrator rockets, designed to test essential features of a range of larger vehicles and Stabilo, a two man, air launched suv-orbital vehicle designed to be launched from a solar montgolfier balloon.

ESA funding for revolutionary British spaceplane!

2009-02-24T13:54:00.000-08:00

The European Space Agency are pumping 1 million euros into Oxford based Reaction Engines' British Skylon space plane project. In a new technology demonstration programme designed to test the feasibility of the plane's Sabre air-breathing engine, Reaction Engines hopes to determine whether Skylon could place up to 12,000kgs (26,400lbs) into Earth orbit using a single stage to orbit transfer.

Reaction Engines has a £6M budget and is currently paying EADS Astrium, the University of Bristol and German Aerospace centre DLR to further technology demonstration development work. The ESA funding advances the company's already lofty ambitions and allow a demonstration of the Sabre engine; the engine uses an air-breathing heat exchanger to cool incoming air that is compressed and burnt with hydrogen fuel (stored onboard in liquid form). The same hydrogen will then be used with a supply of liquid oxygen to provide rocket propulsion. According to Flight Global: The programme will see a representative heat exchanger ground tested, an oxidiser- cooled combustion chamber demonstrated at DLR Lampoldhausen facility and an adaptive nozzle design investigated by the University of Bristol.

Source: Flight Global

Photo Credit: Reaction Engines

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited looks into use of White Knight II for possible air launch...

2009-02-04T00:29:00.000-08:00

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited and Virgin Galactic are said to be thrashing out ways in which White knight II can be adapted to launch small satellite payloads. The United Kingdom, whose record on realising the potential of a commercial satellite industry can be summed up with the words - Black-Knight - is clearly in need of a low cost, non governmental route to orbit - and what better way is there to the stars than through a US Pegasus (pictured) style air launch system?

SSTL are looking at lofting 50kg payloads into polar orbit with a minium altitude of 248 miles. The air launch rocket will be further adapted to enhance performance. Will Whitehorn of Virgin Galactic commented: "We'd be looking at a range from 50 to up to a maximum of 200kg because you'd want to do different sizes of satellite. " Dr Adam Baker of SSTL further commented: " In 1971, we cancelled our launch-vehicle programme and have never gone back into it despite the fact that launch vehicles are an essential part of a healthy space industry. If we had our own launcher - something modest, not an enormous vehicle - for a reasonable price, we could service our own needs, both scientific and military, and we could also sell the service on the open market. Hopefully we can do it for a lot less money than the current providers.
It costs something like $5m-$10m at the moment to get one of our smaller satellites into space. What we are targeting is to see if we can do this for a million dollars.
I think that's a very challenging number but I'm confident we can get very close to that - and if you could build the satellite itself for a couple of million dollars, all of a sudden you've got a very attractive package for well under $5m that lets your customers do something pretty capable in orbit"

SSTL are no mere vapour tech space wannabes either. Their credits include the Disaster Monitoring Constellation and Giove-B, a demonstrator system for Europe's pending Galileo Sat-nav system, so any partnership with VG is bound to be scientifically productive. Watch this space!

Image: BBC/Pegasus

Happy New Year and God's speed Falcon 9!

2009-01-02T16:35:00.000-08:00

Check out these amazing pictures of SpaceX's Falcon 9 - now fully intergrated at Cape Canaveral! The 5.2 metre payload faring is now mated to the rocket's first stage. When welding is complete the vehicle will be raised to vertical ready for launch.

Images: SpaceX

Falcon 9 Intergration at SLC40

2008-12-22T15:28:00.000-08:00

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne California are currently making rapid progress in the transportation of the elements of their Falcon 9 rocket to the company's flight site at Space Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

2009 will be a busy year for SpaceX with no less than four Falcon 9 test flights, two of which will form part of NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services competition - these flights carrying the company's Dragon, man rated capsule into space.

Image: SpaceX

White Knight 2 to the skies!

2008-12-22T14:59:00.000-08:00

The maiden flight of Scaled Composite's White Knight 2 all carbon composite carrier plane has taken place at Mojave Air and Spaceport in California. On Sunday, between 8:17 am and 9.17am Pacific Standard Time, the giant aircraft took to the skies under the power of its four Pratt and Whitney PW308A turbofan engines.

WK2 represents the crucial vehicle element in Richard Branson's plan for commercial sub-orbital public spaceflight. With an extensive series of shakedown flights planned, the White Knight 2 will soon be joined to its rocket plane payload - the SpaceShipTwo vehicle blasting passengers to 328,000ft for a $200,000 per person price tag.

Image: Virgin Galactic

NMSA receives vertical and horizontal launch license from the FAA

2008-12-17T09:01:00.000-08:00

Monday saw the FAA granting a license for vertical and horizontal launches to the New Mexico Spaceport Authority. The license was recieved from the Federal Aviation Administration's Associate Administrator. With roadwork to the site now underway and the spaceport having passed the crucial Environmental Impact Study Record of Decision stage, the $225 million development comes yet closer to fruition. Construction of the URS/Foster and Partners designed terminal complex will begin in 2009.

Google Lunar X Prize competition heats up.

2008-12-17T08:20:00.000-08:00

The starting line of the Google Lunar x-Prize competition has become that little bit more crowded with the entry of a new contender. There's 14 teams already in the running for the coveted prize, but this hasn't stopped the private citizens of Denmark, Italy and Sweden from dreaming up Euroluna - described by its builders as: " a mobile phone on wheels".

The 110 (50Kg) Euroluna Rover will likely be launched onboard a commercial rocket - the very same vehicle will blast the Euroluna vehicle on a Moon bound trajectory. If all goes well the Rover will end its mission by wheeling across the airless surface of our satellite, beaming back pictures and (fingers crossed due to a lack of redundant systems) completing all the goals specified by the X-Prize without seroius technical mishap. Heaven fobid if the Rover meets Breccia regolith rocks also ; Palle Hastrup, Euroluna's team leader added that the vehicle : " will not include a suspension system. If we land in a rock garden, we will not be able to get out of it."

In contrast to the European efforts, there is a second new GLXP entry that hails from Shanghai where German-born inventor Markus Bindhammer's team, Selene, has been working on LuRoCa 1 - a vehicle that shouldn't have any problems with negotiation lunar hazards. LuRoCa 1 will be a rocket powered HD camera platform that will be deployed from the team's Selena 1 lander. Bindhammer hopes to launch the Selena 1 and its LuRoCa 1 rocket rover onboard a Falcon 9 or perhaps even a Chinese launch vehicle.

With the possibility of more teams joining the private Moon race, we are certain to see hardware flying before long.

Images: Selene/ Euroluna/ Google Lunar X Prize.

New Shepherd new details emerge

2008-12-10T13:22:00.000-08:00

Jeff Bezos' DC-X inspired New Shepherd may be a step closer to flight in light of a recent test flight of prototype space ware at Blue Origin's top secret site in Texas. In addition to the released test flight revelation, the recent data trickle from the company also revealed further details about the secretive craft's design and intended operations.

According to Blue Origin, New Shepherd will cater for both human and experimental cargo. With reference to information released to press channels, the company are already asking for payload proposals with special attention being paid to microgravity research and educational experiments.

The specifics of the payloads also provide insight into the eventual design of the top secret craft. The crew will ride in the same module that is set aside for cargo; this has been dubbed the Crew Capsule (CC). Power will be provided via a separate Propulsion Module (PM). The finalised vehicle may closely resemble the concept design featured on Mark Wade's Encyclopedia Astronautica website. As for the flight plan, the company has released a graph showing expected service altitudes and operation.

We await the new test flight video with baited breath!

Image: Mark Wade/ Blue Origin.

Dragon Lab Capsule Testing

2008-12-07T09:51:00.000-08:00

SpaceX's Dragon Lab capsule is now undergoing a series of qualification tests to prepare it for the vacuum of space. Dragon Lab is described, by the company, as ' a free-flying, fully-recoverable, reusable spacecraft capable of hosting pressurized and unpressurized payloads'. Max Vozoff, production manager for Dragon Lab recently commented: " The response to our DragonLab rollout has been absolutely astounding. Our workshop was at full capacity and we even had to turn away qualified people. With the U.S. Space Shuttle retiring in two years, clearly there is great demand from principal investigators, companies and institutions looking for ways to fly payloads in space and return them to Earth".

Image:SpaceX

Armadillo Aerospace win Level One Portion of Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge

2008-11-11T13:20:00.000-08:00

Congratulations go to Armadillo Aerospace who won the Level One of Grumman's Lunar Lander Challenge on Oct 25. That's $350,000 in the bag! An attempt was made to win the Level Two challenge the next day, but the team failed to clinch the $1.65 million prize.

The goals of the challenge, according to the X Prize website are: " to accelerate commercial technological developments supporting the birth of a new generation of Lunar Landers capable of ferrying payloads or humans back and forth between lunar orbit and the lunar surface"

Image: XPrize Foundation

Dragon Lab

2008-11-11T12:55:00.000-08:00

Got any experiements that require zero-g? SpaceX are looking for customers to fill its planned Dragon Lab, an orbital volume that may allow corporations and universities to trial their wares in Earth orbit for variable durations. With the maiden flight of Falcon 9 scheduled for June 2009, Dragon Lab offers a cost effective way in which payloads can be exposed to the dynamics of freefall for a fraction of the price of government backed flight time.

Image: SpaceX

Armadillo and Rocket Racing Inc team up

2008-10-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

Armadillo Aerospace and Rocket Racing Incoporated are teaming up to offer sub-orbital flights from New Mexico by 2010. For $100,000 potential astronauts can hop aboard what looks to be a scaled up, man rated version of Armadillo's Pixel, to enjoy breathtaking views of the planet whilst in temporary free-fall.

"The price of space is coming down to Earth. And thanks to Armadillo's ships and New Mexico's spaceport, human beings will be treated to the most stellar views in the galaxy", commented Rocket Racing Inc's chief executive Granger Whitelaw. With Virgin Galactic due to begin testing of SpaceShipTwo by early 2010, the race for sub-orbit is clearly heating up.

Images: Flight Global Hyperbola Blog/ Armadillo Aerospace

They've done it! Falcon 1 becomes first private launch vehicle to reach Earth orbit.

2008-09-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

On September 28 2008, SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket became the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to reach Earth orbit. After three previous failures, Falcon 1 achieved an eliptical orbit of 500km by 700 km with a 9.2 degrees inclination. On this sucessful fourth attempt the rocket upper stage carried a mass simulator of 364lbs. According to the official Space X press release, this 'hexagonal aluminum alloy chamber 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall remains attached to the second stage as it orbits Earth'. Elon Musk, SpaceX's CEO further commented: " This is a great day for SpaceX and the culmination of an enormous amount of work by a great team. The data shows we achieved a super precise orbit insertion—middle of the bull's-eye — and then went on to coast and restart the second stage, which was icing on the cake".

Elon Musk on Space X's future plans

2008-09-14T14:02:00.000-07:00

At the 11th Annual International Mars Society Convention in Boulder, Colorado, Elon Musk, CEO of Space X, hinted at plans to build a Heavy H variant of the company's forth coming Falcon 9 rocket. The Heavy H would thus have comparable abilities to the current USAF Delta IV Heavy.

"If you can do a couple launches of the Falcon 9 Heavy with a cryogenic upper stage, that would give you a sort of Saturn 5 capability", Musk told the MSC.

With a recent "thrust transient" problem having caused the loss of the company's Falcon 3 demo flight on August 2, a rocket capable of flinging humans and cargo to Mars still looks a long way off for SpaceX, but the company remains focused on its goal of providing affordable access to LEO and beyond.

Video: Space Review/ Image SpaceX

Virgin Galactic close to putting tourists into space with the unveiling of giant carrier aircraft White Knight II!

2008-07-28T11:47:00.000-07:00

Virgin Galactic’s Scaled Composites designed White Knight II has finally been unveiled to the world at Mojave Air and Space Port in California. Galactic, owned by Sir Richard Branson has purportedly invested 100 million dollars of his own money into the project so far.

The sizeable, twin boomed aircraft, christened ’Eve’ after Branson’s mother, revealed its computer chiselled form this afternoon, to an expectant crowd of excited journalist and spectators who were treated to the sight of both Burt Rutan and Branson waving from the aircraft’s cockpit. White Knight II is designed to carry the still uncompleted SpaceShipTwo to an release altitude of 48,000 feet. The giant, four engined aircraft has a wing span of some 42 metres effectively allowing it to fulfil a multitude of roles beyond the hauling of its SpaceShipTwo sub orbital cargo; from fire fighting to the launch of small satellites, White Knight II will truly be a multi use aircraft.
The unveiling of White Knight II comes at an auspicious time, the giant carrier aircraft emerging from its hanger only one day short of the 50th anniversary of the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. For those of a more mystical bent, this random collision of dates might herald a powerful portent; with nuts and bolts technology finally on the tarmac, maybe this is truly a sign that it is time for private aerospace to tread where previously only large governments have dared.
White Knight II will now undergo an extensive period of shakedown flights to establish the aircraft’s handling abilities and systems performance. With SpaceShipTwo 70% fleet the twin craft system maybe launching paying passengers into sub orbital space by 2010.

Image: Scaled Composites/Virgin Galactic

Starchaser Industries unveils Nova 2

2008-07-02T14:28:00.000-07:00

Starchaser Industries unveiled their Nova 2 rocket July 2 at Salford University, England. CEO, Steve Bennett hopes to fly the rocket in late 2009 from Morecambe Bay in Wales. The late 09 test will evaluate the rocket's launch escape system , travelling to an estimated altitude of 13,000 ft.

Nova 2 represents the largest private rocket yet built in the United Kingdom. With hopes for sub-orbital flights by 2013, Bennett hopes to raise the necessary funds to begin work on Nova 2's successor rocket, the Thunderstar - a craft that will be capable of taking passengers into space itself.

If Bennett is successful in him aims, his efforts could go down in the history books as being the first time a UK company and a native launch system managed to place a human being beyond Earth's atmosphere.

While the British government retains a risk averse, avoid-ant strategy towards manned spaceflight, Bennett, and his private company, continues to plough ahead with his dream of finally putting his country on the aerospace map.

Although obviously not on the scale of anything that NASA could produce, it is also wise to note that Bennett is a private individual trying to raise the necessary funds to build his rockets' without the backing of big government. If there is to be a revolution in human spaceflight, surely this method is a better path to tread than the one which forever seeks to push the burden of human spaceflight onto the taxpayer?

Image: Starchaser Industries

June news round-up

2008-06-22T14:13:00.000-07:00

SpaceX Engine Test

I forgot to include details of the May 29 SpaceX engine firing! The event saw 5 Merlin 1C engines static ignited at the company’s 235 foot tall test facility in Texas to produce nearly half a million pounds of thrust. Acording to SpaceX’s website, that’s “ four times the maximum thrust of a 747 aircraft”.Tom Mueller, Vice President for propulsion at SpaceX commented: “This is the first time that we’ve added more than one engine at a time, and all phases of integration and testing went smoothly. As with previous tests, we saw no unexpected interactions between the engines, and are on schedule for adding four more engines”
While Falcon 9 is on course for delivery to Cape Canaveral at the end of 2008, the company will continue its Falcon 1 test program this July with a further demonstration flight.

Space adventures announces private mission to the ISS

Check out this announcement from the website of Space Adventures. The move will no doubt prove favourable in light of the initiation of the Space Adventures’ Orbital Mission Explorers Circle, a program that not only allows space explorers to reserve their seats for future flights, but to also sell these seats to other private astronauts willing to undertake orbital flights. Google Co-founder Sergey Brin is the first member of the circle, according to SA’s website. Brin commented: “I am a big believer in the exploration and commercial development of the space frontier, and am looking forward to the possibility of going into space. Space Adventures helped open the space frontier to private citizens and thus pave the way for the personal spaceflight industry. The Orbital Mission Explorers Circle enables me to make an immediate investment while preserving the option to participate in a future spaceflight”

Anyway, here’s the announcement: courtesy of Space Adventures.

June 11 2008
"Space Adventures, the only company that provides human space missions to the world marketplace, announced today that it has finalized an arrangement with its long-standing partner, the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation (FSA), to launch the first private mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission is scheduled to launch in the second half of 2011.

This private spaceflight opportunity will be a fully dedicated mission of the Soyuz-TMA spacecraft with two seats available for private space explorers, along with a comprehensive package of mission services including science, education and media program options. The first private mission to the ISS is offered to not only individual explorers, but also to businesses, organizations and institutions.

“For the last decade, Space Adventures’ orbital spaceflight program has provided the only opportunity for private individuals to fly in space, conduct research in a sustained zero gravity environment and experience the beauty of seeing the Earth from humanity's only orbiting outpost,,” said Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures. “We have had the pleasure of fulfilling the dreams of the only five private space explorers in history, and now, I am pleased to announce that our orbital program is expanding with more opportunities for spaceflight missions into the next decade.”

Space Adventures became world renowned in 2001 with the launch of client Dennis Tito, the world’s first privately funded spaceflight participant. Since then, the company has launched four other individuals to space. Space Adventures’ sixth orbital spaceflight client, Richard Garriott, son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, is currently in cosmonaut training with his launch to the ISS scheduled for October 12, 2008.

Under the new arrangement, Space Adventures will contribute to the increase of launch capacity to the ISS, demonstrating its long-term commitment to contract for additional private missions through the lifespan of the space station.

"We are very pleased to continue working with Space Adventures into the foreseeable future. This method for growing our commercial partnership with Space Adventures is beneficial for all parties. The Soyuz to be used for this mission shall be a specially manufactured craft, separate from the other Soyuz vehicles designated for the transportation of the ISS crews,” said Alexey B. Krasnov, FSA. “This private mission, flying two Space Adventures’ clients at once, will not interfere with the implementation of the ISS program or the obligations of the Russian space agency; on the contrary, it shall add flexibility and redundancy to our ISS transportation capabilities."

Spaceflight participants will train as other private space explorers have, and the launch is scheduled for the second half of 2011."

Neil A. Armstrong Lunar base!

It’s interesting that the NASA Authorization act of 2008 HR 6063 which June 20 passed the House Science and Technology committee unanimously contains the following under:

Sec. 403. Lunar Outpost.
A. Establishment- As NASA works toward the establishment of a lunar outpost, NASA shall make no plans that would require a lunar outpost to be occupied to maintain its viability. Any such outpost shall be operable as a human-tended facility capable of remote or autonomous operation for extended periods.
B. Designation- The United States portion of the first human-tended outpost established on the surface of the Moon shall be designated the 'Neil A. Armstrong Lunar Outpost'.
C. Congressional Intent- It is the intent of Congress that NASA shall make use of commercial services to the maximum extent practicable in support of its lunar outpost activities.
* Extreme speculation alert*
Perhaps by 2020, Space X, Bigelow Aerospace and maybe even Virgin Galactic will be in a position to shadow NASA’s Ares V launched Altair Lander down to the lunar surface using craft of their own? Maybe Neil A. Armstrong Lunar base could be a tourist destination in the same way that the ISS is today?

German Spaceliner!

2008-05-30T05:57:00.000-07:00

If you thought that SpaceshipTwo was impressive then check out this monster from the drafting boards of the German Aerospace Center. The design shows a giant passenger carrying shuttlecraft, piggybacked on a winged external tank: Perhaps 2 hour NewYork to Tokyo flights won't be too far off after all!

Image/ German Aerospace Center/ Rob Coppinger

UK Skylon SSTO

2008-05-30T05:49:00.000-07:00

Take a look at Reactions Engines' concept for their "Skylon" single stage to orbit system. This detailed operating plan was revealed by Mark Hemsell ( a consultant to RE) at the International Academy of Astronautics' symposium on private human access to space, yesterday. The illustrations are designed to offer an insight into Skylon's payload capabilities.

Image: Reaction Engines/Rob Coppinger

European Space Tourism

2008-05-27T05:40:00.000-07:00

While Starchaser industries has already been awarded business plan support from the ESA, here are some of the competing European suborbital teams vying for ESA support. In descending order:

1: UK Spacefleet Club

2: Myasischev Design Bureau

3: European Astronaut Club's Vehicule Suborbital Habite

4: Project Enterprise

Images: Courtesy of above

ESA Space Tourism Position Paper

2008-05-27T05:19:00.000-07:00

Rather than try and cherry pick sections of the ESA's recent STPP, I have reproduced the entire document here for perusal.

ESA’s position on privately-funded suborbital spaceflight 10 April 2008

There are different possible definitions of space tourism. In this document, the term “Space Tourism” will be meant to encompass the execution of suborbital flights by privately-funded and/or privately-operated vehicles and the associated technology development driven by the space tourism market.

The need for an ESA position on Space Tourism.

Activities linked to Space Tourism have been gaining momentum and registered a number of remarkable achievements during the last few years. There is large public interest in human suborbital flights. The large figures of prospective paying customers quoted in recent market surveys1 show that Space Tourism offers the potential for sustained progress in a fashion similar to what happened in the early days of aviation.These developments might have deep and significant implications for space activities as a whole. Being at the core of Europe’s space activities, ESA is expected to have a position on space tourism, and needs to have a coordinated and corporate approach with respect to these activities. This document outlines the different aspects linked to Space Tourism which may have an impact on ESA, and proposes the major features of such a position.

The different aspects of Space Tourism.

Space Tourism raises a number of issues relevant to ESA, which are briefly described below.

Technology and operations.

The development of Space Tourism would encompass significant new developments in aerospace technologies, and bring an aeronautics perspective to space technology development and operations, in particular concerning the aspects of reusability and routine processes associated to the high flight rates. In the aeronautics sector, these developments could lead in the long term to high-speed vehicle concepts with the potential to reduce drastically the duration of long distance flights. The cost for human suborbital flights is initially projected at about 200 000 US$ with over 200 private persons having made an advance payment to fly on SpaceShipTwo in the case of Virgin Galactic, and expected subsequently to drop to about 50 000 US$ with roughly 16 000 passengers interested to fly in 2021 according to the “Space Tourism Market Study” conducted in 2002 by FUTRON, a US-based space consultancy firm. What has been demonstrated is that sub-orbital flight at ~100 km can be done a few times with a prototype vehicle. The real challenge will be to have a vehicle that allows flying the mission many times, with associated operations, in a profitable way.developments could lead in the long term to high-speed vehicle concepts with the potential to reduce drastically the duration of long distance flights.

Commercialisation and partnership development

Space Tourism efforts are also linked with the ultimate goals of human spaceflight programmes, i.e. enabling routine human access to space and the preparation of the long-term, sustained human exploration of the Solar System. In this sense there is also a link of space tourism efforts with exploration programmes, even if the end-objectives and requirements are completely different.There is thus a clear interest in supporting the emergence of private business in the context of human spaceflight, also because privately developed and operated infrastructure elements, derived from space tourism undertakings, could one day become building blocks of a wider space exploration scenario.

Legal aspects and regulatory framework.

There are different aspects to be addressed from a legal standpoint. Space Tourism will be carried out substantially in the airspace of a given country, and therefore the civil aviation regulatory authorities of the countries concerned and the competent agencies of the European Community should be at the forefront of the setting up of a regulatory framework for Space Tourism in Europe. Space Tourism will certainly have a significant influence on aerospace industry, in view of the opportunities it may create, but also of the competition it may foster. Also, since in the longer term space tourism will involve travelling to outer space, some rules of space law may find application for Space Tourism; in particular, the “launching State(s)”, through its administrative national agency designated for carrying out space activities, will have a role to play in exercising jurisdiction and control over that activity.

Communication aspects and visibility of space activities

The development of a larger space tourism market and potentially a larger number of citizens experiencing spaceflight will have an impact on the visibility and perception of human spaceflight/exploration in the general public. ESA will have to consider such development in its communication strategy in order to take profit from such additional outreach for the benefit of the space sector, but also to illustrate/explain the differences between the complexities and ambitions of space tourism and those of classical human spaceflight/exploration activities.

Major Guidelines of ESA’s position

Considering the balance between the potential advantages of Space Tourism - high visibility of space, additional development efforts of space technologies, increased appeal for science & technology education, creation of new commercial markets, etc. - , and its potential risks and/or drawbacks – environmental aspects, safety issues, exclusiveness of an activity aimed initially at a very small and wealthy minority of the population -, we recommend a position of cautious interest and informed support, along the following guidelines:

1. ESA should monitor the relevant technology activities and assess whether spin-ins and spin-offs could be envisaged for/from European space programmes.

2. While avoiding interfering in the development of a fully competitive market, ESA should further reflect on possible partnership with European ventures or support actions, based on mutual interest and demonstrated technical and commercial maturity, without nevertheless exposing the Agency to any liabilities related to business exploitation. To this end, legal schemes should be defined to allow for such activities, as allowed within the principles laid out in the ESA Convention.

3. Provision of services by the Agency in the domain of human spaceflight, in particular “astronaut training”, i.e. provision of expertise for developing dedicated training programmes and/or facilities for specific tourist flight opportunities, and “space medicine”, i.e. provision of expertise to develop dedicated medical preparation programmes of space tourists, should also be explored for mutual benefit, making available ESA’s competences under conditions to be defined.

4. ESA should contribute in the development of a regulatory frame for Space Tourism in Europe, involving both civil aviation regulatory authorities and competent bodies from the EC, aiming also at a more level playing field for all worldwide players, and supporting the interests of European industry.

5. ESA should facilitate the free flow of ideas among all interested European players, e.g. by establishing a platform for voluntary information exchange.

Document: ESA

CIRA's entry

2008-05-05T00:32:00.000-07:00

CIRA, an Italian Aerospace research centre, recently unveiled a concept for a winged space tourism vehicle. The vehicle, which is an elaboration of CIRA’s soon to be launched USV-X test prototype is another indication of how crowded the space tourism market may yet become. With the USV-X utilising a solid Vega rocket for launch, it is not yet clear how CIRA’s concept space tourism vehicle will propel itself, or whether or not the design is intended for sub orbit or orbital flight. Whatever the case the concept art, showing a Bell-X style cockpit and porthole windows for passengers, looks pretty cool…

Image: Flight Global/CIRA

SpaceX/Nasa contract

2008-04-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-21T06:53:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-08T02:58:00.000-07:00

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

XCOR Lynx

2008-03-27T12:04:00.000-07:00

XCOR Aerospace of Mojave, California, unveiled a new micro sub orbital space plane on March 26: dubbed the Lynx, the craft will possess the ability to soar to an altitude of perhaps 61km (200,000ft), a height some 50 km short of Virgin Galactic's Spaceshiptwo, but no less impressive.
Unlike Spaceshiptwo and EADS Astrium’s, space jet concept, the Lynx will only carry a single passenger alongside a pilot. XCOR’s CEO, Jeff Greason commented on the unveiling of the craft: ‘One of the advantages of doing a small vehicle that flies frequently is that, if the market goes through ups and downs, or takes a little more time to develop, we're not over-exposing ourselves’.
XCOR are now hoping that the Lynx concept will excite future investors enough to take a gamble on the craft’s potential. As such they are seeking to obtain funding from the AFRL; the Air Vehicles Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory, who are offering $750,000 for a firm who can offer key propulsion innovations with aerospace applications.
With an eye on the micro satellite market as well, XCOR are hoping to offer a block II version of the Lynx - a space plane with a pod housing above the fuselage that can loft small satellites into orbit; micro gravity research will also be offered as part of Lynx’s design parameters.
As XCOR continue to make innovations in the building and operation of liquid fuelled rocket engines, it is likely that we will see a variant of the craft flying in the 2010-2015 timeframe, perhaps operating under the FAA’s experimental permit regime. In the meantime, have a look at the concept designs and video of the space plane in operation.

Images and Video (XCOR Aerospace)

The European reaction to American suborbital capability

2008-03-21T06:50:00.000-07:00

EADS Astrium’s chief technical officer, Robert Laine, took the opportunity awarded by the 99th Kelvin Lecture at the London Institution of Engineering and Technology, to further outline the European company’s plans to markets and build a fleet of sub- orbital passenger aircraft for use in the space tourism industry.
Astrium, who are responsible for the construction of the highly successful Ariane 5 rocket, have completed an extensive and systematic market survey to gauge the level of public interest in sub-orbital travel. The results of their market survey suggests that up to 15,000 people a year would be willing to part with £160,000 for a journey to 100km: To service such passenger numbers, Astrium are planning to build 10 sub orbital passenger spacecraft a year starting in the 2011-2015 timeframe.
Robert Laine commented: “To satisfy the market you will need more planes than you think, because once there is regular operation, the price will decrease which means there will be more customers. It will develop towards a classical aeronautical business model. Someone will build the planes; somebody will operate them; somebody will sell the tickets; somebody will provide the accommodation - like any tourism“.
Astrium’s commitment will not extend to operating the vehicles in the same way that NASA operates its STS system; the space planes will be built to order, and then marketed and run by whatever space tourism operator wants to harness their abilities: We can likely expect true space lines to develop to service the demand for sub-orbital travel, with hulls repainted and resprayed to show the logos and colours of individual operators. The model will be no different from the way modern airlines run or operate.
Laine further added that the EADS Astrium space plane was well into development, with wind tunnel testing and the liquid oxygen-methane propellant supplied engine already enduring successful 31 second trials. Half of the space plane’s weight will be taken up by the fuel; a jet assisted flight to 12km will be replaced with the ignition of the craft’s rocket engine that will propel the vehicle upwards using a 80 second burn: when the engine shuts down, the craft should possess enough momentum to propel itself to a 100km altitude. In space, small thrusters will keep the plane’s underside pointing Earthwards. Unlike Rutan’s Spaceshiptwo, the Astrium space plane will not use a ‘feathered re-entry’ method, but will rather use its full underside surface area to decelerate, summoning temperatures of 100C on the spacecraft’s leading edges. Upon, re-entry, the space plane will use its jet engines to make a smooth runway landing. Total journey time? One and a half hours.
Laine indicated that Northern Europe would not likely host the facilities to cater for the space jets, hinting instead that minimum air traffic sites would be utilised instead; although hinting at launching from bases near the Mediterranean, it still remains a distinct possibility that previously indicated locations such as Kiruna, and Lossiemouth will eventually be used also.
The goal now for Astrium is to see how other systems (such as Spaceshiptwo) service and capture the public demand for human sub-orbital space flight. Indeed, to attentive observers, it seems likely that Astrium’s plans are only likely to reach fruition, should others succeed in similar endeavours: European efforts towards sub-orbital passenger services can thus be judged in terms of a response and a reaction to transatlantic developments, rather than as an innovative leader and creator of a regular passenger driven space flight scenario.

(Picture: EADS Astrium)

COTS funding awarded to Orbital Sciences Corp

2008-02-28T00:27:00.000-08:00

Orbital Sciences Corporation, a Virginia based satellite manafacturer, was selected on Feb 19 by NASA to offer unmanned ISS resupply via its new Taurus II (medium lift expendable) launched Cygnus spacecraft. The first demonstration flight of the Cygnus is scheduled for 2010, after which a successful demonstration will lead to the Cygnus complementing the ISS ressuply missions currently flown through the Russian Progress Spacecraft.

Images: Orbital Sciences Corp

The private race for the Moon - update

2008-02-28T00:08:00.000-08:00

Google has reported that no less than ten teams have signed up for its Lunar X Prize competition. It seems that there are no shortage of contenders willing to risk all in the race to win the £15 million Google bounty. So who are these new teams and what can they offer?
With names like, Quantum3, Team Italia and FREDNET, you would be forgiven for thinking that the competing groups are involved in the preparation for some kind of futuristic drag race event: But that is exactly the point. Why shouldn’t space exploration evoke the excitement of large sporting spectacles? After all, at stake is the ability for private individuals or small companies to explore the ultimate high territory- the lunar surface - if that is not grounds for excitement then there is little else that can be.
Joining Quantum3, Team Italia and FREDNET, there are Southern California Selene Group, Micro-Space, LunaTrex, Chandah, Astrobotic and ACRA. All of the teams are competing for the grand prize of, the deadline of which is set for Dec. 31 2012. If by this time, the grand prize is indeed claimed, then the victor team will have accomplished a feat of engineering that has little compare, except in the aerospace history books of the largest of world governments: They will have landed a 90% privately funded craft on the Moon’s surface - a feat that may indeed foreshadow the true exploration and settlement of the 8th continent by private industry. Add to this the photographing of Cold War artefacts and the trial of surviving the frigid 334 hour lunar night and the Google Lunar X Prize could shape up to be one of the most remarkable technology competitions of the early 21st century.

Images: Astrobotic, Quantum3

Why Britain needs astronaut heroes

2008-02-14T09:10:00.000-08:00

The BBC featured a short video news item today entitled ‘Ministers consider UK astronauts’. The item focused on the UK’s forthcoming ministerial response to the Global Exploration Strategy - a plan whereby 13 space agencies would begin the progress towards a free aeronautical information exchange - a scheme designed to ultimately facilitate the human exploration of the solar system.
Since the GES will rely largely on the exchange of information to aid manned exploration, the UK, it seems, is now cursing its luck in making a decision to abandon human space flight in favour of robotic alternatives. With the US Constellation and Aurora programs both aiming for a manned return to the Moon, the UK, it seems, is no longer simply content to fire robotic probes towards lunar capture orbits while European and US astronauts are bounding across the lunar regolith; if manned modules are to land, the UK would like its own core of astronauts aboard. The problem is making the U-turn wash with the UK taxpayer. Britain can afford its own astronauts, but is there the political will to launch any? If political will is to be backed by the general public, then what do the UK populace think to the idea?
Judging by the text responses from the general public to the BBC item, the UK taxpayer is broadly split on the question of both manned and robotic space exploration. Some comments were supportive and focused on Britain’s historic role as an international engine for global exploration, its national figures as evidence for the drive to explore new frontiers and territories; many other comments supported this idea, adding additional evidence to cite the link between aerospace research and development and the creation of high tech job roles to meet such demands.
Many, it seemed, appreciated the enormous benefits that space exploration can bring to a space faring economy. Other comments, however, were not so supportive. Forget about space and save the planet, this was how the opposition largely conducted their argument. Ditch space travel and cure global hunger and the NHS.
I am always amazed by such comments. Surely, everyone knows that the images of Earth from lunar orbit captured during the Apollo 8 mission became the graphic symbol for the very movements that urged us to preserve our planet? Don’t they? If not then why not? Ironically, as Andrew Chaikin reveals in his book: A Man on the Moon; by voyaging to our nearest celestial neighbour, humanity actually discovered its home planet in its entirety - an infinitely fragile marble - a speck surrounded by an unbounded vacuum.
As for global hunger and the NHS, these problems will not be cured by imposing a ban on all rocket launches. Far from it, without satellite systems, our planet would be devoid of all the precious information that helps farmers in India and Africa to monitor and plan for draught conditions, precipitation and crop maintenance. The global hunger problem would be far worse. See FAST for further details.
With reference to the NHS, the problems there are ones of management, monetary resource misuse and poor leadership. Allocating £100 million from any future aerospace budget will not cure the NHS’s problems, rather they are likely to make them worse: The NHS, like most public services, should be restructured to save money rather than be allowed to pour more and more funding into already leaky plumbing. Further, the idea that human space medical science might actually benefit the NHS through the manufacture of advanced pharmaceuticals is entirely alien to many of the general public! It seems that what we are dealing with here is less of a hostility to space exploration, but rather, a complete ignorance about the impact of space technologies upon the lives of the UK population. For all these peoples’ comment, you would be forgiven for thinking that none of them has ever owned, let alone, used, a GPS!
The Earth is a part of space whether a fraction of the UK population likes it or not. Our home planet is as vulnerable to comet and asteroid strikes, gamma ray bursts, solar flares, as is any other planet in the solar system. Simply sticking our heads into the sand and maintaining the belief that Earth is somehow stored in some safe little annex adjacent to the cosmos proper, is no longer acceptable. Please don’t tell me that a trillion dollar economy can’t sustain the recruitment, training and flight booking of ten astronauts, when billions are squandered on transient sporting follies like the Olympic games. Quite simply, Britain needs to get its priorities right.
So what can the UK government do to ensure that British children (future scientists) have a place in the future lunar and Martian colonies? The creation of a large, well funded, high profile government space agency is surely a must. Who has heard of the British National Space Centre? Anyone? That is precisely the problem that the UK currently suffers - there seems to be no visible centre to our efforts. British space science is innovative, high tech and cutting edge, yet it seems to suffer from very poor public relations. The recent 25% government funding cut that threatened to block UK astronomers from access to the Gemini North telescope system in Hawii, highlights the problem of visibility: Evident here is a lack of understanding as to the importance of this funding to UK physics research. The cuts should have triggered an outcry beyond the space science community. So why didn't they?

Whether or not a more visible British Space Agency would have altered such an outcome remains to be seen, but surely it would increase public understanding of the vital need for the adequate funding of space science and physics - potentially blocking future budget cuts?
Any new British Space Agency needs adequate funding also. For a trillion dollar economy, that should be around £1 billion per annum. Yes, space exploration really would be worth that (maybe triple) to the UK economy in terms of the maintenance of high tech industries, job creation and foreign investment. It would also create increased stability with the UK economy, which at the moment, seems to be largely service led with around 61% of wealth based on the value of low tech items like houses. This budget would be further used to boost interest in hard science courses, Maths, Physics, Chemistry and planetary geology within universities whilst allowing UK scientists to continue their ground braking research into many diverse areas.
Part of the problem with the UK of today is the national psychology. This is largely based on the notion that Britain is in a state of irreversible decline. Our youth is highly perceptive and is able to pick up on the general vibe that is generated from this notion. Many social ills are created as a result. British children need to know that they have a future within their own land. The current nihilism based on house price obsession, celebrity culture and sport is a huge betrayal of young peoples potential, and quite simply, many young people do feel betrayed by the lack of frontiers before them. A viable, manned British space program would not eliminate the sense of betrayal, but it would give our young people something to aspire and aim for. Reach for the stars as the old saying goes, not the bottle or your latest celebrity rag. It really is that simple.

Bigelow Aerospace/Lockheed Martin Commercial: Launch agreement close?

2008-02-12T06:13:00.000-08:00

The chance of us witnessing the emergence of a true, commercial NewSpace infrastructure in Earth orbit is moving closer and closer, thanks to the partnership between Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services and Bigelow Aerospace.
Bigelow Aerospace, a private manufacturer of inflatable space habitats, is now looking for a way in which private citizens, or commercial interests can gain access to its inflatable puff-up modules. In trying to fulfil such goals, Bigelow Aerospace is examining the usage of the Atlas V 401 rocket; a launch system that has an excellent safety record as well as a high reliability rate.
The two companies are, as such, actively involved in seeking to agree on specific terms for the supply of the Atlas V 401 system to Bigelow’s ambitious orbital project. If a firm agreement is reached, man rated Atlas V’s could be ferrying cargo and crew to Bigelow’s private space stations by 2015.
On the use of the Atlas V system to meet his goals, Robert Bigelow commented: “I don't think anyone could deny the excellent record and pedigree of the Atlas V401 as a quality choice to be upgraded to carry human passengers” The president of Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch services, David Markham, further commented: “The Atlas V is ideal to provide commercial crew and cargo transportation for this pioneering commercial space venture. Bigelow Aerospace possesses an unparalleled vision and entrepreneurial perspective that is crucial to truly opening the commercial space market to a larger segment of the population. Targeting the Atlas V for use demonstrates a commitment to flight-proven domestic launch services to ensure success”
Future Bigelow launches will rely on the Atlas V 401 to not only launch crew to the next generation of puff-ups, but also to loft the inflatable modules themselves: Bigelow’s previous modules, Genesis I and II were launched using former cold-war Soviet SS-18’s, re-adapted former intercontinental ballistic missiles.
With a crew capsule envisaged to ride atop the 401, the rocket will undergo a series of upgrades to ensure that its man rated performance correlates with the rules affirmed (for safe flight to space) by the Federal Aviation Administration. If terms can be reached by the two parties, we can expect to see a whole network of Bigelow complexes filling orbit by 2020, actively manned by Lockheed Martin’s goal of launching 12 Atlas V’s per year.
(Image: Lockheed Martin)

Thunder at the BFTS

2008-02-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jan 18, successfully conducted a dual engine test firing of their Falcon 9 heavy lift rocket. The company, who are currently building a family of launch vehicles that are designed to significantly reduce the cost of access to orbit, hope to offer the Falcon 9 for ISS crew and cargo re-supply missions, utilising the Dragon manned space capsule from 2010.
The test, conducted using the company’s appropriately named Big Falcon Test Stand or BFTS, generated 180,000 Ibs of force, consuming 700Ibs propellant during the firing. The Falcon 9 heavy will eventually incorporate 9 Merlin 1C (gas cycle kerosene) engines onto its first stage, with the company now beginning a slow and methodical grouping of these engines on the BFTS to test both propulsion and engineering reliability.
The Merlin 1C engines are designed for rapid ‘change out’ and mounting, a factor that will greatly impact on the speed and reliability of the Falcon 9’s launch service. The 1C’s are said to be on par with the Saturn V F-1 in terms of performance, a claim that will no doubt prove influential in winning the Falcon 9 a large chunk of the future NewSpace market. I for one, cannot wait to see the first Falcon 9 test flight at the end of the year: Truly exciting times are most surely ahead.
Check out the BFTS multiple firing video.
(Video: SpaceX)

Virgin Galactic reveals SpaceShipTwo and White Knight II

2008-01-23T10:28:00.000-08:00

At last! We finally gain a glimpse of what the final design of SpaceShipTwo and White Knight II will look like: It's clear from these images that Burt Rutan is obviously a fan of the X20 Dynasoar program which ran from 24 October 1957 - 10 December 1963.

Virgin Galactic will likely start taking delivery of their new fleet of White Knight II's and Spaceshiptwos' sometime around 2009; after that, we can expect every major airline and air haulier to invest in buying and modifying Rutan's commercial sub-orbital technology. The next space-race won't be played out between superpowers, but likely between civil aviation companies who will now be competing to take both cargo and passengers higher and faster than ever before. The future is about to begin...

(Images: Virgin Galactic)

Planetspace suborbital glider

2008-01-21T11:08:00.000-08:00

Take a look at these amazing pictures of Planetspace's Silver Dart suborbital glider mock-up.

(Images courtesy: Planetspace) For more information visit http://www.planetspace.org/lo/about.htm

ATK and Planetspace

2008-01-21T10:54:00.000-08:00

Alliant Techsystems is now set to become a key hardware provider in Planetspace’s bid to launch both cargo and crew to the International Space Station. With RpK now permanently stuck in power point limbo (after failing to meet key program milestones) and well out of the COTS race, NASA is due to select a new firm in February to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9/ Dragon capsule: If ATK’s extensive experience in Space Shuttle SRB manufacture is anything to go by, then the firm could well be a front runner to snag the $175
million COTS bounty. Teamed with Planetspace who have the backing of the Bank of Montreal, this could be one New Space venture that will soon find its wings.
So what will ATK cook up? Here are some key facts about ATK’s/ Planetspace COTS competition hardware:
1. 6725 Kg to Earth orbit.
2. 2800 Kg to geosynchronous transfer orbit.
3. 1885 Kg to trans lunar injection
4. 1360Kg for Mars science missions
5. Utilises a 2.5 segment SRB derivative for first stage
6. Uses an ATK Castor 120 booster for second stage
7. Castor 30 booster for third stage
8. Test flight 2009/2010 (Source:Flightglobal)
ATK advanced programmes’ director Joel Crook has stated: ‘ A big advantage of the design is that it's modular in nature. We can fly the entire vehicle for a COTS-class mission, or we can fly a smaller payload by flying all but the RSRM first stage. In fact, we already have three letters of intent from different customers for the small launch vehicle. We plan to fly the first small launch vehicle in September 2009, and launch our COTS demonstration vehicle in December 2010’
With flight hardware already on display, it appears that ATK have both the knowledge and the skill to bridge America’s forthcoming space flight gap.
(Picture ATK)

Branson hints at lunar plans during interview

2008-01-06T10:17:00.000-08:00

In a recent interview with Flora TV's Bob Schieffer, Sir Richard Branson hinted at the use of White Knight II and SpaceShipTwo for satellite launch and also spoke of his long terms plans for Virgin Galactic: Here is the interview taken from the 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival.

Spacedev update

2007-12-31T09:09:00.000-08:00

Earth’s natural satellite came a step closer within reach on December 20 when Spacedev, a private Californian aerospace company, announced that it had completed the first stage of its test flight program for a new hybrid rocket powered lunar lander.
In a flight that had the backing of the International Lunar Observatory Association, Spacedev demonstrated the capability of its four engine, throttle controlled prototype in a thrust adjusted flight to 35 feet; the test also featured a demonstration of hover capability as well as a successful soft landing - vital for when potential customers like the ILOA require the lander to deliver sensitive observation instruments to the South pole of the Moon.
Spacedev have been pursuing a reliable and clean, non toxic engine system for some time now in the hope of eventually providing a private, commercial transportation system for both cargo and human lunar flights; it is through the work of companies like Spacedev that a true human presence on the Moon may one day be attainable. Spacedev;s chairman, Mark N Sirangelo commented: ‘We see many important applications for our throttleable rockets, and we look forward to continuing our relationship with ILOA as well as our research and development of lander vehicles’.
With the forthcoming 2008 US presidential election race conjuring some ‘interesting’ statements about human space flight, the work of Spacedev now seems particularly prescient in being able to imagine (and plan) for a future where manned lunar flights are not on the new Democratic government’s radar. The need then will be for cheap, reliable, private human and cargo access to the Moon - perhaps something akin to a NASA CEV twinned with a Spacedev LSAM - a true synthesis of public and private technology.
(Image: Spacedev)

2008: Time for the stars

2007-12-09T13:13:00.000-08:00

Virgin Galactic have outlined their test flight schedule for White Knight II in 2008. With the last of the behemoth carrier plane’s engines to be delivered in January of next year, the company hopes that either June or July will witness the first test flight of the SpaceShipTwo carrier plane.
The ambitious schedule was outlined during Virgin’s attendance at the 3rd Rutherford Appleton Space Conference in the United Kingdom on December 6. The company also chose the conference to reveal that January 23 2008 will be the date when the press and general public will first gain a glimpse of the finalised Spaceshiptwo and White Knight II design: Previous visions of the two craft have merely implied that the new vehicles will be scaled up versions of SS1 and WK1; however nearly three years of advanced design work will no doubt produce subtle differences in the overall look of the two craft. Will Wheathorn, Virgin Galactic’s Vice President commented: ‘ White Knight II will look more like the Virgin Atlantic Globalflyer. We have built all the models to show the public.’
Wheathorn also used the conference to hint at the potential capability of White Knight II, indicating that the company would charge $3 million for the launch of small satellites using the giant carrier plane. As to what type of craft Virgin Galactic will place beneath WK II’s wings to boost the satellites into orbit is another question entirely - the only hint that Wheathorn gave was that the craft would consist of two stages. Perhaps we can look for guidance on this matter to the form of the very large carrier aircraft that T/Space (to which Rutan is a contributor) submitted to the NASA’s COTS competition effort (pictured). Will SpaceShipThree be an air launched two stage rocket?
Certainly, if SpaceShipThree is going to be an orbital craft then it is unlikely to possess wings. Rutan has previously hinted that it is his personal ambition to reach for the Moon. He is therefore unlikely to focus his next efforts, after SpaceShipTwo, on building a craft whose wings will be torn away in Earth’s atmosphere after attaining the kind of speeds that you need to reach in order to attain trans lunar injection and Earth return. SpaceShipThree is therefore likely to be a two staged air launched system with an orbital manoeuvrable, crewed capsule. As for when this vehicle will appear, it seems likely that it will be operating by 2015 at the earliest. Who knows what will be possible if White Knight II and SpaceShipTwo prove to be commercially viable? .
Image: T/Space

The Google Lunar X Prize: Competitors announce plans

2007-12-09T13:08:00.000-08:00

In utilising the proven track record and innovative engineering solutions of a company whose work extends back to the Apollo era, you might think that a partnership between Raytheon and a private aerospace outfit, would be just the ticket by which to realize the dream of winning the Google Lunar X Prize: If so, you would undoubtedly be correct, for that is just the intention of Astrobotic technology,a new Carnegie university based robotics team with who hope take the much vaunted Moon prize.
William Whittaker, Astrobotic’s head of technological development, and a leading light in the science of robotics at Carnegie, founded his company in November 2007; Whittaker’s intention was to offer Astrobotic’s varied robotic system to a host of tasks be they in Earth orbit or cis-lunar space. The company declared its intention to participate in the Google lunar X Prize in September 2007, their goal being to snag many of the key milestones outlined in the rulebook, in order to take a share, if not a significant chunk of the total prize fund.
Raytheon’s involvement will figure heavily in the management of the engineering aspect of the Astrobiotic’s eventual lander and rover. Mike Booen, Raytheon vice president of the company’s Advanced Missile Defense & Directed Energy wing, commented: ‘ We are delighted to work with Dr. Whittaker on this extraordinary lunar project. Development of a lunar lander is a natural extension for the company's space-proven technologies’.
With a history of producing systems ranging from satellite control systems to GPS systems for the Department of Defense, Raytheon are sure to give Astrobotic’s efforts a key boost: We can, in turn, expect many more teams to join the race in the weeks and month ahead as Astrobotic are sure to become a star in a yet to be crowded sky.

Image:NASA

Planetspace Inc and COTS

2007-12-05T02:29:00.000-08:00

With the failure of RpK’s efforts to design and build a reliable, scheduled crew and cargo craft that can service the International Space Station, a new contender for supply missions has emerged - one which may yet qualify for COTS seed money.
This new potential COTS competitor is Planetspace Inc, a Chicago based aerospace, engineering firm, with solid connections to established aviation giants such as Lockheed Martin and Alliant Tech Systems (ATK). Using the expertise gained from such connections, Planetspace Inc have now come up with a design for ISS re-supply; dubbed the Modular Cargo Carrier, the new craft will be boosted to orbit atop a primary rocket designed and built by ATK: Once in orbit the MCC will docking with the space station’s common berthing port to begin unloading supplies and other precious cargo.
Chirinjeev Kathuria, Planetspace’s CEO was reported to have told reporters: ‘ We’re very comfortable and confident that NASA is going to have a low-cost, very reliable cargo and crew transport to the space station’.
With $175 million in COTS money still available for private commercial, payload and rocket development, it is clear that something of a bidding war is opening up in the clamour to produce a reliable private craft with which to meet US Space Shuttle retirement in 2010. SPACEHAB, a rival aerospace firm headquartered in Houston are also reported to be pursuing the NASA seed corn funds; the company has its own spacecraft, dubbed Arcturus, a craft which SPACEHAB hope to boost to orbit onboard modified Delta 4 and Atlas V rockets.
The Modular Cargo Carrier is not the only project that Planetspace Inc are working on. If the MCC can offer orbital cargo flights, then the company’s Silver Dart sub orbital glider (if built) will offer passengers the chance to view Earth’s curvature from extremely high altitudes. Based upon the US Airforce’s Flight Dynamics Laboratory 7, the Silver Dart ( see top picture) is a knife shaped space plane that will be kicked into sub orbit by a similar booster to what ATK are designing for the company’s Modular Cargo Carrier. Cape Breton in Nova Scotia has been selected for future Silver Dart flights, Kathuria adds: ‘We’re continuing down that development very strongly in terms of developing the FDL-7 for what we call cargo express or space tourism’.
Whether the Silver Dart ever becomes a physical reality or not, it is certainly one of the more unusual designs to have graced the imagination of a space craft developer.

Images: Planetspace Inc

Engine development at Space X

2007-11-26T07:31:00.000-08:00

Space X, NASA’s main (and some might say only) commercial contender for future ISS supply missions, has recently finished testing a new version of its Merlin engine - the 1C. Up until now, Space X have used the 1A version of their Merlin to loft the Falcon 1, the company’s research and test rocket.
The 1C differs from the 1A in its use of RP-1 Kerosene, a fuel which acts to decrease the temperature of both the combustion chamber and the engine nozzle, before being combined with liquid oxygen to create thrust. Nine Merlin 1C’s will be grouped on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket, which is scheduled for its first test flight in late 2008. Such will be the power of the Falcon 9 that it will be able to loft up to 12,000 kg’s into a geosynchronous transfer orbit.
Space X have also suggested a remarkable fact in the development of the 1C engine; the 1C is the first rocket engine that America has developed this century. If all goes to plan, the 1C will now be the power plant that could potentially launch fee paying tourists sometime after 2010, the first new rocket engine of the 21st century also the one to grant American citizens the freedom of the true orbital space flight.

Image: SpaceX

The Goddard Mk II

2007-11-26T07:24:00.000-08:00

Gradatim Ferociter: Step by step ferociously. This is the motto and guiding principle of Blue Origin, a fully fledged and well funded rocket development company founded by Jeff Bezos. Does the name sound familiar?
It ought to. Bezos, better known as the man who brought us all easily accessible book titles and related products through his online mail order company, Amazon.com, has been busy at work of late on building his own private space program in Kent, Washington.
The fruit of this program was revealed in November of last year when a egg shaped VTOL craft was unveiled to the world and test flown at Blue Origin’s proving ground in Western Texas. Dubbed the ‘Goddard’ after Robert Goddard, an early American pioneer in the field of liquid fuelled rocketry, the craft ascended to a low altitude in front of groups of pre selected onlookers and company staff, before safely returning to the ground.
The appearance of the Goddard betrayed the fact that Blue Origin is now a serious contender in the race to create a viable sub-orbital passenger carrying craft. It may take another decade to bring to fruition, but Bezos has all the time in the world - and more importantly - his own money.
Perhaps aware of the difficulties surrounding such a development program, the company has so far managed to avoid making sweeping statements about operation timetables and ticket prize. While the design of their spacecraft is clearly based on the DC-X Delta Clipper program, touted in the 1990’s to Government as a potential space shuttle replacement, there is no reason to believe that this design cannot succeed where the Clipper failed to transform the launch market: Blue Origen are after all not prey to the complexities of government politics that killed the DC-X.
Although their development program is shrouded in secrecy, we do know that Blue Origin are now working on a second prototype vehicle which will improve on Goddard’s performance. This second prototype will form part of what the company have dubbed their ‘New Shepherd’ program - a series of steadily evolving prototypes which may indeed culminate in a passenger carrying sub-orbital craft. The program’s name was inspired by Alan Shepherd, the first American to fly on a sub-orbital trajectory as a response to the flight of Yuri Gagarin’s Vostok orbit in 1961.
The company eventually hope to be able to loft three people to sub orbital space, above the 100km ceiling, sometime after their peers, Virgin Galactic, Space Adventures and others, have their craft in service. New Shepherd will therefore join a market that is in its infant stages, but there maybe benefits to this. Standards in safety and ticket prize will undoubtedly afford Bezos a great opportunity to market his craft successfully and to the right audience. Graditum Ferociter might be the right way to proceed after all.

Image: Blue Origin

The X Prize cup 3007 and the failure of SETI

2007-11-17T11:19:00.000-08:00

I often find myself intrigued by UFO reports. Why? Well, I’ll tell you.
Our home star, the Sun is a second generation , population I star. By second generation, I mean that there were other suns radiating light long before our own star was born: These were stars that lived and died before the pre-cambrian period, before even the theoretical Theia collided with Earth to produce the Moon - before even gravitational instability in a molecular cloud hinted at the formation of our Sun. Such population II stars lived and died so long ago that their life spans ( and death throws) created the heavier metallic elements that made life on Earth possible: We are the thinking (and sometimes reasoning) offspring of these long dead plasma masses.
We are therefore newcomers to our home Galaxy - the Milky Way. We are the new kids on the block to use a poor turn of phrase. In all those countless aeons, through the history of the first generation stars to the collapse of the molecular cloud that formed our Sun, there must have previously arisen some primary genesis of that special matter that we call life: Perhaps this genesis led to a planetary, technological civilisation that pioneered something akin to the chemical rocket. Again, this is a BIG perhaps, but given numbers in the range of billions, anything is theoretically possible.
These long ago space farers were maybe once like what we intend to become, their thought patterns perhaps not dissimilar to the thoughts that drive the New Space pioneers. They would have therefore, hypothetically, begun to expand their sphere of influence…braking the bonds that bound them to their home-world in defiance of gravity - eventually pushing upwards into space.
If an advanced technological civilisation can arise ( as it did on Earth) in 10,000 years, then what could such a civilisation accomplish given a million years, or even a billion years?
In terms of the Kardashev scale, based on technological manipulation of energy quantities, the life spans of the first generation stars (the Populations IIs) would have given any hypothetical alien civilisation the opportunity to pass through not only the Type I phase (planetary), but also the Type II (Star), III (Galaxy), and possibly even Type IV stage (Higher dimensional). Even if their ships had have moved (during the Type I phase) through space at 0.5c; a velocity that is within human reach perhaps within only fifty years from the present, then these ancient aliens (if their thought patterns were analogous to our own) would have colonised not only their home galaxy, but also the surrounding globular clusters and neighbouring galaxies in the time it took the galaxy’s first generation, population II stars to live and die.
We should therefore, theoretically, by now, be completely overrun with every description of alien vehicle, probe, artefact and ruin. If one alien civilisation had have chosen to quarantine Earth from all others, then another would have arisen and likely found a way to break that quarantine. Likewise, if one alien civilisation had deemed us unworthy of contact due to the lack of evidence of an active consciousness on Earth, another may have discarded this notion and come here anyway - perhaps to build research stations: By this means, alien xenobiologists would have been able to study Earth life at their leisure.
Quite simply put, Earth would have been a clear target for a variety of civilisations, who were maybe using spotting technologies only three generations more advanced that our own Hubble Space telescope.
I would therefore go so far as to hazard a guess that there are no advanced alien civilisations within the 100,000 light year diameter disk of the Milky Way Galaxy. The failure of SETI to detect radio signals certainly suggests such a possibility. I would further hazard a guess as to say that the Milky Way is teeming with life, only none of that life has ever been blessed with the simple fortune of a mechanically manipulating consciousness. After all, we know that the dinosaurs were hugely successful land animals for over 150 million years, yet it took the chance strike of an asteroid to trigger the long mammalian lineages that led to Homo-Sapiens: Unfortunately, Dinosaurs never produced anything as complex as a radio telescope, yet they managed to last some 1500 times longer than Homo Sapiens: And even after the asteroid strike, there was no magic marker directing evolution towards the grand pinnacle of an upright ape being.
The point being that mankind’s evolution was always going to be something of a fluke, perhaps requiring an extraordinary set of chance circumstance. How many other Earth like worlds across the Galaxy are awaiting their ‘chance’ asteroid strikes to change the evolutionary direction a little?
I am therefore intrigued by UFOs because they never seem to interfere with us in any meaningful way. They do not seem to suffer from normal motivations, motivations that are a natural inheritance of their designs. If a spaceship is built, it is surely constructed to travel and explore - even to trade? An alien designed UFO should therefore suffer similar intentions by ways of its creation.
Apart from the strange abduction reports, and contact tales - flying saucers and their ilk, do not seem to share the same universal co-ordinates as Earth and its neighbouring planets. These craft seem to be exempt from accomplishing the purpose of their design. They observe yet they refuse to interact. It is as if they skip into our reality from some other plain or level of reality, temporarily causing radar signatures before blinking out of existence. Surely if these were real aliens, a little ego on their behalf would have given us a bit more of an evidential headache? I’m talk Columbus meeting the Amerinidans here.
Pioneer 10 and 11 and Voyager 1 and 2, humanities first star probes so far remain unmolested in their long march towards the stars. Some might say that this is because the probes are of little interest to highly advanced alien beings, and that as yet they have not travelled far enough to be awarded notice. But hang on a minute: Surely beings curious enough to actively build star drives are curious enough to want to dismantle something that is humanly made? This is the same kind of motivation that makes European tourists pack their luggage cases with boomerangs and tribal masks after visiting Australia: Even if the Pioneer and Voyager probes are of little interest to beings from Zeta Reticuli, surely they offer a certain quaintness that is remotely fascinating? So why haven’t these probes been stolen from our skies, destined for some alien museum or exhibit?
Let’s play devils advocate here and say that the UFO phenomenon is based on sightings of real craft. Who or what are these craft likely to represent?
Real aliens would no doubt utilise some pretty advanced technologies to study us - perhaps some would use Femto scale probes - miniscule systems that could never be detected apart from if the searcher was using a rather powerful microscope. However, not all aliens would necessarily follow this modus operandi. Other aliens might visit the our solar system using vast laser lights sails or huge rockets propelled by antimatter. Physical aliens would therefore be visible to us NOW and in a very big way. It is therefore my opinion that UFOs do not represent evidence of physical alien beings. They are something entirely - other… So if not physical aliens then what other options are there left?
Perhaps UFOs represent a phenomenon that is even stranger than the extraterrestrial hypothesis itself. The major UFO flap began in the 1950’s. This was a time when human beings were not only splitting atoms, they were also learning how to fuse atoms also. In terms of history, the 1950’s represent a time of major technological innovation - chief of which was the launch of history’s first humanly built orbiting spacecraft - Sputnik.
If I was a human time traveller from the far future, what dates would be most important to me? The Seven Years War? The Council of Nicea? Or would it be a time when human beings first reached for the sky?
In terms of human progress, any anthropologist would no doubt define the first human use of fire as of great significance. Perhaps human time travellers view the 1950’s as a period of equal significance - the manipulation of the atom and the void as critical as the first oxygenated sparks that lit the first primordial torch.
UFOs may in fact be human built and derived time machines whose purpose is to study the past without interfering with it. The behaviour of UFOs certainly lends weight to this hypothesis.
Unidentified craft often act erratically or behave in ways that are designed to veil their presence. Using extreme speed and manoeuvrability, they toy with conventional jets that are spent up to intercept them. If Space Tourism really does deliver on its promise of taking the ordinary man or woman to the stars, then who knows where the road will take us? Who can tell what an X-Prize set in the year 3007 will look like?
Space Tourism and the exotic drive systems produced through private competition and enterprise may in centuries hence lead to technologies that might allow any tourists to visit the past through the manipulation of space time. Perhaps some future governmental regulation requires that these craft have installed upon them, some kind of timer device. Future space tourist agents might offer 2 minutes in 1962 or 7 minutes in 1213 - once your time is up, both you and your craft are subject to enforced re-materialisation in the contemporary: This would certainly explain why some UFO’s simply blink in and out of existence when witnessed by observers.
If there are competitions akin to the X Prize Cup in the year 3007, it’s clear that there challenges will contain rules that permit the development of some very special technologies. After all, it’s more than likely that by that time, orbital, interplanetary and interstellar spaceflight will be somewhat old hat. Who knows, maybe time travel will be on the cards?

Rocketplane 2.0

2007-10-28T04:41:00.000-07:00

Rocketplane Global Incorporated have upgraded the concept design of their XP space plane and revealed the new look craft at the X-Prize Cup event in New Mexico.
The original XP design (top picture) called for the modification of an existing Lear jet airframe in order to cope with the stresses and strains of suborbital space flight. The continued design review and modification of this initial concept, however, have now led RGI to re-evaluate and reshape the appearance of the craft to reflect new findings made from their computer simulations. XP program manager, Dave Faulkner commented, ‘ We’ve learnt quite a bit over that time and realised that we needed to make some changes’.
These ‘changes’ include, a new fuselage, fixed canards on the nose of the craft for manoeuvring in a vacuum and the abandonment of the original XP, V shaped tail fin. The XP will also now benefit from sturdier landing gear as well as J85 afterburning engines which will lead to an increase in the XP’s thrust to weight ratio. According to reports, eleven J85 engines have already been purchased by RGI, who hope to attract a ‘final’ round of investment in order to put the XP into space.
Designed to be launched from a runway that will form part of the Oklahoma space port facility, the XP will ignite its rocket engine at 40,000 feet to boost passengers towards a vertical ascent, as part of an arc shaped flight path, the zenith of which will culminate with around four minutes of weightlessness. Returning into Earth’s atmosphere, the XP will restart its conventional jet engines and glide down for a controlled runway landing.
The XP will likely enter full revenue service around 2010 following a tough 50 flight testing program. If successful, the craft could be a direct commercial competitor to the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane being developed by Burt Rutan.
Images: Rocketplane Global Incorporated.

The X Prize Cup is OPEN!

2007-10-24T14:24:00.000-07:00

The circus of all things New Space is now open in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I hope this time that the Lunar Lander Challenge will be successfully won by a worthy competitor…Good luck and safe flying to all teams!

Commercial Shenzhou

2007-10-24T14:17:00.000-07:00

If you were rich enough, who would you fly to orbit with? The Russians in their R-7 Semyorka launched Soyuz? The Americans, aboard their ET-SRB boosted Shuttles -should NASA decide to sell you a commercial seat - or how about the Chinese aboard their Shenzhou? Astronaut, Cosmonaut or Taikonaut, which would you decide to be?
Wait one moment you might say! Space Adventures can buy you a seat on a ISS bound Soyuz, but it can’t buy you a ride on an American Space Shuttle; it sure as hell can’t put you onboard a Chinese Shenzhou! If not the American Shuttle, then you could probably fly with SpaceX at some date in the future. The point is that there is an American commercial framework already in place, ready to fly human beings to space; however, no such regulatory framework at present exists in China! China remains a no go zone for any potential space tourist…or does it?
By the time January 2009 dawns much could have changed within China however. If a certain legal Bill is successfully reviewed within the Chinese Peoples Congress then public private partnerships, a sanction for the commercial use of that nations space infrastructure may become a reality.
China has been making noises for some time now that it would be open to explore the potential of flying private payloads aboard its Shenzhou spacecraft. The head of the Chinese National Space Administration, Sun Laiyan, has already leant her weight to the drive for commercialisation.
The Chinese, it appears, are eager to follow in the footsteps of the Russians in granting a greater international access to their orbital capability. While this probably does not mean that we will see wealthy Arabs rocketing to orbit in seats beside the next Taikonauts, it does mean that China is now beginning to build a legal precedent by which free market operational models can be introduced into the nations space flight program. China is clearly gearing up to make a buck with its bang.
So will we see Space Tourists aboard Shenzhou flights in the future? Almost certainly, yes. However, this does not mean the near future. China will probably wait to see how world space tourism markets develop before opening the Shenzhou program up to Silicon Valley moguls, popstars or politicians. As with all new developments in the Dragon space program - China will act when it is ready.

RpK COTS termination

2007-10-24T14:11:00.000-07:00

NASA has withdrawn its COTS funding from the Oklahoma based Rocketplane Kistler company following RpK’s inability to meet certain ‘performance milestones’. The manager of the COTS initiative , Alan Lindemoyer was quoted as saying, ‘ We spent the last year trying to work with RpK to give them every opportunity to succeed…we’ve come to the conclusion that it is in NASA’s best interest to discontinue our funded Space Act Agreement and reopen the competition for the remaining $175 million.’
The source of RpK’s woes seems to have been its failure to raise enough private investment to actually turning the K1 into a physical nuts and bolts reality. While SpaceX raced forwards and proved its potential to its government client through critical design review approval, RpK seemed to stumble from one missed deadline to the next until NASA finally terminated funding on October 18.
In early 2008 NASA will choose a new private company and spacecraft concept to service the International Space Station; with $175 million in the pot, lets hope this time that the design will summon the one word that defines the COTS initiative - competition.

Image: RpK

The strategic case for orbital mega-structures

2007-10-15T00:34:00.000-07:00

In the wake of the US National Security Space Office moving to prioritise work on alternate energy sources, American strategic planners look more likely to support a bold new energy initiative which could end US reliance on fossil fuels: Space-based solar power is now firmly back on the agenda.
The Pentagon is interested in utilising the energy from our parent star because it would enable them to bypass the need for the creation of energy infrastructures at forward military areas in remote locations. By using a network of low-orbit solar power satellites, US troops could power their communications systems and control generators by energy beamed down to Earth via X-ray. This would eliminate the need for costly and hazardous cabling and grid linkage, given the military a far greater operational scope: Think bases in mountainous and inaccessible areas and you can see why the Pentagon are so interested in space-based solar power.
There are other factors that strongly support space-based solar power as a strategic energy alternative; the volatility and unpredictability of energy regimes such as Russia, Iran and the security void that is Iraq, all point to the need to do ‘business’ elsewhere. So what does all this have to do with New Space?
One thing is certain; space-based power stations are going to be BIG. In order to collect enough energy for any formal power beam, scientists are talking of designing and building orbital collectors that are at least 1km in diameter. Conventional payload launches aboard chemical rockets would be clearly insufficient to loft the mass required: However, a space elevator system might just be sufficient to begin such a construction effort.
The next X-Prize should therefore offer a reward for any private R&D company that can engineer a material that goes beyond the current tensile strength of contemporary carbon nanotubes. Clearly, the only way that launch costs will ever be slashed is by providing a totally new access to geo-synchronous orbit. Humanity needs the cable now and perhaps the only way to speed development is to offer competition between government and private industry for the holy grail of a material that can withstand the long stretch into space…

Image: Space Ref

Travelex QUID

2007-10-07T03:51:00.000-07:00

They are made of polytetrafluoroethylene and they can withstand the stresses and strains of deep space travel. No, not some new space shuttle heat shield tile made of exotic breakthrough material, but rather the world’s first true space currency – the QUID: Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination.
Launched by currency exchange specialist, Travelex on Friday,( exchange rate £6.50 to 1QUID) the QUID is set to radicalise the way we think of currency in the New Space environments. Developed in co-operation with the UK’s National Space Centre and the University of Leicester, the currency is a clear evolution in terms of both style and function from any exchange unit that has come before.
In terms of usage and performance the QUID’s creators have already spoken of the requirements for a totally different approach to the new unit. Professor George Fraser representing the University of Leicester team commented. “None of the existing payment systems we use on earth – like cash, credit or debit cards – could be used in space for a variety of different reasons. Anything with sharp edges, like coins, would be a risk to astronauts while the chips and magnetic strips used in our cards on Earth would be damaged beyond repair by cosmic radiation. What’s more, because of the distances involved, it is more than 230,000 miles from the Earth to the moon, chip and pin technology is also out of the question.”
With respect to purchasing power and worth, the development team have used different colours and polymer weights to indicate value. The standard QUID depicts a central star surrounded by a system of eight planets (note eight after the IAU’s Pluto demotion). Different colours indicate worth.
If Travelex succeed in their approach to the Bank of England to make the unit an official space currency, we could all one day be using these strange, colourful tokens to purchase everything from space boots to rocket fuel.

Image Courtesy: Travelex/Leicester University

Unidentified Flying Object

2007-10-02T13:16:00.000-07:00

Let’s face it; aliens just don’t do huge hovering metallic spheres, cones or even…saucers. If they did the history of religious thought and maybe even the course of human evolution since Palaeolithic times would be somewhat different: no doubt different because humanity would have been influenced by the debris and physical remains of alien technology that had been brought to Earth by war, misadventure or even intrigue. Wrecks and remains that would have no doubt lay scattered over the surface of every continent - perhaps beneath oceans too - would have no doubt convinced proto-brahmans, priests and holy men that there were truly Gods amongst them. Perhaps Mesopotamian temples would have hoarded such remains, deeming that Gold and other valuables be kept elsewhere in favour of ’armour from heaven’. Who knows what modern banking would look like today if we had truly found evidence of flying saucers during the past? Forget the Gold standard - our currency would have been probably been based on alien artefact hoarding and exchange - the shiny yellow stuff itself a secondary economic staple beside exotic nano engineered carbon hull plate fragments from Zeta 2 Reticuli.
Fortunately for us, aliens and their burnished silvery craft are somewhat absent and Earth is probably unique in the Milky Way Galaxy as the one place that the fluke of a complex brain and a dexterous body system occurred in tandem. The only planet that produces anything like the unidentified flying objects so beloved of right wing adherents of the anthropic principle is Earth - where something akin to a UFO was recently test flown for a second time by a little heard of European aerospace organisation called ACRA - the Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association.
ACRA is a Romanian New Space company that is making progress in the development of a manned sub orbital spacecraft christened Stabilio-1B. This unique vehicle, which resembles two conjoined spheres fixed to a launch escape style tower ,cum rocket lift system (see picture), is designed to be launched by a solar mongolfier balloon from an altitude of 22,000 metres. With a design unlike anything before imagined, Stabilo-1B offers a fresh take on the air launched rocket concept with the carrier plane replaced by a lighter than atmosphere, high altitude envelope - an envelope through which the craft will ‘travel’ on release.
Stabilo is no mere concept system awaiting future funding at some unspecified date. An initial test flight of both vehicle and envelope was recently followed up by a successful second test flight on September 25th that saw the giant balloon and its payload hoisted to just over 39,000 feet from Cape Midia airforce base in Romania. With the sufficient altitude reached, the Stabilo-1B vehicle was released, enabling vehicle parachute deployment and the testing of onboard electronic systems. After the test flight was complete the vehicle was duly recovered from the Black Sea.
ARCA further hope to continue launching Stabilo and its envelope to greater altitudes in order to vigorously test the limits of the system. With such a schedule in place, it is highly likely that a Romanian test pilot could gain his astronaut wings by 2009. With such an unusual shape, Stabilo will no doubt trigger a flurry of UFO reports from the Black Sea region around the same time - unidentified flying objects at last acquiring a somewhat more human dimension.

Image Coutesy: ARCA

Sputnik and further

2007-09-23T08:17:00.000-07:00

For the majority of the public in both the United States and Europe, this coming October 4th will likely come and go much as any other day. In Russia however, the former principle nation of the defunct Soviet Empire, the date is likely to summon another kind of reflection; the reminiscence to a time when a genius rocket designer known only as X, launched the space race by placing a small aluminium sphere in Earth orbit.
The dominant emotion in Russian on October 4th will no doubt be pride, because X, or Korolev, as he is now known, was a home grown talent – a visionary whose R-7 Semyorka rocket is still in service today. As the Russians’ look back their current president will no doubt summon some form of bold statement by which to stare forwards, towards the 100th anniversary of Sputnik’s launch in October 2057. So what is Putin likely to see?
The span of time from 1957 to 2007 has witnessed some truly monumental achievements in both space science and technology. When Sputnik first shook the Western world out its technological complacency, astronomers entertained the possibility that Venus might be a steamy jungle world and that Mars might hold (complex) life forms of its own. Rather than answer such questions using astronomy alone, the United States and the Soviet Union actually dispatched probes to the surface of these worlds, the Venera and Viking landers, shattering many myths and creating a few more mysteries. The important thing was that humanity after 1957 had the capability to visit all of these worlds – we no longer had to to only dream of these destinations – we could actually go there.
The next fifty years will likely witness an escalation of our technological capabilities. There will be no barriers, only those road blocks imposed by the failure of political will. Humanity already has a range of theoretical plans by which we could visit nearby star systems. Say we were to discover an Earth like planet orbiting another star within the next fifty years, then it is very likely that a manned mission will be launched, however complicated and daunting this journey may seem to us today. By 2057 such a mission could already be underway, spurned on by competition with other nations or even corporate entities.
Before the Kepler, TPF (Terrestrial planet finder) and the Darwin telescopes detect evidence of ‘Earth like’ worlds, we are also likely to see a sustained international scramble for the Moon. NASA is well underway with its Constellation program, at last planning for a return to the heavy lift systems that characterised the Apollo era. One of these systems is called the Ares V, a monumental rocket that could loft enough mass to provide the base elements for a future Martian colony. Naturally it will take more than one heavy Ares V launch to establish such a colony, but again we return to the issue of capability: A Mars colony may be possible after 2020 given the political will to establish one.
And then there is private spaceflight. As governments move out of low Earth orbit, private entrepreneurs and investors will move in. The X-Prize winning flight of SpaceShipOne in 2004 proved that there was a new way of reaching space, free of government rockets and mega dollar programs. If SpaceShipTwo is successful, then national governments are likely to buy (given reviewed arms export controls) hundreds, if not thousands of White Knight II’s and SpaceShipTwo’s – adapting them to launch miniature satellites and to conduct scientific research high above Earth’s surface. If the UK government finally realises the importance of manned spaceflight, then RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland could also become the UK’s first spaceport with SS2 offering the British their first manned space vehicle ever.
The wing capacity and lifting ability of WhiteKnight II will also enable the launch of much larger orbital, air launched rockets. By 2015 we are likely to be seeing a SpaceShipThree type orbital vehicle that is in the planning stage, based on such air launched orbital rocket technology. In terms of places to visit, SpaceShipThree will probably be able to dock with one of Robert Bigelow’s future inflatable hotel clusters – perhaps even the International Space Station. Such an air launched system created by the private sector could also be used for rapid point to point planetary (Earth) surface access. We could even see a service whereby SpaceShipThree is bought by UPS or one of the other large courier services to run a super rapid extra atmospheric delivery service. Who knows? The sky is no longer the limit.

Google lunar X Prize announced

2007-09-14T12:52:00.000-07:00

Google and the X Prize Foundation have teamed up to offer a $30 million reward for any private engineering group that can land a robotic rover on the Moons surface; the successful teams will operate their vehicles to provide artifact imaging (Apollo, Lunakhod etc) as well as other milestones.

The cash prize will be segmented and is based upon a series of goal achievements: A grand prize (soft land and travel); a secondary prize (given to the second team to land and image) and additional bonus awards (long distance travel and artifact surveying) will all be part of the challenge.

As the deadline of the competition is set at December 31st 2012, potential competitors are likely to be already exhibiting their hardware at space tourism fayres and exhibitions. Personally, I'm going to place my money on John Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace taking the prize; what with their Pixel lunar lander (see pic) already flown and demonstrated at the X Prize Cup, its likely that the team will build on their great engineering foundations to truly accomplish something spectacular.

Image Credit: X Prize Foundation/ Armadillo Aerospace

Space Port America

2007-09-04T15:47:00.000-07:00

June 20th 2010

It’s early morning in the New Mexico desert. Sunlight bursts through a bank of distant cloud; a blue grey crown that grips the head of an elevated, mountainous horizon. With the withdrawal of night, strange metallic shapes are caught and mirrored by shadow - forming odd, artificial features upon the bleak landscape.
Three static red and white rocket ships stare directly into the dawn glare. Possessed of the same internal volume as a Gulfstream V business jet, the three hybrid rocket powered vehicles will shortly loft 2 pilots and 6 passengers to an altitude of 87 miles at a velocity of 4000 kilometres per hour… into space itself.
Above the line of static craft, a huge carrier plane begins its journey to a 15 kilometre altitude. Beneath its fuselage, a passenger carrying sub orbital space plane awaits its release; only hours before it too had sat upon the dry tarmac runway - awaiting its flight hour.
In the crisp air of a new day, a rocket plane that has already boosted itself into space makes a gliding approach to land. Onboard are seated six passengers who have just achieved their commercial FAA astronaut wings. Staring down upon their designated runway, towards the berm structure of the spaceport departure lounge and its eager queues of potential astronauts, they can scarcely believe that only minutes before they had been gazing down upon the blue and white crescent of Earth. As the sub orbital rocket ship and its newly created astronauts glides into land, a new queue of astronauts await departure from the Foster and Partners/ URS designed terminal building far below.
Sounds far fetched? Not so if we are to assess the latest press released images of Space Port America - a vision that has been generated from the creative minds behind the aforementioned companies. Released today, the Space Port America plans depict a structure that will rise from the New Mexico desert in 2008. A home for both Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Spaceline and the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, the 31 million dollar facilities will represent the worlds first dedicated gateway to space.

Image Credit: Foster and Partners, URS

Space Island Group

2007-09-02T08:07:00.000-07:00

Of all the proposals and studies that have been advanced for turning space tourism and commercialisation into a reality, Space Island Group’s is certainly the most ambitious.
SIG’s aim is to create an independent commercial facility in low Earth orbit – The Space Island Project. This community, assembled using NASA Space Shuttle heritage technology, will operate a network of solar power satellites; the eventually aim being to use the Suns rays to address terrestrial energy deficits.
With the knowledge that NASA’s own space transportation system – the STS Shuttle –has suffered numerous design flaws, the group hope to operate a substantially redesigned system that departs completely from the winged orbiter concept.
The main vehicle that SIG will utilise has been christened the Dual-ET; that’s short for dual external tank (see picture). Comprising a central ET, external tank; two SRB solid rocket boosters and an additional external cargo ET strapped to the assembly – the goal would be to use the major component that NASA usually discards once in orbit – namely the liquid filled orange fuel tank.
According to SIG’s website, NASA did once intend the now de-orbited and burnt external tanks to be placed into a stable orbit (via manoeuvring thrusters), but the lack of commercial foresight within the agency and the nature of operations prevented this potential from being realised.
With the ever nearing deadline for STS program deactivation in 2010 - to make way for the Ares I and V – it might be possible for the whole STS concept to find continuity as a purely commercial venture. With their Dual ET concept and a crew return vehicle mounted at the summit of their vehicle assembly, it seems that Space Island Group could be the people to truly bring the full potential of the STS to fruition. Only time will tell if the group secures the necessary funding to start turning power point into power stations.
Image and vid credit: Space Island Group

The Space X Falcon 9

2007-08-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

Space X, the El Segundo, California headquartered rocket startup, established by PayPal co founder, Elon Musk, is making good progress in its pursuit of an evolved expendable launch vehicle EELV system that can service the International Space Station.
With 11 launches on contract, and their next Falcon 1 launch (carrying the Tacsat payload) scheduled to lift off from Omelek island in early 2008, it seems likely that the company will soon be delivering commercial payloads to orbit on a regular basis.
So far, the company has launched two Falcon 1 demonstration rockets: the first on March 25 2006 and the second on March 21 2007.
While fire and engine failure scuttled the performance of the first flight, the second demonstration flight (see video) achieved an impressive 300 kilometres altitude; although a control problem in the two stage rocket caused a main engine power anomaly that resulted in a collision between the first and the second stages – ultimately resulting in the demo two flight failing to deliver its payload to orbit.
The important message gained from the second launch was that the Falcon 1 system did reach an extreme altitude. In other words, the company, after having received the demo 2 flight telemetry, is now well on its way to making sure that the demo 3 flight will be a complete success – delivering the necessary upgrades and improvements that are required – design modifications gained from an active flight demonstration and development program.
On the back of the flight data gained from the Falcon 1 system, Space X are now actively developing their Falcon 9 rocket, a commercial behemoth (18 stories high according to their website) that will eventually loft government astronauts and paying tourists, as well as 22,900 pound payloads to orbit. In direct lineage to the Falcon 1, the Falcon 9 borrows the engines, avionics and flight health systems from the previous prototype.
Scheduled for test launch in the fourth quarter of 2008 from Cape Canaveral, the Falcon 9 EELV is also designed to be fitted with a life support capsule christened ‘Dragon’ (see picture) that can accommodate seven passengers and 2500Kg’s of cargo.
During the Falcon 9 2008 testing phase, Dragon will be expected to fulfil a series of space flight goals including: launch separation; control and manoeuvring; atmospheric re-entry and recovery. Later demo flights extending to 2009 will require Dragon to dock with the International Space Station and deliver its full cargo – an ability that will provide the Americans with a good alternative to the current generation of R7 launched Progress/ Soyuz capsules. With the Russians practically monopolising manned space access, this ability is vital for American global aerospace interests.
Time will tell if NASA’s COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services) award does provide a reliable means of running men and cargo to orbit using systems like Dragon and Falcon 9. Whatever the outcome, we are bound to be awed by further Space X launches from Omelek island, Vandenberg Airforce base and Cape Canaveral.
Image/vid credit:SpaceX

Ascend Europa

2007-08-13T16:56:00.000-07:00

European aerospace corporations and architectural firms will soon be throwing British, French and a whole host of other EU citizens, into both sub orbital space, aboard the recently announced EADS Rocket plane, and also towards orbital space - perhaps on board systems that are yet to be developed.
Yet to be developed means that the continent clearly has a requirement and a clear ambition to reach Earth orbit using either commercial rocket launched manned capsules or hybrid space planes.
If we were to describe this ambition or vision, it is now apparent that not only the Americans, but the Europeans also, are thinking in grand terms about what can be commercially accomplished in Earth orbit.
The clearest indication that Europe requires ( and will develop) a true private manned orbital capability came last week when Galactic Suites Limited, a Spanish architectural firm based in Barcelona, presented its vision for an incredible Space Hotel based around a grape vine configuration.
The grape vine design will house tourists inside a series of 7 metre by 4 metre accommodations with access to the surrounding pod units being made via a main docking node, from where sightseers will embark and disembark.
As to the price of a pod aboard the Galactic Suites hotel, the company has indicated that a three day stay in orbit will cost just over 4 million US dollars. For that price, visitors will enjoy accommodation that has three designated habitation areas, along with a series of 80 minute orbits around the Earths circumference .
The exact details as to how the pods will be launched into Earth orbit was not revealed by Galactic Suites Limited, although the images released to the press by the company, seemed to show an American STS shuttle unloading the hotel units individually from its cargo bay. With the company having declared a 2012 launch date for the space hotel, and the STS system scheduled for a 2010 retirement, it is clear that some alternate launch system will have to be utilised in order to bring the ‘hotel’ concept into reality. Perhaps Galactic Suites can somehow re ignite the Russian Energia expendable heavy launcher program in order to loft the pod units into orbit? With an investment of 3 billion dollars, it is clear that Xavier Claramunt, the pods creator has a lot of options open to him.
One of these options envisages the hotel being serviced by a hybrid space plane that utilises a DHRE, a double hybrid rocket engine. Such a system will likely be incredibly difficult to develop, potentially holding the entire project up for many years. Alternately, Galactic Suites could utilise some future, passenger carrying variant of the European ATV, the Automated Transfer Vehicle, that currently supplies the International Space Station. This would likely be far easier, as remote rendezvous and docking would likely contribute to increased passenger safety, while utilising an already tried and test orbital system.
However the Galactic Suites hotel project develops, it appears apparent that Europe will not miss out on the dream of mass access to orbital space.

Image Credit: Galactic Suite Limited

The view from the departure lounge

2007-08-02T05:02:00.000-07:00

Foster and Partners, a UK architectural design firm renown for their ability to create dynamic and environmentally integrated physical structures, has been selected to generate the worlds first purpose built civilian spaceport in New Mexico, America.
In an announcement made on Wednesday by the New Mexico Space Port Authority, Foster and Partners, along with the US Federal engineering contractor, URS, were selected by Space Port representative Kelly O’Donnell, to design and build the hangar and terminal buildings at the site.
The participation of Foster and Partners in the ‘ Spaceport America’ project will guarantee that the physical structures that will dominate the location by 2010 will be no less inspiring than a journey into sub orbital space itself.
In the United Kingdom, Foster and Partners are perhaps best known for the Swiss Re headquarters which stands at 30 St Mary Axe in London. With such a stunning design heritage, we can be sure that the view from the Foster designed Spaceport America departure lounge will remove any potential civilian astronauts from the surface of the Earth before they have even set foot on the craft that will take them into sub orbit.

Image credit:Oldwestcountry.com

Scaled Composites tragedy

2007-07-30T04:22:00.000-07:00

New Space would like to offer its sincere condolences to the families of Eric Blackwell, Glen May and Todd Ivens, three employees of Scaled Composites, who were killed on July 26 2007 while trying to turn the dream of public human space flight into a reality.

Image credit: Scaled Composites

Frontier Couture

2007-07-26T11:43:00.000-07:00

In the 1960’s the Grumman Aerospace Corporation came up with a novel idea for a Lunar Space Suit. A cross between a dust bin and a beer can, the ‘General Design’ Moon suit looked ridiculous but had one important advantage - it allowed its wearer a certain freedom of internal movement.
By designing the suit to allow the wearer to withdraw his arms into the barrel of the design, the potential astronaut found that his or her hands were now free to operate a range of systems within the interior of the outfit . Although ultimately impractical and consigned to room 101 of the spacesuit design locker , the Grumman General suit is notable for its attempt at delivering an alternate approach to the gas pressurised bags later worn on the Moon during the Apollo landings.
With sub orbital space tourism just around the corner, not only freedom of movement but style also, are starting to figure in the space suit design equation. While no one is considering issuing or resurrecting the Grumman General configuration, many designers are hoping to create garments and suits that effectively recall the Generals departure from normal design routes. In thinking out of the box, and reconsidering the aesthetic, scientific and practical uses of materials and technologies, designers and scientists are redefining our perception of what a space suit is - or could be.
Take the 2006 Hyperspace Couture Design Contest for instance. Inspired by the knowledge that trips to just above the Karman line, the boundary of outer space, might be made, in the words of Chuck Lauer, in a ‘shirtsleeve environment’ , the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) began a joint competition with Rocketplane to develop designs that might be worn at extreme altitudes.
Lauer, the then business development manager for Rocketplane, an Oklahoma based space tourism company, wanted to break away from the kind of typical thinking that occurred when people considered space suits or high altitude garments. Combining forces with Eri Matsui, a Tokyo fashion designer, Lauer intended to create multiple space suit concepts using multiple creative talents - the ultimate aim being to produce a sub orbital space garment that could be worn onboard one of Rocketplanes sub orbital space journeys.
The results of the contest inspired a whole host of out of the box concepts including a wedding dress that could be worn in zero gravity, a design no less spectacular in form than the Grumman General suit itself.
If space tourists ever do reach the Moon they can be assured to benefit not only from stylistic breakthroughs, but from advances made in the in engineering technology behind space suits also.
The suits that are currently worn during International Space Station maintenance and construction rely on a gas pressurized system in order to protect the Astronauts and Cosmonauts from the vacuum beyond. The suits are bulky and cumbersome, allowing for little flexibility or movement. However, thanks to work currently underway at the Massachusetts Institute of technology all that could be about to change.
The Newman Bio Suit, so called because the concept was developed by Dr Dava Newman, relies not on gas pressurization, but rather on a breakthrough system called mechanical counter pressure.
According to studies undertaken by MIT, seventy to eighty percent of an astronauts energy is spent in fighting the rigidity of gas pressurisation. Rather than suffer such debilitating effects the Newman Bio suit surrounds the astronauts body with multiple layers of skin tight material, allowing a flexibility when faced with work or external tasks that is unknown in more conventional designs. With regards to work undertaken in a true space environment, the Newman suit prototype is currently able to exert roughly 20 to 30 kilo pascals of internal pressure . In order for an astronaut to survive in a space vacuum, or planetary environment for any length of time, the Newman suit is being developed to exert 30 kilo pascals - an Earth equivalent pressure. Prototypes have already successfully matched these pressures, utilising a skeletal structure system to emulate and enforce rigidity throughout the design.
A descendent of the Newman bio suit will offer potential space tourists the freedom of the Moons surface as and when tourist landings begin. With the freedom to bend, turn and crouch, a descendent of the suit will also free up human energy to deal with the rigorous tasks of Lunar outpost construction and maintenance. The creation of an efficient means of movement in the hostile space environment is another sure sign that humanity is rising to meet the challengers created by our daring and imagination. Perhaps one day we will look back at the current generation of space suits and class them in the same league as the Grumman General Suit.
Image Credit: MIT

Life outside the Cave

2007-07-19T15:55:00.000-07:00

The Greek philosopher Plato c.427 - 347 BCE, surmised that a prisoner held all his life in a cave, lit only by fire, might be forever changed if an escape attempt produced a glimpse of true sunlight. Indeed, if Plato’s prisoner returned to the cave through some act of humanity, surely he would have a duty to inform his fellow prisoners of the fact that their world was only one of shadows and artificial rays?
The analogy of the cave is a powerful metaphor for contemporary global humanity. We walk a seemingly flat and disconnected Earth, our neighbours and fellow nation states somehow severed from us by time and distance. We do not feel the plight of refugees in Darfur or the innumerable wars zones that litter the world; neither do we feel the community that global trade links and population movements create. Our reality, much like the prisoner in Plato’s story, is one of limited perspective, closed walls and artificial light.
A select few men and women have followed Plato’s prisoner upwards to see the light of true reality though. We call these men and women Astronauts. In freeing themselves from the bonds of Earth, these few lucky people can truly compare themselves to the prisoner in Plato’s story by having witnessed a distinct dimension - a profound perspective that has often forced a critical re-evaluation in the hearts of those who have viewed the Earth from space.
This re-evaluation is known as the Overview effect. It is an intense and divergent state of mind that leads to a new awareness of the absolute unity of every single atom and molecule in the universe. In viewing the splendour and majesty of the Earth from deep space, Astronauts return to the home planet with the knowledge that human divisions, and the wars and conflicts that the cave mentality brings, might be forever destroyed if only other prisoners could escape from the cave to see what they have seen.
Sometime towards the end of 2007, Sir Richard Branson will unveil the final configuration of his SpaceShipTwo rocket plane. If SpaceShipTwo is successful, then hundreds if not thousands of Earth bound prisoners will gain a view of the light at the mouth of the cave.
The overview effect will no doubt transform the sense of ourselves as existing as part of a true global community. With the advent of mass space tourism a new stage of human consciousness will begin, searing the impression of a tiny crescent Earth into the heart of every soul. Environmental recovery and greener forms of living will be accelerated, so too will efforts be made to end the tribal wars that blight the globe. The philosophical implications behind human space flight have never been clearer. The creation of the new space tourist fleets will lead directly to the evolution of our combined spirit.

Image credit:NASA

The private exploration of the 8th Continent

2007-07-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

On December 4 2006, NASA announced that it intended to construct a permanently manned base at the Moons south pole. This new declaration of intent was no doubt intended to steer the 2004 Bush Space Initiative, dubbed ‘ The Vision for US Space Exploration’ away from an ultimate manifestation as a simple Apollo retread.
In a further attempt to broaden the effort for international participation, NASA’s deputy administrator, Shana Dale stated that ‘Global Partnerships’ would be the key to realising the creation of such a base. Dale also alluded to the fact that base construction would be open to input from both the public and private sector.
So what plans, if any, exist within the public or private sector to aid the future construction and maintenance of a lunar outpost?
In late 2005 SpaceDev, in conjunction with the Lunar Enterprise Corporation, published its findings into the investigation of a privately funded, manned lunar mission. The results were surprising and suggested that the exorbitant cost of a government funded mission could be dramatically reduced by utilising systems and hardware that were already in existence. The Moon, it seemed, could well be within the grasp of a well organised and planned mission launched by the private sector.
Commenting on the report findings, Jim Benson, SpaceDev’s CEO said, ‘ If we are correct about our Lunar mission cost estimates, our type of human mission could have forty people visiting the Moon for the cost of NASA's first mission’.
The study was based upon the concept of a manned, seven day service flight and takes into consideration every aspect that such a mission would entail: A SpaceDev servicing schedule as defined by the study would be segmented into a series of operational goals; ground launch to Earth orbit, operation in low Earth/ Geo transfer orbit and Lunar landing and departure.
Succinctly, the perfection of regular servicing missions by the private sector would lead to continued access and development beyond the whims of changing US Administrations and Federal budgets.
Away from US efforts, a European endeavour now underway to develop a manned deep space capability, may just see the development of an alternative vehicle for use by the private sector.
The Advanced Crew Transportation
System, ACTS, has suggested the use of a modified Soyuz for operations beyond Earth orbit. The policy leader of the Exploration Directorate of the ESA, Manuel Valls has stated ‘ Our plans are far more ambitious, and it will not be just modernization of the Soyuz’.
Evidently ACTS is a European governmental response to the US Vision, but if one were to examine this ‘Euro Soyuz’ in terms of capability, then it is not hard to imagine that private companies such as Space Adventures, will soon be utilising such vehicles for lunar tourist flights and possibly even landings. The head of RKK Energia, Nikolai Sevastyanov, recently told reporters that the modified Soyuz could be operational and flying manned circumlunar flights by 2010.
The private space flight company, Transformational Space, formed in 2004 by way of response to the US Presidents Vision for Space Exploration, has also been key in assessing the vehicle and servicing requirements for a permanent lunar infrastructure.
The t/Space concept for successful human development of the Moon involves the private operation and usage of the majority of space vehicles. Rather than own and operate their own capsules and systems, NASA would ‘rent’ passage, cargo space and usage of a unique fleet of carrier plane launched t/Space lunar vehicles. The goal of such vehicles would be to hunt out valuable lunar resources, water ice - cometary remnants - to be used in the creation of hydrogen and oxygen for rocket propellant. The company also plans to design systems that can harvest Helium 3 from the lunar regolith - a fuel that may one day form the basis for a lucrative lunar export trade. There is also the matter of platinum grade metals, a resource that can be used in pollution limitation systems.
If it is questionable as to whether any of these systems will ever come to fruition, then we must believe that private industry might perhaps ignore one of the greatest economic development opportunities of the twenty first century. If NASA does succeed in placing a human base at the lunar south pole then these opportunities will occur in the form of land exploitation and ownership, mining potential and export and technological dominance - some of the key motivations behind the operation of a healthy technological civilisation.

Image credit: SpaceDev

Tactical Bomber, Cargo Hauler or Tour Bus? Defining a role for the new sub orbital space planes.

2007-07-03T15:08:00.000-07:00

Pressed as to his views on the attack of German cities by long range heavy aircraft, Arthur Harris, Air Officer commander in chief of RAF bomber Command, offered a memorable reply. ‘ War,’ he ventured, ‘’is a battle between heavyweights. The winner is the one that clobbers hardest with the maximum effort, in the minimum time’. No doubt, Harris’s views differed somewhat from Sir Charles Portal, the British Chief of the Air staff. While Portal perhaps favoured a more strategic description of bombing, Harris might have understood the limitations of strategy through the inaccuracy of the targeting technology at his disposal. While in hindsight it is possible to offer condemnation of Harris’s eventual tactics, the conversation between the two men is notable for the identification of the words ‘minimum time’ .
Although the technology is a little ahead of Harris’s time, the RAF Commander in Chief would have no doubt loved the opportunity to deliver munitions onto German Territory from the safety of sub orbital space. Such a mission, targeting Berlin and flown from the NASA controlled Wallops complex, landing at the new Kiruna spaceport in Sweden, would be a tacticians dream. If our hypothetical bombing mission was undertaken by one of the new space rocket planes now being developed by Scaled Composites, Rocketplane or EADS Astrium, or perhaps even, an adapted descendent of one of these first generation vehicles, then Harris would be very pleased indeed: His dream of a bombing mission delivered in ‘minimum time’ would be realised, awarded the height, vast speed and virtual invulnerability that comes from turning an aircraft into a missile.
Of course, sub orbital bombers were not available in 1943, at least not beyond the pages of a few brilliant German aerospace designers. The contemporary, however, is not quite so safe a place from the threat of sub orbital space bombers - systems that might be just upon the horizon if a team wins the forthcoming V Prize.
That’s right - the V Prize. Although in the first stages of organisation, the Prize may award a monetary recompense for a hypersonic, trans Atlantic flight. Although we can speak of a trans Atlantic flight, the voyage will also likely be trans atmospheric - launching into sub orbital space only to re-enter the air at a separate co-ordinate.
The internet has been alive with rumour of late about such a voyage. Indeed, it now appears that point to point access, for not only people but cargo, also, is now the prime motivation for the increasing movement towards the creation of space planes. There is also a darker side to any positive outcome to the prize - the one which we opened with - but one cannot discount the sheer opportunity of a successful conclusion. That conclusion will see travel times slashed - the world again shrinking to accommodate a new paradigm.
So - Tactical Bomber, Cargo Hauler or Tourbus? I’ll put my money on cargo and hope that we never see the bombs… Image credit: Benson space corp

In anticipation of Genesis II

2007-06-26T14:47:00.001-07:00

Who would have imagined that when NASA abandoned the Trans Hab system in the 1990’s, the pursuit of volume inflatable structures for use in space vacuums would find a renaissance in the form of a major private investor?
That was exactly what happened when Bigelow Aerospace of Mojave, California, decided to dust off a series of plans that originated at the Lyndon B Johnston Space Center, Houston: These blueprints suggested that a future manned Mars mission could be gifted with a major boost to its internal volume through the attachment of an external, light weight inflatable structure.
Bigelow Aerospace, the creation of Robert Bigelow, owner of the Budget Suites of America Hotel chain is now a key player in the race to establish the presence of private citizens and industry in Earth orbit. Using a large initial investment of 500 million dollars and the Trans Hab system as an engineering model, Bigelow Aerospace has already made incredible technological strides.
On July 12, 2006, a significant event took place, both in terms of the precedence of the Bigelow Aerospace company and of aerospace history. Utilising the post Soviet ballistic missile expertise of the Kosmotros company and a converted R36-M ballistic missile, re christened ‘ Dnepr’, Bigelow successfully orbited launched the 15 foot long ‘Genesis’ inflatable habitat. Returning stunning views of the blue white curve of the planet from orbit as well as hosting a range of small experiments, Genesis represented a stunning achievement for the private space industry.
Emboldened by his companies success, Bigelow vowed to press ahead with his original intentions - to construct a full scale inflatable private space station. Now as the launch date for Genesis II, the successor to the original Genesis module, draws near, we can at last imagine a near future where Earth is ringed by a range of highly advanced, safe and spacious orbiting private space stations.
If Genesis II is successful, and we have every reason to believe it will be, then a range of follow on modules will be orbited. Each advancing in scale over the previous design, Genesis II will be followed by Galaxy, Sundancer and a full sized, manned module tentatively called BA 330.
What does all this mean for human presence in Earth orbit? Succinctly, Bigelow is planning to sell his modules to a wide range of interests ranging from large corporations to wealthy private citizens. Not out of the question are yachts and manned deep space vehicles built from modularised inflatable Bigelow units. (See the title graphic for an idea as to what these systems will look like). We are not simply talking about a few thrill seekers in perpetual freefall. In particular, Bigelow is keen to distance himself from simply being viewed as the man who will provide the means for Hilton to move into lunar orbit.
Access is key to the future of the private inflatable, and not content with the lack of private entrée to orbit, Bigelow has pledged $50 million of his own money (the America Space Prize with a deadline of January 10 2010) to whoever can deliver a vehicle that can dock with his full scale BA 330 module. Current contenders come in the form of the COTS finalists, SpaceX and Rocketplane Kistler, presenting the Dragon and the K1 vehicles respectively. If these systems are delivered and a vapour tech future is avoided, then we could well see a human solar system, based on cis lunar private tourism and access built around the periphery of larger government programs, the gift of which will be simply unimaginable.
God speed Genesis II…

Image Credit: Bigelow Aerospace

Abramovich to fly circumlunar?

2007-06-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

Rumour has it that billionaire oligarch Roman Abramovich has signed up for Space Adventures 100 million dollar a seat circumlunar flight to be flown sometime in the 2010-2015 time frame.
If confirmed, Abramovich would become perhaps the first private explorer to view the lunar far side as part of the DSE (Deep Space Expedition) Alpha venture.
The mission, if brought to fruition, will not land on the Moon but would rather swing around the far side at an extreme altitude, gifting the passenger and pilot with some truly spectacular views.
With regards to the technical aspects of the flight, the mission will be hosted by the RKK Energia company and will consist of a Soyuz spacecraft joined to a Zenit rocket launched propulsion unit designed for orbital departure and trans lunar injection.

After rendezvousing in low Earth orbit, the propulsion unit and the Soyuz will dock. The third day of the mission will see the Soyuz blasting out of Earth orbit with Abramovich and the pilot aboard to begin a trans lunar injection. With the propulsion unit spent, the Soyuz will finally separate from its rocket sled, the mission at last on its way to the Moon.
Lasting nine days the adventure will truly be a first in that it will extend the domain of the private individual far beyond the low orbit of the International Space Station.
If successful DSE Alpha will represent something of a trump card for the Russians in beating the Americans to a lunar encounter, perhaps a full ten years before Orion 12, already tentatively scheduled for June 2019!
Go Abramovich!

Image Credit: Space Adventures and www.russiablog.org

A people in need of a frontier

2007-06-22T10:29:00.000-07:00

Do you know what the British people need? Do you know the one thing that will truly put pride back into the nations heart? That's right - a manned space program.
Good old blighty needs to take a mighty leap back onto the worlds stage. We need a new manned fleet - vehicles to carry the hopes and dreams of our young people far beyond the horizons limitation. Perhaps we can even purchase the manned Atlas V system in the years ahead?
What with physics and science departments under threat in universities all over the country, surely its time for the ridiculously undersized British National Space Centre or BNSC to be replaced with something that bit grander? I say lets co-ordinate our efforts, unite the dispersed tentacles that constitute our efforts, and fund something along the lines of a British Space Agency. The goal of this agency? To put British men and women in space!
Surely then, such an agency, if funded at appropriate levels could break the ridiculous astronaut ban imposed at the end of the 1970's cancelling out manned British participation in the wider European efforts. Lets end the ridiculous situation of British born men and women having to acquire dual nationality in order to fly with the Americans. Surely we can do better!
Here's the British Interplanetary Societies take on the entire issue:

Despite being the world's fourth largest economy, the UK currently has no manned space presence or interest in human space industry activities. Although the UK does manufacture some unmanned satellites (via companies such as EADS Astrium and SSTL), there is no link to manned research or its related space infrastructure. Whilst the rest of Europe, the US, Russia, China, Japan and many emerging industrialised nations (for example Brazil, Malaysia and India) all explore space through human approaches, the UK has missed out and British scientists and industry are currently excluded from many important research fields - this is against the national good.Following a 2006 review of the perceived scientific and educational value of manned space flight, The British Interplanetary Society (BIS) resolved that the UK would strongly benefit from a modest astronaut presence. This view follows the independent report of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) in October 2005, where Prof Frank Close and his team drew attention to the wide ranging scientific and cultural benefits of human space flight - they recommended that the UK committed about £120 million a year to human exploration of space, a figure in line with the UK's partners in the European Space Agency (ESA).Other recent scientific studies have recognised potential human space benefits for the UK. In 2003, the independent Microgravity Review Panel recommended the UK join microgravity research on the International Space Station (ISS). In May 2004, the Cross Research Council Report suggested a reconsideration of UK government policy with respect to joining the manned element of the ESA's Aurora programme, one day leading to the human exploration of the Moon, Mars and the solar system

The man rated Atlas V - ahead of the game?

2007-06-22T10:09:00.000-07:00

The agreement of September 2006 between Bigelow Aerospace and Lockheed Martin to explore the potential of man rating the Atlas V for commercial orbital space station access, no doubt represents a safer and infinitely more reliable route to an effective and developed space tourism model, rather than the sub orbital first, carrier and rocket space plane approach, now being developed in both America and Europe.
Consider the words of Joshua Hopkins and Jeff Paton in their introduction to the report ‘ Atlas V for Commercial Passenger Transportation’
‘The Atlas high flight rate of unmanned missions quickly builds sufficient history to rely on flight demonstrated reliability, rather than analytically predicted reliability. Demonstrating these systems has the benefit of increasing reliability through commonality with commercial and government launches, in addition to continuing vehicle characterization due to the experience gained from higher flight and production rates. The Atlas expendable launch vehicle family is a mature system with demonstrated design robustness and processes discipline that provides a highly reliable, robust solution for commercial passenger transportation needs.’
Could the development of sub orbital space planes be a costly deviation that the embryonic space tourism industry does not need?
The issue boils down to a sequence that appears to be represented on most of the media channels, be they net based or print hard copy.
The sequence goes something like this: Companies in Europe and America MUST test the market waters with rocket planes with limited altitude before a fully realised and represented true space tourism market develops with full, safe and reliable orbital systems: But why does this have to be so?
Surely the development and mass market application of largely untried and tested rocket - space planes will create far more accidental losses than if one were to wait for the development of truly reliable, rocket and capsule systems similar to designs ventured by companies such as Lockheed Martin? Rocket and carrier plane launched systems could make space tourism an extreme sport deemed to be considered worthwhile by only the most steel gutted enthusiasts - hardly a worthwhile pursuit for families and commercial manned interest.
The importance of private space plane development cannot be discounted, but in years to come, people might look back on this period and judge that such designs did not lead to a profitable space tourist industry through their safety and lineage. Perhaps, rather space planes will be seen to have represented a spur to more established companies like EADS - Astrium, Lockheed and others in gauging and reacting to market opinion - ultimately leading to safe and effective mass reliability and access…

Image Credit: Lockheed Martin