NASA’s ‘Rocket to
Nowhere’ Could Hijack Private Spaceflights (Source:
Washington Times)
The space shuttle has been mothballed, and prospects of a new NASA ship
to carry Americans to space are tarnished by setbacks and cost
overruns. The only way an American astronaut can get into space now is
to hitch a ride on a Russian rocket. Private space vehicles could be
the better answer. SpaceX recently rolled out a manned capsule —
privately funded — that could replace Russian Soyuz flights as the
preferred way to take American astronauts into the heavens.
But a provision added by a Senate committee to the bill that funds NASA
could keep these private rockets grounded. The provision is complex and
deals with contacting for these companies to help the federal mission
in space. Sen. Richard Shelby, (R-AL), would require the companies to
provide figures of both the fixed-price cost as well as the cost-plus
prices they would receive if paid by that method. Requiring private
spaceflight contractors to calculate this additional, irrelevant set of
numbers would consume thousands of man hours to calculate the complex,
esoteric cost-plus system.
Mr. Shelby says all this extra effort is about transparency for
taxpayers. Aerospace engineer Rand Simberg writes that it’s more likely
to be about protecting NASA’s Space Launch System, an $18 billion
rocket program with no defined mission. The program is headquartered at
the Marshall in Huntsville, and its employees are Mr. Shelby’s
constituents. Launching this “Rocket to Nowhere” will cost taxpayers at
least a half-billion dollars every time it lifts off — if it ever does.
It’s only fair, and in the long run more efficient, that private firms
get a fair opportunity to compete for America’s space business. (6/17)
CNBC's Disruptors
(Source: CNBC)
CNBC features private companies in 27 industries—from aerospace to
enterprise software to retail—whose innovations are revolutionizing the
business landscape. These forward-thinking upstarts have identified
unexploited niches in the marketplace that have the potential to become
billion-dollar businesses, and they rushed to fill them. Three
space-focused companies are on the list, including SpaceX,
Skybox Imaging,
and Kymeta.
(6/17)
A Closer Look at NASA’s
FY 2015 Budget Prospects (Source: Parabolic Arc)
After years of flat and declining budgets, it looks like NASA will get
a funding boost this year from an unexpected source — Congress. The FY
2015 budget measures coming out of the Senate and House actually boost
the President’s proposed $17.46 billion spending plan by about $400
million. The Senate would spend an even $17.9 billion, while the House
spending plan is just slight under that level at $17.896 billion. Click
here.
(6/16)
CASIS Announces Grant
Awards for Remote Sensing (Source: CASIS)
The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) has
announced grant awards for five projects focused on remote sensing and
Earth observation. These awards stem from the CASIS Request for
Proposals (RFP) “Remote Sensing From the International Space Station.”
Click here.
Editor's
Note: Among the winning projects is one from the Florida
Institute of Technology. This project "seeks to advance the development
of a new type of charge injection device sensor for Earth and space
imaging that will improve upon existing charge-coupled device
technology. (6/17)
Costs, Benefits of RD-180
Engine Replacement Debated (Source: National Defense)
The U.S. national security space community was left wondering this
spring whether a Russian company would continue to supply it with
engines needed to launch heavy payloads on its Atlas rockets. At issue
was the RD-180, a first-stage engine needed to power the Atlas V.
“Relying on Russian engines to launch satellites for our national
security missions has always been bad policy,” said Rep. “Dutch”
Ruppersberger, D-MD, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Language in the fiscal year 2015 defense authorization bill would
provide $220 million to kickstart domestic production of a new
first-stage rocket engine, which would replace the RD-180. That would
only be a small down payment in an effort that would take several years
and about $1.5 billion, experts interviewed said. Click here.
(6/17)
ULA Signs Multiple
Contracts to Pursue RD-180 Replacement (Sources: Denver
Post, SpaceFlight Now)
United Launch Alliance has signed commercial contracts with multiple
U.S. companies to pursue development of a liquid propulsion rocket
engine to replace the controversial Russian-made RD-180. ULA will
choose one U.S. company's concept by the fourth quarter of this year to
supply launch-ready engines by 2019.
ULA did not identify which companies will undertake the engine studies.
Jessica Rye, a ULA spokesperson, also declined to say how many
companies signed the contracts with the launch provider. The contracts
are for early-stage studies of a hydrocarbon-fueled engine optimized
for first stage propulsion with "aggressive recurring cost targets,"
according to ULA. (6/17)
Russian Rocket Deal Needs
Wing-Walking Approach (Source: The Hill)
While ongoing Russian behavior and actions could ultimately destroy any
remaining basis for collaboration, it would be premature and
shortsighted to end U.S.-Russian space cooperation that can continue to
be mutually beneficial and a stabilizing force in the future. Moving
forward, it is also important to make a clear distinction between
collaboration, which is mutually beneficial, versus dependence and
patronage, which are vastly different.
In addition to the foreign policy imperatives of developing a new
engine, there is a need to maintain two fully certified launch vehicle
families capable of reliably launching national security payloads.
Without the development of a new engine, the U.S. runs a very high risk
of being unable to maintain two independent launch vehicles, and runs a
very real risk of replacing one perceived monopoly with another.
In the near term, the U.S. needs to continue to utilize RD-180 engines
to provide assured access to space while concurrently developing a
domestic replacement engine for use near the end of this decade. The
best way ahead is a pragmatic path where the United States can utilize
the RD-180 in the near term, while developing our own propulsion
capabilities. Such an approach, with stable funding and political
support, is what is needed at this moment if we are to truly put our
national security and commercial interests first. (6/17)
America's Weapon in the
US-Russia Space War (Source: CNBC)
Last month Elon Musk wowed reporters, pulling back the curtain on the
spaceship that SpaceX hopes will carry NASA astronauts to the
International Space Station as soon as 2016. The unveil of the Dragon
V2 couldn't have come at a better time. Just two weeks prior, Russia's
deputy prime minister vowed to bar NASA from hitching rides to the ISS
aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
The fortuitous timing—along with the Dragon V2's sleek, futuristic
design—could make the spacecraft an attractive option for NASA, which
is also considering designs by Boeing and Sierra Nevada. But more
important to SpaceX is the advance toward a core company objective:
reusability. Dragon V2—unveiled just a month after SpaceX demonstrated
technologies key to developing a reusable first rocket stage—can be
retrieved, refurbished and relaunched, a concept with the potential to
completely upend the economics of the spaceflight industry.
The reusable rocket stage is just the latest way SpaceX is disrupting a
space launch industry in which it has already undercut its more
traditional commercial launch competitors—including France's
Arianespace and the Russian-U.S. joint venture International Launch
Services (ILS)—by an estimated 25 percent to 35 percent, disrupting an
industry that some analysts believe will be the biggest innovation
economy in human history. (6/17)
Commerce Dept. Decision
Boosts DigitalGlobe's Prospects (Source: USA Today)
The stakes for DigitalGlobe were high. Without Commerce's approval, the
company would not be able to sell much of its highest-resolution
imagery, shut out of a big part of the lucrative world market for
satellite imagery. Congressional records show that DigitalGlobe spent
$360,000 to lobby Congress and the federal government in the first
three months of 2014, while none of the major competitors the company
listed in its latest annual filing with the SEC reported any spending
on lobbying.
Udall wrote President Obama a month ago urging him to accept
DigitalGlobe's application to release its most advanced technology,
arguing that the restriction hindered the company in the world market.
"There are no restrictions on the image resolution that airborne
imaging companies or foreign providers can offer," Udall wrote. "Yet
with foreign commercial providers soon able to provide imagery at or
better than the currently allowed commercial U.S. resolution limit of
0.5 meters, current restrictions on U.S. satellite-based commercial
imagery providers put the United States at a competitive disadvantage."
(6/17)
Air Products Wins NASA
Liquid Nitrogen and Liquid Oxygen Contract (Source:
SpaceRef)
NASA has awarded a contract to Air Products and Chemicals Inc. of
Allentown, Pennsylvania, to supply liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen to
NASA’s Ames Research Center, California; Glenn Research Center, Ohio;
and Marshall Space Center, Alabama. The firm-fixed price contract with
an Economic Price Adjustment begins July 1. It has a maximum value of
$10.5 million with a potential performance period of five years. (6/17)
NASA Returns to the
Bottom of the Ocean (Source: Space Reporter)
Three and a half miles off the coast of Key Largo, Florida, 62 feet
below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, you will find Florida
International University’s undersea research habitat: Aquarius Reef
Base. This is the world’s only undersea laboratory, and four crew
members, called aquanauts, live there. Aquarius is used for NASA
Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO). Activities conducted on
the ocean floor, NASA says, will inform future International Space
Station and explorations activities. NASA plans to use Aquarius twice
this summer.
NASA officials further explain that the studies provide information
that correlates directly to life aboard the space station, where crew
members must frequently perform critical tasks that present
constraining factors similar to those experienced in an undersea
environment. “It is critical that we perform science applicable to
NASA’s exploration goals in a high-fidelity space operational context.
The extreme environment of life undersea is as close to being in space
as possible." (6/16)
Lockheed Execs Defend
All-purpose Orion (Source: Space News)
A week after a blue-ribbon panel said it makes little sense to build
exploration spacecraft without specific destinations in mind, Lockheed
Martin defended taking such a mission-agnostic approach with the Orion
deep-space crew capsule it is building for NASA. The thrust of that
defense was the size of NASA’s budget, which, according to Larry Price,
is not large enough to do anything but build a modular spacecraft that
could be adapted later for the many precursor missions that pave the
way for a crewed Mars landing sometime in the 2030s.
“We’re managing the budget that we’ve got, and maximizing the pieces
that we need in the near-term,” Price said in a June 9 interview here
during Lockheed’s annual media day. Designing a spacecraft that can be
adapted for several different missions is comparatively cheaper than
what Price called “point design,” in which NASA and its contractors
would design new spacecraft for every precursor mission on the road to
Mars. (6/16)
Bobak Ferdowsi - Becoming
a Space Explorer and a Meme (Source: MIT Tech Review)
Bobak Ferdowsi remembers the moment in 1997 when he was inspired to
become an astronautical engineer. As he began his undergraduate studies
at the University of Washington, images were arriving from NASA’s Mars
Pathfinder mission, and “seeing pictures from a vehicle that was
actively being driven on another planet—I knew it was something I
wanted to be part of,” he recalls.
So Ferdowsi changed his major to aerospace engineering and went on to
MIT to earn a master’s in aeronautical and astronautical engineering,
working with the Lean Aerospace Initiative (LAI). In 2003 he earned a
post at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). He joined a 30-person
team that was beginning a nine-year effort to develop, launch, and land
the Mars Science Laboratory and its Curiosity rover vehicle. (6/17)
Hubble Begins Search
Beyond Pluto For Potential Flyby Targets (Source: Space
Daily)
After careful consideration and analysis, the Hubble Space Telescope
Time Allocation Committee has recommended using Hubble to search for an
object the Pluto-bound NASA New Horizons mission could visit after its
flyby of Pluto in July 2015. The planned search will involve targeting
a small area of sky in search of a Kuiper Belt object (KBO) for the
outbound spacecraft to visit.
The Kuiper Belt is a vast debris field of icy bodies left over from the
solar system's formation 4.6 billion years ago. A KBO has never been
seen up close because the belt is so far from the sun, stretching out
to a distance of 5 billion miles into a never-before-visited frontier
of the solar system. (6/17)
Pratt & Whitney
Opens Jet Engine Center in West Palm Beach (Source: EFI)
Florida Lieutenant Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera today joined United
Technologies Corp. in announcing the grand opening of Pratt &
Whitney’s new West Palm Beach Engine Center at the company’s West Palm
Beach facility. The completed engine center includes a new
state-of-the-art production facility that will support Pratt &
Whitney’s ramp up for production of the PurePower PW1100G-JM engine
for the Airbus A320neo aircraft and the F135 engine for the F-35
Lightning II fighter jet. (6/17)
Methane Research Boosts
Hunt for Alien Life (Source: SEN)
A powerful new model that focuses on methane to detect life on planets
outside of our Solar System more accurately than ever before, has been
developed by University College London (UCL) scientists. Methane, the
simplest organic molecule, is widely acknowledged to be a sign of
potential life. Now researchers have developed a new spectrum for "hot"
methane which can be used to detect the molecule at temperatures above
that of Earth, up to 1,500K/1,220°C, something which was not possible
before. (6/17)
Can We Protect Mars
Explorers From Deadly Cosmic Radiation? (Source: Popular
Mechanics)
As NASA eyes on a manned mission to Mars, Peter Guida—a medical
scientist at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory in Brookhaven, N.Y.—is
trying to tackle one of the biggest obstacles: hazardous radiation in
space. He tells PopMech what cosmic radiation is and how we can protect
astronauts against it. Click here.
(6/16)
The Science of Deflector
Shields: ‘Radiation Shelters’ On The Moon (Source: Medium)
Parts of the Moon’s surface have been shielded from radiation by
extremely weak magnetic fields. Now researchers have worked out how and
say their discovery could protect astronauts on long-duration space
missions. Until now, numerous studies of magnetic deflector shields
have suggested that they would have to be hugely powerful to do this
job. But if weak fields can protect parts of the moon, they ought to be
able to do the same for astronauts. The question is how. Click here.
(6/16)
Elon Musk’s Destiny: Boba
Fett or Han Solo? (Source: Space News)
While the idea of the quaint and peaceful Sputnik 1 as the first
man-made object launched into space, representing our Roddenberry-esque
harmonious nature, is a nice historical narrative, the sad truth is
that mankind’s first journey to “boldly go” was undertaken by Nazis
building rockets to murder civilians en masse during World War II. As
such, outer space has long been used by the military not only for
non-space-centered operations (as in militarized) but also as a weapons
platform and as an arena of war (as in weaponized).
Humans carrying the tumult of war into the silence of the final
frontier is a legacy that lingers to this day. However, the emergence
of private entities such as Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies
Corp. as major players in the arena of space development represents a
force that could either accelerate these militaristic trends or nullify
them. Click here.
(6/16)
NASA Changing the Way it
Does Business (Source: Washington Post)
NASA is changing the way it is doing business, spending less on
traditional contracts and partnering more with the private sector and
local governments to further the growth of the commercial space
industry. That transition promises to be a prime preoccupation for the
agency’s new top lawyer, Sumara Thompson-King.
NASA is also working with Space Florida, the aerospace economic and
development agency that was created by the Florida state legislature to
explore ways the private sector could use Kennedy Space Center now that
NASA no longer uses the shuttle landing facility there. (The last
flight was the Atlantis, in 2011). SpaceX and Boeing have both won
approval to use equipment and space at the center.
Space Florida “has been working and talking with us to manage the
shuttle landing facility because they want to create a multi-user
spaceport facility in that area,” she said. “There is a commercial
industry, we all know it’s growing, so the state of Florida wants to
encourage that industry. We are now engaged in more conversations and
agreements with state and local governments to further commercial space
activities.” Click here.
(6/16)
Why Commercial Crew is
Critical for Future Exploration (Source: Universe Today)
Why is NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to develop private human
transport ships to low Earth orbit important?
That’s the question I posed to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden when
we met for an exclusive interview at NASA Goddard. The Commercial Crew
Program (CCP) is the critical enabler “for establishing a viable
orbital infrastructure” in the 2020s, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
said. Click here.
(6/16)
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