In his Space Review article, Eric Hedman wondered aloud if alt.space was asking itself the tough questions needed to have a realistic chance at technical and business success. One company, Masten Space Systems, has replied that yes, they are.
Also, Clark Lindsay at HobbySpace has a very thoughtful response, and details a number of good examples of how alt.space today is taking a much more disciplined and professional approach, than the “handful of hobbyists, a few wild-eyed schemers, and a gullible investor or two” that characterized alt.space in years gone by.
This whole theme of the level of engineering discipline and the level of ‘reality’ now present in the alt.space industry would make a very good question to put to Gary Lantz. Come over to the forums and hear about how the tough questions are being asked and answered at Rocketplane.
Eric Hedman thinks that alt.space startups should be asking themselves some tough questions to enhance their business plans and chances of success.
Jeff Foust reviews the latest space IMAX movie, about the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, in Review: Roving Mars in IMAX.
Andrew Turner describes the Aquarius system, which would provide low-cost transport of bulk items, like food and water, to the ISS or for future exploration missions.
OotC blogger-in-residence Mark Trulson concludes his interview with Patrick J. G. Stiennon and David M. Hoerr in The Men of The Rocket Company (part 2). [D’oh! If you are wondering what happened to part one, I forgot my usual ‘this week at the space review’ post last week, but it was indeed posted in last week’s Space Review. I’m putting this down to the pressure of having to go back to work after a really long and relaxing Christmas break. Others in the family have theories about early onset of senility, but we wont go there - Rob]
Taylor Dinerman examines a range of missile defense options and how they might theoretically be used to defend against an Iranian ballistic missile threat, in Missile defense in 2006: now more controversial than ever.
Another new space blog has entered the blogosphere and this one, The Write Stuff by Michael Cabbage of the Orlando Sentinel, is starting off with a bang by interviewing NASA administrator Mike Griffin.
Lots of interesting stuff to be had here, including Mike’s thoughts on COTS:
The space station market for goods and services and crew rotation is now the first real market that NASA has ever been able to offer for provision by commercial operators and I’m committed to offering that market.
Well worth a read.
Only a handful of days remain until NASA’s FY2007 budget is revealed. There’s been plenty of speculation about what’s going to be in there, and more to the point what isn’t: as things currently stand, the Shuttle has a funding shortfall of several billions of dollars between now and its planned retirement in 2010. That money has to come from somewhere, and given the tight budget environment, it’s unlikely that NASA will see any extra money to cover it.
So something has to give. There has been talk of retiring a shuttle orbiter early and drastically reducing the number of flights to ISS - although based on this article at the Washington Post it sounds like there has been a backing away from this wholesale slashing and burning:
Industry and congressional sources said the administration has abandoned an early OMB proposal to slash the number of planned shuttle flights by more than half, but hemmed in by other budget priorities, especially the war in Iraq, it still appears unwilling to fund a full slate of 19 flights.
Which still leaves us wondering where the money is going to come from. The one line item that no good alt.spacer wants to see touched is the Commercial Orbital Transportation Systems program. It must be starting to look like a pretty juicy half billion dollars to the budgeteers right about now, but maybe there is another way this could go.
The Washington Post article also mentions the possibility that some of the shortfall could be made up by slipping the introduction of the CEV back to 2014. This is politically problematic due to the four-year gap it introduces in US manned spaceflight, but I’m thinking that gap could be put to good use.
Fill it with commercially provided flights made possibly by the COTS program. Making the spaceflight gap bigger by delaying CEV would mean a greater reliance on COTS providers to resupply the space station. This in turn ought to make the business case for COTS more solid, by firming up NASA’s need for regular flights and removing for a time the spectre of having NASA fly the CEV in competition.
More business for the COTS providers by delaying CEV would, in my opinion, be a big win-win. There is no gap in US spaceflight if NASA can buy a ticket on a COTS capsule, and CEV can be better optimised to its Lunar role if the distraction of flights to the ISS is removed.
So roll on the budget. I’m actually hoping that the CEV is delayed. Increased reliance on COTS should end up enabling much more spaceflight than the expensive CEV will allow, and assigning commercial providers the important mission of “covering the spaceflight gap” should make the COTS funding that little bit safer. Here’s hoping.
In an article at nature.com we are introduced to an Arizona State University proposal for the second of a series of low-cost Mars “scout” probes. The first such probe is dubbed “Phoenix,” and is due to launch in August 2007.
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NASA provides this update on the extraordinary pair of Mars rovers;
On Jan. 3, Spirit passed its second anniversary inside the Connecticut-sized Gusev Crater. Initially, Spirit did not find evidence of much water, and hills that might reveal more about Gusev’s past were still mere bumps on the horizon. By operating eight times as long as planned, Spirit was able to climb up those hills, examine a wide assortment of rocks and find mineral fingerprints of ancient water.
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In an obvious case of “finders-keepers” someone put up for auction a phial of moon dust. Jesse over at Space Law Probe brings our attention to the story.
Apparently over the years there have been instances where moon dust has gone up for sell and no action has been taken. These very small samples have obtained through the legitimate purchasing of artifacts used on the moon, such as spacesuits, gloves, boots, etc. worn by the astronauts then meticulously removing the clinging particles of dust.
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There was a slight hiccup with the introduction of comments in our site redesign - some idiot left the blog software configured to require registration before you could post a comment, despite the fact that we haven’t set up such a registration process.
Never mind.
Said idiot (alright, yes it was me), has rectified the situation - you should now be able to post away in the comments section just fine. You don’t have to register to comment, however if you want to join in the general discussion going on over at the forums, you will have to register there.
If you see anything else broken in the new design, I want to know about it! Give me a yell at rob *at* outofthecradle *dot* net.
Thanks,
Rob.
A tip of the hat goes to www.badastronomy.com, where I spotted this post. The weekly science journal, NATURE is coming out today and will feature a major paper on a discovery addressing extra-solar planets.
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This press release just in from NASA:
(This is quite timely, because we are in the finishing stages of putting togther an interview with Gary Lantz, Rocketplane’s Lead Systems engineer). Stay tuned for the full interview.
NASA LOANS ENGINE TO INDUSTRY PARTNER
NASA is loaning a rocket engine to Rocketplane Limited, Inc. of Oklahoma City as part of an innovative industry partnership program.
The program highlights NASA’s efforts to share advanced aeronautics, space and related technologies with the private sector to use ideas and investments that can lead to new capabilities.
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“The Moon - Our Sister Planet” by Peter Cadogan
Published in 1981 by Cambridge University Press, it weighs in at 380 pages of content, plus a nice glossary and bibliography. Professionally and academically edited, and I sure don’t remember seeing any errors. OOP
So if you’ve worked your way through the “Pocket Guide to Lunar Mineralogy” and find yourself curious to know where to go next to learn more, there can be only one answer: “The Once and Future Moon” by Paul Spudis. Dr. Spudis is one of the currently recognized “Lunar experts” and he has been quite vocal in elaborating many of the “why”s of going back to the Moon, both scientific and commercial. He’s a great guy, and very no-nonsense. He’s helped to shape many of my views of going to the Moon, and we usually correspond or talk a couple of times during the year. There’s good reason that “The Once and Future Moon” made the Out of the Cradle Top 10 List.
“The Once and Future Moon” will give you the background depth needed for “The Moon - Our Sister Planet”. Peter Cadogan does a great job of digesting what we knew at the time, and provides a solid foundation in Lunar mineralogy, as well as orbital science, history, and key missions. The book is replete with engineering style drawings and graphics of the various space and landing craft, as well as instrumentation, including ALSEP components, as well as photographs of both Russian and American craft, making it a good all around reference.
I’ve always been partial to the British style of academic writing, as it’s very straightforward, builds logically and informationally, and is packed with data. That’s the style found in this book, so I was very much able to enjoy reading it. Some may find, though, that they have to slog a bit, and those specifically interested in mineralogy can probably skip right to chapter 3.
It’s another title that really needs to be republished or archived on the internet so that we can start developing a pool of talent that will be ready for our return to our Moon.
This book is loaded with information and knowledge, and is a solid Full Moon.
Be sure to stop by the Forums to catch up on reviews of Luna-centric science fiction tales. The latest addition is “The Oxygen Barons” by Gregory Feeley.
NASA has put on hold a mission to explore two of our solar system’s largest asteroids. Last fall work on the Dawn Spacecraft had been halted pending the results of an independent review team. The findings from that group are scheduled to be released later this week, (Jan. 27th).
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In an article titled “Spacecraft, Heal Thyself” the European Space Agency introduces the results of a new study to develop spacecraft that can self-repair. Thanks to the new study funded by ESA’s General Studies Programme, and carried out by the Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Bristol, UK, engineers have taken a step towards that amazing possibility. They took their inspiration from nature.
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Just in time to celebrate the second anniversary of the Mars Exploration Rovers is this lush visual treat that revisits the story behind the rovers, and visits some of the progress they’ve made in revealing some of the geology (areology?) of Mars. Ample use is made of CGI, but of very high quality that doesn’t detract from the experience. What is annoying are the myriad pops, bangs and whooshes in space as the Delta II goes about its job of sending the probe to Mars. But if that’s all I have to complain about…
The giant IMAX screen really does the images justice. It’s not in 3-D, though it could well have been. It lacks a bit in the human emotional drama part, something that ‘Magnificent Desolation’ captured beautifully (and brought me to tears several times), though Disney tries to make up for that a bit with scenes of tension, apprehension, and eventually joy in the Mission Control.
It will no doubt be seen by legions of school kids on field trips. It’s great for the family, and is informative for all ages. You really want to go see this movie, especially since the ocean films are out-performing the space ones in the theatres. This is likely the last space IMAX until 2007, so be sure to see it early and often.
Go see this movie.
NASA has released the Final COTS announcement. Michael Mealling has posted a link at his COTS Watch website.
Over at US Space News they have posted a run-down of the various sections providing a good over-view of the announcement. Thoughtfully they highlighted in red this piece of NASA information;
Its important to note:
NASA does not intend to provide cargo or crew for the demonstration phase.
__________
Deadlines for proposal submissions are as follows, for electronic delivery is March 3rd and physical is March 7th. So it won’t be long and we will get to hear some details even without the leaking of submissions ahead of time.
Discuss this further at the OotC Forums
Over at the Space.com Uplink, the question was posed of where one might find big maps of the planets, especially of our Moon and Mars. I think they were talking about the big giant blackboard roll-down type maps from our elementary school days. While I’ve never seen one of those for the Moon (and would love to have one for the Lunar Library), there are quite a few fold-out and poster maps available for those who wish to find their way around on the Lunar surface. I thought I’d note them here as part of the ongoing public services provided here of highlighting tools and knowledge that we’re going to need (and you can benefit from) as we venture Out Of The Cradle.
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Chuck Wood’s lunar photo of the day site is back, and the pictures are breathtaking.
That just tears it: now I want to go to the Moon even more.
Welcome to our live coverage of the launch of the Atlas 5 rocket carrying the New Horizons probe, bound for Pluto and the Kuiper belt. The launch is proceeded normally, with no technical issues. Our live coverage has concluded, but you can read back over the events of the launch day here.
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After the scrub of the December 19th launch attempt, Elon Musk CEO of SpaceX announced the decision to fly a whole new first stage to Hawaii via C-5 just in time to catch the barge from there to Kwaj a few days before New Year’s Eve. The new stage would arrive at Kwaj in about a week, whereupon they would switch it out with the damaged unit, then sending it back to California for repair.
Speaking with SpaceX spokesperson, Dianne Molina, she provides the update, “The new first stage did arrive last week on Omelek. All integration work (currently focused on stage prep for stage mate next week) is going flawlessly. We feel very good about the February 8 date.”
In reply to our asking the status of the second Falcon1 flight Molina explained, “We are projecting a quarter 2 launch for TacSat as the as the customer will need to reassemble their team.”
Called TacSat-1, the payload is a tactical communications & observation satellite built and integrated by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory for the Pentagon’s Office of Force Transformation.
We will continue to follow the developments as SpaceX prepares for the February 8th launch date with the following day held in reserve as the fallback window. Once again, we plan on providing coverage as we live blogcast the event.
Disccuss this further at the OotC forums
The launch of the Atlas 5 rocket carrying the New Horizons Pluto probe has been delayed once again, this time by a weather related power outage at the probe’s mission control center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The control center has a backup generator system, but mission rules dictate that the launch cannot proceed on the backup.
The launch team is proceeding with a 24 hour turnaround timeline for a launch attempt tomorrow, although there has been no confirmation as yet that the APL mission control center will be back on primary power and able to support a launch in that time frame. The launch window for tomorrow opens 1:08pm EST and runs through to 3:07 p.m.
Our friend Jon Goff from Selenian Boondocks, catches us up on what’s been going on at Masten Space Systems. Bemoaning the lack of “pretty” pictures, he none the less fills us in on the progress on various pieces of the puzzle that will end with XA-01 craft.
An engineer on the project Jon outlines everything from engines and igniters (he’s specialty) to infrastructure and the XA-01 itself. Get the details here.
Discuss this further on the OotC forums
Be sure to stop by the Forums to catch up on reviews of Luna-centric science fiction tales. The latest addition is “Lunar Descent” by Allen Steele, a rollicking fun tale.
Florida Today’s Flame Trench blog relates a priceless quote from Mike Griffin, during questions for the New Horizons launch.
After being asked multiple times if the Space Science budget, and science probes like New Horizons, were going to be ‘whacked’ to provide funds for human missions, Griffin replied:
“We are not whacking the space science program to pay for human exploration. This is not The Sopranos. We don’t whack anything.”
|  Gary Lantz is the Lead Systems Engineer and Aerodynamic Engineer for Rocketplane Limited, Incorporated. Rocketplane plans to field a fighter-sized, four seat suborbital spaceplane by mid-2007. This is a fascinating interview with an engineer that’s right in the thick of building a spacecraft for the emerging space tourism industry. Read the interview and then be sure to check out the Forums Q&A thread, where Gary has kindly agreed to take your questions.
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