Space Access 2007

Space Access '07
official announcement

These are notes I took from the presentations at the Space Access 2007 Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

Saturday Morning, March 24, 2007

9 am Bill Boland, Teachers In Space

goal is to be an inspiration and reward for good teachers
seeking legislation to send up to 500 teachers per year on space flights
currently part of the Space Frontier Foundation, a 501(c)3 charitable non-profit organization
since lobbying is expected to be needed in the near future and that's not allowed for 501(c)3, they're forming a 501(c)4 corporation with arms-length separation
Teacher of the Year has expressed interest
one member of audience had a teacher who was applying for NASA's teacher in space program, and thought it was a negative experience watching teachers get handouts

9:20 Sam Dinkin, SpaceShot

http://www.freespaceshot.com/
market survey in past year has shown great interest
older seem jaded - told as kids they could be astronauts and then couldn't
kids are most interested - but don't have money
repositioned Space Shot game as a free game with ads
once there are flights and winners to take them, age 17+ players are expected to become more interested
wants to develop more games for all age markets
competitors show interest in space flight but few are making business case for continuing prizes
- Virgin Volvo 2005 giveaway - 130,000 players, one time, was not continued
- Microsoft Rocketplane Vanishingpoint game - 88,000 players, one time, was not continued
- Texas Lottery - 7 million players 3.4 billion annual revenue

revenue model - ad rates determine number of players needed for different levels of prizes with profit left over
for those who commented on the wait, Sam points out Barbara Morgan has waited 22 years to fly on a government craft
early to market - no space flights available yet today

9:40 Jeff Greason, XCOR Aerospace

http://www.xcor.com/
XCOR turned a profit last year
3 engine development programs currently or coming up
X Racer development had to slow down for a bit because XCOR was getting too far ahead of other aspects of the program - should be speeding up again soon but no public details right now
recent news was 7500lbf thrust LOX/methane motor for NASA
impressive video of LOX/methane motor test and rocket racer motor w/ restart capability
Jeff expects to have had his first rocket flight by next year's conference

10:20 break

11 am Ken Davidian, NASA Centennial Challenges - "Orbital Prizes: Comments on an ARocket List Discussion"

purse discussion from list: value: bigger is better; number: more is better; suggested purses
Paul Breed's suggested prize matrix 1st/2nd/3rd place for unmanned payload, manned, orbital
Centennial Challenges Internal Human Orbital Vehicle Prize Study
HOV Prize Background
- in support of possible prize partnership with Bigelow Aerospace
- Total purse of $50M
- targeted announcement date at 2nd XPrize flight of SpaceShipOne on Oct 4, 2004
- missed opportunity due to unresolved authorization issues
- Bigelow went ahead with his own Americas Space Prize without NASA

NASA Internal HOV Study
- maximize number of competitors and probablility of a winner - minimize crew, repeatability, mission duration
- maximize commercial benefit with challenge outcomes - increased crew, then repeatability

Mass calculation
docking issues - whether to require docking, time limitations - decided not to require it
findings
- 1-2 crew 6 hour flight
- 1 crew 12 hour flight

HOVES Meets ARocket - final study results not far off from Paul Breed's suggestion on ARocket
video of NASA Centennial Challenges skipped because everyone here has seen them
How do prizes benefit NASA?
- increased participation by new sources of innovation
- leveraging of taxpayers dollars
- innovative technology development fits NASA's purpose
- increased awareness of science and technology (PopSci, AvWeek, so far)

XPrize Foundation and others manage individual Centennial Challenges for no taxpayer money
7 separate prize competitions this year
Congress discontinued ongoing funding - Ken distributed the $7M to existing prizes with possibilities to roll over prizes that are not awarded
currently the prizes are arranged through 2011 around the money already appropriated
will continue to ask Congress for more prize money to continue the program

11:40 David Masten, Masten Space Systems

XPrize Cup in 2006 worked well because people came looking for business contracts - no public details right now
That's why MSS has been holding at about "2 weeks away from flight"
incremental development began with XA 0.1 prototype
had problems making it heavy enough to come down under power
company was founded at previous Space Access conferences as attendees met and became co-founders
as soon as XA 0.1 flies, begin building XA 0.2 designed for Lunar Lander Challenge
incremental development plan - XA-0.x vehicles will work through pistonless pump engines, retractable gear, increased thrust, reaction control, space rating components, etc
ultimate goal is orbital and beyond
attendees asked about staging: two stage to orbit architecture. single stage based on the best papers still doesn't look feasible. three stage has a problem of where to bring back the second stage - if you can go once around, you've got orbital capability.
attendee question about FAA permit: MSS application was nearly complete last year, updating the application for this year
XA 0.1 is only intended for tethered and 10 second hops
FAA permit is and was always intended to be for XA 0.2