Space Access '11
Space Access Society info
Overview
Thu April 7 afternoon
Thu April 7 evening
Fri April 8 morning
Fri April 8 afternoon
Fri April 8 evening
Sat April 9 morning
Sat April 9 afternoon
Other coverage
RLV News
Space Prizes Blog
Parabolic Arc
@jeff_foust
@jeffkrukin
|
by Ian Kluft
These are notes I took from the presentations at the Space Access 2011 Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
 | | Max Vozoff |
Friday afternoon, April 8, 2011
Max Vozoff, on A Model for Successful Commercial Crew Procurement
Max previously worked for SpaceX on responses to NASA procurement
- what do we need in "commercial crew"?
- for NASA
- crew transportation to ISS
- safety
- space shuttle has set a pretty low bar for safety
- sustainability
- dependability
- US human spaceflight (a national pride issue too)
- ongoing commercial investment
- so contractors are sustainable
- NASA freedom to explore beyond LEO
- for others
- make human spaceflight available for commercial enterprise
- he says he phrased this for a NASA audience
- but it points out difference
- after an American rocket launches to orbit with someone who is not a NASA employee, it will marginalize NASA's definition of what is a human-rated craft
- how do we get that?
- previousmodel hasn't worked
- some technical failures, but mostly program failures
- industry is technically capable
- gov't seed money and initial customer
- (more reasons listed)
- what's unique about COTS?
- not a traditional gov't contract but a Space Act Agreement
- performance-based milestone payments
- no cost-plus that encourage waste
- requires contractor "skin in the game"
- motivation to succeed
- contractor keeps intellectual property unless they default on the Space Act Agreement
- in any business agreement with gov't, you must make sure the gov't doesn't take the rights to your work
- otherwise you can't get any investors
- that would be a disaster for a small company
- benefits of this approach
- gov't encourages the development they want
- contractors can build IP to build their business
- (more listed)
- essential ingredients
- not all contracts would fit this model
- needs to be multiple companies in the market
- must not be significant technical risk, which would deter investment
- solution must be plausible and well-bounded in time and cost
- some high-risk projects may still be appropriate to cost-plus
- when risk is too high to find investment
- then gov't needs to cover the costs to get it done
- model for commercial crew
- i.e. don't write elaborate requirements for stitching a parchute when some bidders might not even use a parachute
- compete a Funded Phase A
- weed out the ones who won't make it
- system test requirements
- human certification plans
- he estimates this would be 9 months for 20 million
- compete a Development & Demonstration (D&D) Phase
- companies completing Phase A have fewer unknowns into this phase
- detailed design and construction
- ends with delivery of crew to ISS
- all competing to same requirements
- Bigelow expects 8 launches per year
- if he exceeds that by a factor of 2, then it will triple the launch rate over gov't alone
- conclusions
- commercial crew will be established within the current planning horizon
- how should NASA deal with this?
- we have a proven workable process in COTS
- the feed-forward must involve both the process and the people
- he emphasizes the people
- he likes the experience he sees at NASA C3PO (Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office)
- Q&A
- if bidders or contractors can't raise money for their part, maybe that indicates there isn't a market
Stellar Exploration Ltd/Tomas Svitek
Henry says that Tomas had the best excuse he's ever heard for a speaker
not being able to make it to the conference... his Zeppelin was late.
He's doing work on the Airship Ventures Zeppelin in Mountain View, CA.
Recent bad weather grounded the Zeppelin for some days so they're still
completing their work.
 | | Charles Pooley, Microlaunchers |
- relocated recently to Las Vegas to get away from California business climate
- Nanosatellite Challenge entrant
- compares smaller launchers to computer industry introduction of microcomputers
- "space exploration begins beyond Earth's gravity, not skimming along the atmosphere"
- recurring targets are Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) - asteroids that pass close by
- 2010 SO16 chosen as a possible exploration target for low velocity relative to Earth
- tables and graphs for 2010 SO16 intercept/telescope mission
- tables and graphs for Nanosatellite Challenge design options
- photo of a rocket launch at Far
- "the rocket worked but the organization exploded"
- forward-looking slides for possible business developmnt
 | | George Herbert |
George Herbert, on New Hybrid Propellant Combination
- 3rd presentation segment that wasn't finished last night
- nicknamed "Wild and Crazy Propellants with George Herbert"
- SF6-Li
- hypergolic under at least some conditions
- note: hypergolic means the propellants ignite in contact, no igniter equipment necessary
- military has used this for torpedo propulsion
- but hot solid particles in the mix are not useful for rocket propulsion
- modify to Li-SF6-NH3
- computed with PROPEP, not experimentally verified
- exhaust includes hydrogen sulfide
- audience points out "your rocket stinks!" because it would
- seems a reasonable propellant in theory
- downsides
- HF hydrofluoric acid in the exhaust is a hazard
- modify to dissolve Li in NH3 (ammonia)
- credits Doug Jones of XCOR for the idea
- simpler than tripropellant
- "lightly less insane new crazy propellant"
- storable safe chemicals
- safe exhaust if you dilute the HF (hydrofluoric acid)
- cost may be high but not unreasonable
- Q&A
- was just about ready to experiment with this at the time of the conference
- will proceed after the conference
- what's the upside?
- hypergolic propellants are usually much too toxic for amateur experimenters to consider
- non-toxic hypergolics would also drastically reduce commercial overhead
 | | John Garvey and helper, Garvey Spacecraft |
- video of Prospector 18 rocket launch at FAR (near Mojave)
- P18 carried some CubeSat electronics to test them in flight conditions
- video from camcorder on another rocket by his students
- company has had 26 flights since 1998
- some in cooperation with CSU Long Beach
- NanoSat launch vehicle development status
- 10kg to 250km circular polar orbit
- one nanosat or multiple cubesats
- Note: CubeSat is a 10cm-cube standard payload form factor developed by Cal Poly and Stanford
- recent history of the company with some rocket photos
- for his professor partner at CSULB, they test launched an aerospike rocket in 2009
- current status
- next flight in a week
- more later this year as engines are ready
 | | Mike Kelly, FAA AST |
- FAA dept - regulates space launches
- protect public and property
- and national security
- issued licenses for 8 non-federal spaceports
- licensed operations include launches and re-rentries
- AST does not certify vehicles
- busy year since last Space Access
- space shuttle retirement now in progress
- commercial space test flights
- commercial crew development
- WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShiptTwo currently flying as experimental aircraft
- will require AST license for space flight
- Spaceport America runway dedication in NM
- NASTAR Safety Approval
- centrifuge and simulator training
- eight licensed launches
- first licensed re-entry - SpaceX Dragon capsule
- coming up: Bigelow first commercial space station
- AST reorganization - it's on the web
- changed from a matrix organization to hierarchy
- added functions
- strategic planning w/ sites in Florida and Mojave
- external relations - first press function in AST
- consolidated groups, previously scattered around AST
- licensing
- rulemaking
- safety inspections
- AST Center of Excellence
- public-private partnership
- consortium with universities, companies or anyone interested
- "like what NASA does", but geared toward commercial space
- addresses current and future challenges to commercial space
- Commercial Spaceflight Technical Center
- result of retirement of space shuttle and cancellation of constellation
- plan to obtain some of the relevant technical expertise from among shuttle workers in Florida
- Q&A
- AST expects to pick up role of collision warnings currently done by the Air Force for NASA manned spacecraft
- looking since last Fall to simplify the process of launch licensing
- held a workshop at Mojave Air & Space Port
- not all rockets are equally hazardous - process should reflect it
- what are we doing to collect data about orbital near-misses?
- AST building on a currently-sparsely populated mishap database
- currently no mechanism to collect info on amateur class flights
- mentioned idea of contracting out to companies that have accidents to help collect more info on accidents that they've had, in order to collect more info currently not available
- concern about using shuttle workers to advise on rulemaking
- clarified that rulemaking is one thing they won't be doing, though the roles aren't fully defined
- example is to collect lessons learned from projects like Scales's SpaceShipTwo or other suborbital operations
 | | Jon Goff, Altius Space Machines |
Jon was one of the original founders and the propulsion enginer at Masten Space Systems. This is the first pitch for a large audience for his new company.
- premise that many spacefaring technologies can be profitably developed today
- "affordable space access is a problem that can be attacked from both ends and the middle"
- bootstrapping via contract engineering
- developing a rendezvous and docking technology
- advanced space transportation has to be an industry, not just one or two launchers
- most mission profiles involve rendezvous with something in orbit
- this may quickly double or triple the number of rendezvous and docking events which have happened in all of space history so far
- "I haven't invented warp drive. But I think I can do a tractor beam."
- electrostatic adhesion technology
- allow surface adhesion between materials which would not normally stick
- works better in a vacuum
- called "noncooperative capture"
- "sticky boom"
- arm can reach out and stick/unstick with undefined objects
- makes physical connection at a distance
- grab an object without ramming a docking mechanism
- method for attachment to tumbling objects
- Sticky boom for Mars sample return
- catching the return capsule is tricky - this may solve it
- noncooperative capture applications
- NEO sample capture - near-Earth object missions involve surfaces we don't currently understand
- space debris collection
- recovery of tools lost on EVA
- Jon's interest is docking with orbital propellant depots
- enables safer rendezvous and docking operations
- current status
- won an SBIR contract to study the technology
- demo
- "I didn't have any videos so I figured I'd bring some working hardware instead"
- in front of the group, used the attachment arm to pick up a food can
- major applause
 | | Frank Smith, KC Space Pirates |
KC Space Pirates/Frank Smith
- competed in the Space Elevator Games, one of NASA's Centennial Challenges
- video showed 2009 competition preparations
- continues to pursue remaining prizes in the power beaming competition
- tether experiment for orbital launch
- new side project is "ashes to orbit" releasing cremated remains in orbit
- why the name? local university mascot is the pirates
 | | Rich Pournelle, NanoRacks |
NanoRacks/Rich Pournelle
- NanoRacks uses CubeSat (10cm/4in cube) sized payload container for International Space Station
- allows more and smaller experiments on ISS
- video of astronaut and NanoRacks experiment in a rack on ISS
- payloads qualified against outgassing/etc can be launched in as little as 30 days
- because they use the Russian Progress launch, not NASA
- diagram of the cube-shaped payload container
- slide showing plans for growth in number of racks deployed on ISS
- each of their racks contains many smaller NanoRacks payloads
- also working with Masten and XCOR for suborbital payload integration
- they were the first commercial payloads to get onto ISS
 | | Rick Tumlinson |
Rick Tumlinson/Texas Space Alliance
- Texas Space Alliance
- abbreviated TXA to avoid "the unfortunate acronym TSA"
- first formal announcement of the new organization
- 501(c)4 lobbyist organization
- aims to turn Rick's home state of Texas to a supporter of commercial space flight
- when the shuttle retires, Houston's influence in space will decrease
- Armadillo Aerospace is in Dallas, but has had to launch from Oklahoma and New Mexico
- note: they've had problems with both of those too
- drew up "immunity and liability act" for Texas
- based on Virginia and others
- heard from Blue Origin that they already had a similar effort in progress in TX
- passed the TX senate, in assembly then on to governor hopefully
- web site http://texasspacealliance.org/
- aiming for a tipping point that helps turn the nation around to supporting commercial spaceports
|