Space Access '11

Space Access '11
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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

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by Ian Kluft

These are notes I took from the presentations at the Space Access 2011 Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.


Paul Breed, Unreasonable Rocket

Saturday afternoon, April 9, 2011

Unreasonable Rocket/Paul Breed

Paul Breed competed in the Lunar Lander Challenge X-Prize. He and his son as a team were the only other team to get a hovering rocket to the other pad besides the teams who won.

  • "Unreasonably Lazy Year"
    • no new vehicles, some other experimentation
  • 3D printed motor
    • motor #1 - the cooling channels didn't work
    • motor #2 - looks nice, welding melted out the bronze from the stainless steel
    • motor #3 - DMLS (discreet metal laser sintering) more expensive but got a discount from people who like his project
      • motor has run about 6 minutes
      • contaminated peroxide contaminated catalyst pack
      • some problems building catalyst pack that small
      • then it ran, but not again 2 weeks later
        • anti-channeling paths crumbled
      • last weekend it ran - try again next weekend to see if it's still OK without touching it
    • motor #4 - more DMLS, more discounts when showing cool videos of cameras melting
      • aluminum motor, one of the cooling channels is plugged (ran water without removing all the Al powder) and needs to be cleaned
  • plans to be open about all the hardware he makes
    • software too as possible
    • Paul wants to help others to experiment
    • note: he has earned a lot of respect for this approach
  • partnered with Microcosm/Scorpius for composite tank production
    • mass ratio of 82 on a composite tank (!!!)
    • tested tank materials by shooting gun at them, among other things
    • Microcosm has rights to sell the tanks. Unreasonable has rights to use them.
    • get in touch with him if you're interested
  • Q&A
    • why the question on releasing the software?
      • ITAR introduces doubt whether anything can be posted in public
    • Michael Clive has video that he may show during the break if there's time


Lee Valentine, Space Studies Institute

Space Studies Institute/Lee Valentine

  • SSI founded 1977 to promote human settlement of space
  • focus is on "free space colonies" (spacecraft structures)
    • not emphasizing but not against planetary colonies
  • SSI runs a conference
    • Space Frontier and X-Prize founders each met there
  • research based on hardware, not paper studies
  • high payoff projects
  • high leverage
  • ideally projects should be something no one else is doing, or no one else is doing it well
  • what SSI has done
    • mass drivers
    • laser launch
    • XCOR piston pump
    • Near-Earth Objects
    • Earth-Sun Trojans
    • process to extract Aluminum from lunar regolith
  • CELSS - Controlled Ecological Life Support System
  • SSI board is a who's who of NewSpace leaders
  • Q&A
    • why prefer free-floating colonies?
      • high orbit has full-time solar energy
    • SSI is a completely volunteer organization
    • supported by private donations


Clark Lindsey, Douglas Messier and Jeff Foust

Panel: "Gagarin Plus Fifty, Tito Plus Ten - What Next? Three Views" - Jeff Foust, Clark Lindsey, Douglas Messier

Tuesday, April 12 will be the 50th anniversary of human spaceflight (Yuri Gagarin's launch) and 30th anniversary of the first space shuttle launch (STS-1). Later April 28 will be the 10th anniversary of the first space tourist launch (Dennis Tito's launch). NewSpace bloggers Clark Lindsey, Douglas Messier and Jeff Foust reflect on the past and future.

  • Clark Lindsey
    • title: "Ice Age, a Thaw and a New Spring"
    • big projects need more funding
    • in the space age of the 60's, attitudes became that "space is hyper-expensive", the domain of governments
    • NASA was shaped by Apollo and then frozen in that shape
    • for the military, ELVs (expendable launch vehicles) were good enough
    • so evolution became very slow
    • very little money going into new vehicle development
    • NASA was one big space shuttle project
    • "worst of all possible situations"
    • things started to improve in the past 10 years: SpaceShipOne and other small launchers
    • multiple designs competing - air launch vs sea launch vs VTVL vs runway launch
    • Bigelow Aerospace with its private space stations
    • more competition brightens the view
  • Jeff Foust
    • "not nearly as positive" as Clark's assessment
    • retiring the space shuttle - winding down projects without knowing what the next project is
    • "we've lost the external impetus that drove the human spaceflight in the Cold War"
    • end of the Cold War did bring US and Russia together to build ISS
    • China has ambitious plans but isn't in a hurry
    • NASA has become viewed by some in Congress as their jobs program
    • gov't fiscal concerns were pointed out by Charles Miller at Space Access in 2008
    • international partners have agreed to keep ISS running until 2020
      • but what then?
    • "commercial human spaceflight might be the only game in town"
    • it's an opportunity to rethink commercial and government space
      • make a sustainable space flight economy inclusive of both
    • he's concerned that maybe he's being too discouraging
    • wants to look forward and make progress
  • Doug Messier
    • will be more positive
    • not going to put a time frame on it because someone will blog what he said
    • big rocket companies (Boeing, Lockheed) have large infrastructure that's expensive to maintain and repair
    • it may be possible to buy a space program
      • Middle East countries with no space programs are buying access
      • Richard Branson - allowed Dubai to buy into access to Virgin Galactic by building a terminal
      • Bigelow Aerospace - Dubai and UAE buying space on his planned stations
      • Brazil will be launching Ukrainian rockets
    • changes the definition of a spaceport
      • some launchers can launch from just about anywhere
      • looking at a map: "dots everywhere in the world"
      • still have some traditional spaceports like Baikonur, KSC and Vandenberg
    • how do we get there? start flying
      • it's been 7 years since SpaceShipOne flew suborbital - no one else since
      • this has taken longer than we expected
    • challenges
      • investment climate
      • missed promises on launch dates
      • trying to go too far too fast
        • SpaceShipOne was same size as Bell X-1
        • SpaceShipTwo is the size of a business jet
        • it was a bigger challenge than they expected
      • he doesn't believe SpaceX's reliability numbers yet - they need to fly more to demonstrate it
    • when these things are done, "it will be a lot to write about"


Jeff Greason

Jeff Greason on policy issues

This is Jeff's own rant, separate from his earlier presentation for XCOR. He has plenty of recent experience in national space policy politics because he was a presidential appointee to the NASA Human Space Flight Review Commission (a.k.a. Augustine Commission).

  • wants to "preach against the sin of triumphalism"
  • we have not won
  • we have won when
    • we have a space transport industry
    • which can launch people and stuff into space
    • cheaply and regularly
  • we are not there
  • the first paying space flight participant has not yet flown
  • how do we get there from here?
  • it would be very chancey to try to get there without intelligent government action
    • depending on the government is chancey too
  • would be nice if we could close our eyes to gov't and just work our problems
    • can't do that
  • we have to engage these people
  • it is not helpful to suggest making NASA go away
  • we need NASA as a customer
    • but NASA is not going to rain money on people just for good ideas
  • fortunately, most people (even in Congress) no longer believe that NASA is the only way to get to space
  • we can have a robust human space exploration program for less money than NASA has been spending
  • it would involve NASA buying a lot of commodity launch services
    • "if NASA does that, we will be their best friend"
    • mutual benefit
  • NewSpace enthusiasts need to stop acting like if NASA went away then our problems would be over


Rand Simberg, Competitive Space Task Force

Competitive Space Task Force/Rand Simberg

  • problem: some in Congress view anything that isn't Apollo as not a real space program
  • "most people in the public do not think about space"
  • info from briefing he held on Capitol Hill
    • defines "conservative" as support for free market, etc
  • is our human space flight policy conservative?
    • no
    • context of Apollo created a Cold War competition not based on free market
  • various philosphical arguments quoting Burke (went way too fast to summarize)
  • many think that NASA going to the Moon was the high point of American space exploration
  • myths of the old space age
    • Apollo was about opening up space
    • only NASA can do it
    • human spaceflight is essential to national security
    • etc
  • the unimportance of space
    • people see no dire consequences if deadlines are missed on space program
    • inordinate focus on safety has crippling consequences
  • the importance of space
    • various arguments to convince conservatives in Congress that it isn't a threat to them
  • space is just a place
    • myth: it's impossible to settle space
  • we need to break the Space Industrial Complex (SIC)
    • Apollo created the SIC
    • approve budgets
    • cost-plus contracts have been overused and encourage waste
  • NewSpace has broken the cost-plus paradigm
    • XCOR and SpaceX refuse to bid on cost-plus contracts
      • would destroy their entrepreneurial culture
  • comparison of differences between cost-plus and regular contracts
  • cost-plus gets expensive
    • "we can only afford one" culture
    • cutting corners when things are too expensive
  • suggests hierarchy of transportation options
  • must abandon obsession with safety
    • we don't evacuate the South Pole base
    • people choose to climb Everest after being warned of 10% fatality rate
  • need to reorganiza federal space policy
  • need to shift to competition-based spacecraft
  • (it was impossible to jot down enough notes on these slides - see the link to his web site above)


Rick Maschek, Sugar Shot To Space

Sugar Shot To Space/Rick Maschek

  • background of what inspired Rick into rocketry as a kid and later as a teacher
  • currently volunteering for multiple rocketry projects, one of which is SugarShot2Space
  • sugar propellant is considered an amateur propellant
  • goa of SS2S is to duplicate the CSXT/GoFast 2004 amateur space shot with amateur propellants
  • SS2S started in 2005 by Richard Nakka and Bill Colburn
  • reorganized to 5 projects
    • organized working up from small to large
    • after initial experimental launch crashed
  • motor has dual burn concept
    • BEM - Ballistic Evaluation Motor, like a relightable solid
    • lots of videos of BEM static motor tests, all failed during second burn
    • they're trying to avoid staging because FAA draw bigger circles for stages
    • tried making motor casing out of same material as nozzle
      • video of first successful motor test in 2009
  • video of MiniSShot launch in April 2010 at FAR (in-flight failure)
  • next project: DoubleSShot


Joe Lee, Open Source Launch Vehicle

Joe Lee, on An Open Source Launch Vehicle Project

  • gave overview/background of various business projects
  • (This is very generalized. I'm not sure where he's going with this.)
  • description of a non-profit corporation
    • volunteers, donations, SBIR contracts, grants
    • members of the corporation are individuals and other companies
    • mentioned "open source environment" and "collaboration"
  • production cooperative
    • slide isn't readable from the back of the room - arrows between bubbles
    • now he's talking about investors in a non-profit? I'm missing something
  • presentation's over - I didn't understand what it was about


Henry Spencer, Rand Simberg, Jim Muncy, Henry Vanderbilt

Panel: "NASA Reform: The Art Of The Possible" - Jim Muncy, Rand Simberg, Henry Spencer, Henry Vanderbilt

  • Henry Vanderbilt
    • NASA's human spaceflight today is a descendant of Apollo's organization
    • now a mature bureaucracy
    • tends to throw people at problems to keep the team together
    • space is cool, but not worth 35 billion to the taxpayers
      • estimates that the public has more tolerance for 4 billion
    • When Constellation had schedules and budgets approaching infnity, Augustine Commission recommended taking a different course
    • NASA has a large amount of expertise
      • SpaceX was able to ask NASA for expertise, but only as consultants
      • needs to be preserved as a national resource
    • be aware of and expec standard behavior of large bureaucracies from NASA
  • Henry Spencer
    • "back in the days of faster, better, cheaper"
      • Mars Pathfinder was relatively inexpensive, very popular
      • following missions were disasters
      • Pathfinder had young people not indoctrinated in NASA culture
      • later projects tried "faster, better, cheaper" with old guard trying to imitate it
      • failures of Mars Climate Oberver and Mars Polar Lander turned NASA so risk averse, it killed other projects
    • any parallels now?
      • COTS flew under the radar and was ignored by much of NASA
      • now that COTS has succeeded with SpaceX, CCDev is trying to imitate it
    • lesson from Mars Pathfinder was "keep successful teams together and give them more missions"
    • "reward success with another job"
  • Rand Simberg
    • people inside the Washington Beltway don't take this seriously
    • the DC think tanks aren't considering commercial space
  • Jim Muncy
    • space policy isn't seen as important in Congress
    • it isn't a stepping stone to a higher position
    • it isn't a crucial issue to any Congressman
    • except that some see it as a jobs issue in their districts, which provokes inappropriate reactions
  • Henry Vanderbilt
    • common misconception that opposition to NASA building a new rocket is opposition to NASA
    • It probably isn't that effective to try to educate the entire public
      • none of us has wide enough access to try
    • we can get the word out to Congressmen and staff
  • Jim Muncy
    • Don't wait for an opportunity to present itself. Create an opportunity.
  • Henry Vanderbilt
    • the choice is between
      • a NASA jobs program that can't get anything done
      • (He didn't finish the statement - I presume the alternative was going to be an economy where NASA performs sustainable research and supports US space industry as a launch customer)
    • We've made a lot of progress getting the word to Congress. Now is not the time to stop.
  • Jim Muncy
    • it isn't economically sustainable to have just one program or company do space
    • it isn't just CRuSR or NASA's commercial crew program
    • need an industry with competitive commercial and entrepreneurial activity
  • Henry Spencer
    • "You don't turn a dinosaur into a mammal by explaining the virtues of growing fur. You need to grow mammals to replace them."
  • Jim Muncy
  • Henry Vanderbilt
    • NASA isn't the whole picture
    • There's also FAA AST who should be the regulators of commercial space
    • It's AST's job - we still need to prevent the old guard part of NASA from asserting itself in regulation of commercial space.
  • Jim Muncy
    • The US is a signatory to the Outer Space Treaty. So our government has responsibility to regulate our citizens actions in space.
      • comment from the group clarified that for US citizens the FCC regulates radio emissions in space and the FAA regulates launch, entry and orbital operations
  • wrap up
    • Henry Spencer: "keep pitching. it's going to take persistence."
    • Jim Muncy: Thanks for coming. Ideas, presentations. And thanks to Henry Vanderbilt for organizing it.

That ended with a standing ovation.