A sampling of links to recent space policy, politics, and government (US and international) related space news and resource items that I found of interest:
** The Space Show – Tue, 05/07/2019 – Robert Zimmerman discussed “a variety of topics starting with the smallsat industry with launchers and ending with comments about the Boeing 737 Max and possible Boeing space impact”.
** The Space Show – Sun, 05/05/2019 – Talked with Leonard David and then followed with an open lines discussion with listeners. Topics covered included “Leonard’s new book “Moon Rush: The New Space Race, policy and budget challenges for returning to the Moon, presidential candidates and space policy, Navy-Air Force UFO policy reporting changes and more”.
A sampling of recent articles, videos, and images dealing with space transport:
[ Update: A message from Blue Origin today points to a video of the Blue Moon unveiling yesterday.
On May 9, 2019, our founder discussed his vision to go to space to benefit Earth.
Watch the full replay of this event …
In addition, he also announced the Blue Moon lunar lander, which is capable of taking people and payloads to the lunar surface. Below you’ll find more information about these announcements.
Blue Moon lunar lander: Blue Origin announced Blue Moon, its large lunar lander capable of delivering multiple metric tons of payload to the lunar surface based on configuration and mission. The cargo variant revealed today can carry 3.6 metric tons to the surface. We have also designed a variant of the lander that can stretch to be capable of carrying a 6.5-metric-ton, human-rated ascent stage. Blue also announced it can meet the current Administration’s goal of putting Americans on the Moon by 2024 with the Blue Moon lunar lander.
BE-7 engine: The Blue Moon lunar lander will be powered by the BE-7 engine, a new addition to Blue Origin’s family of engines. The BE-7’s 40 kN (10,000 lbf) thrust is designed for large lunar payload transport. The engine’s propellants are a highly-efficient combination of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The BE-7 will have its first hotfire this summer. The engine will be available for sale to other companies for use in in-space and lander applications.
Club For the Future: A non-profit founded by Blue Origin dedicated to inspiring and engaging the next generation of dreamers and space entrepreneurs as we journey to preserve Earth and unlock the potential of living and working in space. The Club will bring together K-12 students, educators and leaders for campaigns and initiatives utilizing Blue Origin’s unique access to space. The Club’s first activity will be to send a postcard to space and back on a future New Shepard mission—the first ever space mail. Learn more on the website (www.clubforfuture.org). Follow @ClubforFuture on Twitter and Instagram.
]
** Jeff Bezos unveiled Blue Origin‘s Blue Moon lunar lander design at an event today –
Blue Moon is a flexible lander delivering a wide variety of small, medium and large payloads to the lunar surface. Its capability to provide precise and soft landings will enable a sustained human presence on the Moon.
Initially for cargo and later for human transport:
The Blue Moon lander can deliver large infrastructure payloads with high accuracy to pre-position systems for future missions. The larger variant of Blue Moon has been designed to land an ascent vehicle that will allow us to return Americans to the Moon by 2024.
Blue Moon with ascent vehicle.
The lander is powered by the BE-7 Liquid Oxygen/Liquid Hydrogen engine, which will begin hot fire tests this summer.
… high specific impulse, deep throttling and restart capabilities of the BE-7 make the engine ideal for large lunar payload transport, while enabling Blue Moon’s oxygen/hydrogen fuel cell power system.
Blue Origin BE-7 Engine
** Highlights of engine development by PLD Space in Spain, which is developing suborbital and orbital rockets with reusable boosters:
This fact sheet lays out the envisioned launch cost and frequency, for instance, and states that SpinLaunch aims to loft its first payload by 2022. And we get the following description of the launch system:
“SpinLaunch utilizes existing technology and components from oil/gas/mining and wind turbine industries to construct an innovative mass-acceleration system, which achieves very high launch speeds without the need for enormous power generation or massive infrastructure. After ascending above the atmosphere, a relatively small, low-cost onboard rocket will be used to provide the final required velocity for orbital insertion. Because the majority of the energy required to reach orbit is sourced from ground-based electricity, as opposed to complex onboard rocket propulsion, total launch cost is reduced by an order of magnitude over existing launch systems.”
** Rocket Crafters partners with RUAG of Switzerland on development of rockets based on Rocket Crafters’s hybrid motor technology:
Rocket Crafters, a manufacturer of advanced rockets operating from the Florida Space Coast, and RUAG Space, a leading independent product supplier for spacecraft, electronics and launchers, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at Satellite Conference 2019 in Washington D.C. – creating a new supplier agreement in the small launcher market.
Rocket Crafters will collaborate with RUAG on the design, development and procurement of a sounding rocket guidance and navigation system, nose cone and aeroshell in order to support an initial test flight, with the goal to achieve reliable, cost effective and fast time-to-market.
A Rocket Crafters suborbital rocket in flight.
** Leaders of launch services providers gave their views on the status of the industry this week during panels at the Satellite 2019 conference:
The test appears to have occurred last month at Delamar Dry Lake in Nevada, where SpaceX was conducting one of dozens of drop tests it intends to perform to demonstrate the safety of its Crew Dragon spacecraft. This was a “single-out” test in which one of Dragon’s four parachutes intentionally failed before the test. “The three remaining chutes did not operate properly,” [NASA’s chief of human spaceflight Bill Gerstenmaier] said.
A follow-up:
(Very) unofficially, a source says they may switch to a thicker parachute design to compensate for issues discovered in the test. Although not ideal, this is a fairly normal part of spacecraft development.
The Aerospace team in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is playing a major role in the flight, making sure all the satellites fit together aboard the world’s most powerful rocket. Aerospace engineers ensure the payloads don’t negatively affect each other in this complex arrangement by using a rideshare mission assurance protocol called “Do-No-Harm” (DNH). DNH is a process that focuses on ensuring no payload on a rideshare mission will negatively affect the on-orbit functionality of any other payload. The individual payloads on STP-2 are all responsible for their own mission success, but through the DNH process, Aerospace is ensuring that everyone inside the Falcon Heavy nose cone plays nice with each other.
Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer, said the launch will carry “dozens of satellites,” adding more prototypes to the two currently in low Earth orbit.
“This next batch of satellites will really be a demonstration set for us to see the deployment scheme and start putting our network together,” she said at the Satellite 2019 conference here. “We start launching satellites for actual service later this year.”
Shotwell said SpaceX anticipates launching two to six more times for its Starlink broadband constellation in addition to the May 15 launch. How many Starlink launches occur this year depend on the results of this first batch, she said.
*** Falcon 9 booster legs retracted rather than removed. SpaceX introduced the Block 5 Falcon first stage boosters in 2018, hailing the design as the culmination of many lessons learned from landing and reusing the earlier generation boosters. Blk 5 boosters should provide up to a dozen launches between overhauls and to re-fly as soon as 24 hours after a launch. This requires quick operations such as simply retracting the landing legs back into their launch positions. During the past year, though, observers at Port Canaveral saw workers removing the legs before recovered Blk 5 boosters were transported back to the hangars.
Still more video to come of Load and Transport. This is CRS-17, B1056 Booster. This video runs in real time{ No fast motion}. Takes place over three days. We know it’s long, we left out hours of footage.
SpaceX has completed the first landing leg retraction, crews locked it in place and removed the cable.
This is one of the upgraded features on Falcon 9 Block 5, for rapid reusability.
Amid a flurry of new construction at SpaceX’s Boca Chica facilities, technicians have begun to install thruster pods on Starhopper in anticipation of the prototype’s first untethered flights.
According to CEO Elon Musk, Starhopper’s “untethered hover tests” will begin with just one Raptor engine installed, potentially allowing hops to restart within the next few weeks. SpaceX is currently testing Raptor SN03 (and possibly SN02) a few hundred miles north in McGregor, Texas, just a few hours’ drive south once the engine is deemed flight-ready. Meanwhile, Starhopper itself needs a considerable amount of new hardware before it can begin Raptor-powered flight testing.
** Assembly of the demo orbital Starship prototype continues at Boca Chica as well:
SpaceX’s Starship Orbital Prototype being stacked at Boca Chica.
Exos Aerospace’s COO John Quinn joins us to talk how rapidly reusable rockets could send experiments to space and have them back in scientists hands in just hours – leading to big advancements in medicine and research. Find out more about Exos Aerospace at https://exosaero.com/ Subscribe to their Youtube channel so they can stream their next launch! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh2d…
** The latest TMRO space news report:
In this weeks Space News from TMRO we start off with three launches: Blue Origin, SpaceX and Rocket Lab. Jared brings us an update on the SpaceX Starlink constellation and Jade talk about a very metallic universe! Our local sun has been very active this last week and Dr. Tamitha Skov bring us the latest space weather report.
In a cavernous arena outside of Peoria, Illinois, two industrial robots worked against the clock last weekend to finish their tasks. Each had been converted into a towering 3-D printer and programmed to build one-third-scale models of extraterrestrial habitats. For 30 hours over three days, generators chugged and hydraulics hissed as robotic arms moved in patterns, stacking long beads of thick “ink” into layers. Gradually, familiar forms began to emerge from the facility’s dirt floor: a gray, igloo-like dwelling and a tall, maroon egg.
Humanity’s future on Mars was taking shape.
AI SpaceFactory took first place and $500k while the Penn State team came in second and got $200k.
An overview of the contest from Caterpillar, one of the co-sponsors of the competition:
Here is a video from the AI SpaceFactory showing the construction and testing of their habitat structure:
After 30 hours of 3D printing over four days of head-to-head competition, NASA and partner Bradley University of Peoria, Illinois, have awarded $700,000 to two teams in the final round of the 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge. The top prize of $500,000 was awarded to New York based AI. SpaceFactory. Second-place and $200,000 was awarded to Pennsylvania State University of University Park.
The two teams faced off May 1-4 at Caterpillar’s Edwards Demonstration & Learning Center in Edwards, Illinois, creating subscale shelters out of recyclables and materials that could be found on deep-space destinations, like the Moon and Mars. The size of the structures had to be a one-third scale version of their architectural designs. Each team employed robotic construction techniques that allowed minimal human intervention. Such technologies will enable more sustainable and autonomous exploration missions.
“The final milestone of this competition is a culmination of extremely hard work by bright, inventive minds who are helping us advance the technologies we need for a sustainable human presence on the Moon, and then on Mars,” said Monsi Roman, program manager for NASA’s Centennial Challenges. “We celebrate their vision, dedication and innovation in developing concepts that will not only further NASA’s deep-space goals, but also provide viable housing solutions right here on Earth.”
The habitats were constructed in 10-hour increments in front of a panel of judges. Once printing was complete, the structures were subjected to several tests and evaluated for material mix, leakage, durability and strength.
Beginning in 2015, the multi-year, multi-phase competition challenged teams to demonstrate many different additive manufacturing technologies, from design to software modeling to physical construction. The unique challenge was competed in three phases: design, structural member and on-site habitat construction. The challenge structure allowed NASA to task the teams to address many facets of 3D construction, and to involve a broader range of teams with various expertise. Throughout the competition, more than 60 teams have participated, and NASA awarded over $2 million in prize money.
“It is an impressive achievement for these two teams to demonstrate this disruptive and terrific 3D-printing technology at such a large scale,” said Lex Akers, dean of Bradley’s Caterpillar College of Engineering and Technology. “By teaming up with NASA and Caterpillar, we are proud to bring these teams together in an environment where they can innovate, create and challenge our vision of what’s possible. Congratulations to both teams for their accomplishments.”
The 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge is managed through a partnership with NASA’s Centennial Challenges program and Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. Bradley has partnered with sponsors Caterpillar, Bechtel, Brick & Mortar Ventures and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to administer the competition. NASA’s Centennial Challenges program is part of the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, and is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
VIA SATELLITE: Do you believe the industry is entering a very uncertain period right now?
Shotwell: We believe the industry is entering an incredibly exciting period where competition is high, which is driving innovation. With innovation there’s always uncertainty, but also great opportunity. In just the last few years, Falcon 9 became the most frequently launched rocket worldwide and has taken over 50 percent of the commercial launch market. It’s exciting that the market has responded to our unique ability to provide reliable, affordable launch services.
We just launched our first commercial flight of Falcon Heavy, and last year we began testing and development for our Starship vehicle, which can carry payload greater than 100 mt. Our customers are taking advantage of these opportunities. Cost effective launches are allowing them to think about their businesses in different ways. While we may see a slowdown in the short term of traditional opportunities, as new technologies mature, new opportunities will take the place of the old.
NASA’s patience and openness to new ideas is all the more notable because while some improvements such as the Falcon 9’s lift capacity have benefitted the space agency, others such as rocket reusability haven’t provided an immediate benefit. “The agency is investing in keeping the United States on the leading edge of space travel, and that’s an important part of its founding mandate,” Autry said.
It’s safe to say the companies appreciate this approach. SpaceX founder Elon Musk recently acknowledged as much on Twitter, saying, “NASA support for reusability with high reliability, the critical breakthrough for orbital rockets, has made a big difference.”
*** CRS-17 Cargo Dragon vehicle reached the ISS on Monday morning:
SpaceX and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) have – at long last – officially announced a launch date for the Radarsat Constellation Mission (RCM), a ~$1B trio of Earth observation satellites.
Delayed from November, February, March, and May, RCM is now scheduled to launch on a flight-proven Falcon 9 booster from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) no earlier than June 11th. The three flight-ready spacecraft were shipped from Canada in September 2018 and have now been awaiting launch in a Southern California storage facility for more than half a year. The blame for such an egregious delay can be largely placed on SpaceX, but CSA and launch customer Maxar Technologies are also partially responsible. On a lighter note, the location of RCM’s subsequent Falcon 9 landing might end up being decided by seal pupping – baby harbor seals, in other words.
