FLEX PATH

[Salo]

Prepared Remarks by Charles Bolden at NASA JSC 28 April 2010

[Salo]

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=30720

NASA TV Provides Coverage Of New Launch Abort System Test

NASA Television will provide live coverage of the May 6 launch of the Pad Abort 1 flight test. The broadcast will begin at 8:30 a.m. EDT from the launch site at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range near Las Cruces, N.M.

The launch window extends from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. EDT, with liftoff targeted for the beginning of the window. Pad Abort 1 will be the first fully-integrated test of the launch abort system being developed for the Orion crew vehicle. The information gathered through the test will be used to design and develop future systems that provide a safe escape for crews in the event of an emergency.

[Salo]

President Obama's Vision for Space Exploration
President Obama's Vision for Space Exploration (part 2)

[ronatu]

President Obama's Vision for Space Exploration
President Obama's Vision for Space Exploration (part 2)

....Essentially, President Obama's plan resets NASA to the period immediately following the unveiling of President Bush's Vision for Space Exploration in 2004, walking back from most of the major elements of the ESAS architecture......

[ronatu]

.....President Obama vision for manned space exploration and development is basically non-existent.

It's just hopes and dreams. Almost like an Arthur C. Clarke science fiction book but not as good.

Human exploration and development is needed for the benefit of people and the increasing of human potential.

Humans who lived in Africa eons ago decided to explore and develop to lands which in turn benefitted them and future generations.

To not explore and meet various challenges in the exploration will mean only one future--one with limited resources, limited benefits, and no positive furture.....

[ronatu]

U.S. Heavy-Lift Effort Inches Ahead

........................
On May 3
 NASA issued a request for information that gives U.S. aerospace firms roughly three weeks to volunteer ideas for a versatile, liquid-fueled heavy-lift rocket that incorporates a first-stage engine that burns a mixture of liquid oxygen (LOX) and kerosene to produce at least 1 million pounds of thrust.

The document also requested industry input on an in-space engine demonstration program that would focus on flight testing a new LOX/hydrogen or LOX/methane upper-stage engine that could be used on the heavy-lift rocket.

A few hours later, NASA posted a revised solicitation that eliminated all references to LOX/kerosene or any other specific liquid propellant and now gives industry the leeway to submit information on a wider range of heavy-lift architectures that could meet NASA, U.S. Defense Department and commercial needs.

Cris Guidi, deputy director for NASA's Constellation Systems Division, said the initial request for information — drafted in response to White House budget guidance — was posted by mistake. "The guidance that we originally received based on the president's budget submit was to focus on a large LOX-hydrocarbon engine," Guidi told Space News May 7. She added that the White House felt that a LOX/kerosene first-stage engine would be more affordable than other propulsion capabilities, including the type of solid-rocket motors used on the space shuttle and long planned for the Ares 1 and Ares 5 rockets the president has marked for cancellation along with the rest of the Moon-focused Constellation program.
...........................

"Our goal is not to replicate the RD-180, our goal is to build a hydrocarbon engine that both NASA and [the Defense Department] and hopefully commercial can use," she said, adding that NASA and the Pentagon would study thrust levels and other engine characteristics capable of satisfying civil, military and commercial needs. Guidi said NASA is looking for an engine that would exceed the 860,000 pounds of thrust the kerosene-fueled RD-180 delivers.

"We're not Americanizing the RD-180 is the bottom line, but we are building a large hydrocarbon engine," she said.

Guidi said the goal of NASA's heavy-lift research and development effort — budgeted at $3.1 billion between 2011 and 2015 — is to make space launch more affordable, not necessarily produce the kind of technological breakthroughs called for in other parts of Obama's space exploration plan.

"It's to drop the cost of launch, and the propulsion system is the predominant cost factor in any launch system," she said. "But it's more to stabilize the industrial base and maintain the critical skills of propulsion-system development in the U.S."

While NASA is not ruling out building a heavy-lift solution that incorporates solid-rocket motors, Guidi said affordability, reliability, and the flexibility to serve multiple users are paramount.

..................

http://www.spacenews.com/civil/100507-heavy-lift-effort-inches-ahead.html

[ronatu]

http://www.mircorp.org/


MirCorp was created by visionaries who understood that the time had arrived when the private sector was able to run manned space operations. And that the planned International Space Station, with its huge costs, and dependency on the NASA space shuttle, was the wrong path to take.

The original investor was Walt Anderson and co-investor Dr. Cherinjeev Kathuria. The idea grew out of the Rick Tumlinson's Save the Mir campaign.

The management included as Chief Executive Officer, Jeffrey Manber, Vice-President of Development, Andrew Eddy. CFO was Dr. Kathuria. Working directly alongside Mr. Manber was the RSC Energia Office of International and Business Development, lead by Alexander Derechin and his staff.

[ronatu]

..............
As a former astronaut who completed four space flights, Bolden expressed sadness about the prospect of ending NASA's space-shuttle fleet, admitting he is "emotionally attached" to the shuttle program.

But he insisted that NASA is "committed" to Obama's new era of space exploration, which calls for a flexible path approach for NASA to gain progressively more experience, such as a lunar fly-by or exploration of asteroids, before making a trip to Mars.

The plan also calls for developing a "heavy-lift" system to launch spacecraft into deep space, as well as technologies to protect humans from long-term radiation. In the future, NASA would lease vehicles from private companies to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

"The president, with my full agreement, made a change - a big change," Bolden said of Obama's decision to undertake a new direction for NASA, adding that the agency's fundamental goal "to boldly advance the human presence beyond the cradle of Earth," has not changed, and that Mars remains an "especially compelling target."

Bolden outlined several tracks that NASA has proposed to achieve its goals, such as developing robotic technologies to scout new targets and test precision landings. He said the agency remains focused on using the International Space Station to learn more about human health issues, referring to ongoing work by ISS researchers to develop a salmonella vaccine.

He pledged NASA's commitment to develop a commercial launch industry for carrying humans into low Earth orbit, but said that the agency was still fine-tuning specific operations details, such as whether a crew would be trained at NASA facilities. He also said the agency was honoring Obama's request to collaborate with other countries like Saudi Arabia to foster science research.

...........

[ronatu]

Boeing is willing to build a crew capsule for NASA on a commercial fixed-price basis but is troubled by the agency's plans to continue funding development of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle to serve as a space station lifeboat, according to a Boeing executive.
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http://www.spacenews.com/civil/100521-orion-lifeboat-making-waves.html

[ronatu]

"We're still trying to understand what NASA wants for a crew rescue vehicle, and we really haven't been given too much information and understanding of that," Reightler told Space News following a May 20 panel discussion here on NASA human rating requirements. "Until we have a better understanding of what any kinds of changes to our contract would be, it would be premature for any other company to make conclusions about how that might affect any other competition."

Still, Reightler said, if NASA asks for an Orion lifeboat that retains much of the capsule's current design, it would not be that hard for Lockheed Martin to adapt the vehicle to carry crew into orbit.

[ronatu]

Boeing намеревается разрабатывать пилотируемую капсулу для участия в конкурсе NASA по фиксированным коммерческим ценам, но озадачен планами агенства по продолжению финансирования разработки программы Орион в качестве спасательной капсулы. "Нас смущает, что оплата услуг правительственной капсулы производится по принципу "cost-plus", в то время как коммерческим участникам предлагается работать по фиксированным ценам" - Jayne Schnaars, вицепрезидент отделения космических исследований - "Неважно как много компаний утверждает что они могут построить капсулу, важно чтобы предприятие имело коммерческий смысл, и это в данный момент под вопросом " (из-за Ориона, видимо).
Boeing уже получил в рамках конкурса CCDev $18 млн на предварительные проработки пилотируемой капсулы способной запускаться на различных носителях. Работы ведутся совместно с Bigelow Aerospace.
Boeing предпочел-бы чтобы NASA сфокусировало программу Орион на разработке миссий для исследования глубокого космоса, например для полетов к астероидам.  Charles Bolden, администратор NASA, заявил 19 мая, что в агенстве до сих пор идут дебату по дизайну Ориона и возможностям его преобразования из спасательной капсулы в пилотируемый КК для исследования глубокого космоса.
Ни Lockheed Martin, ни Alliant Techsystems (ATK) не проявляют энтузиазма к коммерческой инициативе NASA. В тоже время в Локхиде заявляют, что если NASA захочет, то преобразовать Орион-спасатель в полноценный пилотируемый КК не составит больших затрат.

http://www.spacenews.com/civil/100521-orion-lifeboat-making-waves.html

[KVV]

ronatu писал(а):

Boeing is willing to build a crew capsule for NASA on a commercial fixed-price basis...

Artist's conception of Boeing's commercial crew module. (Credit: Boeing)[/size]

[ronatu]

ronatu писал(а):

Boeing is willing to build a crew capsule for NASA on a commercial fixed-price basis...

Artist's conception of Boeing's commercial crew module. (Credit: Boeing)[/size]

[ronatu]

.....WASHINGTON — Boeing is willing to build a crew capsule for NASA on a commercial fixed-price basis but is troubled by the agency's plans to continue funding development of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle to serve as a space station lifeboat, according to a Boeing executive.

"With the recent announcement of a crew rescue vehicle as part of Orion, we do now recognize that we would have a cost-plus, government-funded capsule competing against a commercially fixed-price capsule," Jayne Schnaars, Boeing's vice president of business development for space exploration, said during a presentation at the Women in Aerospace conference here May 18. "So we're working with NASA to say, 'We want this business, we know we can do it, help us.'"
......

[KVV]

.....WASHINGTON — Boeing is willing to build a crew capsule for NASA on a commercial fixed-price basis but is troubled by the agency's plans to continue funding development of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle to serve as a space station lifeboat, according to a Boeing executive.

Совершенно очевидно, что госзаказ куда как приятнее некоей Bigelow Aerospace.

[ronatu]

Вот он магистральный путь покорения космоса:


О планах изучения Луны при помощи роботов (в том числе андроидов) Япония заявляла ещё пять лет назад. А в 2006-м она даже поделилась мечтой о базе с людьми. Её намеревались воздвигнуть к 2030 году.

И ведь уже тогда было ясно, что относительно скромный бюджет Японского космического агентства (JAXA) не позволяет рассчитывать на опережение американцев, поставивших пометку "обитаемая лунная база" в своём дневнике в графе за 2024 год.


Финансовый кризис заставил многих умерить амбиции. Америка поставила жирный крест на своей пилотируемой лунной программе, правда, потом обнародовав несколько любопытных уточнений. Да и международной деревни роботов, к примеру, о которой учёные из разных стран активно рассуждали ранее, к обещанному 2014-му мы явно не увидим.

А вот японцы, воодушевлённые успехами своей космической программы и продвигающейся семимильными шагами "наземной" робототехнике, напротив, вновь подняли разговор о лунной базе. Причём её очертания обрели большую ясность.

Именно о них и повествует большой доклад, подготовленный на днях группой японских учёных для правительства. Он представляет собой проект "лунной стратегии" Японии на следующее десятилетие.

..............


Программа разбита на два этапа. До 2015 года продолжится дистанционное зондирование Луны, а в 2015-м в самых интересных её точках будут высажены посадочные аппараты и, возможно, небольшие луноходы под бело-красным флагом.

К 2020 же году, полагают исследователи из Японии, они сумеют возвести близ южного полюса нашего естественного спутника базу роботов с собственной электростанцией и россыпью научного оборудования.

Основной рабочей единицей такой базы должны стать андроиды, оснащённые гусеницами. При помощи своих манипуляторов они смогут собирать камни, монтировать различные приборы и оборудование, переносить тяжести, загружать ракеты, отправляющиеся обратно на Землю.

По замыслу робототехников, трёхсоткилограммовые машины смогут удаляться от базы на сотню километров, перемещаясь со скоростью до 0,3 метра в секунду.



http://www.membrana.ru/articles/global/2010/05/31/182200.html

[ronatu]

from forum:

"....Starting with Griffin's relic splash down capsule Orion, Ares stick-up and HLV based concept known as Constellation (Apollo on Steroids) that doomed the badly needed VSE plan. Now to the Augustine's commercial flex-up path based around Russian Soyuz and Space-X splash down capsule flying endlessly to LEO and the boondoggle ISS. NASA has been turned upside down and inside out by a string of management and leadership fiascos. And now NASA is at the mercy of congress to flush out some resemblance of a space program based around the vague random flex path. Seems the best that NASA and Space-X can come with these days is a splash down capsule relic of a concept. If that is the best American ingenuity can come with I fear our days of Super Power Status are over..."

[zyxman]

from forum:

А можно ссылочку?
- Хочу почитать, как американского президента критикуют АМЕРИКАНЦЫ

PS Спасибо за ОЧЕНЬ интересную информацию!

[KVV]

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=34355
Открытое письмо конгрессу в поддержку коммерциализации пилотируемой космонавтики.

[Agent]

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=34355
Открытое письмо конгрессу в поддержку коммерциализации пилоторуемой космонавтики.

Подписанты - сплошь коммерсанты от космонавтики да университетская профессура. То есть основные грантоеды по плану Обамы.
Все деньги.... до соббсно космонавтики, как водится, никому дела нет.

Вот письмо Конгресса Болдену. Требование предоставить всю имеющуюся документацию которая обосновывает план бюджета 2011 от Обамы.
Конгрессмены знают, что такой документации нет. А неподчинение может быть основанием для ареста, между прочим.
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=34350