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Space Access '11 Live Blog by simonbp on 07 Apr, 2011 20:07
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I've just set up at the Space Access Society 2011 Conference, and will try to live blog the presentations over the next few days. The schedule is at the link below:
http://www.space-access.org/
(And if you're here, I'm the guy in the brown shirt with a laptop.) -
#1 by rdale on 07 Apr, 2011 20:13
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Where is it being streamed?
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#2 by Halidon on 07 Apr, 2011 20:17
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Where is it being streamed?
I don't think it is. -
#3 by simonbp on 07 Apr, 2011 20:17
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I don't know that it is; I'm physically here...
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#4 by Chris Bergin on 07 Apr, 2011 20:19
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Good work Simon, thanks!
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#5 by rdale on 07 Apr, 2011 20:21
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That's too bad... Well looking forward to your notes regardless!
(PS tell the organizers about this little thing called streaming
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#6 by Halidon on 07 Apr, 2011 20:24
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I'd like them to stream, but can't blame them for not. It's a pain under the best of circumstances, which this probably isn't, and every little hitch generates tons of generally nonconstructive complaints. Maybe next year.
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#7 by simonbp on 07 Apr, 2011 20:32
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Henry Vanderbilt just giving the welcome.
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#8 by simonbp on 07 Apr, 2011 20:38
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Henry Spencer first up on Beyond LEO.
(First presentation of his without an overhead; Win98 laptop instead.) -
#9 by simonbp on 07 Apr, 2011 20:47
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LEO is very small; can only play with inclination. Equatorial best, misses South Atlantic Anomaly. But launch sites aren't so great. And bad for tourism -> bad views. 60 deg much better, great views and even flying through aurorae; 4 deg/day precession rate.
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#10 by simonbp on 07 Apr, 2011 21:06
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GEO lowest interesting place above VA Belts; actually just in outer belt -> need lots of shielding. MDA actually spending their own on Intelsat refueling contract. GEO much closer to escape than LEO. GEO can have up to 72 hour Earth eclipses. Need big dishes; lots of station-keeping dv.
Less that a 100 m/s difference escape and Lunar trajectory; always need course corrections. Moon has a very small Hill sphere. ESL-1/2 at ~150% Earth's Hill radius. ESL-1 could be a very good place for a manned base, continuously illuminated. Solar sails allow you to cheaply stationkeep around the ESL points. Artemis is finding that L1/2 stationkeeping (SK) is pretty cheap, but needs lots of computing power. LLO very unstable (150 m/s per year SK). 500 km orbit SK is 12 m/s, much better. High Lunar Orbit could be better than L1 for staging. -
#11 by ugordan on 07 Apr, 2011 21:08
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GEO can have up to 72 hour Earth eclipses.
Huh? Was that supposed to be 72 min eclipses? -
#12 by simonbp on 07 Apr, 2011 21:15
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LP has first NS mapping of lunar polar Hydrogen. LCROSS found 6% ice by mass in first meter of Cabeaus floor, as well as CH4 and NH3 (better than LH2 for fuel). LRO NS data confusing -> need (manned) surface exploration to know; very complicated geology. Problem getting resources off Moon. Rotating tethers (MX)?
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#13 by simonbp on 07 Apr, 2011 21:15
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GEO can have up to 72 hour Earth eclipses.
Huh?
At solstice.
EDIT: I think he meant 72 minutes. -
#14 by simonbp on 07 Apr, 2011 21:19
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NEOs are usually pretty inclined to eccliptic, and have pretty large relative velocities. Could do an encounter with an asteroid doing a flyby, but much more dv expensive than the Moon.
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#15 by simonbp on 07 Apr, 2011 21:35
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Mercury like the Moon, but worse (except for potential ice caps). Venus really useless (except as radioactive waste dump ). Mars prime territory for a space elevator. Mars surface to orbit is 4 km/s. Phobos outgassing something?
Jovian VA Belts make Earth's look like a joke. Naked on Europa, the radiation would kill you before the vacuum. Also very large dv between Galliean sats.
Once beyond the Moon, Mars plus asteroid. Main Belt is Ceres, Vesta, Pallas and debris. Points out asteroid Spencer. Asteroid point-to-point very expensive in dv. Asteroids are very diverse bodies; main belt comets very volatile rich.
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#16 by ugordan on 07 Apr, 2011 21:46
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GEO can have up to 72 hour Earth eclipses.
Huh?
At solstice.
EDIT: I think he meant 72 minutes.
And probably equinox
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#17 by simonbp on 07 Apr, 2011 22:32
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Dennis Stone on CCDEV/COTS
C3PO 5 years old now. NASA investing in both supply and demand. Purposely didn't use traditional government FAR. Give companies maximum possible IP control. SpaceX had financial milestone to prove they were putting skin in the game. Really portrays COTS as a venture capital portfolio. ULA's abort detection system could be used on other vehicles than their own. Blue Origin had some unique TVC on pusher abort. Bob Bigelow very active in CST-100. In an abort, Dreamchaser could land on the SLF at KSC. There will be a CCDEV3, the "big program", in FY2012 as soon as funding is ready. Commercial means more customers than just the government. Advertising allowed (because no NASA co-branding needed) on COTS/CCDEV spacecraft. Still haven't reconciled government costing models with the COTS/CCDEV funding profiles; hard to predict entrepreneurial efforts; being worked on now. CCDEV2 would involve demonstrations in addition to development.
Also, "human cargo" not a good term; became a running joke... -
#18 by simonbp on 07 Apr, 2011 23:39
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Jeff Feige on Orbital Outfitters
Hasn't really been development in pressure suits in past 20 years. Lot of testing for suit for Xcor Lynx. Every vehicle really needs a unique suit. Suborbital in-suit time as long as for orbital. Hypergols nearly killed the crew of ATSP. Comfort in spacesuits in relative. Even in best case, suits will always add cost. Never want to be on a vehicle that needs a suit (LK?). Shuttle is a textbook example of how not to integrate a suit into a vehicle; lots of post-Challenger compromises to fit in suits for ascent/descent. Suits are a safety subsystem; has to be developed in parallel with the vehicle. Ballpark price of suborbital suits is less than a suborbital ticket price. -
#19 by simonbp on 08 Apr, 2011 00:44
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Gwynne Shotwell, President of SpaceX
(lots here)
Lucky to be president of the coolest company she knows of.
Falcon 1 program is inactive until at least early next year.
FH core almost (but not quite) full when boosters separate.
NASA wants a fresh Dragons for CRS (because of costing uncertainties), so DragonLab will all be reflights.
Insurance rates 7-8% by Flight 6.
Production rate of 12 F9s by 2013.
Sep events largest cause of failure for LVs. F9 factor of safety 1.4 (vs 1.25 for EELV).
Might have redundant engines on second stage in future!
Dragon on ship's deck within 2 hours of landing.
Abort system core of CCDEV2 proposal. People up within 3 years of starting on abort system.
Elon driving for reusability; continuing work on both first and second stage recovery.
Merlin 1D on test stand now. Still really want to build a F-1 class engine.
"We haze our lobbyists." Four new lobbyists.
1D meant to be easier to mass-produce.
Had to pay full price for her Tesla.
Trying to get to ISS on next flight, but could still have COTS3.
FH: C3=3 km2/s2 -> 12 tonnes, C3=90 km2/s2 -> 3 tonnes. Still optimizing trajectories for FH.
Lots of little customers for DragonLab, rather than few big (heading cats); first in 2013.
Really happy to launch Orbital Starbuses; rest of relationship "complex".
Did look at Falcon 1e Heavy to chase Minotaur IV; trading with manifesting on F9. Orbcomm moved 1e payloads to F9, and that put 1e on hold.
Falcon 5 is hard to control; not worth it.
5.2 meter faring on FH. Bunch of little payloads on first FH flight.
Plan is crossfeed on FH from start.
Few (very few) people still working on Raptor.
Development of abort engine long pole for crew. Still in trade whether to use parachutes nominally for propulsive landing.
Interested in electric propulsion.
10-15 years until first Mars mission.
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