| LEHIGH VALLEY SPACE FRONTIER |
| THE PUBLIC VOICE ON THE CUTTING EDGE OF THE FUTURE |
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November 26, 2011
November 26, 2011
| BACK TO THE MOON? |
| Too many years have passed for me to still be the last man to have left his footprints on the Moon. I believe with all my heart that somewhere out there is a young boy or girl with indomitable will and courage who will lift that dubious distinction from my shoulders and take us back where we belong. Let us give that dream a chance." - Captain Eugene A. Cernan --- Commander of Apollo 17 |
| Left - Cernan in 1972 --- Right - Cernan with Dennis Pearson at ISDC in Los Angeles California |
| More than 14,222 days have gone by since the last American man (Eugene Cernan with his companion Harrison Schmidt) walked on the Moon in 1972! Since then, space enthusiasts awaited with much anticipation new programs designed to get us back to the Moon and beyond. Unfortunately, for the past 40 years our political leaders have spoken with a forked tongue when it came to manned missions beyond Low Earth Orbit. As it happened, for one reason or the other, manned programs designed to take us back to the Moon were constantly re- designed by every successive occupant of the White House since Richard Nixon... And of course, the most recent program in development, George W. Bush's Constellation systems Program which had promised return to the Moon as early as 2020 has seemingly suffered the same fate. Which caused former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin to lament: "If Obama does cancel the Constellation program, it leaves NASA and the nation with no program, no plan and no commitment to any human spaceflight program beyond that of today. The original Bush plan, of course, was to return to the moon by 2020; unfortunately, the project was underfunded to the point where this might not have happened untill 2030. And what’s more, decision-makers said there wasn’t enough money to do both the moon and keep the ISS project going. It had to be one or the other, and let’s face it: the advantage was to the ISS because it was already out there in space, working like a charm, and the moon R&D was still working on a rocket to replace the one we used in the 60s. Consequently, the Obama Administration decided putting $6 billion into extending the life of the ISS and at the same time encouraging private spaceflight to develop a new support system for the ISS ...But until these private spaceflight companies developed this new support system NASA needed to purchase an additional $753 Million in transportation services from the Russian Federal Space agency or $63 million per seat to and from the International Space Station on the Soyuz... |
| Beyond NASA ... The era of private spaceflight has broke new ground with the first test launch of the new Falcon 9 rocket by the company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), which hopes to use the booster to fly its Dragon spaceship on space station trips. And with NASA's space shuttles retiring this year, SpaceX is not alone in the bid to launch cargo and astronauts into space. NASA has tapped SpaceX and another company Virginia's Orbital Sciences to build unmanned cargo ships to stock up the International Space Station after its final two shuttle missions fly later this year. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is poised to make its first test flight this week. After that, the agency plans to modify the Lockheed Martin-designed Orion capsule as a space station lifeboat. Aerospace juggernaut Boeing is also hoping to compete for commercial crew capabilities. |
| Bigelow Aerospace Company: Bigelow Aerospace Spaceship Name: Sundancer and BA-330 Founder(s): Robert Bigelow Backing: $180 million of his personal fortune as owner of the Budget Suites of America hotel chain. Location: North Las Vegas, Nevada Launched the Business: 1999 Plans to Launch into Space: 2015 Number of Passengers: Sundancer to support crews of 3, BA-330 to support 6-person crews Bigelow Aerospace has been paving new ground in inflatable spacecraft and already launched two mini-space station prototypes, called Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. The company's larger Sundancer and BA-330 vehicles are expected to serve as space stations, not capsules. Additionally, company founder Robert Bigelow has set his sights on developing a private moon base using the inflatable technology. Since Bigelow Aerospace does not have rockets or spacecraft to reach its space stations, the company has been working closely with Boeing on potential crew capsules. Boeing received $18 million from NASA this year to support development of its own 7-person spacecraft. |
| NASA Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Program On May 24, 2011, NASA announced the start of a program to develop a Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) capable of transporting astronauts to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and beyond. Rather than constituting something dramatically new, the MPCV is fundamentally a reinstatement of the previously descoped Orion project, restoring the system’s ability to carry crews to and from orbit. The Mars Society welcomes this restoration of capability, as the prior downgrade of Orion to a down-only capsule “lifeboat” system saved very little money while destroying most of the system’s value. In implementing the MPCV effort, NASA needs to pay special attention to constraining its schedule and cost, as the purpose of the program must be to deliver an effective flight system in a timely fashion. That said, the restoration of the Orion program should not be used as an excuse to cut NASA financial support for the alternative capsule systems being developed by various commercial providers. The potential value of this modestly-funded effort has now been made apparent by the rapid progress of the SpaceX Dragon, which has already conducted its first successful flight test. Clearly, such highly cost-effective investments should not be abandoned. Rather than relying upon any one system for transporting crew or cargo to and from orbit, the policy of NASA should be to foster the greatest possible diversity of both space launch and crew capsule systems available for its own use and that of others. While a variety of launch vehicles do currently exist, with the imminent retirement of the space shuttle fleet, the Russian Soyuz will soon hold a monopoly on crew transport to and from orbit. NASA should seek to amend this situation through effective support for the development of competing American crew transport systems, and welcome the entrance into the human spaceflight arena of potential additional alternatives from Europe or other international players as well. This policy should be held firmly, as clarity on this issue is essential if commercial companies are to attract funding from non-governmental sources. Increasing the number of options for access to space will help reduce the costs for LEO operations by encouraging competition. This in turn will reduce the costs of Mars exploration, while creating a robust set of technical alternatives that will help ensure the success of humanity’s effort to reach the Red Planet. |
NASA launches largest-ever Mars rover The one-ton, car-size Curiosity rocketed from Kennedy Space Center on Saturday November 26, 2011. The vehicle is on a mission to determine whether life could have existed on Mars. Commenting on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) launch, Dr. Robert Zubrin, Mars Society President, said, "The MSL is another great step forward for NASA's brilliantly successful Mars exploration program. It shows the value of a program that moves ahead as an ongoing campaign, with ever better rovers and orbiters, working together and supporting each other as combined forces. It is ironic that, even as we celebrate this launch, the Obama’s administration OMB is trying to abort the program by attempting to cancel the Mars missions planned for 2016 and 2018. This must not be allowed to happen. MSL should not be the final act of the Mars program, but the opening of a new age of even greater achievements in space exploration, leading up to and including the human exploration and settlement of the Red Planet." |
SPACE BASED SOLAR POWER ADVOCATED The National Space Society (NSS) and SPACE Canada held a press conference on November 14, 2011 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C to announce the findings of a ground-breaking space solar power study conducted by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) under the leadership of John Mankins, a 25-year NASA veteran and expert on space solar power. The video of the press conference is available on the NSS website. NSS SOLAR POWER PRESS CONFERENCE The IAA's three-year, ten-nation study, Space Solar Power -- The First International Assessment of Space Solar Power: Opportunities, Issues and Potential Pathways Forward, confirms the possible readiness of using space solar power technology within the decade. Gary Barnhard, the Executive Director of NSS stated "The IAA report lays out the case quite clearly. Space Solar Power is one of the potential key elements in meeting the growing and evolving electrical energy demand of the United States and the world. Space Solar Power is not a panacea, nor is it engineering fantasy. Space Solar Power is a complex systems engineering and economics problem that entails learning how to build the most valuable system(s) and when to do so in order to best meet electrical energy needs. Space Solar Power is an option we can make real and in doing so help provide for a positive future for humanity." "With space solar power technology, energy can be collected from space and transmitted wirelessly anywhere in the world," explained Mark Hopkins, the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Space Society. "This technology could be the answer to our energy crisis. We look forward to sharing the results of the IAA's study, and exploring the potential that space solar power has for creating thousands of green energy jobs," he said. Collecting solar energy to convert to electricity is not a new concept. However, there are significant advantages to space solar power compared to ground solar power. Solar energy in space is seven times greater per unit area than on the ground. The collection of solar space energy is not disrupted by nightfall and inclement weather, thus avoiding the need for expensive energy storage. Mr. Hopkins added, "Our dependence on crude oil is simply unsustainable, and other energy sources can be costly and harmful to the environment. As a continuous source of energy, space solar power is a potential cost-effective and environmentally superior energy alternative." |
| Back to the Moon |
