Notes on the Friday afternoon session of Space Access 2019:
Panel: Cislunar Transport Ecosystems
Everyone agreed reusability is key. Might start the fuel infrastructure by building a fuel depot for small satellites. Some people want the “satellites” to go some place farther away. It would be good to have standard interfaces for transferring the fuel.
Melissa Sampson - Ball Aerospace – Enabling Technologies for LEO and Beyond
They want to partner with other companies. Ball Corporation had $11 billion in sales last year. Ball Aerospace had $1 billion in sales. Ball Aerospace is based in Boulder, Colorado. They are into instruments and sensors. They have software to help process the incredible amount of data being generated.
They have been focused on developing some tools to help with getting into space. They have three products for the Cube sat market. He went into the details of the products. He is planning to to have an in orbit fueling option for the products. They are hiring.
Lars Osborne - Agile Space Propulsion - Storable Propellant Hypergolic Rocket Engines
Providing rocket testing services. They like MON25 as a fuel. They are using additive manufacturing. They have developed two engines - DS45 and DS450, 45 Newtons and 450 Newtons.
Chuck Lauer on The Michigan Space Initiative: A Multi-Site Spaceport Licensing Plan For Launching To Polar Orbit Over Lake Huron and Lake Superior
There is an effort to development technology in Michigan, looking at building up the space industry in Michigan.
There is a large Military Airspace presence in Huron, so few commercial flight, so fairly open,
Jon Goff - Altius Space Machines - Updates On Altius Satellite Servicing, Cooperative Servicing Interfaces, and Cryogenic Propellant Depots
Two main goals for the future:
- Satellite servicing - something like 20,000 satellites will be launched in the next seven or so years. Altius is looking to help companies take care of their satellites. Have a number of products and developing more.
- Propellant Depots - Reviewed some of the benefits. Sometimes there is extra fuel leftover when a rocket boasts to orbit. Might be cheaper than placing an order for a tank of fuel to be delivered via SpaceX.
Taylor Johnson - Orbit Beyond - Lunar Spacecraft & Landers
Looking to be part of a Shared economy in space, like Uber or AirBNB. OrbitBeyond build spacecrafts. Done lots of simulations of landing on the moon.
Jeff Greason on Electric Sky: A Long-Range Wireless Power Transmission System Enabling Orbital Launch Vehicles, With Terrestrial Commercial Applications
The price per pound has dropped dramatically in the last four years and there hasn’t been a huge increase in commercial space business. What can we do to improve the situation.
If you could beam the power to the vehicle then: 1) The energy is massless 2) the electricity costs is about half as much as fuel and 3) Electrical power is 2 to 3 times more efficient
Smaller frequencies are more expensive, larger frequencies are more cheap, but need much bigger area to beam from
Jeff introduced a new beam approach, the beam has a finite range, but does have a focus (Bessel & Airy beams) These are not plane waves
In 2011 had a beam which starts off small, spreads and then refocuses, had a picture of a real beam, only a couple centimeters. With Radio Frequencies think can reach out to to 125 km. With 915 MHz, looking at 740 km transmission
There are other markets for this technology, for example flying cars, looking at making a lot of money first and then use to get to space.
Joel Sercel - Momentus Space - Water-Plasma Propelled In-Space Transportation Services
Momentus Space is a Silicon Valley startup
Launch vehicles are good at getting stuff in a standard orbit, Momentus wants to help with the rest of the journey. They are sort of like FedEx in space.
No comments:
Post a Comment