Friday, April 19, 2019

Space Access 2019 - Friday morning


Henry Spencer - Transition from Missiles to Reusable Rockets Ships
A lot of people talk about reusable by are really looking at refurbishment
Frequently mentioned “Thrust into Space” by Hunter.
Talked about the value of having reusable rockets that are as reliable as airplanes.  Initially a lot of stuff will be done in the inner solar system. Said would be good to assemble some vehicles in space, to put modules together.  
He said there would be a place for tugs, to move deep space vehicles up the gravity well.  People considered this idea back in the 1960s to start a ship on the way to Mars.  It will be good to have fuel depots.  The fuel depots will need to have an infrastructure.
The outer solar system will need different techniques.


Dan Rasky - NASA Ames Space Portal - Some Reentry Applications of Pica Heatshield and Related Topics
Some places Pica has been used:  The Stardust Mission came in the fastest into Earth’s atmosphere, of any manmade device.  The mission had been in space for seven years. The heat shield is on display in the Smithsonian.  They also used Pica with the Curiosity Mars Entry in 2012.   And they are using it on the Osiris-REx mission, to an asteroid.  It will be returning in 2023.  The Dragon Cargo Capsule in 2010 used the Pica heatshield.  
Pica - Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator - had humble beginnings, didn’t have much funding.  


Andrew Redd - Princeton Orbital Initiative - TigerSat: A Student-Built 3U Cubesat With High-Impulse Plasma Thruster
They use a novel modified Hall Thruster, with passive magnetic control
Trying to maneuver a cube satellite.  Use magnets to orient with the earth’s magnetic field and thrusting as pass over the equator.  


Rand Simberg will discuss A Co-Orbital Transportation Infrastructure Concept
Key Infrastructure Attributes - Flexibility, Modularity, Redundancy, Affordability & Scalability.  The current ISS space station is under utilized.
Expect a demand increase with low-cost LEO access, Bigelow has been awaiting, With more space stations could have an ambulance to take people from one station to another.  We want a railroad system in orbit.  Could combine modules in different ways for different missions.  Looking at doing a crowdsourcing to get somethings going.


John Schilling will discuss Earth Orbit & Deep Space Payload Capabilities of Near-Term Launchers, Some Implications of Gateway And The Recent RFP For NASA's Cislunar Transport Parameters, and A Flexible Approach to Meeting Those Parameters
Reviewed the Falcon and Falcon Heavy, then the ULA Vulcan, Blue Origin New Glenn, Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage (ACES), 
There were lots of numbers, physical dimensions,
Had a picture showing the delta-V from Earth to near-term missions.  Then had several bar charts showing how the various rockets compared to each other for interesting missions.  
Two months ago NASA started talking about GATEWAY Station.  
Proposing on a polar elliptical orbit.  They want a Lunar Lander, a space tug and a propellant tanker. Want to put 9 to 12 tons on lunar surface.  Showed various options on how things might work.  Might be able to use this to help send things to Mars.  Want to bring propellant up from the moon.

Talked about various options for getting various payloads to space, NASA’s proposal, Lockhead, Moon Direct by Zubrin, SpaceX, CSDC Reusable Cislunar Transportation Architecture, 

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