Asteroid Mission - 2025

New idea being pitched around is a plan to visit a asteroid in the year 2025. The mission is nickname: Plymouth Rock.

Gee, that would be the perfect mission of a Orion class spaceship. Oops! Forgot President Obama axed that program. But, there is a resistance movment in Congress to keep Orion on life support until Obama can be kicked out of office.

Quoting the Space.com article: "We are pleased that the Orion project is included in the House and Senate bills as Lockheed Martin works toward a 2013 launch date," said Linda Singleton, Orion Communications Manager for Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. in Houston.

This week, Josh Hopkins of Lockheed's Human Spaceflight Advanced Programs will detail an early human mission to near-Earth asteroids using Orion spacecraft, at Space 2010, a conference being held by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. end quote.

But - back to what is referred to as "The Plymouth Rock" deep space exploration mission. A so-called dressed rehearsal for a manned mission to Mars.

Lockheed Martin has been spending its own cash on developing this mission plan. Josh Hopkins detail what an early human mission to near-Earth asteroids using Orion spacecraft would be like, at Space 2010, a conference being held by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

At that meeting, the proposed asteroid mission concept combines two Orion spacecraft with modifications to provide the necessary propulsion, living space and life-support capability for two astronauts. The dual-Orion configuration can probably support deep-space mission durations of five to six months.

Quote, "Because Orion is already designed to do missions far beyond low-Earth orbit, it already has most of the capabilities that we need," Hopkins said.

Thomas Jones, a former space shuttle astronaut, "NASA's plans for how to execute a NEO mission are still in the formative stage, but a key component of any mission concept is a small piloted re-entry vehicle," Jones told SPACE.com. "The updated Orion could serve this function, as part of a larger spacecraft capable of reaching and exploring a NEO."

NASA could build a NEO cruise vehicle in low-Earth orbit or at a stable point in space near Earth called a Lagrange point, Jones said. That craft would consist of a propulsion system, habitation volume, a small NEO surface exploration craft that Jones likened to a "space pod" and the re-entry vehicle.

"An attractive change for NASA between the lunar architecture and proposed NEO missions is that most of this cruise vehicle could be re-used," Jones said.

Only the re-entry vehicle would have to be replaced, he added. The rest of the mission's assets could be left in Earth orbit to be used on later flights.

Now this is where Robert Bigelow can come in with his inflatable haitats for a space mission. This could increase the crew size from two to four.

Anyway, use the link below for the entire article.

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Ref.

1. Space.com. August 30, 2010. "'Plymouth Rock' Deep Space Adteroid Mission Idea Gains Ground" by Leonard David. (http://www.space.com/news/asteroid-mission-plans-orion-spacecraft-100830.html).

2. Image from Space.com.

Private Sector Space Dreams

The American bureaucracy of which NASA is a part of, has by force of congressional decree and presidential inattention except in election years, become affraid to take any bold moves in manned spaceflight.

They talk a good game, the public takes it hook, line, and sinker, and nothing really ever becomes of it. The shuttle was just suppose to be a part of a shuttle-station program. Towards the end of its career, it finally did that job. But in the beginning, it was nothing more than a glorified dump truck.

And it was paid for by the American taxpayer.

Back in the 1990s, there was a chance to replace the shuttle with a newer spacecraft. The VentureStar from Lochkeed Martin or the DC-X vertical take-off/landing, single-stage to orbit spacecraft. The DC-X was a sub-scale, flight tested piece of hardware. The VentureStar was a computer animation only. Guess which one the Clinton Administration went with? That's right: VentureStar.

Then Columbia broke up on reentry.

President Bush proposed shutting down the shuttle program and replacing it with the Apollo on steroids program known as Constellation. Now President Obama will cancel even that and hope that the private sector will take over.

Well, I (slightly) agree with President Obama that it would be better for the private sector to come into its own as far as transporting folks up into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). But, the government should have kept the Constellation Program going.

I remember in a Air Force ROTC classroom in my college days, my instructor was describing the problem faced by FDR in the Pacific War. He had General MacArthur promoting a campaign that would go through the Philippines. Admiral Nimitz wanted to go straight across the Pacific to the China coast cutting the Japanese supply line in two.

President Roosvelt decided that it would be in the best interest of the war effort to go with BOTH strategys.

I submit to the reader that the same thing could have been applied to the Constellation Program. I'm on record opposing the idea of Super-Apollo, but NO American manned spaceflight program is even worse to think about.

So where this this lead us to? Private Space Industry.

In fact, I think it is going to be up to men like Bigelow and Rutan to get American civilians back up into space (without government aid). And more important, get them to the surface of the moon and back to Earth on a regular flight schedule.

Eventually, a lunar base will be built. And maybe then, NASA will get funding from Congress to lease a base on the moon.

So, are there enough deep pockets in the worldwide civilian sector to make it possible for the non-government space program to make it to the moon and Mars ? And do it before the Chinese gets there.

Check out the article "Moon dreams" from The Economist website(February 18, 2010) for the article that inspired me to write this posting.

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Ref. The Economist, February 18, 2010, "Private-sector space flight. Moon dreams" (http://www.economist.com/science-technology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15543675).

FAA Says Report UFOS to Bigelow Aerospace

Robert Bigelow is out to change how we do business in and out of the atmosphere. Bigelow Aerospace has two inflatible test space stations in orbit already - Genesis 1 and 2. He eventually wants to put a hotel in earth orbit.

His other company - Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) - is collecting UFO and unexplained phenomena information. (Voice: 1-877-979-7444 or email: Reporting@baass.org).

Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies is set up as a research organization that focuses on identification, evaluation, and acquisition of novel and emerging future technologies worldwide as the relate specifically to spacecraft. Headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. BAASS is always on the lookout for experienced scientists to join their research teams. They are hiring astrophysics, biochemists, microbiologists, nanotechnolgists, physicists, and propulsion and stealth technology experts. Just as long you can qualify for secret and top secret clearances and must be willing to submit to a thorough background check. Plus - travel nationally and internationally may be required.

While BAASS has be operating for most of 2009, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued on December 10, 2009, instructions to contact BAASS if you are a pilot or air traffic controller and you have witness a Unidentified Flying Object (UFO).

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REF. GIZMODO.com, Jesus Diaz (http://gizmodo.com/5430338/faa-issues-order-on-ufo-sightings).

Bigelow Aerospace (http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/careers/)

Space Spies & Soviet Era Spaceships to Fly Commercial Missions Now

Well, time to get back to the main focus of this blog - Aerospace Technology. Cruising through the Space.com website this weekend, I uncovered four articles that I thought were worthy of mentioned.

First was a recent posting by Space.com writer Tariq Malik about a commercial company going to re-use several Soviet-era Reusable Return Vehicle (RRV) that they used to fly up to their military space stations-the Almaz class space station in the 1970s.

Made up of two sections, the cone shape RRV can carry three people. A commander and two passengers. The RRVs will be updated with modern equipment and technology.

The announcement was made at the Moscow Air Show in Russia. Price per ticket has yet to be revealed.

That company, Excalibur Almaz Limited, based out of the Isle of Man, has managed to get a hold of several RRVs that were in storage.

Next, Robert Bigelow to the rescue to save Project Orion! He is proposing a "stripped" down version of the Orion capsule known as Orion Lite. He even had a private meeting with the White house-charted panel on the future of the space program.

Quoting that article: In a July 30 interview with Space News, Mike Gold, director of Bigelow's Washington office, said he believes a low Earth-orbit optimized version of Orion could be ready to launch atop a human-rated version of the Atlas 5 within three or four years — much sooner than NASA's discredited March 2015 target for the first crewed launch of Orion and its Ares I rocket.

Gold said the Bigelow capsule would have the same outer mold line as NASA's 16-foot (5-meter) wide Orion and possibly the same internal pressure vessel, but little else in common."

A unique twist to this proposal is the mid-air capture of the Orion lite instead of letting it splash down in the ocean. Quote: One of the biggest deviations from NASA's Orion design involves the vehicle's landing system. Whereas NASA plans call for Orion to make an Apollo-style splashdown in the ocean, Bigelow is considering midair retrieval as a safer and more economical means to land the spacecraft following atmospheric re-entry.

"Air-capture is a strategy that has been implemented many times in the past, but never done at weights as high as a capsule," Gold said.

Midair capture was used by the military during World War II to recover gliders and during the 1960s to catch film canisters dropped from Corona spy satellites orbiting overhead.

The third bit of news is now more than a year old. There was a documentary (that I never heard about sadly) about Soviet and American military space flight operations and proposed spaceflight activities. Photo attached to this post is from www.deepcold.com showing the MOL in action.

You really need to read this article and check out the www.deepcold.com website. Somehow, reading through all that - I was thinking about the Mattel 6" tall action figure known as Major Matt Mason. And the fact that the U.S. Air Force went to the trouble to have "blue" color spacesuits made for their cancelled MOL(Manned Orbital Laboratory-1965) and Dyna-Soar orbital interceptor projects. How do we know this? Because NASA uncovered them in a long-sealed room at Cape Canaveral, FL, by accident in 2005. The program was aired on PBS as "NOVA: Astrospies."

Finally, there was this article by Bill Christensen posted on February 15, 2006, entitled "Anti gravity Propulsion System Proposed."

Dr. Franklin Felber presented a paper at the 2006 Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF) that was held in Albuquerque, NM, February 14, 2006.

Quote: Dr. Felber's paper states that a mass moving faster than 57.7 percent of the speed of light will gravitationally repel other masses lying within a narrow 'anti gravity beam' in front of it. This "beam" intensifies as the speed of the mass approaches that of light.

The link to his actual paper appears to be broken now. So I was unable to download it to read it in detail.

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Ref. Space.com "Soviet-Era Spaceships to Fly Commercial Space Missions" by Tariq Malik, August 18, 2009. (http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090818-excalibur-almaz-spaceships.html).

Space.com. "Nevada Company Pitches 'Lite' Concept for NASA's New Spaceship." by Amy Klamper. August 14, 2009. (http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090814-orion-lite.html).

Space.com "Space Spies Revealed in New Documentary" by Tariq Malik. February 12, 2008. (http://www.space.com/entertainment/080212-astrospies-mol.html).

Space.com "Antigravity Propulsion System Proposed" by Bill Christensen. February 15, 2006. (http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/060215_technovel_antigravity.html).