Space july11
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The document summarizes recent space program updates from various countries and private efforts. It discusses the end of the US Space Shuttle program and the rise of private spaceflight companies. It also covers criticism of the Vasimir rocket design, Russian plans for nuclear space tugs and stations, and China's active lunar and space station programs.
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Space july11
- 3. End of the Shuttle Program • Was the shuttle program a huge mistake? – 135 flights in 30 years – Simpler designs bypassed – $209 billion in costs – 2600% more expensive per flight than initially projected • What's next? – Private Efforts • SpaceX • Bigelow – Space Nuclear Power badly needed
- 4. Zubrin Trashes Vasimir • Main objection is claiming Vasimir is required to go to Mars – Saying it is puts off many other program aspects • As elecric thrust tech it is not that impressive – Existing ones are 70% efficient and Vasimir is barely at 50% • Requires high temperature superconductors for major missions – We simply don’t have them • Requires (Mars) a nuclear power system 20x more powerful and 100x better power/weight
- 9. Russian Nuclear Space Projects • Space-based nuclear power station – 150 to 500 KW – Lasts 10-15 years – For moon or Mars • Associated projects – Large space platform replacing many satellite (2018) – Energia – nuclear powered space tug – Spaceship with nuclear engine • $16.7 million to this this year • Design due next year • Funding of $580 million to be built over 9 years.
- 14. China’s Space Program • Lunar orbiters – second on June 9 • Moon program – Orbiters – Moon rover scheduled for 2012 – Lander scheduled and material return • Space station – The 8.5-tonne Tiangong-1 will be put into preset orbit in 2011 – Two other ships will be launched to dock with in 2012- 2013 • China-Russia Mars mission
Editor's Notes
- Other, simpler designs were considered in 1971 in the run-up to President Nixon's final decision; in retrospect, taking a more evolutionary approach by developing one of them instead would probably have been a better choice. http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/07/space-shuttle-program-was-209-billion.htmlThe Space Shuttle was not able to create a serious legacy of infrastructure in space and did not advance a technology base to enable cheaper flights. The launches and science could have been achieved at less than 10% of the cost.The space program was really a government pork program with a label of space. Most of the money went to facilities and jobs on the ground in the districts of powerful congressmen and senators. It also kept the main defence/aerospace contractors fully budgeted. NASA was only about one third of it. The military and spy agency space programs were twice as large. The lack of real competitor in space and a true military competitor let the United States be massively wasteful with its spending. The United States had a moderately less blatant kleptocracy. There was no accountability in terms of delivering true benefits or really advancing capabilities. SpaceX developed and launched the Falcon 9 heavy lift rocket booster for $390 million.By 2010, Bigelow had invested US$180 million in the company. Bigelow has stated on multiple occasions that he is prepared to fund Bigelow Aerospace with about US$500 million through 2015 in order to achieve launch of full-scale hardware.Hopefully a new era with Spacex, Bigelow Aerospace, VASIMR and other companies and systems will get some real advances happening with space.Hopefully real economic competition from China (and then later India) will force greater efficiency and effectiveness with all United States spending and development.
- http://spacenews.com/commentaries/110711-vasimr-hoax.htmlVASIMR, or the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, is not new. Rather, it has been researched at considerable government expense by its inventor, Franklin Chang Diaz, for three decades.Space nuclear reactors with power in the range of 50 to 100 kilowatts, and power-to-mass ratios of 20 to 30 watts per kilogram, are feasible, and would be of considerable value in enabling ion-propelled high-data-rate probes to the outer solar system, as well as serving as a reliable source of surface power for a Mars base. However, rather than spend its research dollars on such an actually useful technology, the administration has chosen to fund VASIMR. the fact that the administration is not making an effort to develop a space nuclear reactor of any kind, let alone the gigantic super-advanced one needed for the VASIMR hyper drive, demonstrates that the program is being conducted on false premises.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_Specific_Impulse_Magnetoplasma_Rocketelectro-magnetic thruster for spacecraft propulsion. It uses radio waves to ionize and heat a propellant and magnetic fields to accelerate the resulting plasma to generate thrust. It is one of several types of spacecraft electric propulsion systems.The method of heating plasma used in VASIMR was originally developed as a result of research intonuclear fusion. VASIMR is intended to bridge the gap between high-thrust, low-specific impulse propulsion systems and low-thrust, high-specific impulse systemsA Visimr ship is relatively slow but is very efficient. They are especially useful as space tugs moving cargo from LEO to GEO or from GEO to a lunar orbit.http://www.adastrarocket.com/aarc/
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- Thus far Russia does not have a spaceship with a nuclear engine.Mars Nukes is Good Nukes http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/1997/10/7366
- By passing very-hot ionized combustion gas through a strong magnetic field a magneto hydrodynamic (MHD) generator can convert heat to electric power, without any rotating or moving parts. This makes it possible to reduce mechanical losses and operate at elevated temperatures using a ―topping cycle to increase the overall cycle thermal efficiency above what is possible for more conventional Brayton and Rankine cycles—thereby effectively increasing the idealised Carnot efficiency.As of 1994, the 22% efficiency record for closed-cycle disc MHD generators was held by Tokyo Technical Institute. The peak enthalpy extraction in these experiments reached 30.2%. Typical open-cycle Hall & duct coal MHD generators are lower, near 17%. These efficiencies make MHD unattractive, by itself, for utility power generation, since conventional Rankine cycle power plants easily reach 40%.However, the exhaust of an MHD generator burning fossil fuel is almost as hot as the flame of a conventional steam boiler. By routing its exhaust gases into a boiler to make steam, MHD and a steam Rankine cycle can convert fossil fuels into electricity with an estimated efficiency up to 60 percent, compared to the 40 percent of a typical coal plant.A magnetohydrodynamic generator might also be heated by a Nuclear reactor (either fission or fusion). Reactors of this type operate at temperatures as high as 2000 °C. By pumping the reactor coolant into a magnetohydrodynamic generator before a traditional heat exchanger an estimated efficiency of 60 percent can be realised. One possible conductive coolant is the molten salt reactor's molten salt, since molten salts are electrically conductive.MHD generators have also been proposed for a number of special situations. In submarines, low speed MHD generators using liquid metals would be nearly silent, eliminating a source of tell-tale mechanism noise. In spacecraft and unattended locations, low-speed metallic MHD generators have been proposed as highly reliable generators, linked to solar, nuclear or isotopic heat sources.[edit]For decades Russia has devoted considerable resources to develop a light compact propulsion as well as power system for future space ships. Over the years Russia has developed a number of different types of MHD generators. Some were intended for ground use and thus were not limited by weight. In the eighties the Kurchatov Institute in collaboration with Energia corporation developed and successfully launched a superconducting magnet for a sub orbital test flight to prove that it was possible to shield plasma with magnetic field and in this way maintain radio communication when spacecraft has being going trough the dense layers of the atmosphere
- http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/koroteev-at-heart-of-russias-megawatt.htmlThe Russian space nuclear power supply is especially useful as a faster space tug for moving cargos from LEO to GEO. These power modules are of course also useful generally in near earth space, on the moon as as modular basis for larger space habitats.
- DARPA’s four-year, multi-track Autonomous Robotic Manipulation (ARM) program aims to develop software and hardware that enables a robot to autonomously manipulate, grasp, and perform complicated tasks with humans providing only high-level supervision. The ARM robot will be able to adapt to unstructured, dynamic environments.Over the course of the program in the Software Track, funded performers will develop algorithms that enable the DARPA robot to execute these numerous tasks. In the Hardware Track, funded performers will develop robust, low-cost multi-fingered hands to perform these tasks.DARPA is also providing public access to an identical robot in the Outreach Track, allowing anyone the opportunity to write software for the ARM robot to complete similar grasping and manipulation challenges.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVt3QDIqiFk&feature=player_embedded
- http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/07/china-space-station-lunar-rovers-and.htmlChina's second moon orbiter Chang'e-2 on June 9, 2011 set off from its moon orbit for outer space about 1.5 million km away from the earth.* Scientists decided to let it carry out additional exploratory tasks as the orbiter still had fuel in reserve.* Scientists hope the satellite can continue operations until the end of 2012.Tiangong 1 (English: Heavenly Palace) is a Chinese orbital laboratory module intended to form part of a space station complex. The launch of this module is planned for October 2011.he space module is expected to carry out China's first space docking, with the Shenzhou-8 spacecraft, which will be launched in the second half of 2011 after Tiangong-1.The source said experts are currently building the Shenzhou-8 and testing the Long March II-F carrier rocket on which the Tiangong-1 is expected to be launched.Two other spacecraft, the Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 spaceships, will be launched in 2012 and will also dock with Tiangong-1The third phase of the lunar exploration program is planned for 2017, entailing the use of the CZ-5/E heavy launch vehicle. On the basis of the lander mission, a lunar sample return mission will be undertaken, with up to two kilograms of lunar samples being returned to Earth.After that, a manned lunar landing might be possible in 2025–2030.China Mars PlansThe China Academy of Space Technology, designers of the Shenzhou spacecraft and lunar probes, is trying to draft a technical plan for Mars exploration.The Mars probe will be "intelligent" enough to detect faults and correct them by itself, and able to navigate without relying on commands sent from Earth.Another obstacle to be overcome involves establishing a monitoring network for deep space, consisting of large-caliber antennas and communication facilities, which China is currently constructing.QianWeiping, chief designer of the lunar probe Chang'e-2 mission's tracking and control system, said in January that the network will be completed in 2016.The network's partial completion in 2012 will provide enough support for a Mars probe.
- NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image of the giant asteroid Vesta with its framing camera on July 9, 2011. It was taken from a distance of about 26,000 miles (41,000 kilometers) away from Vesta, which is also considered a protoplanetbecause it is a large body that almost became a planet. Each pixel in the image corresponds to roughly 2.4 miles (3.8 kilometers). http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/15jul_dawn2/Nasa expects to hear back from its Dawn spacecraft on Sunday to learn if the manoeuvre, which took place about 117 million miles from Earth, was successful. Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres, the second object in Dawn's voyage, are two of the largest surviving protoplanets – rocky bodies that nearly had enough mass to become full-fledged planets – in solar system. Both reside in the main asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter. With its iron core and possible lava flows, scientists believe Vesta is more similar to Earth or the moon than most of its other asteroid neighbours. Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt, is relatively close to Vesta, but it formed under vastly different circumstances. The so-called dwarf planet more closely resembles the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Ceres has water-bearing minerals and possibly a weak atmosphere. The goal of the Dawn mission is to collect enough information about Vesta and Ceres to understand conditions and processes of the early solar system. The spacecraft has three scientific instruments to study surface features and determine chemical composition. Dawn travelled 1.7 billion miles to reach Vesta. It is expected to depart in July 2012 to begin the three-year, 930 million mile trek to Ceres. The mission at Ceres is expected to last six months.