NASA and the Private Sector - Page 105

Boeing Co. once helped the U.S. beat the Soviet Union in the race to the moon. Now the company intends to go toe-to-toe with newcomers such as billionaire Elon Musk in the next era of space exploration and commerce.
Boeing Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg sketched out a Jetsons-like future at a conference Tuesday, envisioning a commercial space-travel market with dozens of destinations orbiting the Earth and hypersonic aircraft shuttling travelers between continents in two hours or less. And Boeing intends to be a key player in the initial push to send humans to Mars, maybe even beating Musk to his long-time goal.

“I’m convinced the first person to step foot on Mars will arrive there riding a Boeing rocket,” Muilenburg said at the Chicago event on innovation, which was sponsored by the Atlantic magazine.

Like Musk’s SpaceX, Boeing is focused on building out the commercial space sector near earth as spaceflight becomes more routine, while developing technology to venture far beyond the moon. The Chicago-based aerospace giant is working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a heavy-lift rocket called the Space Launch System for deep space exploration. Boeing and SpaceX are also the first commercial companies NASA selected to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.

On October 07 2016 11:37 Mordanis wrote:
SpaceX was just getting ahead of the curve then?

In all seriousness, I hope the damage isn't too bad.

On October 05 2016 00:09 zatic wrote:
Did they ever mention why the booster of the BFR should also run on Methane? Cut cross development cost? I imagine for the booster it might be worth it to go for propellants that don't have to fit into the orbit refueling / onsite production constraints.

At the same time that we’re working to extend our reach into deep space, we’re also continuing to innovate closer to Earth, by expanding our partnerships with commercial space companies. And that’s the second initiative we are focused on today. Recently, NASA asked the private sector how it might use an available docking port on the ISS. One of the potential uses of such a port would be preparation for one or more future commercial stations in Low Earth Orbit, ready to take over for the Space Station once its mission ends in the 2020s. The private sector responded enthusiastically, and those responses indicated a strong desire by U.S. companies to attach a commercial module to the ISS that could meet the needs of NASA as well as those of private entrepreneurs.

As a result of the responses, this fall, NASA will start the process of providing companies with a potential opportunity to add their own modules and other capabilities to the International Space Station. While NASA prepares for the transition from the Space Station to its successors, the agency is also working to support and grow the community of scientists and entrepreneurs conducting research and growing businesses in space. A vibrant user community will be key to ensuring the economic viability of future space stations.

After an initial delay from late 2017 into early 2018, Boeing has acknowledged a second slippage of its schedule for the first commercial crew flights of its Starliner spacecraft. According to a report in Aviation Week, the company now says it will not be ready to begin operational flights until December 2018, a full year after NASA had originally hoped its commercial crew providers would be ready.

The admission by Boeing confirms a report by NASA's Inspector General, which found significant delays with both the Boeing and SpaceX efforts to develop private spacecraft to ferry US astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The delay also explains why, as Ars has previously reported, senior managers with the International Space Station program are likely to press ahead with the politically painful decision to purchase Soyuz seats for the calendar year 2019.

Boeing's second delay appears to have been caused by supply chain issues and other factors, which Boeing Program Manager for Commercial Crew John Mulholland said have been largely resolved. "When we were faced with these issues it was time for us to step back and say: ‘Hey listen, we have to readdress [this] and say what’s real and lay in where we are going forward,'” he told Aviation Week.

With the revised schedule, Boeing now anticipates completing an initial test crew flight in August 2018. Under this plan, the company could still receive certification from NASA in late 2018 and fly its first operational mission to the station by the end of the year.

NASA's other commercial crew provider, SpaceX, has had two issues with its Falcon 9 rocket, which will launch its crewed Dragon spacecraft into orbit. Despite this the company said flights in 2017 remain possible. “We continue to review and analyze data from the anomaly," a spokesman told Ars. "We expect to stay on track with our commercial crew milestones with NASA, but we'll better know how our schedule will be impacted once the investigation is complete and we get back to flying."

Nevertheless, the inspector general's report said SpaceX, too, had experienced issues with its spacecraft, particularly adjusting to water-based landings upon returning to Earth. Sources familiar with the commercial crew program have indicated to Ars that the race between SpaceX and Boeing to launch the first NASA astronauts from US soil remains too close to call.

A space nation, independent of countries on Earth, could be founded after a team of engineers, scientists and legal experts put forward proposals for an extra-terrestrial state.

The project, which is led by Russian scientist Dr Igor Ashurbeyli, Chairman of UNESCOs Science of Space committee, aims to create an area in space which is beyond the control of individual nations.

Under current space law, government’s must authorise and supervise space programmes run from their own countries even if they are commercial.

But the group of scientists say that by creating a new nation, space activities can ‘flourish free from the tight restrictions of state control that currently exist’

The team has named the new state ‘Asgardia’ – derived from Asgard, one of the nine world’s in Norse mythology.

One of the early developments planned is the creation of a state-of-the-art protective shield to prevent asteroids, space debris and coronal mass ejections from the Sun.

The public is being asked to help design the nation’s flag and 100,000 citizenships were made available at Wednesday's launch.

If Elon Musk's SpaceX can get to Mars and bring samples back to Earth before the United States can get there, it would be cause for celebration not lament, said NASA's new science chief.

"If Elon Musk brought the samples in the door right now I'd throw him a party out of my own money," Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's newly named associate administrator for science, told reporters Monday.

"I think that would be a huge success out of the strategies that were pursued by this administration of helping … the private industry to really grow capabilities that 10 years ago were not around," he said.

During his first sit-down with journalists, Zurbuchen also said that polarizing topics, including science issues, need to be tackled with empathy for and patience with people who have opposing viewpoints.

"Just because somebody doesn't agree with us the first time we open our mouths doesn't mean that they're stupid, or we're smart, or the other way around. I think it's really important to create, bring some empathy to the table," Zuburchen told Seeker. "There's a lot of stuff that can be learned by just talking to people."

Before joining NASA Zurbuchen was a professor of space science and aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. His areas of expertise include solar and heliospheric physics, experimental space research, innovation and entrepreneurship, NASA said in a statement.

Zurbuchen holds a master's and a doctorate in physics from the University of Bern in Switzerland.

Zurbuchen succeeds acting Associate Administrator for Science Geoffrey Yoder, who is retiring from NASA in December. Yoder took over when John Grunsfeld, a former astronaut, retired as NASA's chief scientist six months ago.