NASA and the Private Sector - Page 56

On January 29 2015 07:26 furymonkey wrote:
According to their website, Falcon heavy can carry 53,000kg to LOW, where Space Shuttle can carry 24,000kg.

So I assume the weight of the space shuttle itself isn't included. But what I'm curious is that that payload bay of the shuttle looks bigger than the Falcon's, so even Falcon can carry more weight onto space, the size of the cargo looks limited.

On February 03 2015 05:16 ondricsc2 wrote:
Government should have stayed OUT OF financing such endeavors.

it just BORROWS to finance it. It doesnt have money, the usa got the biggest trade deficit. it has a gigantic-unpayble - national debt.
It just very well cant afford it.
Should STOP it.

Must leave it to private sector.

No household can buy stuff OUT OF BURROWED MONEY FOREVER neither GOVERNMENT CAN.

The United States government has taken a new but preliminary step to encourage commercial development of the moon.

U.S. companies can stake claims to lunar territory through an existing licensing process for space launches, according to documents obtained by Reuters.

The Federal Aviation Administration, in a previously undisclosed late-December letter to Bigelow Aerospace, said the agency intends to “leverage the FAA’s existing launch licensing authority to encourage private sector investments in space systems by ensuring that commercial activities can be conducted on a noninterference basis.”

In other words, experts said, Bigelow could set up one of its proposed inflatable habitats on the moon and expect to have exclusive rights to that territory as well as related areas that might be tapped for mining, exploration and other activities.

However, the FAA letter noted a concern flagged by the U.S. State Department that “the national regulatory framework, in its present form, is ill-equipped to enable the U.S. government to fulfill its obligations” under a 1967 United Nations treaty, which, in part, governs activities on the moon.

The United Nations Outer Space treaty requires countries to authorize and supervise activities of nongovernment entities that are operating in space, including the moon. It also bans nuclear weapons in space, prohibits national claims to celestial bodies and stipulates that space exploration and development should benefit all countries.

On February 05 2015 03:45 Millitron wrote:

When has a UN treaty ever stopped anyone from doing anything?

Call it Space Race 2.0. Almost a half-century since the Apollo moon flights, entrepreneurs are expanding the boundaries of rocket and satellite technology as the U.S. makes room for private enterprise.

The result is a wave of innovation that echoes the leap in computing from key-punch mainframes to hand-held devices, with startups from San Francisco to Sydney pursuing new engines and Earth-orbiting probes as small as softballs.

Buoyed by billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the industry has surged more than sixfold since 2010 to more than 800 companies, according to market researcher NewSpace Global, with investment in private ventures in that span poised to reach $10 billion by year’s end. SpaceX led the way with $1 billion from Google Inc. and Fidelity Investments on Jan. 20 -- a day after satellite maker Planet Labs Inc. announced that it raised $95 million.

“It’s impossible to overestimate the degree of rock-star engineering talent that has come pouring into the commercial space sector,” said Matt Ocko, co-managing partner of venture capital fund Data Collective, an early investor in San Francisco-based Planet Labs. “For great scientists and engineers, this is incredible catnip.”

The fundraising snaps a years-long investment chill that followed the 1999 bankruptcy of Iridium LLC, the first global satellite-phone network. Interest is being kindled by SpaceX’s rocket launches, Virgin Galactic’s planned space tourism and efforts by Facebook Inc. and Google to deliver worldwide broadband via small satellites, drones, balloons and lasers.

With the successful completion of a static test fire, the stage is now set for a SpaceX Falcon 9 to launch the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) spacecraft on the evening of Sunday, February 8th. Liftoff must take place in an instantaneous window occurring at 6:10 PM EST. If needed, a backup date is reserved for Monday, with liftoff taking place at 6:07 PM.

The DSCOVR launch, which is being conducted under a three party agreement involving the USAF, NOAA and NASA, will see the Falcon 9 V1.1 boost the refrigerator sized 570 kg spacecraft to the gravitationally stable Earth -Sun Lagrange 1 point one million miles away.



As such, it marks the first deep space launch for SpaceX, as well as the first launch to be conducted under the auspices of the USAF. In this case, however the launch is being managed under the OSP-3 program, as opposed to the highly restrictive EELV program for which the company has yet to be certified to bid.