Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - April 26, 2013 and JSC Today

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: April 26, 2013 6:03:39 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - April 26, 2013 and JSC Today

Happy Friday everyone and have a great weekend!

 

Friday, April 26, 2013

 

JSC TODAY HEADLINES

1.            Orion and Space Launch System Program Updates

2.            Innovation 2013 Kick-off Meeting

3.            Recent JSC Announcement

4.            Workers' Memorial Day Vigil -- Saturday, April 27

5.            System Safety Special Subjects Class: June 11 to 12 - Building 20, Room 205/206

6.            Space Available - APPEL - Orbital Debris Mitigation and Re-entry Risk Management

________________________________________     NASA FACT

" Hubble has been producing ground-breaking science for two decades. During that time, it has benefited from a slew of upgrades from shuttle missions, including the 2009 addition of a new imaging workhorse, the high-resolution Wide Field Camera 3 that recently took a new portrait of the Horsehead Nebula."

________________________________________

1.            Orion and Space Launch System Program Updates

You've heard about the president's new proposal to capture and explore a near-Earth asteroid. This plan starts next year with NASA's Exploration Flight Test -1, when the Orion spacecraft will travel to an altitude of approximately 3,600 miles above Earth. Here's your chance to get the scoop on Orion/Space Launch System (SLS) program progress.

Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer, Lockheed Martin Orion Program Manager Cleon Lacefield and SLS Deputy Program Manager Jody Singer will give a joint update to the JSC community at 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 30, in the Teague Auditorium.

The panel will take questions after the All Hands from the audience. If you would like to submit a question for consideration in advance or during the update, please email it to JSC-MPCV-Board-Support at: jsc-mpcvbrdsp@mail.nasa.gov

JSC employees unable to attend can watch the All Hands via USTREAM at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-jsc or via the mobile page at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-jsc-mobile

Event Date: Tuesday, April 30, 2013   Event Start Time:2:00 PM   Event End Time:4:00 PM

Event Location: Building 2 South Teague Auditorium

 

Add to Calendar

 

Barbara Zelon x38782

 

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2.            Innovation 2013 Kick-off Meeting

On May 2, Innovation 2013 kicks off in the Teague Auditorium from noon to 2:30 p.m. with inspiration from two of America's most innovative speakers: Colleen Barrett, President Emeritus of Southwest Airlines, and Udaya Patnaik, founder of Jump Associates, a top strategy and innovation consulting firm.

The Innovation Team is also looking for your ideas and input on JSC 2.0. Events later this year will build on your ideas and how to implement them.

For more information, visit the Innovation 2013 website.

Event Date: Thursday, May 2, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:2:30 PM

Event Location: Teague Auditorium

 

Add to Calendar

 

Suzan P. Thomas x48772 https://innovation2013.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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3.            Recent JSC Announcement

Please visit the JSC Announcements (JSCA) Web page to view the newly posted announcement:

JSCA 13-013: Communications with Industry Regarding Procurement Solicitation for White Sands Test Facility Environmental Compliance and Operations

Archived announcements are also available on the JSCA Web page.

Linda Turnbough x36246 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/DocumentManagement/announcements/default.aspx

 

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4.            Workers' Memorial Day Vigil -- Saturday, April 27

Worldwide, one worker dies every 15 seconds. In the United States, 14 workers die every day due to preventable incidents. Workers' Memorial Day, established in 1989, is an international day of remembrance for those workers who have died or were injured on the job. The day also commemorates the anniversary of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, both of which were created by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act.

This year's event is especially poignant in light of the April 17 losses from the plant explosion in West, Texas. Although West will be in the thoughts and prayers of millions over the coming weeks, as the saying goes, we should not only mourn the dead, but fight for the living. Anyone who would like to join in honoring the losses of these workers, please attend the vigil on Saturday.

Event Date: Saturday, April 27, 2013   Event Start Time:10:00 AM   Event End Time:11:30 AM

Event Location: 1730 Jefferson, Houston, TX 77003

 

Add to Calendar

 

David Loyd x31935

 

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5.            System Safety Special Subjects Class: June 11 to 12 - Building 20, Room 205/206

Class is 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. This course is presented as a follow-up to the System Safety Workshop (SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0008), for those students whose primary duties involve safety or system safety. Management aspects of system safety are discussed, along with some additional analytical techniques that are not covered during the three-day workshop. Subjects discussed include system safety implementation and an introduction to software system safety. Students who have attended System Safety Fundamentals (SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0002) should not attend this course. SATERN registration required. Contractors, please update your JSC org code, your phone, email and supervisor before registering. Direct link for registration: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Polly Caison x41279

 

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6.            Space Available - APPEL - Orbital Debris Mitigation and Re-entry Risk Management

This two-day course introduces participants to orbital debris environment characterization and mitigation, including characterization and future growth of the orbital debris environment; collision risks; and orbital debris mitigation policies, processes, requirements and standards. It also explains re-entry risks and design-for-demise methodology, including the origin and nature of NASA Human Casualty Re-entry Risk assessments and criterion; overviews and applications of NASA Debris Assessment Software (DAS) and Object Reentry Survival Analysis Tool (ORSAT); design-for-demise objectives and experience; and demonstration of DAS re-entry risk assessment.

This course is designed for NASA project practitioners, mission members, engineers, scientists and other project support staff who are involved in spacecraft design and operations and interested in orbital debris issues and employing mitigation approaches, including "design for demise."

This course is available for self-registration in SATERN until Tuesday, April 30. Attendance is open to civil servants and contractors.

Dates: Tuesday to Wednesday, June 11 to 12

Location: Building 12, Room 146

Zeeaa Quadri x39723 https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHED...

 

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________________________________________

JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.

 

 

 

NASA TV:

·         UNDERWAY – 51P docking coverage (Docking scheduled for ~7:27 Central; 8:27 EDT)

·         8 am Central (9 EDT) – NASA's Great Moon Buggy Race - MSFC (Education Ch)

·         8:30 am Central (9:30 EDT) – Live coverage: FIRST Robotic Finals fm St Louis (Public Ch)

·         8 am Central SATURDAY (9 EDT) – NASA's Great Moon Buggy Race - MSFC (Educ Ch)

·         8:30 am Central SATURDAY (9:30 EDT) – Live coverage: FIRST Robotic Finals (Public Ch)

 

Human Spaceflight News

Friday, April 26, 2013

 

Christmas already? Atlantis is freed from its protective cover in preparation for June 29 exhibit opening

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Cargo ship with jammed antenna closes in on station

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

Russian flight controllers cleared an unmanned Progress supply ship for docking with the International Space Station early Friday despite a jammed navigation antenna on the cargo craft that could force the station crew to take over manual control during final approach. After extensive analysis, Russian engineers concluded the Progress M-19M/51P supply ship could safely execute an automated docking at the aft port of the Zvezda command module as planned, using a software patch telling flight computers to ignore the undeployed antenna. If all goes well, a docking probe in the nose of the Progress should engage the Zvezda capture mechanism around 8:26 a.m. EDT (GMT-4).

 

Bolden: NASA deep-space missions on target

 

Ledyard King - Florida Today

 

NASA's administrator tried to reassure wary lawmakers Thursday his agency isn't foot-dragging on developing a rocket to take astronauts into deep space by the next decade. "We need a 70 metric-ton vehicle and we are on schedule, on target and on cost to provide that 70 metric-ton vehicle," Charles F. Bolden Jr. told members of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees NASA funding. NASA is asking for $17.7 billion for fiscal 2014, which begins Oct. 1. That includes $2.73 billion to develop the Space Launch System (SLS) consisting of an Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle and the deep-space, "heavy-lift" rocket that will carry it first to an asteroid as early as 2021 and then to Mars by the 2030s.

 

NASA's Chief Defends Commercial Spaceflight Agreements

 

Suzanne Presto - Voice of America

 

NASA chief Charles Bolden found himself defending the U.S. space agency's practice of investing in commercial companies to ferry cargo - and one day crew - to the International Space Station. The grilling came less than a week after Orbital Science's successful rocket test flight and after several successful SpaceX cargo flights to the International Space Station. Senators on the appropriations subcommittee for Commerce, Justice and Science questioned NASA's priorities as they scrutinized the president's request for $17.7 billion to fund the U.S. space agency in fiscal year 2014. Specifically, they questioned NASA's ability to see through its plans to develop a heavy-lift rocket, known as the Space Launch System or SLS, while balancing investments in commercial enterprises to transport cargo and crew to the space station.

 

NASA responds to Shelby criticism

Says it is 'fully committed' to Space Launch System

 

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

 

NASA said Thursday that U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Tuscaloosa) has it wrong and the space agency is "fully committed" to the new rocket known as the Space Launch System. The statement came after Shelby told a committee of NASA appropriators Thursday morning that he has "serious doubts about NASA's dedication to truly developing a heavy launch capability." "NASA is fully committed to developing and flying the most powerful rocket ever built," NASA spokesman David Weaver said, "and we are on track for a test flight of the Space Launch System in 2017."

 

Budget woes may mean schedule slips, employee furloughs for NASA

 

Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com

 

NASA administrator Charles Bolden defended his case for fully funding the space agency's budget request of $17.7 billion in fiscal 2014 during congressional hearings this week. NASA is funding major programmes "at the lowest level that we believe we can deliver on time," says Bolden. He attributed some past schedule slips to funding shortages. For example, first flights of the commercial crew programme to ferry astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) have slipped from 2015 to 2018.

 

Out-Year Sequestration Will Slow NASA Exploration Efforts

 

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aerospace Daily

 

NASA can handle the across-the-board budget cuts it has received under sequestration in the current fiscal year, but if the cuts continue into the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, the gap in U.S. human space exploration capabilities will widen. William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for human exploration and operations, told the Senate Commerce space subcommittee that sequestration cuts in the out years will mean "we can't deliver the programs that we've committed to you we would deliver." "We can tolerate the [2013] sequester activity because we're prepared, but if it continues into '14, the programs I described to you, the timetables I described, I don't believe we could continue to support at the levels we did, so this is really going to be tough for us moving forward," Gerstenmaier told Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), chairman of the subcommittee.

 

Slow Pace Of Space Station Research Decried

 

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week

 

More than a year after astronauts and cosmonauts completed the International Space Station, the pace of its utilization continues to lag. The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (Casis), a Florida-based non-profit set up to organize and promote use of the U.S. National Laboratory portion of the station, finally appears to be getting its oar in the water after an unconscionable startup delay caused by bureaucratic wrangling. But priceless time has been lost, and probably continues to be, as the U.S. gets up to speed using its 50% of the orbiting laboratory. The problem is not restricted to U.S. utilization. Johann-Dietrich Woerner, who heads Germany's space program as chairman of the executive board of the German aerospace center (DLR), says he is frustrated with Europe's use of the on-orbit research capability it has acquired through development of the Columbus laboratory module and the Automated Transfer Vehicle.

 

Orbital in orbit

Competition comes to the celestial trucking business

 

The Economist

 

On May 25th 2012 a Californian firm called SpaceX made the first privately run supply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). It was a vindication of NASA's decision to outsource such missions to the private sector. Still, purists could argue that something was missing: a proper market has competition, but SpaceX was the only firm capable of doing it. That may be about to change. On April 21st, at NASA's Wallops flight centre in Virginia, another rocket built by another firm—Virginia-based Orbital Sciences—lifted off from the pad, after several delays. A launch attempt on April 17th was scrubbed after a data cable came loose. Another try on April 20th had to be abandoned because of high winds. This time, though, nothing went wrong. A few minutes after the launch the Antares rocket was safely in orbit, prompting cheers and sighs of relief on the ground.

 

What SpaceX Can Teach Us About Cost Innovation

 

Tom Agan - Harvard Business Review

 

Earlier this week, the space-transport start-up SpaceX had its most successful launch test yet with Grasshopper, the first fully and rapidly reusable rocket. This is the latest step in the company's journey to dramatically reduce the cost of space travel, and follows the first private resupply of the International Space Station with the launch of their Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft last fall. Initially when the start-up's founder, serial entrepreneur Elon Musk, looked at the space industry, he faced a quandary about where to innovate, given the restrictions and mandatory performance criteria for space travel. Musk quickly zeroed in on the one area ripe for innovation: cost reduction. He gathered a team with a wide cross-section of expertise and put them to work at trimming the fat.

 

Ready to show off, Atlantis peeks out of its shell

Workers preparing to open payload bay's doors for display

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

The nose emerged first, like a beak poking through an eggshell. Freed from the white cover that had sheathed it for five months at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, the retired shuttle orbiter appeared as if it could breathe through nostril-like forward thrusters. Teams in cherry pickers continued to gently peel away more sections of plastic shrink wrap Thursday, revealing crew cabin windows and then, dramatically, a name in bold black letters: "Atlantis." Onlookers cheered: Atlantis was itself again, showing off its space-worn tiles and blankets about two months before the new exhibit is scheduled to open for public display.

 

Shrink-wrapped space shuttle Atlantis uncovered for display

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

How do you un-shrink-wrap a space shuttle? As workers at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex learned Thursday (April 25), very slowly and very carefully. NASA's retired space shuttle Atlantis, which since November has been covered in 16,000 square feet (1,486 square meters) of white plastic was partially revealed Thursday at the Florida spaceport's visitor center. The planned day-long process to unwrap the orbiter stretched into two — work will pick up again Friday morning — and required cherry pickers, vacuum cleaners, box cutters and patience.

 

The Biggest Flaw in Mars One's Business Plan

 

Ian O'Neill - Discovery News

 

Press conferences often reveal flaws in projects during the last few minutes devoted to questions from reporters. And in the case of the Mars One press conference on Monday, it was the Q&A session that not only revealed flaws, it may have extinguished the entire business plan that would theoretically fund the interplanetary operation. Mars One, founded by Dutch entrepreneur and engineer Bas Lansdorp, is a non-profit company with the sole intention of starting a Mars colony by the year 2023. At face value, the business model that will fund the enterprise sounds intriguing. Through television rights and sponsorship deals, Mars One will generate a huge revenue stream that will not only fund the launch of four people to Mars, it will also found the basis of a colony on Mars. Be under no illusions, building a base on Mars will be hard, but the entire planet will be glued to their screens watching the interplanetary drama unfold as Mars One makes history. We will witness all the grit and drama of the first humans on another planet. There may even be tragedies, possibly some humor. Or so the Mars One plan would have us believe.

 

Mars: The Next International Destination

 

Chris Carberry & Artemis Westenberg.- Huffington Post (Opinion)

 

The international community is longing for the next big cooperative goal in space exploration. There have been modest partnerships in space since the 1960s -- growing during the Space Shuttle era -- but the International Space Station was a turning point in international cooperation. It was far from a perfect model, but it pulled the various national space agencies closer together than ever before. For more than two decades this partnership grew, worked out technical and cultural differences, and evolved. These nations have managed to build, assemble and now operate the largest structure ever built in space. ISS is supposed to operate until at least 2020. However, the time to start planning the next large international space mission is now. That mission should be a human mission to Mars. If we wait until ISS ends, we will have not only wasted a lot of time, but potentially wasted the opportunity to harness the expertise, lessons and unity that ISS brings us in space. If we let go of that unity in purpose, we may not get it back.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Cargo ship with jammed antenna closes in on station

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

Russian flight controllers cleared an unmanned Progress supply ship for docking with the International Space Station early Friday despite a jammed navigation antenna on the cargo craft that could force the station crew to take over manual control during final approach.

 

After extensive analysis, Russian engineers concluded the Progress M-19M/51P supply ship could safely execute an automated docking at the aft port of the Zvezda command module as planned, using a software patch telling flight computers to ignore the undeployed antenna.

 

If all goes well, a docking probe in the nose of the Progress should engage the Zvezda capture mechanism around 8:26 a.m. EDT (GMT-4).

 

As always with Progress dockings, cosmonauts in the Russian segment of the station -- in this case, Roman Romanenko and Pavel Vinogradov -- will be standing by to remotely guide the ship to docking if the automated KURS navigation system has any problems.

 

Still unclear is whether the antenna, lodged in its launch position up against the forward end of the Progress M-19M spacecraft, could cause any physical interference with the docking system interfaces or nearby antennas, possibly preventing the required airtight structural connection.

 

Russian engineers apparently concluded that will not be the case. But if hooks and latches are unable to fully engage to pull the Progress in for a so-called "hard mate," a Russian spacewalk could be required later to free the antenna. Until then, the station would not be able to carry out any major maneuvers. A similar spacewalk was required on Dec. 3, 2001, to cut away part of an O-ring seal that prevented a Progress hard docking five days earlier.

 

"Just a heads up on the current situation with the 51P docking," David St. Jacques radioed from NASA's mission control center in Houston. "TsUP (Russian mission control) is going forward with the automated docking, expected at 12:26 GMT as planned. We're going to support and we have put ISS in a safe config. We just handed over attitude control to the Russian segment.

 

"A heads up, should we end up with an incompletely docked Progress we might end up in free drift longer than usual and we're working a plan for that contingency. We're also discussing with our Russian counterparts whether we need any additional precautions with respect to ingressing the Progress."

 

"Copy all, that's clear. Thanks, David," station commander Chris Hadfield replied.

 

The Progress M-19M spacecraft, loaded with 3.1 tons of supplies and equipment, was successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome Wednesday. The climb to space went smoothly and the spacecraft's two solar arrays unfolded as planned a few moments after reaching orbit.

 

But one of five antennas used by the ship's KURS radar rendezvous system failed to deploy.

 

The KURS system, used by both Progress and manned Soyuz spacecraft, measures differences in radar signal strength to home in on the space station. The jammed antenna, wrapped in white insulation blankets, normally is used to provide orientation data during final approach.

 

After a lengthy analysis, the Russians concluded it was safe to proceed with docking despite the loss of the antenna.

 

Bolden: NASA deep-space missions on target

 

Ledyard King - Florida Today

 

NASA's administrator tried to reassure wary lawmakers Thursday his agency isn't foot-dragging on developing a rocket to take astronauts into deep space by the next decade.

 

"We need a 70 metric-ton vehicle and we are on schedule, on target and on cost to provide that 70 metric-ton vehicle," Charles F. Bolden Jr. told members of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees NASA funding.

 

NASA is asking for $17.7 billion for fiscal 2014, which begins Oct. 1. That includes $2.73 billion to develop the Space Launch System (SLS) consisting of an Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle and the deep-space, "heavy-lift" rocket that will carry it first to an asteroid as early as 2021 and then to Mars by the 2030s.

 

The top Republican on the panel, Richard Shelby of Alabama, raised concerns that the amount NASA wants for SLS is some $200 million less than the agency received in fiscal 2012.

 

He questioned whether the proposed reduction is linked to the $300 million increase NASA is seeking for a program to help private companies develop a spacecraft to replace the space shuttle, which flew its last mission to the International Space Station in 2011.

 

"This budget focuses too heavily on maintaining the fiction of privately funded commercial cargo and crew vehicles which diverts critical resources from NASA's goal of developing human space flight capabilities with the SLS," Shelby told Bolden.

 

But Bolden said SLS remains one of the agency's top three priorities, along with development of the James Webb Space Telescope and the Commercial Crew Program, which is designed to develop a replacement for the shuttle.

 

The NASA administrator told senators that work on the deep-space mission is well under way. He said the launch complex at Kennedy Space Center in Florida has been significantly upgraded, J-2X engines have been successfully tested at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, and a major engine component has been tested at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.

 

NASA simply doesn't need more than the $2.73 billion it's asking for SLS this year, Bolden told subcommittee members.

 

"We are confident that we can carry out his program with the budget that we had requested." he said.

 

Thursday's exchange reflected the tension between Congress and the administration over the direction of the space program in recent years, especially when budgets have grown tighter.

 

The concerns Shelby aired Thursday are similar to those that lawmakers raised Wednesday at a House Science, Space and Technology Committee hearing. Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said at that hearing he's "disheartened" by what he sees as NASA's "ever-changing goals."

 

Many lawmakers, especially Republicans, remain unhappy with President Barack Obama's decision in 2009 to scrap the Constellation program to return astronauts to the moon.

 

They now support NASA's planned missions to asteroids and Mars, but are far less enthusiastic about the Commercial Crew Program, which originally was projected to be online by 2015 but now won't be ready until at least 2017.

 

NASA says that's because the program has never been fully funded. The $525 million initially approved for the program in fiscal 2013 was well short of the $801 million the administration had requested. Previous requests also fell short.

 

The White House is seeking $821 million for the program in fiscal 2014, which Bolden said would keep it from falling further behind schedule. Otherwise, NASA will have to keep paying Russia $63 million every time it sends an American astronaut to the space station.

 

"We just renewed a contract (with Russia) for another year because we weren't able to have our own capability in 2015," Bolden said. "It is not my desire to come back to this committee and to the Congress and the president and ask for more money to pay the Russians."

 

NASA's Chief Defends Commercial Spaceflight Agreements

 

Suzanne Presto - Voice of America

 

NASA chief Charles Bolden found himself defending the U.S. space agency's practice of investing in commercial companies to ferry cargo - and one day crew - to the International Space Station. The grilling came less than a week after Orbital Science's successful rocket test flight and after several successful SpaceX cargo flights to the International Space Station.

 

Senators on the appropriations subcommittee for Commerce, Justice and Science questioned NASA's priorities as they scrutinized the president's request for $17.7 billion to fund the U.S. space agency in fiscal year 2014. Specifically, they questioned NASA's ability to see through its plans to develop a heavy-lift rocket, known as the Space Launch System or SLS, while balancing investments in commercial enterprises to transport cargo and crew to the space station.   

 

Priorities

 

The subcommittee's two top lawmakers, chairwoman Barbara Mikulski of Maryland and vice-chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama, have NASA facilities in their states. 

Senator Shelby said he was concerned that the proposed budget is an example of "chasing the next great idea while sacrificing current investments." 

 

"This budget focuses, I believe, too heavily on maintaining the fiction of privately funded commercial launch vehicles, which diverts, I think, critical resources from NASA's goal of developing human spaceflight capabilities with the SLS," said Shelby.

NASA Administrator Bolden said NASA's priorities remain the world's most powerful rocket - the SLS, as well as the James Webb Space Telescope -- the Hubble's successor -- and the International Space Station, shored up by commercial crew and cargo transportation.  He called 2013 "a year of decision." 

 

"If we do not get $822 million in the 2014 budget as requested by the president, it will be my unfortunate duty to advise the Congress and the president that we probably will not make 2017 for the availability of an American capability to get our astronauts to space," said Bolden.  "And I will have to tell you that I'm going to have to come back and ask for authorization to once again pay the Russians to take our crews to space." 

 

Reliance on Russia

 

The NASA administrator noted that a funding request in 2011 was not met, so the United States was unable to launch astronauts from its soil in 2015, as had been hoped.  The U.S. has not had a vehicle to take astronauts to the space station since it retired the shuttle fleet two years ago.  NASA is relying on commercial firms to handle transport to the space station so it can focus its attention on developing the next-generation of rockets and capsules that can go beyond low-Earth orbit -- to an asteroid or Mars.

    

Russian transport to the space station is costly.  The U.S. signed a contract in 2011 to pay $753 million to Russia in exchange for transport and related services for 12 astronauts from 2014 through mid-2016. 

 

Sequestration

 

NASA's Bolden, himself a former astronaut, also emphasized the negative effects of looming, mandatory across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration.  He said, if implemented, the cuts will potentially impact the James Webb Space Telescope, certainly impact the SLS heavy lift rocket and Orion capsule and, in his words, "devastate commercial crew and cargo."

 

"You know, right now we're flying 20 commercial cargo missions to the International Space Station over the next five years for three-point-some-odd billion dollars - an incredible value to the nation," he said.  "I can't carry that out under sequester."

 

The U.S. space agency chief also countered suggestions that some agreements with commercial companies lack transparency and are too lenient on deadlines.  Bolden disagreed, saying such agreements give American industry leeway to produce spacecraft that fulfill NASA's requirements.  He added that the agreements have worked very well, as demonstrated by the successes of both Orbital and SpaceX vehicles.

 

NASA responds to Shelby criticism

Says it is 'fully committed' to Space Launch System

 

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

 

NASA said Thursday that U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Tuscaloosa) has it wrong and the space agency is "fully committed" to the new rocket known as the Space Launch System. The statement came after Shelby told a committee of NASA appropriators Thursday morning that he has "serious doubts about NASA's dedication to truly developing a heavy launch capability."

 

"NASA is fully committed to developing and flying the most powerful rocket ever built," NASA spokesman David Weaver said, "and we are on track for a test flight of the Space Launch System in 2017."

 

Shelby said NASA's budget plan does not reflect a real commitment. "Instead, it shows cuts to SLS vehicle development as far as the eye can see," Shelby said.

 

Weaver said agency leaders have "recommended investing more than $5.6 billion in SLS over the past three years, and have announced an ambitious human mission to explore an asteroid which utilizes the Space Launch System."

 

Budget woes may mean schedule slips, employee furloughs for NASA

 

Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com

 

NASA administrator Charles Bolden defended his case for fully funding the space agency's budget request of $17.7 billion in fiscal 2014 during congressional hearings this week.

 

NASA is funding major programmes "at the lowest level that we believe we can deliver on time," says Bolden. He attributed some past schedule slips to funding shortages. For example, first flights of the commercial crew programme to ferry astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) have slipped from 2015 to 2018.

 

Crunched between the annual budget battles and a 10% cut imposed by sequestration, NASA is taking a hard look at what it cannot afford to do. Though it remaings the most well-funded space agency in the world, NASA is struggling to complete its three flagship projects - commercial crew, the space launch system (SLS) and James Webb space telescope (JWST) - while maintaining a plethora of smaller projects.

 

"We have made adjustments so it has not affected our programmes or our people just yet," says Bolden. "But we cannot do that in 2014. If we do not come out from under [the] sequester for the FY2014 budget, we will start furloughing people when that budget becomes effective."

 

Sequestration presents more urgent problems for certain key programmes. "It will definitely impact SLS, it will devastate commercial crew and cargo," says Bolden. "If we have sequester, all bets are off, and I'm going to come to you and tell you what we're dropping off the plate."

 

Legislators also questioned a line item in the FY2014 budget to fund a crewed mission to capture an asteroid and bring it into lunar orbit. Critics of the mission prefer destinations such as Mars or the moon. Bolden responded that a lunar flight would be "a factor of three" times more expensive than an asteroid mission.

 

Out-Year Sequestration Will Slow NASA Exploration Efforts

 

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aerospace Daily

 

NASA can handle the across-the-board budget cuts it has received under sequestration in the current fiscal year, but if the cuts continue into the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, the gap in U.S. human space exploration capabilities will widen.

 

William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for human exploration and operations, told the Senate Commerce space subcommittee that sequestration cuts in the out years will mean "we can't deliver the programs that we've committed to you we would deliver."

 

"We can tolerate the [2013] sequester activity because we're prepared, but if it continues into '14, the programs I described to you, the timetables I described, I don't believe we could continue to support at the levels we did, so this is really going to be tough for us moving forward," Gerstenmaier told Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), chairman of the subcommittee.

 

That would mean the first flight test of the Orion crew capsule to gather data on its large heat shield might have to be postponed from 2014, as would the 2017 first flight of the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS), the first crewed flight of an Orion in 2021, and the new asteroid-capture mission outlined in the agency's fiscal 2014 budget request.

 

Gerstenmaier repeated earlier descriptions of the asteroid mission as a way to advance the readiness level of the technologies — advanced solar-electric propulsion, life support, deep-space rendezvous and docking — that would be needed for exploration deeper into the Solar System.

 

Those follow-on missions also would slip, pushing an as-yet-unscheduled mission to Mars even further into the future.

 

Apollo 10 Commander Tom Stafford, a retired Air Force lieutenant general who headed the Synthesis Group that studied the requirements for a human mission to Mars at the behest of President George H.W. Bush, outlined some of those follow-on missions and the developments needed.

 

A prerequisite would be the large, liquid-hydrogen-fueled upper stage already on the books for advanced SLS variants.

 

Stafford, who orbited the Moon on Apollo 10 and later took part in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project with the Soviet Union in 1975, said a return to the lunar surface "is by far the most interesting near-term challenge confronting mankind in space," and would be a valuable training ground for human missions to Mars.

 

For that flight, Stafford said, the U.S. should resurrect the nuclear-thermal rocket technology it abandoned in 1973.

 

"It is possible to get to Mars without a nuclear rocket, but why would we try to do so," Stafford said in his written testimony.

 

"Far from being an artifact of a science fiction movie, a nuclear upper stage is something we once had — a working, space-qualified nuclear rocket lacking only a flight test" that was intended to fly atop the Saturn V Moon rocket.

 

Slow Pace Of Space Station Research Decried

 

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week

 

More than a year after astronauts and cosmonauts completed the International Space Station, the pace of its utilization continues to lag. The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (Casis), a Florida-based non-profit set up to organize and promote use of the U.S. National Laboratory portion of the station, finally appears to be getting its oar in the water after an unconscionable startup delay caused by bureaucratic wrangling. But priceless time has been lost, and probably continues to be, as the U.S. gets up to speed using its 50% of the orbiting laboratory.

 

The problem is not restricted to U.S. utilization. Johann-Dietrich Woerner, who heads Germany's space program as chairman of the executive board of the German aerospace center (DLR), says he is frustrated with Europe's use of the on-orbit research capability it has acquired through development of the Columbus laboratory module and the Automated Transfer Vehicle.

 

"We, the whole community—Americans, Russians, Canadians, Germans, Europeans, Japanese—invested a lot of money into the space station," Woerner says. "And we, at least the Germans, invested to use it not just to have a flying object. [I]t is our deep understanding that we should use it now, for science, development and research in general."

 

Woerner puts a diplomatic gloss on frustration voiced elsewhere about the slow pace of getting the station up to speed. And he worries that, at least in Europe, other nations appear to be backing away from space station research even before it gets well underway.

 

"We are a little bit concerned about the situation in Europe, because when we discussed it in the last European Space Agency (ESA) council on ministerial level, we saw that many other countries are reducing their interest in the station," says Woerner.

 

Among ESA member states, he says, only the U.K., Switzerland and Germany increased their contribution to ISS activities. France cut its station spending, leaving Germany to pick up the slack to the point that it now funds about half of the European contribution, up from 43% before the ministerial in Naples, Italy, last fall.

 

"Our intention was to have a constant contribution, but because France reduced its [portion], we said we have to [make up the difference]," says Woerner.

 

The German space chief told an audience at this year's National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs that before starting a project, it is always important to ask why it is being pursued, because once a large space development gets started it is difficult to stop. For the space station, the answer goes beyond microgravity research to fields of research not even considered when the orbiting facility was designed and built. "At the beginning, ISS was thought to be only for specialists in microgravity experiments," he says. "It turns out that ISS is much more valuable. Look to [the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer] (AMS)."

 

The last major payload delivered to the ISS by space shuttle, the AMS was designed to collect and study subatomic particles originating in space.

 

The international AMS team recently published its first scientific paper, reporting an usually high count of positrons that could lend weight to the theory that the particles are generated when dark matter collides and annihilates itself. But positrons may also be generated by pulsars, and researchers are happy with the long-duration exposure the AMS will receive on the station because it will add data to the statistics that will shape future conclusions about the positron sources.

 

The ability to repeat experiments in the same low-gravity, high-vacuum environment can also have benefits in biomedical research, materials science and Earth observation, Woerner says. His U.S. colleague, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations William Gerstenmaier, believes the "tipping point" for deeper human exploration in space is likely to be reached on the ISS, since it is the only facility able to support the research that can generate a return on investment for commercial space activities. If an orbiting pot of gold or killer app is found there, it can lower the cost of access to space for all kinds of exploration.

 

Like NASA, which is relying on Casis to promote commercial exploitation of the ISS, Woerner says government's primary role is that of enabler rather than entrepreneur. "I'm not a missionary to convince industry how to make money. That's their job—[as is innovation]. We can help open the doors."

 

Gerstenmaier and his colleagues in NASA's human-spaceflight endeavor may soon get a chance to open a door for Dennis Tito's ambitious plan to send a man and woman on a 501-day flight around Mars beginning in 2018. Taber MacCallum, chief technology officer for Tito's non-profit Inspiration Mars venture, says it is likely the closed-loop environmental and life support systems (ECLSS) that will be necessary for the Mars flyaround to succeed are likely to be tested on the space station. An ECLSS expert who spent two years in the Biosphere 2 experimental closed-loop habitat, MacCallum says for simplicity and speed, the Mars ECLSS will be based on station systems. And for the sake of fidelity, they will need to be tested on the station.

 

"That's what it's for," MacCallum says.

 

Orbital in orbit

Competition comes to the celestial trucking business

 

The Economist

 

On May 25th 2012 a Californian firm called SpaceX made the first privately run supply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). It was a vindication of NASA's decision to outsource such missions to the private sector. Still, purists could argue that something was missing: a proper market has competition, but SpaceX was the only firm capable of doing it.

 

That may be about to change. On April 21st, at NASA's Wallops flight centre in Virginia, another rocket built by another firm—Virginia-based Orbital Sciences—lifted off from the pad, after several delays. A launch attempt on April 17th was scrubbed after a data cable came loose. Another try on April 20th had to be abandoned because of high winds. This time, though, nothing went wrong. A few minutes after the launch the Antares rocket was safely in orbit, prompting cheers and sighs of relief on the ground.

 

Admittedly, the flight was only an initial test. The Antares went nowhere near the ISS itself. Nor was it carrying one of Orbital's Cygnus space capsules, which, if all proceeds according to plan, will one day perform the actual docking with the ISS. But it is an important step: if everything continues to go well, then a Cygnus test flight may take place in a few months' time, and Orbital's first ISS resupply mission could happen before the end of the year.

 

The firm has a $1.9 billion contract with NASA to fly eight cargo missions to the station. That makes it pricier than SpaceX, which will fly 12 missions (two of which it has already completed) for $1.6 billion. But the competition ought to be a good thing for both companies.

 

The firms themselves are very different. SpaceX is the flag-bearer for the glamorous "New Space" industry. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who made his name with PayPal, and who claims that his eventual goal is to enable crewed missions to be sent to Mars.

 

Orbital Sciences, by contrast, has been around since 1982. Until now, its business has been building and launching small satellites. It has well over 500 missions under its belt, and no starry-eyed dreams of manned interplanetary travel. That has led to some unkind comments from New Space fans about "dinosaurs" (the Antares's engines are actually leftovers from the Soviet Union's abortive 1960s Moon programme).

 

Appropriately, the Antares itself is a ponderous beast, taking more than a minute after launch to break the sound barrier, which is slow for a rocket. But once it had cleared the launching pad, it performed perfectly. And that, ultimately, is all that matters.

 

What SpaceX Can Teach Us About Cost Innovation

 

Tom Agan - Harvard Business Review

 

Earlier this week, the space-transport start-up SpaceX had its most successful launch test yet with Grasshopper, the first fully and rapidly reusable rocket. This is the latest step in the company's journey to dramatically reduce the cost of space travel, and follows the first private resupply of the International Space Station with the launch of their Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft last fall.

 

Initially when the start-up's founder, serial entrepreneur Elon Musk, looked at the space industry, he faced a quandary about where to innovate, given the restrictions and mandatory performance criteria for space travel. Musk quickly zeroed in on the one area ripe for innovation: cost reduction. He gathered a team with a wide cross-section of expertise and put them to work at trimming the fat.

 

NASA has tried for decades to provide low-cost space flight — that was the failed promise of the Space Shuttle — a reusable spacecraft to avoid the expensive building of a new craft for each mission. The complexity of the Shuttle and its reliance on 1970's technology drove costs up. Contractors paid based on their costs, with little incentive to save, increased them even more. Working against NASA as well was a heritage of exploration: unique space missions that pushed technologies and space travel to the edge. It was fundamentally different from the mindset of low-cost frequent and standardized transport that SpaceX embraces today.

 

SpaceX has learned. With industry veterans and outsiders, they benefit from past experiences but are unconstrained by forces and factors that pushed up NASA costs. It's not that they threw away the NASA playbook, rather they combined what worked with new ways that have the potential to dramatically reduce costs (as the Grasshopper test flight demonstrates). Their process — having a big goal, learning from the past, looking at the whole picture to find and prioritize opportunities, then refining key aspects of the space flight model to achieve their objective — is an approach that can make any organization more creative about cutting costs.

 

They think big. In large companies, the task of cost cutting is invariably incremental and left to finance, which works with individuals or small groups within a specific department, region, or area of the business. On the other hand, the SpaceX approach innovates and transforms by looking at the entire business model instead of the parts. Cuts weren't just made to the physical rocket itself but to everything surrounding it — overhead, support services, development timeframe, and more. With small teams and far lower overhead, SpaceX was able to go from incorporation to first space flight in six years. And we can see this occurring in other businesses too. Though traumatic, the restructuring of GM and Chrysler, including a major reduction in overhead, led to their resurgence since 2009.

 

They think about the future. SpaceX developed a plan for sustaining the lower-cost business model over many years. To build a business for the long haul, SpaceX wisely recognized it must embark on the complicated and risky task of developing an entirely new rocket engine. Another similar space venture is still using fuel-inefficient surplus Russian rocket engines built in the 1960's that cost more to run and maintain over time. Due to their finite number, the company has a limited future unless like SpaceX it develops its own engine.

 

This is where most businesses fail in cutting costs: Its results are typically analyzed narrowly by the financial impact of a reduction in one area or department over a year or two. But shortsightedness can lead to long-term problems. For instance, after one company cut product costs for years, it then looked at the sales force for additional savings. Meanwhile the mix of business had changed such that their high-touch and relatively high-cost sales force was more important than ever before. So when they reduced the sales force, a key competitor was able to gain share even more rapidly than before.

 

They remember that increasing profits isn't the only goal. With SpaceX's cost savings in an era of declining government budgets, reduced costs make the investment in space exploration and big science projects more viable, such as a mission to Mars. In a recent interview, Musk even suggested that a project to develop warp drive could be in the future. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden agreed it's a possible investment.

 

In companies, those profits can be invested in other innovation efforts like new products. For example, be savvy when adopting an across-the-board cost reduction strategy. Once identified and implemented, a portion of the savings should be selectively reinvested in products and services that offer the best prospects for future returns. Ultimately the real objective is not about cutting costs at all, but rather a redirection of investments. For a similar example in business, when former Kraft and Gillette CEO Jim Kilts cut overhead costs, he then reinvested the savings in product development and advertising to strengthen brands. Using this strategy, Kilts was able to dramatically improve financial results and stock prices.

 

Although the business world rarely sees cost cutting as a creative act, Elon Musk is demonstrating how it can open up vast new frontiers and play a critically important role in the innovation process. To date, SpaceX is saving the government billions by self-funding development costs rather than charging them back. Furthermore, according to company projections, their per-launch costs are projected to run 40 to 60 percent less than what's being charged today.

 

Developing new products and cutting costs each require an innovation mindset. Creative problem-solving skills, thinking about the long term, and adopting a holistic perspective will lead to savings ranging from incremental to breakthrough. Cost innovation — rather than simple cost reduction — can only occur once an organization broadens its approach and keeps a constant eye on the long term.

 

Ready to show off, Atlantis peeks out of its shell

Workers preparing to open payload bay's doors for display

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

The nose emerged first, like a beak poking through an eggshell.

 

Freed from the white cover that had sheathed it for five months at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, the retired shuttle orbiter appeared as if it could breathe through nostril-like forward thrusters.

 

Teams in cherry pickers continued to gently peel away more sections of plastic shrink wrap Thursday, revealing crew cabin windows and then, dramatically, a name in bold black letters: "Atlantis."

 

Onlookers cheered: Atlantis was itself again, showing off its space-worn tiles and blankets about two months before the new exhibit is scheduled to open for public display.

 

"You get to see that she's real," said Tim Macy, director of project development and construction. "It's been in this cocoon and didn't look real for a long time."

 

The cocoon protected Atlantis from dust and debris while a $100 million exhibit was built around it.

 

The orbiter arrived last November in a partially constructed new home at the Visitor Complex.

 

Soon it was hoisted 30 feet up, tilted 43 degrees and covered in 16,000 square feet of 16-millimeter thick shrink wrap.

 

Now the 90,000 square foot facility is fully enclosed, and a mezzanine viewing level sweeps over Atlantis' dipped left wing.

 

Lots of work remains: lighting to install, interactive content to edit, a Hubble Space Telescope replica to assemble, among other tasks.

 

But the outlines are all in place for the one-of-a-kind display showing Atlantis as if it is flying one of its 33 missions, and the exhibit remains on track to open June 29.

 

The unwrapping was necessary so crews could begin opening the orbiter's payload bay doors early next month.

 

They want plenty of time to perform that operation on delicate hardware designed to be opened and closed in microgravity, not on the ground.

 

Macy has seen lots of high-definition concept images of what the final scene will look like, but none better than Thursday's up-close view of Atlantis, which will soon be shared with the public.

 

"There's nothing like seeing it in person," he said.

 

Shrink-wrapped space shuttle Atlantis uncovered for display

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

How do you un-shrink-wrap a space shuttle?

 

As workers at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex learned Thursday (April 25), very slowly and very carefully.

 

NASA's retired space shuttle Atlantis, which since November has been covered in 16,000 square feet (1,486 square meters) of white plastic was partially revealed Thursday at the Florida spaceport's visitor center. The planned day-long process to unwrap the orbiter stretched into two — work will pick up again Friday morning — and required cherry pickers, vacuum cleaners, box cutters and patience.

 

"This is the very first step in unveiling Atlantis," said Tim Macy, director of project development and construction for Delaware North Parks and Resorts, which runs the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex for NASA. "She has been in a plastic 16-millimeter-thick cocoon."

 

Unlike a caterpillar's cocoon, the shuttle's wrap was intended to shield it from the metamorphosis occurring outside, rather than in. Atlantis rolled into its new $100 million exhibition facility while the five-story building was still under construction.

 

"It was for her own protection," Macy explained. "With all the construction dust and overspray and everything else that is happening here, it kept her protected in a nice shrink-wrapped sealed environment."

 

Construction workers used knives to score the plastic cover, being careful not to knick the spacecraft in the process, before carefully cutting away and lifting the wrap off the vehicle. Even before they made the first slice, the workers vacuumed segments of the plastic to avoid any dust falling onto Atlantis.

 

"This is a priceless artifact," Macy told collectSPACE.com. "She has had a pretty rough life, she's had 33 missions in space and has gone over 12 million miles. It is incumbent upon us to take care of it."

 

"I would hate to think that maybe if we drop some plastic on it, it might scrape it or catch on it or do something. That wasn't going to be the case," he said.

 

Macy said unwrapping Atlantis was easier than wrapping it, but emphasized that all of this was unprecedented.

 

"It is the first time anything like this has ever been done," he said. "You see it on some other airplanes and some other aircraft but it is the first time a shuttle has been wrapped. It is the first time a shuttle has been unwrapped. It is the first time a shuttle has been in this configuration. So it is not like we have a lot of practice on it."

 

"We're going to take it real slow," Macy said. "What we find in construction is that the slower you go, the faster you go, because you are not making mistakes."

 

After a brief delay to finish painting one of the exhibit's walls, work got underway to unwrap Atlantis at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) Thursday. About six hours later, the shuttle's nose and crew compartment, its vertical stabilizer (tail) and aft engines, as well as one wing were uncovered — though the left wing's reveal was partially the work of gravity as the wrap slipped towards the floor.

 

In addition to displaying Atlantis 30 feet (9 meters) off the ground, the exhibit also presents the shuttle tilted 43.21 degrees to one side, an angle that previously only astronauts could see when the orbiter was in space. Set to open to the public on June 29, the "Space Shuttle Atlantis" attraction is designed to provide visitors the chance to see the orbiter up-close and like never before.

 

Almost as soon as Atlantis is fully unwrapped, work will begin opening the space shuttle's 60-foot-long (18 meter) payload bay doors, which Macy said is the final big hurdle before the exhibit's public debut.

 

"Those payload bay doors aren't meant to be opened in one-g [gravity]," Macy said. "Normally they open up in space, no big deal. Here, you really have to pay attention to them. It is a long door — they're not very heavy and flimsy isn't really the right word, but they are very delicate."

 

The Biggest Flaw in Mars One's Business Plan

 

Ian O'Neill - Discovery News

 

Press conferences often reveal flaws in projects during the last few minutes devoted to questions from reporters. And in the case of the Mars One press conference on Monday, it was the Q&A session that not only revealed flaws, it may have extinguished the entire business plan that would theoretically fund the interplanetary operation.

 

Mars One, founded by Dutch entrepreneur and engineer Bas Lansdorp, is a non-profit company with the sole intention of starting a Mars colony by the year 2023. At face value, the business model that will fund the enterprise sounds intriguing. Through television rights and sponsorship deals, Mars One will generate a huge revenue stream that will not only fund the launch of four people to Mars, it will also found the basis of a colony on Mars.

 

Be under no illusions, building a base on Mars will be hard, but the entire planet will be glued to their screens watching the interplanetary drama unfold as Mars One makes history. We will witness all the grit and drama of the first humans on another planet. There may even be tragedies, possibly some humor. Or so the Mars One plan would have us believe.

 

During the conference in New York — which announced the opening of a fee-driven Mars astronaut selection program — Lansdorp pointed out that by 2023, four billion people on the planet will have an Internet connection. This will be the biggest audience for a live event; "everyone" will want to watch the Mars One crew touch down on Mars and make their first steps. This will be history, an occasion bigger than the Olympic Games.

 

An event of this size, according to Lansdorp, will generate a gargantuan rush for TV rights. The Olympics, a 2-week event, generates around $4 billion in revenue using this model. Mars One, a mission that will begin with a historic landing and continue with a grand reality TV schedule, will no doubt fare far better. We will be personally attached to the heroic four astronauts on Mars; we won't be able to look away. Countless billions stand to be made from intense global interest.

 

It will be an interplanetary Big Brother. In fact, even Big Brother co-creator Paul Römer has advised Lansdorp on the project — he gave it a big thumbs-up, needless to say.

 

The tailing-off of public interest in the Apollo Program in 1970's, ultimately leading to the premature cancellation of the project in 1972 was different, according to Lansdorp. Mars One will maintain a high level of interest for the entire one-way mission to Mars, he says. This is the key assumption that forms the foundation of Mars One.

 

The fickle nature of television audiences aside, Lansdorp said that Mars One's cash flow will be supplemented by the inevitable spin-off technology that will come from developing and supporting a Mars colony. Again, another assumption.

 

Sadly, the assumptions made by Mars One are backed up by few facts. Even by Lansdorp's own admission, the television companies on Earth will unlikely have any control over the Mars colony.

 

When discussing the colonists' need for privacy (despite the fact they'd be signing up for a reality TV show), Lansdorp dropped a bombshell: "Mars One would not allow 24/7 coverage … the people of Mars wouldn't allow it. If they don't like a particular camera, they'd put a piece of duct tape over it and there's nothing we can do about it. They are in charge." Rather, he trusts that the colonists would be "proud" to show off their lives to the world. And there it is, the biggest flaw in using a reality TV model to fund a mission to Mars.

 

The admission that the colony will be "in charge" would likely stop any TV executive in their tracks. Dolling out billions of dollars for exclusive rights to a live Mars video feed that may or may not be switched on is the epitome of "risky." Sure, the "one small step" episode would likely attract billions, but what of the rest of the mission?

 

The topic of autonomy was even questioned by Mars One ambassador and Nobel prize laureate Gerard 't Hooft. When Lansdorp became excited about the possibility that the Mars colony would eventually declare independence, making it a "proud day" for mankind, 't Hooft quickly interjected, saying, "They can't be totally independent."

 

If the business model seems unreliable, Mars One's budgeting is receiving a huge amount of scrutiny too. Or, it would receive scrutiny if the executives didn't keep it secret.

 

In response to space analyst Jeff Foust, who asked via Twitter for a run-down of Mars One's projected costs, Lansdorp replied with:

 

"Actually, we don't want to (give any details). I can tell you that we have discussed the budget per component with our potential suppliers, but for competition reasons it would be very stupid for us to give the prices that have been quoted to us per component, because that would make it very easy for competition to go under it, but not too much under it, so the exact prices that we are expecting to pay per component we will keep confidential."

 

Whether he was referring to competition in a hypothetical future "Mars rush" or competition between suppliers, it's hard to tell. Therefore, the projected cost of sending a team to Mars and setting up the first colony cannot be verified. Although one could argue that the technology is feasible, and launch costs are being driven down by the burgeoning private space industry, many space experts are looking at the projected $6 billion price tag with extreme skepticism.

 

These doubts may not be a problem if Mars One was aiming to get humans on Mars in the next 20-30 years, but they have an extremely tight schedule. The first Mars One launch will be a robotic "proof of concept" mission that will land on the Martian surface using solely retro rockets. This first launch is scheduled for 2016.

 

2016.

 

Mars One is not an aerospace company, as frequently highlighted by Lansdorp, but will instead hire contractors to build the mission's components. Mars One has cited a SpaceX Dragon-esque capsule as their means of getting cargo and crew to the surface of Mars. But the landing system being suggested (rocket power only, no parachutes) is under development — three years leaves little time for the technology to mature.

 

But the impending technological problems will be of little concern — the sheer amount of money required from television deals, sponsorship and astronaut application fees will be a near-impossible task to raise before any component reaches the launch pad.

 

As much as I want to see a Mars colony in my lifetime, Mars One — using the current business plan and unrealistic timeframe — won't be it.

 

Mars: The Next International Destination

 

Chris Carberry & Artemis Westenberg.- Huffington Post (Opinion)

 

The international community is longing for the next big cooperative goal in space exploration. There have been modest partnerships in space since the 1960s -- growing during the Space Shuttle era -- but the International Space Station was a turning point in international cooperation. It was far from a perfect model, but it pulled the various national space agencies closer together than ever before. For more than two decades this partnership grew, worked out technical and cultural differences, and evolved. These nations have managed to build, assemble and now operate the largest structure ever built in space.

 

ISS is supposed to operate until at least 2020. However, the time to start planning the next large international space mission is now. That mission should be a human mission to Mars. If we wait until ISS ends, we will have not only wasted a lot of time, but potentially wasted the opportunity to harness the expertise, lessons and unity that ISS brings us in space. If we let go of that unity in purpose, we may not get it back.

 

An international mission also makes sense from a budgetary perspective. Budget and policy pressures are far greater than they were in the 1990s when ISS was started, and that holds true for both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Dividing the costs will increase the total budget of the mission, but will reduce the cost that each nation will need to contribute. The international mission planners will also have the benefit of two decades of international coordination on ISS, which includes development of procedures, hardware integration and interpersonal/intercultural understanding. Without this foundation created by ISS, starting a new international mission would be far more complicated.

 

Perhaps the greatest potential benefit of an International effort is mission longevity. Over the past few decades, numerous missions and programs have been cancelled because of budgetary pressure, political wrangling and lack of unity of purpose. If ISS had remained an American-only mission, it almost certainly would have been cancelled back in the 1990s. Because it was based on international agreements and treaties, it was much more difficult to cast away and so the mission endured. A similar structure could be created for a Mars mission -- a structure that will provide assurances that the mission can't be easily cancelled by any nation -- one that would build on the positive and negative lessons of ISS.

 

In the United States, a human mission to Mars is precisely what the nation needs -- and a majority of U.S. citizens agree. A recent poll sponsored by Explore Mars showed that over 70 percent of Americans believe that humans will land on Mars by the early 2030s and more than 65 percent believe that both human and robotic exploration should be pursued. When the same group of people was asked what percentage of the U.S. federal budget NASA accounts for, the average answer was 2.5 percent -- in reality, NASA accounts for less than half of one percent of federal spending.

 

Despite the troubling economic and budgetary times, there is clear support in the United States for human Mars exploration. In the same survey, participants favored doubling the NASA budget -- to a full one percent -- which would include a human mission to Mars. It is unclear what the level of support is internationally, but there would likely be solid support if a clear and sustainable mission plan is proposed.

 

It is time that the international community commits to a new mission -- one that will land humans on Mars by the early 2030s.

 

This and many areas of discussion will be addressed at the Humans to Mars Summit on May 6-8, 2013 at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

 

END

 

that ain't looking through me"