Fwd: 'Pumpkin' Moonship for Private Manned Lunar Landings Passes Key Review

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: May 15, 2013 6:00:09 PM GMT-06:00
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: 'Pumpkin' Moonship for Private Manned Lunar Landings Passes Key Review

 

Northrop Grumman

 

Images

This figure shows a preliminary sketch of the minimalist ascent pod with surface habitat concept packaged in a five-meter diameter payload fairing. The pressurized compartments and propellant tanks easily fit in the available space. Ascent thrusters are mounted on outriggers that are folded up to fit in the payload fairing and the landing gear is folded inward. Also shown are initial side and top views of the ascent pod "Pumpkin" and the surface habitat with crew members in pressure suits. (Northrop Grumman image)

 

Photo Release -- Northrop Grumman Completes Lunar Lander Study for Golden Spike Company Study Identifies a New Minimalist Ascent Pod Lunar Lander Concept

REDONDO BEACH, Calif. -- May 8, 2013 -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has completed a feasibility study for a new commercial lunar lander for the Golden Spike Company (GSC). The study confirmed the viability of lander concepts for Golden Spike's human lunar expedition architecture and conceived a novel new, low-mass ascent stage concept dubbed "Pumpkin."

A photo accompanying this release is available at http://media.globenewswire.com/noc/mediagallery.html?pkgid=18584.

Northrop Grumman's study for Golden Spike conducted the following tasks:

·         Reviewed GSC's level one requirements and synthesized a set of study ground rules and assumptions emphasizing automated operations, simplicity and low cost.

·         Established propulsion requirements for lunar orbit loiter, descent to the lunar surface, ascent to low lunar orbit and rendezvous with a crew vehicle for pragmatic lunar landing sites.

·         Developed current and stretch factors to reflect the improvement in relevant technologies since the completion of the Apollo program.

·         Evaluated 180 lunar lander cases for various options and sensitivities including loiter, staging, propellants, engines, surface duration, surface cargo and technology basis.

·         Established a pragmatic design trade space for future more detailed analysis and development.

The study determined that for GSC's mission architecture, there are many more options for all cryogenic propellants compared with storable propellants, but that multiple storable propellant options are possible. Cryogenic propellants have higher performance, but are more difficult to contain for the GSC mission duration than storable propellants such as those used in the Apollo program.

A novel set of options using a minimalist pressurized ascent pod and descent stage with a surface habitat was also studied and shown to be viable. Layout sketches of this concept show that it can be packaged within a five-meter diameter fairing payload envelope.

Three-dimensional solid models with representative crew members established target pressurized volumes for the ascent pod and surface habitat. This unique approach has a good chance of meeting GSC's objectives with all-storable propellants, which reduces development risks and costs.

Martin McLaughlin, Northrop Grumman's study lead, said, "This concept has significant operability advantages for surface exploration since the surface habitat can be segmented to isolate lunar dust and provides more space for living and for selecting the most valuable lunar return samples. We affectionately call the minimalist ascent pod 'Pumpkin' because of its spherical shape and because it returns the crew to orbit after the surface exploration party."

Alan Stern, president and chief executive officer, GSC, said, "Northrop Grumman has done an exemplary job and helped advance Golden Spike's technical approach to renewed human lunar exploration. The study's results are very exciting and will help enable a new wave of human lunar exploration that Golden Spike plans."

Northrop Grumman and its legacy companies – Grumman Aerospace and TRW -- designed and built the Apollo Lunar Module and Lunar Module Descent Engines.

About Golden Spike

The Golden Spike Company (GSC) is a US-based commercial space company incorporated in 2010 with the objective of providing human expeditions to the Moon. It is named after the ceremonial final spike that joined the rails of the First Transcontinental Railroad across the United States, on May 10, 1869, and opened up the frontier to new opportunities. Similarly, Golden Spike intends to break new ground and create an enduring link to the next frontier, providing regular and reliable expeditions to the Moon at prices that create a new market for space commercialization and inspire millions. Visit www.goldenspikecompany.com for more information.

About Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in unmanned systems, cybersecurity, C4ISR, and logistics and modernization to government and commercial customers worldwide. Please visit www.northropgrumman.com for more information.

CONTACT: Bob Bishop

         310-812-5227 (office)

         310-251-0261 (mobile)

         bob.j.bishop@ngc.com

 

 

© 2012 NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

 

===============================================================

 

'Pumpkin' Moonship for Private Manned Lunar Landings Passes Key Review

by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer

14 May 2013 Time: 05:37 PM ET

 

 

 

 

This preliminary sketch shows Northrop Grumman's proposed manned moon lander design for the Golden Spike Company, which includes a descent stage, surface habitat and minimalist ascent pod dubbed "Pumpkin." CREDIT: Northrop Grumman View full size image

A private space exploration company's plans to build a novel moonship to return human explorers to the lunar surface has moved one step closer to reality.

Aerospace giant Northrop Grumman has completed a lunar lander feasiblity study for the Golden Spike Company, which aims to begin ferrying paying customers to the moon and back by 2020.

The study came up with a new design that consists of a descent stage with a surface habitat and a lightweight ascent vehicle dubbed "Pumpkin," all of which would fit inside a 16.5-foot-wide (5 meters) rocket fairing for launch. [Golden Spike's Manned Moon Plans (Photos)]

"This concept has significant operability advantages for surface exploration since the surface habitat can be segmented to isolate lunar dust and provides more space for living and for selecting the most valuable lunar return samples," Northrop Grumman study lead Martin McLaughlin said in a statement.

"We affectionately call the minimalist ascent pod 'Pumpkin' because of its spherical shape and because it returns the crew to orbit after the surface exploration party," he added.

Golden Spike, which was named after the final spike pounded into the United States' First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, aims to send two-person crews to the moon and back by the end of the decade. The company originally pegged ticket prices at $750 million per seat, but revenue from media rights and merchandising could end up cutting that by perhaps 30 percent, officials have said.

The company thinks its services will be attractive to a variety of research institutions, corporations and countries, particularly nations that lack big-time space programs.

Golden Spike officials were pleased with the results of the recently completed lander study, but the company is not locked into building Pumpkin or any of the other components at this point.

"It's revolutionary. We've got the approximate capability of an Apollo lander in roughly half the mass — a huge advantage in terms of the total mass of the system," Golden Spike president and CEO Alan Stern, a former NASA science chief, told SPACE.com.

"We have equal or more habitable volume and have likely solved the problem with too much dust in the cabin going up to orbit," Stern added. "Pumpkin may not be what we ultimately end up with, but it is a huge forward step. No one's really looked at a lander like this. We are pretty excited about it."

Northrop Grumman and its legacy companies — Grumman Aerospace and TRW — built the very first manned moon landers back in the 1960s, for NASA's Apollo program.

SPACE.com Assistant Managing Editor Clara Moskowitz (@ClaraMoskowitz) contributed to this story.

 

Copyright © 2013 TechMediaNetwork.com All rights reserved.

 

===============================================================