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Cutting the cost of spaceflight
Technology
Fly me to the space station and make it snappy
DAVID SHIGA
IN 1982, an Australian spy plane snapped photographs of a miniature space shuttle being fished out of the Indian Ocean by a Soviet ship. The craft turned out to be a BOR-4, which the Russians were testing as part of their shortlived space shuttle programme. So intrigued was NASA by the photographs that it developed its own mini-shuttle, the HL-20 – intended as a possible astronaut rescue vehicle until the project’s funding was cut in the early 1990s. But a modified version of the HL-20, called Dream Chaser, could yet reach the final frontier, if its developer, SpaceDev, has its way. Dream Chaser is one of a number of commercial vehicles in the pipeline that may dramatically lower the cost of access to space. Not only could these vehicles give tourists a taste of space, they could also carry cargo and crew to the International Space Station after the space shuttle retires in 2010. The shuttle’s replacement, the Ares-I rocket and Orion crew capsule, will probably not be ready to fly until at least 2015, and while there have been calls to keep the shuttle flying past 2010, this would be extremely expensive and could risk another accident, so US officials may be unwilling to do so. Ultimately, though, NASA hopes that by opening up space to 24 | NewScientist | 27 September 2008
commercial companies, market forces will help reduce the cost of all forms of space exploration. To this end, it launched a $500 million programme in 2006 called Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS), designed to spur the development of commercial cargo-carrying spacecraft. “The high cost of space transportation has been the biggest obstacle to the exploration of space and the utilisation of space,” said COTS programme deputy manager Valin Thorn of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, at the Space 2008 conference in San Diego earlier this month. The 20 original entrants were eventually whittled down to two winners, SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, in 2006, and Orbital Sciences of Dulles, Virginia, in 2008. NASA has since signed agreements with both companies which will translate into multimillion-dollar cheques, if the firms can meet a series of milestones, culminating in demonstration flights to the space station. So eager is NASA to get commercial flights to the space station under way, however, that even before the demonstration flights have begun, it is already seeking bids from launch companies to run its cargo services,
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORPORATION
A commercial space race might just be the answer to NASA’s space shuttle woes
and plans to sign contracts before the end of this year. Orbital has an advantage in the COTS race, having already successfully developed and launched several rockets, including Pegasus, Taurus I, and Minotaur I, which it has used to transport numerous satellites into orbit. The company is working on a cargo-only capsule called Cygnus, and a kerosene and liquid oxygen rocket called Taurus II to launch Cygnus into space. By limiting Cygnus to carrying cargo, development and launch costs should stay low. There are two versions of
Cygnus: one will be able to haul up to 2700 kilograms of cargo to the space station, but will burn up on re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere, and a second that can carry around 1000 kg to and from the ISS. The company is willing to bet that it can convince NASA of its vehicle’s success with only one demonstration flight. The plan is to dock with the space station and transfer mock cargo no later than December 2010. SpaceX was created in 2002 by Elon Musk, the wealthy founder of Paypal. The company is developing a rocket and capsule that could carry both crew and www.newscientist.com
cargo, to the space station. It can also return crew or cargo to Earth, by splashing down in the ocean with the help of parachutes. If all goes well, SpaceX will fly a demonstration flight by June 2009, using the Falcon 9 rocket to send the Dragon capsule into orbit for a few hours before it returns to Earth. A second test
crewed COTS programme. What’s more, the current anti-Russian climate in Washington since the Georgia dispute also means many US politicians are reluctant to rely on a “Russian taxi service” to the space station once the shuttle is retired, which has renewed their interest in COTS crew services. However, even if commercial
“If SpaceX and Orbital reach NASA’s milestones then millions of pounds could be theirs” flight by November 2009 will see Dragon fly to within a few kilometres of the space station, with a third demonstrating docking and transfer of dummy cargo to the space station by March 2010. Both the SpaceX and Orbital flights will only demonstrate cargo-carrying capabilities. But SpaceX is hoping NASA will soon expand COTS to demonstrations of crew transport. SpaceX could carry crew to the ISS by 2012, says mission manager Max Vozoff, if funding becomes available by 2010, the earliest date cash is likely to be available. “For me it’s all about flying people,” Vozoff says. “That’s really the premise of everything that SpaceX does.” Other companies are also hoping the programme will be expanded, and this is where SpaceDev’s Dream Chaser comes in. The spacecraft can carry up –Cygnus, you have permission to dock– to nine passengers, and with full funding it could be ready for crewed flights within three years, cargo to the space station. The reusable capsule, called Dragon, is says Frank Taylor, manager of the company’s space technology an Apollo-style vehicle like those programme. This could be soon NASA used to carry astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s. enough to fill the gap left by the shuttle’s retirement, he says. The company has already built At the Space 2008 conference much of Dragon’s hardware for Thorn said NASA is keen to tests on the ground. expand COTS to transport crew The rocket, called Falcon 9, will be propelled by kerosene and as soon as Congress agrees to provide the funding. “We’re liquid oxygen. It has yet to fly, hoping and crossing our fingers but the company successfully that any day now we’ll see that test-fired the nine engines that happen,” he said. power its first stage in ground A draft bill setting out future tests on 30 July and 1 August. directions for NASA funding Falcon 9 and Dragon would be contains instructions for the able to carry seven astronauts, or agency to go ahead with the more than 2500 kilograms of www.newscientist.com
crew and cargo spacecraft do start servicing the space station, it is still not clear that they will bring about the hoped for dramatic drop in costs, says space historian Roger Launius of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. “We have squeezed just about all the capability out of chemicalpropelled rockets that we really
can in terms of efficiencies and cost-effectiveness,” he says. We may not make big savings until the development of a radically new technology like the space elevator, says Launius. Vehicles reach space by climbing a cable that stretches thousands of kilometres upwards from Earth. However, the SpaceX, Space Dev and Orbital are all confident that their vehicles will be able to ferry cargo or crew to the ISS for a small fraction of what it costs to use the space shuttle. Whatever the ultimate cost, a new era in commercial space transportation appears to be just around the corner. And once the industry is up and running, NASA intends to rely as heavily as possible on commercial options for servicing the space station, says Thorn. “We’re turning lowEarth orbit over to commercial transportation.” ●
27 September 2008 | NewScientist | 25
Fly me to the space station and make it snappy
DAVID SHIGA
IN 1982, an Australian spy plane snapped photographs of a miniature space shuttle being fished out of the Indian Ocean by a Soviet ship. The craft turned out to be a BOR-4, which the Russians were testing as part of their shortlived space shuttle programme. So intrigued was NASA by the photographs that it developed its own mini-shuttle, the HL-20 – intended as a possible astronaut rescue vehicle until the project’s funding was cut in the early 1990s. But a modified version of the HL-20, called Dream Chaser, could yet reach the final frontier, if its developer, SpaceDev, has its way. Dream Chaser is one of a number of commercial vehicles in the pipeline that may dramatically lower the cost of access to space. Not only could these vehicles give tourists a taste of space, they could also carry cargo and crew to the International Space Station after the space shuttle retires in 2010. The shuttle’s replacement, the Ares-I rocket and Orion crew capsule, will probably not be ready to fly until at least 2015, and while there have been calls to keep the shuttle flying past 2010, this would be extremely expensive and could risk another accident, so US officials may be unwilling to do so. Ultimately, though, NASA hopes that by opening up space to 24 | NewScientist | 27 September 2008
commercial companies, market forces will help reduce the cost of all forms of space exploration. To this end, it launched a $500 million programme in 2006 called Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS), designed to spur the development of commercial cargo-carrying spacecraft. “The high cost of space transportation has been the biggest obstacle to the exploration of space and the utilisation of space,” said COTS programme deputy manager Valin Thorn of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, at the Space 2008 conference in San Diego earlier this month. The 20 original entrants were eventually whittled down to two winners, SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, in 2006, and Orbital Sciences of Dulles, Virginia, in 2008. NASA has since signed agreements with both companies which will translate into multimillion-dollar cheques, if the firms can meet a series of milestones, culminating in demonstration flights to the space station. So eager is NASA to get commercial flights to the space station under way, however, that even before the demonstration flights have begun, it is already seeking bids from launch companies to run its cargo services,
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORPORATION
A commercial space race might just be the answer to NASA’s space shuttle woes
and plans to sign contracts before the end of this year. Orbital has an advantage in the COTS race, having already successfully developed and launched several rockets, including Pegasus, Taurus I, and Minotaur I, which it has used to transport numerous satellites into orbit. The company is working on a cargo-only capsule called Cygnus, and a kerosene and liquid oxygen rocket called Taurus II to launch Cygnus into space. By limiting Cygnus to carrying cargo, development and launch costs should stay low. There are two versions of
Cygnus: one will be able to haul up to 2700 kilograms of cargo to the space station, but will burn up on re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere, and a second that can carry around 1000 kg to and from the ISS. The company is willing to bet that it can convince NASA of its vehicle’s success with only one demonstration flight. The plan is to dock with the space station and transfer mock cargo no later than December 2010. SpaceX was created in 2002 by Elon Musk, the wealthy founder of Paypal. The company is developing a rocket and capsule that could carry both crew and www.newscientist.com
cargo, to the space station. It can also return crew or cargo to Earth, by splashing down in the ocean with the help of parachutes. If all goes well, SpaceX will fly a demonstration flight by June 2009, using the Falcon 9 rocket to send the Dragon capsule into orbit for a few hours before it returns to Earth. A second test
crewed COTS programme. What’s more, the current anti-Russian climate in Washington since the Georgia dispute also means many US politicians are reluctant to rely on a “Russian taxi service” to the space station once the shuttle is retired, which has renewed their interest in COTS crew services. However, even if commercial
“If SpaceX and Orbital reach NASA’s milestones then millions of pounds could be theirs” flight by November 2009 will see Dragon fly to within a few kilometres of the space station, with a third demonstrating docking and transfer of dummy cargo to the space station by March 2010. Both the SpaceX and Orbital flights will only demonstrate cargo-carrying capabilities. But SpaceX is hoping NASA will soon expand COTS to demonstrations of crew transport. SpaceX could carry crew to the ISS by 2012, says mission manager Max Vozoff, if funding becomes available by 2010, the earliest date cash is likely to be available. “For me it’s all about flying people,” Vozoff says. “That’s really the premise of everything that SpaceX does.” Other companies are also hoping the programme will be expanded, and this is where SpaceDev’s Dream Chaser comes in. The spacecraft can carry up –Cygnus, you have permission to dock– to nine passengers, and with full funding it could be ready for crewed flights within three years, cargo to the space station. The reusable capsule, called Dragon, is says Frank Taylor, manager of the company’s space technology an Apollo-style vehicle like those programme. This could be soon NASA used to carry astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s. enough to fill the gap left by the shuttle’s retirement, he says. The company has already built At the Space 2008 conference much of Dragon’s hardware for Thorn said NASA is keen to tests on the ground. expand COTS to transport crew The rocket, called Falcon 9, will be propelled by kerosene and as soon as Congress agrees to provide the funding. “We’re liquid oxygen. It has yet to fly, hoping and crossing our fingers but the company successfully that any day now we’ll see that test-fired the nine engines that happen,” he said. power its first stage in ground A draft bill setting out future tests on 30 July and 1 August. directions for NASA funding Falcon 9 and Dragon would be contains instructions for the able to carry seven astronauts, or agency to go ahead with the more than 2500 kilograms of www.newscientist.com
crew and cargo spacecraft do start servicing the space station, it is still not clear that they will bring about the hoped for dramatic drop in costs, says space historian Roger Launius of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. “We have squeezed just about all the capability out of chemicalpropelled rockets that we really
can in terms of efficiencies and cost-effectiveness,” he says. We may not make big savings until the development of a radically new technology like the space elevator, says Launius. Vehicles reach space by climbing a cable that stretches thousands of kilometres upwards from Earth. However, the SpaceX, Space Dev and Orbital are all confident that their vehicles will be able to ferry cargo or crew to the ISS for a small fraction of what it costs to use the space shuttle. Whatever the ultimate cost, a new era in commercial space transportation appears to be just around the corner. And once the industry is up and running, NASA intends to rely as heavily as possible on commercial options for servicing the space station, says Thorn. “We’re turning lowEarth orbit over to commercial transportation.” ●
27 September 2008 | NewScientist | 25