- Email: [email protected]
Space Phoenix
Reports
Space Phoenix
private, non-profit corporation organized as a consortium of 57 research institutions which acts as a national scientific research nucleus for manageThe US federal government is collaborating with a non-profit university ment, consultation, collaboration and consortium and its commercial project managers to develop the Space Shuttle association. Founded in 1959, it has fleet's expended external fuel tanks for scientific and commercial uses in space. grown from an original 14 charter Nearly a half dozen years in evolution, the Space Phoenix Program is a universities. Qualifications of a high private-sector civil space programme with the long-term goal of opening the standard are spelled out in U C A R ' s by-laws and the growth of its memEarth's space to as many people, organizations and activities as possible, as soon as possible, and at the lowest cost to them as possible. In time it is bership testifies to the increased imexpected to be a major focus for private-sector activities in space. This report portance of atmospheric and related science studies in the nation's higher describes how it will work. education and research system. Owing to the dynamic relationships among the Earth's atmospheric layers, The Space Phoenix Program is being space. The grant by N A S A would also its oceans, and the solar-interplanetary conducted by three private organiza- contribute to the economic develop- environment, U C A R ' s working detions in cooperation with the US ment of the nation. finition of 'the atmosphere' includes federal government, primarily The Space Phoenix Program is the regions bounded by the ocean through the National Aeronautics and founded on the premise that U C A R floor, extending to the Sun and out Space Administration. They are the will obtain title or the right to use ETs towards the edge of the planetary University Corporation for Atmos- in space in the form of a fiscally system. Atmospheric scientists have pheric Research ( U C A R ) and the neutral 'space grant' from the federal long utilized remote-sensing spaceU C A R Foundation (both of which are government. Such a grant would per- craft to observe phenomena in this non-profit organizations), and the for- mit ETCO to arrange private financ- vast realm, and U C A R ' s scientific profit External Tanks Corporation ing and thereby accomplish the mod- involvement in space-related activities (ETCO). The U C A R Foundation is ification, outfitting and management has a lengthy history. U C A R particithe majority stockholder in ETCO. of the ET resources, so that they can pated in the utilization of Skylab, the U C A R , a 28-year-old group of 57 be leased for various professional pur- world's first manned, orbiting universities and research institutions, poses in the form of an orbiting observatory and has the major responhas requested title for the right to use in-space 'research park'. The U C A R sibility in the design of satellites, all the discarded external fuel tanks Foundation's share of the net income instruments, experiments, and in(ETs) of the US Shuttle fleet. The and asset value developed from such space repair facilities. The demand for economy of scale shall permit U C A R , leases would provide a long-term en- U C A R ' s support in these activities is through its project manager ETCO, to dowment that would be employed to at a record level. Its growing interest safeguard these assets as a national benefit a large part of the US universi- in obtaining and utilizing orbiting scitrust and make them readily available ty scientific research community. entific facilities within atmospheric to the scientific and industrial comThe innovative collaborations anti- space is a logical and consistent demunity for scientific and commercial cipated among government, universi- velopment of its charter, which inpurposes, using private funds. Space ties and commercial organizations; the cludes the development of extensive flight engineers have concluded that challenging financing, engineering, and complex research tools, and maksuch an undertaking is technically and operating and management issues; the ing such tools available to scientists in operationally possible, and that valu- potential for creating wealth in orbit; national and international communiable US space assets could be created the implications for such other impor- ties. from these used ETs. The Space tant elements of the civil space area as U C A R also leads research projects Phoenix Program is similar in many space science and transportation; and on behalf of the overall atmospheric respects to the land grant programme US competitiveness and productivity sciences community, and coordinates of the last century, in which undein the realm of space commercializa- such efforts with its 57 member instituveloped land in the western U S A was tion - all call for the bold and imagina- tions and other academic and research awarded to universities in the expecta- tive commitment of the Space Phoenix institutions throughout the world that tion that they would contribute to its Program. are expert in atmospheric, computer economic development and thereby and related sciences. U C A R has a benefit both themselves and the naparticular capability in bringing govtion. In this age, the Shuttle fleet's U C A R ernment and university groups large ETs can be thought of as an The University Corporation of together to achieve common scientific analogue to parcels of raw land in Atmospheric Research (UCAR) is a goals, carrying out research efforts at
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Reports various times for the National Science Foundation (which provides its principal support), N A S A , the Department of the Navy, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of the Air Force, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other government and non-government entities. In the space science area, U C A R convened a symposium in August 1987, to consider scientific use in space of expended external fuel tanks of the US Shuttle fleet. 1
The UCAR Foundation The U C A R Foundation was established to enhance and conserve the value of the 'commercial spinoffs' from ongoing scientific research programmes, to provide administrative flexibility in dealings with the private sector and to seek opportunities for the creation of wealth to be used to advance scientific research. The US government has recognized that knowledge-intensive hightechnology industries have long-term implications for international competitiveness, thereby affirming the economic benefits of scientific research. Universities and research institutions such as U C A R , which play a central role in creating knowledge, currently receive more than $8 billion annually from the taxpayer in support of basic, civilian scientific research. This research frequently yields significant practical discoveries and technologies, benefiting the public and causing valuable stimulation of the economy. To promote this kind of activity and accelerate technology transfers between academic and industrial sectors, the US Congress passed Public Law 96-517 in 1980. This legislation permits academic institutions to own title to discoveries and inventions developed with government support in their laboratories, thus encouraging them to share in the economic values generated by t h e i r research efforts. This extended pool of intellectual property has highlighted the potential benefits to be derived from imaginative university-industry collaboration. This trend has led to mutually benefi-
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cial long-term strategic partnerships between members of the academic and corporate worlds, sometimes involving hybrid and novel institutional forms, thus strengthening support for scientific activity. U C A R , in common with many other research organizations, has examined the challenges involved in owning intellectual properties (and other assets such as corporate gifts), as well as the need for dealing with the private sector in business terms. Following a growing body of practice in the academic world, the Board of Trustees of U C A R decided in 1986 to establish the U C A R Foundation to act as fiduciary, and to direct and manage certain intellectual properties and other unique assets for U C A R ' s financial benefit. In addition to the Space Phoenix Program, the foundation is engaged in assisting U C A R with technology transfer and communication issues deriving from programmes such as the 'Airport of the Future' Doppler radar technology, which promises early warning of sudden atmospheric downdrafts (microbursts) near and over airport runways, and the commercial development by Mesa Archival Systems, Inc, of mass data file transfer software for supercomputers. ETCO A for-profit Delaware corporation, the External Tanks Corporation (ETCO) was created in 1985 to manage the private financing, development, and operation of Shuttle fleet expended external fuel tanks for scientific and commercial uses in space. The U C A R Foundation holds a majority of the shares of ETCO, the remainder being held by directors and investors.
Shuttle external tanks The Space Shuttle's external fuel tank is designed to carry the liquid fuels that power the main engines and to serve as a 'strongback' on which the solid-fuel boosters and the orbiter are mounted (see Figure 1). Just before insertion into orbit, the Shuttle jettisons the ET, which reenters the dense
lower regions of the atmosphere, burns, and breaks into pieces which fall to the ocean. During a Shuttle launch, the reusable solid boosters exhaust their fuel after about two minutes and then separate for recovery, while the ET continues to fuel the main engines for another 6.5 minutes until orbital velocity is approached and the ET is separated. 2 Twenty-four ETs have been so jettisoned in a controlled fashion; discarded in this way, any potentially harmful impact is eliminated. ETs are manufactured from 30 tons of high-grade aluminium and consist of 70 000 cubic feet of separate, pressurized hydrogen and oxygen vessels, and an intertank section with an unpressurized volume of 5000 cubic feet (see Figure 2). The Shuttle cargo bay can carry 20 tons, and its volume is 10 000 cubic feet. An ET has a 27.6foot diameter and a 153-foot length; it is roughtly the size of a Boeing 747 body, or a 20-storey building. The entire trajectory of the Wright brothers' first flight could be contained inside an ET. The concept of using orbiting ETs as habitable environments or material resources is not new. Skylab itself was fashioned from an upper-stage fuel tank of a Saturn rocket. In 1976 space experts within N A S A suggested it was feasible to put ETs into near-Earth orbits where their potential value could be realized without significant payload loss or increased launch cost. 3 Other authorities in the aerospace industry and academia agree that orbiting laboratory-habitat facilities could be created economically from expended ETs by fitting them with life-support, station-keeping, communications and power elements. 4 Auxiliary equipment needed to modify and use ETs could be carried in the Shuttle cargo bay, or within the unpressurized ET intertank structure, or in an 'aft cargo carrier' behind the ET, or by expendable launch vehicles. Auxiliary equipment could be installed by astronauts conducting extravehicular activities. The manufacturing cost of a single ET is about $30 million, and postChallenger estimates of the cost to launch payloads into low-Earth orbit
SPACE POLICY May 1988
Reports
External
/
O
biter
Solid roct
put in space at the first reasonable opportunity' .7 In 1986 N A S A ' s Marshall Space Flight Center demonstrated its growing seriousness in seeing ETs used in space by awarding a contract to Martin Marietta Aerospace Corporation to study scientific and engineering questions related to turning an ET into a valuable scientific resource, specifically its transformation into a large unmanned orbiting Gamma Ray Imaging Telescope. 8 Astronauts would enter an ET through an existing 36-inch aft manhole port and then assemble telescope components within the empty hydrogen vessel. The vessel would be resealed and pressurized with carbon dioxide to provide the required experimental environment. The National Commission on Space, a Presidentially-appointed panel of space specialists, referred to the use of ETs in its report as follows: 9 there is a potentially valuable artificial space resource that is now going to waste: the Shuttle's external tanks. At present, with each successful flight of a Shuttle, an empty tank with mass greater than the full payload of the Shuttle itself, is brought to 99 percent of orbital speed and then discarded to burn up in the atmosphere. The Shuttle fleet's flight schedule suggests that over a 10-year period about 10 000 tons of the tankage will be brought almost to orbit and then discarded. At standard Shuttle rates, it would cost about $35 billion to lift that mass to orbit. •
Figure 1. Space Transportation System. using the fully operational Shuttle fleet are up to $6000 per pound. 5 An ET retained in orbit and not destroyed thus represents roughly one-third of a billion dollars in avoided replacement value. The 30 tons of high-grade aluminium and other materials from which ETs are constructed, the 70 thousand cubic feet of pressurized volume, the 10 to 15 thousand pounds of residual fuels, and the large mass and strong structure of ETs, are all potentially valuable space resources. Because of their mass and strength, ETs are particularly well suited to tether applications, including momen-
SPACE POLICY May 1988
turn transfer between orbiting bodies and the creation of artificial gravity.
Official view In 1982 the US Congress requested its Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) to carry out a study on civilian space stations. 6 It became obvious to O T A staff that ETs might be transformed into valuable space assets. Following an open workshop convened by N A S A it was concluded that ETs could be used in orbit in a variety of ways and that ' . . . an E T should be
.
.
More recently, the Committee on Science, Space and Technology of the House of Representatives, US Congress, referred specifically to the use of ETs in orbit and to N A S A ' s verification of the feasibility of such use in a section titled 'Utilization of orbiting Shuttle external tanks' within its final report accompanying the N A S A Authorization Act of 1988: l° The committee notes the Space Shuttle External Tank (ET) is a potentially valuable resource that should be considered for possible space development. Qualified academic research groups could be awarded ET resources for space-based research much like the land grant concept of the past. Using orbital ETs, universities working cooperatively with industry might be able to increase scientific research opportunities, expand our Nation's space infrastructure and broaden the spectrum of private space enterprise.
In response to the Committee's request in
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Reports
Liquid
oxygen
pended external tanks of the shuttle fleet at no cost to all feasible US commercial and nonprofit endeavors, for uses such as research, storage, or manufacturing in space. 1
vessel
Length = 54.6ft Diameter = 27.6ft V o l u m e = 19 5 0 0 f t 3
Space Phoenix
Intertank
_-------
Length = 22.5ft Diameter = 27.6ft V o l u m e = 5000 f t 3
Liquid
hydrogen
vessel
Length = 96.7ft Diameter = 27.6ft V o l u m e = 53 5 0 0 f t 3
Figure 2.
External tank structure.
House Authorization Report 99-829, NASA has delivered to the Committee a report specifying the technical, operational, cost, and safety requirements for ET Orbit insertion. The NASA report 'External Tank Utilization on Orbit' states: 'The engineering and operating problems involved with this objective are basically within the current state-of-the-art of Shuttle operations, support system and technology.' The report also specifies the impact on Shuttle payload, propellant requirements for station keeping, requirement for accessibility to orbiting ETs, probability of space debris or micrometeoroid damage, and NASA's estimate of the cost of ET modifications and operations. The Committee appreciates the delivery of this detailed report in response to the Committee's specific request.
The Committee is pleased to be informed of progress achieved by university groups and NASA in the past year towards realizing the potential value of E T resources: (1) The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), a 25-year-old group of 57 universities and research institutions, is leading the 'Space Phoenix' program to obtain orbiting ETs and develop them for scientific and commercial purposes using non-government funds; (2) NASA has created a high level committee to work with UCAR on the Space Phoenix program; (3) UCAR and the Government are making good progress towards an agree-
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ment concerning transfer of one or more ETs and UCAR; (4) NASA is supporting studies of a Gamma Ray Imaging Telescope (GRIT) which could be installed in an orbiting ET; (5) Zero gravity stimulations of GRIT telescope assembly procedures are being conducted at the Marshall Space Flight Center; (6) A symposium of space scientists has been convened by university groups to consider space experiments that can be conducted in and from space using ETs. O n 11 F e b r u a r y 1988, the H o u s e released The President's Policy and Commercial Space tive to Begin the Next Century, states on p 2, I t e m II:
White Space Initiawhich
The President is announcing a fifteen point commercial space initiative to seize the opportunities for a vigorous US commercial presence in Earth orbit and beyond - in research and manufacturing. This initiative has three goals: • Promoting a strong US commercial presence in space; • Assuring a highway to space; and • Building a solid technology and talent base. In the 15-point list that follows, the release states on p 3, Point 4:
External Tanks: The Administration is making available for five years the ex-
Starting in the a u t u m n of 1984 U C A R staff a n d some of the individuals w h o are n o w E T C O Directors b e g a n to c o n t e m p l a t e the early d e v e l o p m e n t of ETs as in-space facilities. U C A R ' s growing focus on space-related exp e r i m e n t a l scientific research, its considerable space science experience, a n d its a p p r e c i a t i o n for the general in-space p o t e n t i a l of E T s a n d the actions r e q u i r e d to realize this p o t e n tial, led to a c o m m o n a w a r e n e s s that o r b i t i n g ETs could be c o n v e r t e d into valuable scientific a n d c o m m e r c i a l facilities for a t m o s p h e r i c a n d space science research. In 1985 a task force was c o n v e n e d by U C A R to explore the m a t t e r in great detail. T h e c o n c e p t u a l details of rendezvous a n d modification of ETs to create scientific s u p p o r t platforms in various l o w - E a r t h orbits have c o n t i n u e d to be e x a m i n e d by U C A R . As a result of these investigations, the Space P h o e n i x task force d e v e l o p e d firm c o n f i d e n c e in the future value of utilization of in-space ETs by science a n d c o m m e r c e for the ultimate benefit of the U S scientific a n d university community. The UCAR Foundation, t h r o u g h E T C O as its a p p o i n t e d project m a n a g i n g c o r p o r a t i o n , has b e g u n to o b t a i n private sector financial support to store, d e v e l o p a n d lease E T s as orbiting ' r e s e a r c h parks' for scientific a n d c o m m e r c i a l purposes. In this way, universities could o b t a i n discarded g o v e r n m e n t p r o p e r t y in a m a n n e r a n a l o g o u s to a 'land grant', potentially alleviating the substantial backlog of d e m a n d for scientific r e s e a r c h facilities in n e a r - E a r t h orbit, a n d o p e n i n g up space for a large n u m b e r a n d variety of private activities. The UCAR-UCAR FoundationE T C O p r o g r a m m e was n a m e d Space P h o e n i x to signify future E T s as 'rising' f r o m the c h a r r e d r e m a i n s t h a t h a v e until n o w m a r k e d the e n d of t h e i r j o u r n e y to the t h r e s h o l d of space. T h e m a j o r objective of the p r o g r a m m e is to e n d e a v o u r to 'save'
SPACE POLICY May 1988
Reports all the ETs, whether or not of immediate scientific or commercial use, and park them in a high-altitude (multiple decade) orbit in a 'nest', to safeguard their potential value for future generations. ETs stored in this manner will form a 'National Space Trust'. One particularly important element of the programme is to see that measures are taken (such as defining the uses to which each facility would be put and utilizing already developed technology wherever possible) to produce 'spartan' facilities to ensure that costs are kept as low as possible. This would encourage widespread use by the scientific community of ET facilities. A formal agreement between U C A R , the U C A R Foundation and ETCO gave ETCO the responsibility for financing, studying the scientific, legal, and economic feasibility of using ETs in space for research and commercial purposes, and developing technical, engineering, business and operating plans for the enterprise. U C A R in turn agreed to accept grants of ETs in space and to convey to ETCO, through the U C A R Foundation, sole rights to manage ET resources in space. In October 1986, a committee was formed by N A S A headquarters to analyse and explore with U C A R and ETCO the technical and programmatic implications of the Space Phoenix Program. Chaired by N A S A ' s General Manager, other committee members are N A S A ' s Comptroller, General Counsel, and Heads of the Commercial Programs and Advanced Planning Offices. Following the first meeting of Space Phoenix representatives with the N A S A Committee, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by N A S A and U C A R . The M O U states that ' N A S A and U C A R believe it is in the Nation's interest to see the concept of employing external tanks for additional uses explored. Therefore, N A S A and U C A R agree to cooperate with each other and exert every reasonable effort to explore the concept and provided the concept proves to have merit, take appropriate further steps to bring it to fruition.' From a policy standpoint, government, university and industry leaders
SPACE POLICY May 1988
regard the need for such new colaborations contributing to the development of space as a matter of priority. 12 The influential BusinessHigher Education Forum issued a report in 1986 on leveraging accomplishments in space and maintaining US leadership. 13 It urges business and higher education institutions to provide new civil space-related ideas and to join in collaborative ventures and consortium arrangements. The Space Phoenix Program responds directly to that challenge. The report also calls upon the government to cooperate with such efforts, paying special attention to the needs of new ventures: 'All levels of government management with roles in space activity should clearly understand, and be encouraged to support, commercial development objectives, with a view toward nurturing a culture more supportive of entrepreneurial efforts.'
Need for facilities Before the recent launch failures there was a five-year launch backlog of scientific, military and commercial space payloads. Since then two-thirds of the planned flights of Spacelab, a system of pressurized modules and open pallets that can be used in space in a Shuttle orbiter's cargo bay, have been cancelled or substantially postponed. The Ulysses solar-polar mission, the Galileo Jupiter mission, and the Mars observer mission have been postponed, and all Shuttle-based science experiments have been rescheduled. Despite the legislated mandate that the prime goals of N A S A are science and exploration, there is now the probability that national security related priorities will further preempt available transportation capacity, and aggravate the serious backlog conditions. The need for space laboratories and science facilities is growing. For example, in September 1986, the U S A pledged to support a 70-nation Earth observation programme, sponsored by the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), to study disturbing changes in the Earth's atmosphere, such as the 'greenhouse effect'. Relying critically on orbital monitoring,
the International GeosphereBiosphere Program was pledged support from N A S A , the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, other US government agencies, and the National Academy of Sciences. The transcending importance of understanding changes in our global climate, and the size of the commitment needed, led the Chairman of the US delegation to ICSU to call the pledged effort the 'largest scientific program ever mounted'. 14 At the highest levels of science policy-making relating to space, such as within the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences, there is recognition that the scientific community requires facilities and laboratories in orbit that can support a broad range of scientific research. This theme, widely echoed throughout the scientific world, explains the variety of efforts, national and international, to create permanently orbiting cost-effective habitats and uninhabited platforms for scientific investigation. 15 ETs are increasingly attractive resources for conversion to facilities of this kind, and could permit private-sector activities to complement and enhance the key role planned for the US Space Station. ~6 Available, cost-effective, pressurized environments are of significant importance to humanity's exploration of space. Human ingenuity and flexibility in the deployment, assembly, operation, maintenance and repair of scientific facilities define the need for, and the design of, habitable pressurized environments as work spaces in near-Earth orbits. There are also a great many important and valuable scientific programmes which do not require people to remain in orbit. These pressurized or shielded containers have unique value for, eg, micrograrity experiments, life science experiments or for radiation imaging telescopes. On the other hand, for many scientific efforts, crew time is the resource which limits the rate of progress or success. A recent study by N A S A , which analysed past and future space missions, concluded that, on the grounds of cost-effectiveness alone, there was no substitute for
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Reports humans in space. 17 In either configuration, with or without resident professionals, the backlog of demand for permanent in-space sciencerelated infrastructure is considerable. In short, an orbiting 'research park' promises to be in the position of leasing occupancy to a prestigious international list of scientific tenants who need access to high-volume, lowcost facilities for relatively long periods of time. Support for space-related research pervades many sectors of science budgeting, at government agencies and research institutions, as well as in business corporations. Annual funding of research and development in the USA exceeds $100 billion. Approximately half of that amount is spent by private-sector corporations, with the balance publicly funded, mostly by the government. Significantly, demand for cost-effective orbiting laboratory habitats is found in a very broad section of research, commercial and development programmes. Besides the important agendas in applied science, development and engineering, the current basic research backlog covers a number of fields, facilities and activities. The sums now budgeted by N A S A , the European Space Agency (ESA) and Canada for spacerelated scientific research approach a total of some $2 billion per year.18 The efforts of a growing number of US aerospace firms and foreign countries to develop commercial space transportation capabilities promise to augment the total international launch capacity available to the world's scientific community. Humans of any nationality who choose to explore and conduct scientific work in space will need pressurized containers and specialized facilities and services, irrespective of the precise nature of their scientific interests and whether the activities are financed by governments, by research institutions, or by private companies. ETs could become basic sources for all of these sciencerelated activities and thereby serve important cultural and economic roles on a large scale. A symposium on 'The scientific use of orbiting Shuttle external tanks', sponsored by N A S A , Martin Marietta
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Aerospace Corporation, and the Universities Space Research Association, was convened by U C A R on .3-4 August 1987, in Boulder, Colorado. 19 Invited space scientists exchanged and developed ideas on potential scientific experiments that would utilize ETs in the areas of astronomy and astrophysics, life sciences, materials sciences, and remote sensing. In addition to suggestions for specific experimental use of ET facilities in these areas, it was widely recommended that the 5000 cubic feet of unpressurized volume in the ET intertank section be used to carry experiments as soon as possible. Initially, the intertank volume could be utilized during suborbital flights, thereby reducing backlogs of payloads and also serving as a first step towards wider use of ET sources.
Obtaining
rights
to
of this kind is now constantly being evoked by US policy makers. Evolving the specific novel institutional and organizational forms that would be necessary is believed to be no less challenging a task than realizing the overall civil in-space ambitions of USA during the coming century. U C A R is the logical and suitable recipient of such a 'space grant' for several compelling reasons: it has a 27-year history as the manager of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, one of the most prestigious and productive scientific laboratories in the world; it is broadly representative of US academic research interests; and it is involved in a large number of scientific activities that must be conducted in and from space. While Congress has the authority to grant such rights to ETs, current Public Law also vests similar authority in the N A S A Administrator to award:
ETs
A basic requirement for the Space Phoenix Program is that U C A R must obtain the right from the government to use the Shuttle fleet's ETs and then, through ETCO, arrange for their privately financed modification, outfitting, operation, maintenance, lease and management. Assignment of rights to use such novel assets requires a policy decision at high levels of government and the recipient of such rights must be an entity that can be expected to serve the national interest. The rationale of the Space Phoenix Program is that, by having a vested interest in developing ET inspace scientific facilities, members of the 57-institution U C A R consortium will apply their ingenuity to the challenge of creatively salvaging and recycling, for a wide variety of uses, space "scrap' with unique chemical, physical and structural properties. Value-adding activities of this kind would generate rewarding returns as ET resources become progressively developed and widely used. Such an effort would necessarily involve a large and long-term collaborative partnership among the academic community, the business sector, banking and financing institutions, and government agencies. The creation of intersectoral relationships
• . . any items of a capital n a t u r e . . , which may be required . . . for the performance of research and development contracts... to non-profit organizations whose primary purpose is the conduct of scientific research • . . [if] the Administrator determines that the national program of aeronautical and space activities will best be served [by doing so]. 21~ A parallel may be drawn between the Morrill Act of 1862 which awarded raw undeveloped land to universities as 'land grants', and the award of orbiting ET resources to universities as 'space-grants'. In both cases government resources with relatively modest, if any, current value are awarded• Neither grant requires budgetary appropriations, both include the expectation that universities would develop such resources and, in doing so, realize economic gains that would help support university activities and the broadest national interest. This has proven true in the experience of the 'land-grant' history, and it is believed that 'space grants' could have similar beneficial results. Legislation proposing government financial support for universities involved in space research has been introduced in Congress. 21 Given the current and projected deficit and consequent budget circumstances, a 'space-grant' of ET physical assets that are now discarded would be an alternative, and
SPACE POLICY May 1988
Reports fiscally neutral, initiative. Owned and managed in a suitable legal form, ETs hold the promise of becoming the subject of corporate financings. 22 A 'space-grant', and creative investment by the private sector, could lead to 'research park' facilities in near-Earth space and to potential profit from their commercial use, most of which would accrue to the universities to be used for supporting future atmospheric and space science activities. Such a %pace-grant' would then generate the creation of novel universities-business partnerships with a strategic interest in the private development of extra-terrestrial space, which is an increasingly important goal of the USA. The formidable demand for extraterrestrial scientific facilities reflects a backlog of research, whose dimensions reach across the years to the training and education of whole categories of scientific personnel, and to the design of experiments that require significant lead times. The USA's articulated science agenda in space has led to a 'baseline configuration' for the US Space Station programme which provides the country with its essential infrastructure in the global competition to develop space, an event of great historical importance. Through approximately the end of this century, the Space Station programme contemplates a basic nucleus of five flexible integrated pressurized modules with a total core volume, US and foreign, of some 30 000 cubic feet. To a very large extent, the future public civil activities of the U S A in space will rest upon this centrepiece facility. Yet its ability to support in-space scientific enquiry is clearly limited. While it is difficult to quantify the difference between the amount of research that scientists are seriously interested in seeing carried out in space and the capacity of the Space Station to support such research, it appears that the difference is substantial. 23 Since N A S A presently estimates that it would require some 20 Shuttle flights during 1994 to 1996 to assemble the core Space Station, it is challenging to contemplate the fact that over 40 times that quantity of raw pressurized tank volume (70 000 cubic feet per
SPACE POLICY May 1988
ET) could be discarded during the same series of flights. A privately financed retrofitting of ETs in orbit would enhance significantly the strategic utility and long-range value of the centrepiece US Space Station. A joint public-private approach to supporting the extraordinary human enterprise of developing space should be in the best interests of all parties. The economic context should evolve from today's near-exclusive dependence upon government appropriations towards a shared programme wherein private investment supports the expansion of private space exploration and where business requirements for return-on-investment begin to constrain costs and to emphasize largescale, more efficient activities. This methodology will bring about an altogether more economically and dynamically sound exploitation of space.
Conclusion Unanimous agreement on the potential utility and economic value of ETs cannot, in itself, provide for the safe placement in orbit or conversion of expended ETs into orbiting facilities. In addition, this event is unlikely to occur if dependent on appropriations of US government funds, because of understandable competing demands in the civil space budget. The Space Phoenix Program, as planned by the UCAR--UCAR Foundation--ETCO partnership, is as different from N A S A 'cutting-edge' technology and government infrastructure as the covered wagon-train was to the Lewis and Clarke expeditions. Both fulfil vital and irreplaceable functions in the development of the USA. The time has now arrived when the government's efforts to trailblaze, develop and exploit space need to be augmented through determined and innovative intersectoral private endeavours. The Space Phoenix Program can provide that endeavour: establishing a National Space Trust of ETs in safe orbit, U C A R , the U C A R Foundation, ETCO and the US government can bring their combined ingenuity, current technology, new forms of organization and private financial
means to bear on the challenge of stimulating competition and safeguarding the national ET resource, without burden to the taxpayer. The Space Phoenix Program is an exciting pioneering step in the development of our new frontier in space. Randolph H. Ware, Thomas F. Rogers, David J. Padua and Walter Orr Roberts The first three authors are with ETCO; Walter Orr Roberts is with UCAR, Boulder, CO, USA.
1Report on the Scientific Use of Orbiting Shuttle External Tanks Symposium, Center for Space and Geosciences Policy, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, October, 1987. 2While the destruction of Challenger and the loss of its crew in January 1986 are leading to significant technical changes in the Space Transportation System, the causes of the disaster did not involve the external tank, and no changes are expected to be made to it. A comprehensive investigation of the event by a Presidential Commission exonerated the tank as a cause of the calamity: 'The Commission reviewed the External Tank's construction records, acceptance testing, pre-launch and flight data, and recovered hardware and found nothing relating to the External Tank that caused or contributed to the cause of the accident. Report of the
Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, 6 June 1986, Washington, DC, p 41.
3External Tank Utilizations for Early Space Construction Base, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, December, 1976. 4A. Gimarc, 'Space Shuttle External Tank Applications', Space Studies Institute, Princeton, NJ, December 1985. This report includes 95 references on the use of expended ETs in space. 5Newsweek, 17 August 1987, p 57.
6Civilian Space Stations and the US Future in Space, Office of Technology Assessment, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, November 1984.
7Report by the External Tank Working Group, California Space Institute, University of California at San Diego, April 1983. 8D. Koch, External Tank Gamma Ray Imaging Telescope Study, Final Report, Contract A71128 (for Martin Marietta Corp), Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA, 1987. 9National Commission on Space, Pioneering the Space Frontier, Bantam Books, New York, May 1986, p 84. 1°National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act, 1988 Report 100-204, 7 July 1982, p 22. (Emphasis supplied here.) The NASA Authorization
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Reports Act, 1987, included similar recommendations in a section titled 'External Tanks as Space Assets', Report 99-829, 16 September 1986, pp 32-33. ~lSee Documentation in this issue of Space Policy. ~2See Public Law 98-361 (which modifies the 1958 Space Act): '... [NASA should] seek and encourage, to the maximum extent possible, the fullest commercial use of space'; also Eric Bloch, 'Managing for challenging times: a national research strategy', Issues in Science and Technology, winter 1986, pp 20-29, wherein the Director of the National Science Foundation urges new roles and more cooperative and innovative relationships among research institutions, and proposes that federal funds be used as a catalyst to leverage research resources by stimulating increased support from the private sector; also New Alliances and Partnerships in American Science and Engineering, prepared by the Government-UniversityIndustry Research Roundtable under the sponsorship of the National Academies of Science and Engineering, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 1986. laSpace: America's New Competitive Frontier, Business-Higher Education Forum, Washington, DC, August 1986. This report was issued by a task force under the co-chairmanship of the President of the California Institute of Technology, and the Chairman and CEO of Rock-
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well International Corporation. It was recommended for wide distribution by the Forum membership of 42 university presidents and 41 corporate CEOs. ~"New York Times, 22 September 1986, p14. ~SSee,for example, G.A. Hazelrigg, Jr and M.E. Hymowicz, Research in Space: Prelude to Commercialization, prepared at the National Science Foundation for presentation at the 37th Congress of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), Washington, DC, October 1986. ~6AIthough the pressurized volume of a single ET is twice the total of that planned for the US Space Station, the use of ET volume planned by the Space Phoenix Program is more limited in scope. The facilities would play quite different, yet complementary roles. Whereas the Space Station will see many sophisticated, necessarily expensive, 'cutting-edge' technologies developed and used for the first time, recycled single-purpose ETs will draw upon technology that is already developed and has been space-qualified in such programmes as Skylab, Spacelab and Shuttle. ET facilities could relate to the Space Station in the way that warehouses relate to high-tech research facilities on Earth. ~TThe Human Role in Space, NASA-CR 171223, Washington, DC, September 1984. leThese sums will probably grow signifi-
cantly by the end of the century. Expenditures for a wide range of business activities, including communications, insurance, health care, clothing, food, legal services, and engineering, will become increasingly important. 19See Ref 1. 2°National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 1986, Public Law 99-170. 21A Bill to Establish a National Space Grant College Program, Senate Bill S.2098, 25 February 1986. 221t is worth noting that the creation of the Comsat Corporation and its initial public sale of $200 million of stock in 1964 (nearly $1 billion in 1987 dollars) was rooted in the 'grant' of communicating 'rights' to Comsat. This bold and far-reaching congressional action has caused the creation of a multibillion dollar space communications industry which, in turn, has assured US world dominance in this vital arena, increasing technology and creating tens of thousands of jobs. 2aUS crew size will be confined to some half a dozen persons owing to size limitations of the Space Station. The 'overhead' demanded by such functions as service, diagnostics, repair, logistics, maintenance, assembly, communications, arrivals and departures, exercise, rest, recreation, eating and sleeping, will further constrain the productive time and numbers and personnel available for scientific research.
SPACE POLICY May 1988
Space Phoenix
private, non-profit corporation organized as a consortium of 57 research institutions which acts as a national scientific research nucleus for manageThe US federal government is collaborating with a non-profit university ment, consultation, collaboration and consortium and its commercial project managers to develop the Space Shuttle association. Founded in 1959, it has fleet's expended external fuel tanks for scientific and commercial uses in space. grown from an original 14 charter Nearly a half dozen years in evolution, the Space Phoenix Program is a universities. Qualifications of a high private-sector civil space programme with the long-term goal of opening the standard are spelled out in U C A R ' s by-laws and the growth of its memEarth's space to as many people, organizations and activities as possible, as soon as possible, and at the lowest cost to them as possible. In time it is bership testifies to the increased imexpected to be a major focus for private-sector activities in space. This report portance of atmospheric and related science studies in the nation's higher describes how it will work. education and research system. Owing to the dynamic relationships among the Earth's atmospheric layers, The Space Phoenix Program is being space. The grant by N A S A would also its oceans, and the solar-interplanetary conducted by three private organiza- contribute to the economic develop- environment, U C A R ' s working detions in cooperation with the US ment of the nation. finition of 'the atmosphere' includes federal government, primarily The Space Phoenix Program is the regions bounded by the ocean through the National Aeronautics and founded on the premise that U C A R floor, extending to the Sun and out Space Administration. They are the will obtain title or the right to use ETs towards the edge of the planetary University Corporation for Atmos- in space in the form of a fiscally system. Atmospheric scientists have pheric Research ( U C A R ) and the neutral 'space grant' from the federal long utilized remote-sensing spaceU C A R Foundation (both of which are government. Such a grant would per- craft to observe phenomena in this non-profit organizations), and the for- mit ETCO to arrange private financ- vast realm, and U C A R ' s scientific profit External Tanks Corporation ing and thereby accomplish the mod- involvement in space-related activities (ETCO). The U C A R Foundation is ification, outfitting and management has a lengthy history. U C A R particithe majority stockholder in ETCO. of the ET resources, so that they can pated in the utilization of Skylab, the U C A R , a 28-year-old group of 57 be leased for various professional pur- world's first manned, orbiting universities and research institutions, poses in the form of an orbiting observatory and has the major responhas requested title for the right to use in-space 'research park'. The U C A R sibility in the design of satellites, all the discarded external fuel tanks Foundation's share of the net income instruments, experiments, and in(ETs) of the US Shuttle fleet. The and asset value developed from such space repair facilities. The demand for economy of scale shall permit U C A R , leases would provide a long-term en- U C A R ' s support in these activities is through its project manager ETCO, to dowment that would be employed to at a record level. Its growing interest safeguard these assets as a national benefit a large part of the US universi- in obtaining and utilizing orbiting scitrust and make them readily available ty scientific research community. entific facilities within atmospheric to the scientific and industrial comThe innovative collaborations anti- space is a logical and consistent demunity for scientific and commercial cipated among government, universi- velopment of its charter, which inpurposes, using private funds. Space ties and commercial organizations; the cludes the development of extensive flight engineers have concluded that challenging financing, engineering, and complex research tools, and maksuch an undertaking is technically and operating and management issues; the ing such tools available to scientists in operationally possible, and that valu- potential for creating wealth in orbit; national and international communiable US space assets could be created the implications for such other impor- ties. from these used ETs. The Space tant elements of the civil space area as U C A R also leads research projects Phoenix Program is similar in many space science and transportation; and on behalf of the overall atmospheric respects to the land grant programme US competitiveness and productivity sciences community, and coordinates of the last century, in which undein the realm of space commercializa- such efforts with its 57 member instituveloped land in the western U S A was tion - all call for the bold and imagina- tions and other academic and research awarded to universities in the expecta- tive commitment of the Space Phoenix institutions throughout the world that tion that they would contribute to its Program. are expert in atmospheric, computer economic development and thereby and related sciences. U C A R has a benefit both themselves and the naparticular capability in bringing govtion. In this age, the Shuttle fleet's U C A R ernment and university groups large ETs can be thought of as an The University Corporation of together to achieve common scientific analogue to parcels of raw land in Atmospheric Research (UCAR) is a goals, carrying out research efforts at
SPACE POLICY May 1988
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Reports various times for the National Science Foundation (which provides its principal support), N A S A , the Department of the Navy, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of the Air Force, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other government and non-government entities. In the space science area, U C A R convened a symposium in August 1987, to consider scientific use in space of expended external fuel tanks of the US Shuttle fleet. 1
The UCAR Foundation The U C A R Foundation was established to enhance and conserve the value of the 'commercial spinoffs' from ongoing scientific research programmes, to provide administrative flexibility in dealings with the private sector and to seek opportunities for the creation of wealth to be used to advance scientific research. The US government has recognized that knowledge-intensive hightechnology industries have long-term implications for international competitiveness, thereby affirming the economic benefits of scientific research. Universities and research institutions such as U C A R , which play a central role in creating knowledge, currently receive more than $8 billion annually from the taxpayer in support of basic, civilian scientific research. This research frequently yields significant practical discoveries and technologies, benefiting the public and causing valuable stimulation of the economy. To promote this kind of activity and accelerate technology transfers between academic and industrial sectors, the US Congress passed Public Law 96-517 in 1980. This legislation permits academic institutions to own title to discoveries and inventions developed with government support in their laboratories, thus encouraging them to share in the economic values generated by t h e i r research efforts. This extended pool of intellectual property has highlighted the potential benefits to be derived from imaginative university-industry collaboration. This trend has led to mutually benefi-
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cial long-term strategic partnerships between members of the academic and corporate worlds, sometimes involving hybrid and novel institutional forms, thus strengthening support for scientific activity. U C A R , in common with many other research organizations, has examined the challenges involved in owning intellectual properties (and other assets such as corporate gifts), as well as the need for dealing with the private sector in business terms. Following a growing body of practice in the academic world, the Board of Trustees of U C A R decided in 1986 to establish the U C A R Foundation to act as fiduciary, and to direct and manage certain intellectual properties and other unique assets for U C A R ' s financial benefit. In addition to the Space Phoenix Program, the foundation is engaged in assisting U C A R with technology transfer and communication issues deriving from programmes such as the 'Airport of the Future' Doppler radar technology, which promises early warning of sudden atmospheric downdrafts (microbursts) near and over airport runways, and the commercial development by Mesa Archival Systems, Inc, of mass data file transfer software for supercomputers. ETCO A for-profit Delaware corporation, the External Tanks Corporation (ETCO) was created in 1985 to manage the private financing, development, and operation of Shuttle fleet expended external fuel tanks for scientific and commercial uses in space. The U C A R Foundation holds a majority of the shares of ETCO, the remainder being held by directors and investors.
Shuttle external tanks The Space Shuttle's external fuel tank is designed to carry the liquid fuels that power the main engines and to serve as a 'strongback' on which the solid-fuel boosters and the orbiter are mounted (see Figure 1). Just before insertion into orbit, the Shuttle jettisons the ET, which reenters the dense
lower regions of the atmosphere, burns, and breaks into pieces which fall to the ocean. During a Shuttle launch, the reusable solid boosters exhaust their fuel after about two minutes and then separate for recovery, while the ET continues to fuel the main engines for another 6.5 minutes until orbital velocity is approached and the ET is separated. 2 Twenty-four ETs have been so jettisoned in a controlled fashion; discarded in this way, any potentially harmful impact is eliminated. ETs are manufactured from 30 tons of high-grade aluminium and consist of 70 000 cubic feet of separate, pressurized hydrogen and oxygen vessels, and an intertank section with an unpressurized volume of 5000 cubic feet (see Figure 2). The Shuttle cargo bay can carry 20 tons, and its volume is 10 000 cubic feet. An ET has a 27.6foot diameter and a 153-foot length; it is roughtly the size of a Boeing 747 body, or a 20-storey building. The entire trajectory of the Wright brothers' first flight could be contained inside an ET. The concept of using orbiting ETs as habitable environments or material resources is not new. Skylab itself was fashioned from an upper-stage fuel tank of a Saturn rocket. In 1976 space experts within N A S A suggested it was feasible to put ETs into near-Earth orbits where their potential value could be realized without significant payload loss or increased launch cost. 3 Other authorities in the aerospace industry and academia agree that orbiting laboratory-habitat facilities could be created economically from expended ETs by fitting them with life-support, station-keeping, communications and power elements. 4 Auxiliary equipment needed to modify and use ETs could be carried in the Shuttle cargo bay, or within the unpressurized ET intertank structure, or in an 'aft cargo carrier' behind the ET, or by expendable launch vehicles. Auxiliary equipment could be installed by astronauts conducting extravehicular activities. The manufacturing cost of a single ET is about $30 million, and postChallenger estimates of the cost to launch payloads into low-Earth orbit
SPACE POLICY May 1988
Reports
External
/
O
biter
Solid roct
put in space at the first reasonable opportunity' .7 In 1986 N A S A ' s Marshall Space Flight Center demonstrated its growing seriousness in seeing ETs used in space by awarding a contract to Martin Marietta Aerospace Corporation to study scientific and engineering questions related to turning an ET into a valuable scientific resource, specifically its transformation into a large unmanned orbiting Gamma Ray Imaging Telescope. 8 Astronauts would enter an ET through an existing 36-inch aft manhole port and then assemble telescope components within the empty hydrogen vessel. The vessel would be resealed and pressurized with carbon dioxide to provide the required experimental environment. The National Commission on Space, a Presidentially-appointed panel of space specialists, referred to the use of ETs in its report as follows: 9 there is a potentially valuable artificial space resource that is now going to waste: the Shuttle's external tanks. At present, with each successful flight of a Shuttle, an empty tank with mass greater than the full payload of the Shuttle itself, is brought to 99 percent of orbital speed and then discarded to burn up in the atmosphere. The Shuttle fleet's flight schedule suggests that over a 10-year period about 10 000 tons of the tankage will be brought almost to orbit and then discarded. At standard Shuttle rates, it would cost about $35 billion to lift that mass to orbit. •
Figure 1. Space Transportation System. using the fully operational Shuttle fleet are up to $6000 per pound. 5 An ET retained in orbit and not destroyed thus represents roughly one-third of a billion dollars in avoided replacement value. The 30 tons of high-grade aluminium and other materials from which ETs are constructed, the 70 thousand cubic feet of pressurized volume, the 10 to 15 thousand pounds of residual fuels, and the large mass and strong structure of ETs, are all potentially valuable space resources. Because of their mass and strength, ETs are particularly well suited to tether applications, including momen-
SPACE POLICY May 1988
turn transfer between orbiting bodies and the creation of artificial gravity.
Official view In 1982 the US Congress requested its Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) to carry out a study on civilian space stations. 6 It became obvious to O T A staff that ETs might be transformed into valuable space assets. Following an open workshop convened by N A S A it was concluded that ETs could be used in orbit in a variety of ways and that ' . . . an E T should be
.
.
More recently, the Committee on Science, Space and Technology of the House of Representatives, US Congress, referred specifically to the use of ETs in orbit and to N A S A ' s verification of the feasibility of such use in a section titled 'Utilization of orbiting Shuttle external tanks' within its final report accompanying the N A S A Authorization Act of 1988: l° The committee notes the Space Shuttle External Tank (ET) is a potentially valuable resource that should be considered for possible space development. Qualified academic research groups could be awarded ET resources for space-based research much like the land grant concept of the past. Using orbital ETs, universities working cooperatively with industry might be able to increase scientific research opportunities, expand our Nation's space infrastructure and broaden the spectrum of private space enterprise.
In response to the Committee's request in
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Reports
Liquid
oxygen
pended external tanks of the shuttle fleet at no cost to all feasible US commercial and nonprofit endeavors, for uses such as research, storage, or manufacturing in space. 1
vessel
Length = 54.6ft Diameter = 27.6ft V o l u m e = 19 5 0 0 f t 3
Space Phoenix
Intertank
_-------
Length = 22.5ft Diameter = 27.6ft V o l u m e = 5000 f t 3
Liquid
hydrogen
vessel
Length = 96.7ft Diameter = 27.6ft V o l u m e = 53 5 0 0 f t 3
Figure 2.
External tank structure.
House Authorization Report 99-829, NASA has delivered to the Committee a report specifying the technical, operational, cost, and safety requirements for ET Orbit insertion. The NASA report 'External Tank Utilization on Orbit' states: 'The engineering and operating problems involved with this objective are basically within the current state-of-the-art of Shuttle operations, support system and technology.' The report also specifies the impact on Shuttle payload, propellant requirements for station keeping, requirement for accessibility to orbiting ETs, probability of space debris or micrometeoroid damage, and NASA's estimate of the cost of ET modifications and operations. The Committee appreciates the delivery of this detailed report in response to the Committee's specific request.
The Committee is pleased to be informed of progress achieved by university groups and NASA in the past year towards realizing the potential value of E T resources: (1) The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), a 25-year-old group of 57 universities and research institutions, is leading the 'Space Phoenix' program to obtain orbiting ETs and develop them for scientific and commercial purposes using non-government funds; (2) NASA has created a high level committee to work with UCAR on the Space Phoenix program; (3) UCAR and the Government are making good progress towards an agree-
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ment concerning transfer of one or more ETs and UCAR; (4) NASA is supporting studies of a Gamma Ray Imaging Telescope (GRIT) which could be installed in an orbiting ET; (5) Zero gravity stimulations of GRIT telescope assembly procedures are being conducted at the Marshall Space Flight Center; (6) A symposium of space scientists has been convened by university groups to consider space experiments that can be conducted in and from space using ETs. O n 11 F e b r u a r y 1988, the H o u s e released The President's Policy and Commercial Space tive to Begin the Next Century, states on p 2, I t e m II:
White Space Initiawhich
The President is announcing a fifteen point commercial space initiative to seize the opportunities for a vigorous US commercial presence in Earth orbit and beyond - in research and manufacturing. This initiative has three goals: • Promoting a strong US commercial presence in space; • Assuring a highway to space; and • Building a solid technology and talent base. In the 15-point list that follows, the release states on p 3, Point 4:
External Tanks: The Administration is making available for five years the ex-
Starting in the a u t u m n of 1984 U C A R staff a n d some of the individuals w h o are n o w E T C O Directors b e g a n to c o n t e m p l a t e the early d e v e l o p m e n t of ETs as in-space facilities. U C A R ' s growing focus on space-related exp e r i m e n t a l scientific research, its considerable space science experience, a n d its a p p r e c i a t i o n for the general in-space p o t e n t i a l of E T s a n d the actions r e q u i r e d to realize this p o t e n tial, led to a c o m m o n a w a r e n e s s that o r b i t i n g ETs could be c o n v e r t e d into valuable scientific a n d c o m m e r c i a l facilities for a t m o s p h e r i c a n d space science research. In 1985 a task force was c o n v e n e d by U C A R to explore the m a t t e r in great detail. T h e c o n c e p t u a l details of rendezvous a n d modification of ETs to create scientific s u p p o r t platforms in various l o w - E a r t h orbits have c o n t i n u e d to be e x a m i n e d by U C A R . As a result of these investigations, the Space P h o e n i x task force d e v e l o p e d firm c o n f i d e n c e in the future value of utilization of in-space ETs by science a n d c o m m e r c e for the ultimate benefit of the U S scientific a n d university community. The UCAR Foundation, t h r o u g h E T C O as its a p p o i n t e d project m a n a g i n g c o r p o r a t i o n , has b e g u n to o b t a i n private sector financial support to store, d e v e l o p a n d lease E T s as orbiting ' r e s e a r c h parks' for scientific a n d c o m m e r c i a l purposes. In this way, universities could o b t a i n discarded g o v e r n m e n t p r o p e r t y in a m a n n e r a n a l o g o u s to a 'land grant', potentially alleviating the substantial backlog of d e m a n d for scientific r e s e a r c h facilities in n e a r - E a r t h orbit, a n d o p e n i n g up space for a large n u m b e r a n d variety of private activities. The UCAR-UCAR FoundationE T C O p r o g r a m m e was n a m e d Space P h o e n i x to signify future E T s as 'rising' f r o m the c h a r r e d r e m a i n s t h a t h a v e until n o w m a r k e d the e n d of t h e i r j o u r n e y to the t h r e s h o l d of space. T h e m a j o r objective of the p r o g r a m m e is to e n d e a v o u r to 'save'
SPACE POLICY May 1988
Reports all the ETs, whether or not of immediate scientific or commercial use, and park them in a high-altitude (multiple decade) orbit in a 'nest', to safeguard their potential value for future generations. ETs stored in this manner will form a 'National Space Trust'. One particularly important element of the programme is to see that measures are taken (such as defining the uses to which each facility would be put and utilizing already developed technology wherever possible) to produce 'spartan' facilities to ensure that costs are kept as low as possible. This would encourage widespread use by the scientific community of ET facilities. A formal agreement between U C A R , the U C A R Foundation and ETCO gave ETCO the responsibility for financing, studying the scientific, legal, and economic feasibility of using ETs in space for research and commercial purposes, and developing technical, engineering, business and operating plans for the enterprise. U C A R in turn agreed to accept grants of ETs in space and to convey to ETCO, through the U C A R Foundation, sole rights to manage ET resources in space. In October 1986, a committee was formed by N A S A headquarters to analyse and explore with U C A R and ETCO the technical and programmatic implications of the Space Phoenix Program. Chaired by N A S A ' s General Manager, other committee members are N A S A ' s Comptroller, General Counsel, and Heads of the Commercial Programs and Advanced Planning Offices. Following the first meeting of Space Phoenix representatives with the N A S A Committee, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by N A S A and U C A R . The M O U states that ' N A S A and U C A R believe it is in the Nation's interest to see the concept of employing external tanks for additional uses explored. Therefore, N A S A and U C A R agree to cooperate with each other and exert every reasonable effort to explore the concept and provided the concept proves to have merit, take appropriate further steps to bring it to fruition.' From a policy standpoint, government, university and industry leaders
SPACE POLICY May 1988
regard the need for such new colaborations contributing to the development of space as a matter of priority. 12 The influential BusinessHigher Education Forum issued a report in 1986 on leveraging accomplishments in space and maintaining US leadership. 13 It urges business and higher education institutions to provide new civil space-related ideas and to join in collaborative ventures and consortium arrangements. The Space Phoenix Program responds directly to that challenge. The report also calls upon the government to cooperate with such efforts, paying special attention to the needs of new ventures: 'All levels of government management with roles in space activity should clearly understand, and be encouraged to support, commercial development objectives, with a view toward nurturing a culture more supportive of entrepreneurial efforts.'
Need for facilities Before the recent launch failures there was a five-year launch backlog of scientific, military and commercial space payloads. Since then two-thirds of the planned flights of Spacelab, a system of pressurized modules and open pallets that can be used in space in a Shuttle orbiter's cargo bay, have been cancelled or substantially postponed. The Ulysses solar-polar mission, the Galileo Jupiter mission, and the Mars observer mission have been postponed, and all Shuttle-based science experiments have been rescheduled. Despite the legislated mandate that the prime goals of N A S A are science and exploration, there is now the probability that national security related priorities will further preempt available transportation capacity, and aggravate the serious backlog conditions. The need for space laboratories and science facilities is growing. For example, in September 1986, the U S A pledged to support a 70-nation Earth observation programme, sponsored by the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), to study disturbing changes in the Earth's atmosphere, such as the 'greenhouse effect'. Relying critically on orbital monitoring,
the International GeosphereBiosphere Program was pledged support from N A S A , the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, other US government agencies, and the National Academy of Sciences. The transcending importance of understanding changes in our global climate, and the size of the commitment needed, led the Chairman of the US delegation to ICSU to call the pledged effort the 'largest scientific program ever mounted'. 14 At the highest levels of science policy-making relating to space, such as within the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences, there is recognition that the scientific community requires facilities and laboratories in orbit that can support a broad range of scientific research. This theme, widely echoed throughout the scientific world, explains the variety of efforts, national and international, to create permanently orbiting cost-effective habitats and uninhabited platforms for scientific investigation. 15 ETs are increasingly attractive resources for conversion to facilities of this kind, and could permit private-sector activities to complement and enhance the key role planned for the US Space Station. ~6 Available, cost-effective, pressurized environments are of significant importance to humanity's exploration of space. Human ingenuity and flexibility in the deployment, assembly, operation, maintenance and repair of scientific facilities define the need for, and the design of, habitable pressurized environments as work spaces in near-Earth orbits. There are also a great many important and valuable scientific programmes which do not require people to remain in orbit. These pressurized or shielded containers have unique value for, eg, micrograrity experiments, life science experiments or for radiation imaging telescopes. On the other hand, for many scientific efforts, crew time is the resource which limits the rate of progress or success. A recent study by N A S A , which analysed past and future space missions, concluded that, on the grounds of cost-effectiveness alone, there was no substitute for
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Reports humans in space. 17 In either configuration, with or without resident professionals, the backlog of demand for permanent in-space sciencerelated infrastructure is considerable. In short, an orbiting 'research park' promises to be in the position of leasing occupancy to a prestigious international list of scientific tenants who need access to high-volume, lowcost facilities for relatively long periods of time. Support for space-related research pervades many sectors of science budgeting, at government agencies and research institutions, as well as in business corporations. Annual funding of research and development in the USA exceeds $100 billion. Approximately half of that amount is spent by private-sector corporations, with the balance publicly funded, mostly by the government. Significantly, demand for cost-effective orbiting laboratory habitats is found in a very broad section of research, commercial and development programmes. Besides the important agendas in applied science, development and engineering, the current basic research backlog covers a number of fields, facilities and activities. The sums now budgeted by N A S A , the European Space Agency (ESA) and Canada for spacerelated scientific research approach a total of some $2 billion per year.18 The efforts of a growing number of US aerospace firms and foreign countries to develop commercial space transportation capabilities promise to augment the total international launch capacity available to the world's scientific community. Humans of any nationality who choose to explore and conduct scientific work in space will need pressurized containers and specialized facilities and services, irrespective of the precise nature of their scientific interests and whether the activities are financed by governments, by research institutions, or by private companies. ETs could become basic sources for all of these sciencerelated activities and thereby serve important cultural and economic roles on a large scale. A symposium on 'The scientific use of orbiting Shuttle external tanks', sponsored by N A S A , Martin Marietta
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Aerospace Corporation, and the Universities Space Research Association, was convened by U C A R on .3-4 August 1987, in Boulder, Colorado. 19 Invited space scientists exchanged and developed ideas on potential scientific experiments that would utilize ETs in the areas of astronomy and astrophysics, life sciences, materials sciences, and remote sensing. In addition to suggestions for specific experimental use of ET facilities in these areas, it was widely recommended that the 5000 cubic feet of unpressurized volume in the ET intertank section be used to carry experiments as soon as possible. Initially, the intertank volume could be utilized during suborbital flights, thereby reducing backlogs of payloads and also serving as a first step towards wider use of ET sources.
Obtaining
rights
to
of this kind is now constantly being evoked by US policy makers. Evolving the specific novel institutional and organizational forms that would be necessary is believed to be no less challenging a task than realizing the overall civil in-space ambitions of USA during the coming century. U C A R is the logical and suitable recipient of such a 'space grant' for several compelling reasons: it has a 27-year history as the manager of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, one of the most prestigious and productive scientific laboratories in the world; it is broadly representative of US academic research interests; and it is involved in a large number of scientific activities that must be conducted in and from space. While Congress has the authority to grant such rights to ETs, current Public Law also vests similar authority in the N A S A Administrator to award:
ETs
A basic requirement for the Space Phoenix Program is that U C A R must obtain the right from the government to use the Shuttle fleet's ETs and then, through ETCO, arrange for their privately financed modification, outfitting, operation, maintenance, lease and management. Assignment of rights to use such novel assets requires a policy decision at high levels of government and the recipient of such rights must be an entity that can be expected to serve the national interest. The rationale of the Space Phoenix Program is that, by having a vested interest in developing ET inspace scientific facilities, members of the 57-institution U C A R consortium will apply their ingenuity to the challenge of creatively salvaging and recycling, for a wide variety of uses, space "scrap' with unique chemical, physical and structural properties. Value-adding activities of this kind would generate rewarding returns as ET resources become progressively developed and widely used. Such an effort would necessarily involve a large and long-term collaborative partnership among the academic community, the business sector, banking and financing institutions, and government agencies. The creation of intersectoral relationships
• . . any items of a capital n a t u r e . . , which may be required . . . for the performance of research and development contracts... to non-profit organizations whose primary purpose is the conduct of scientific research • . . [if] the Administrator determines that the national program of aeronautical and space activities will best be served [by doing so]. 21~ A parallel may be drawn between the Morrill Act of 1862 which awarded raw undeveloped land to universities as 'land grants', and the award of orbiting ET resources to universities as 'space-grants'. In both cases government resources with relatively modest, if any, current value are awarded• Neither grant requires budgetary appropriations, both include the expectation that universities would develop such resources and, in doing so, realize economic gains that would help support university activities and the broadest national interest. This has proven true in the experience of the 'land-grant' history, and it is believed that 'space grants' could have similar beneficial results. Legislation proposing government financial support for universities involved in space research has been introduced in Congress. 21 Given the current and projected deficit and consequent budget circumstances, a 'space-grant' of ET physical assets that are now discarded would be an alternative, and
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Reports fiscally neutral, initiative. Owned and managed in a suitable legal form, ETs hold the promise of becoming the subject of corporate financings. 22 A 'space-grant', and creative investment by the private sector, could lead to 'research park' facilities in near-Earth space and to potential profit from their commercial use, most of which would accrue to the universities to be used for supporting future atmospheric and space science activities. Such a %pace-grant' would then generate the creation of novel universities-business partnerships with a strategic interest in the private development of extra-terrestrial space, which is an increasingly important goal of the USA. The formidable demand for extraterrestrial scientific facilities reflects a backlog of research, whose dimensions reach across the years to the training and education of whole categories of scientific personnel, and to the design of experiments that require significant lead times. The USA's articulated science agenda in space has led to a 'baseline configuration' for the US Space Station programme which provides the country with its essential infrastructure in the global competition to develop space, an event of great historical importance. Through approximately the end of this century, the Space Station programme contemplates a basic nucleus of five flexible integrated pressurized modules with a total core volume, US and foreign, of some 30 000 cubic feet. To a very large extent, the future public civil activities of the U S A in space will rest upon this centrepiece facility. Yet its ability to support in-space scientific enquiry is clearly limited. While it is difficult to quantify the difference between the amount of research that scientists are seriously interested in seeing carried out in space and the capacity of the Space Station to support such research, it appears that the difference is substantial. 23 Since N A S A presently estimates that it would require some 20 Shuttle flights during 1994 to 1996 to assemble the core Space Station, it is challenging to contemplate the fact that over 40 times that quantity of raw pressurized tank volume (70 000 cubic feet per
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ET) could be discarded during the same series of flights. A privately financed retrofitting of ETs in orbit would enhance significantly the strategic utility and long-range value of the centrepiece US Space Station. A joint public-private approach to supporting the extraordinary human enterprise of developing space should be in the best interests of all parties. The economic context should evolve from today's near-exclusive dependence upon government appropriations towards a shared programme wherein private investment supports the expansion of private space exploration and where business requirements for return-on-investment begin to constrain costs and to emphasize largescale, more efficient activities. This methodology will bring about an altogether more economically and dynamically sound exploitation of space.
Conclusion Unanimous agreement on the potential utility and economic value of ETs cannot, in itself, provide for the safe placement in orbit or conversion of expended ETs into orbiting facilities. In addition, this event is unlikely to occur if dependent on appropriations of US government funds, because of understandable competing demands in the civil space budget. The Space Phoenix Program, as planned by the UCAR--UCAR Foundation--ETCO partnership, is as different from N A S A 'cutting-edge' technology and government infrastructure as the covered wagon-train was to the Lewis and Clarke expeditions. Both fulfil vital and irreplaceable functions in the development of the USA. The time has now arrived when the government's efforts to trailblaze, develop and exploit space need to be augmented through determined and innovative intersectoral private endeavours. The Space Phoenix Program can provide that endeavour: establishing a National Space Trust of ETs in safe orbit, U C A R , the U C A R Foundation, ETCO and the US government can bring their combined ingenuity, current technology, new forms of organization and private financial
means to bear on the challenge of stimulating competition and safeguarding the national ET resource, without burden to the taxpayer. The Space Phoenix Program is an exciting pioneering step in the development of our new frontier in space. Randolph H. Ware, Thomas F. Rogers, David J. Padua and Walter Orr Roberts The first three authors are with ETCO; Walter Orr Roberts is with UCAR, Boulder, CO, USA.
1Report on the Scientific Use of Orbiting Shuttle External Tanks Symposium, Center for Space and Geosciences Policy, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, October, 1987. 2While the destruction of Challenger and the loss of its crew in January 1986 are leading to significant technical changes in the Space Transportation System, the causes of the disaster did not involve the external tank, and no changes are expected to be made to it. A comprehensive investigation of the event by a Presidential Commission exonerated the tank as a cause of the calamity: 'The Commission reviewed the External Tank's construction records, acceptance testing, pre-launch and flight data, and recovered hardware and found nothing relating to the External Tank that caused or contributed to the cause of the accident. Report of the
Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, 6 June 1986, Washington, DC, p 41.
3External Tank Utilizations for Early Space Construction Base, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, December, 1976. 4A. Gimarc, 'Space Shuttle External Tank Applications', Space Studies Institute, Princeton, NJ, December 1985. This report includes 95 references on the use of expended ETs in space. 5Newsweek, 17 August 1987, p 57.
6Civilian Space Stations and the US Future in Space, Office of Technology Assessment, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, November 1984.
7Report by the External Tank Working Group, California Space Institute, University of California at San Diego, April 1983. 8D. Koch, External Tank Gamma Ray Imaging Telescope Study, Final Report, Contract A71128 (for Martin Marietta Corp), Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA, 1987. 9National Commission on Space, Pioneering the Space Frontier, Bantam Books, New York, May 1986, p 84. 1°National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act, 1988 Report 100-204, 7 July 1982, p 22. (Emphasis supplied here.) The NASA Authorization
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Reports Act, 1987, included similar recommendations in a section titled 'External Tanks as Space Assets', Report 99-829, 16 September 1986, pp 32-33. ~lSee Documentation in this issue of Space Policy. ~2See Public Law 98-361 (which modifies the 1958 Space Act): '... [NASA should] seek and encourage, to the maximum extent possible, the fullest commercial use of space'; also Eric Bloch, 'Managing for challenging times: a national research strategy', Issues in Science and Technology, winter 1986, pp 20-29, wherein the Director of the National Science Foundation urges new roles and more cooperative and innovative relationships among research institutions, and proposes that federal funds be used as a catalyst to leverage research resources by stimulating increased support from the private sector; also New Alliances and Partnerships in American Science and Engineering, prepared by the Government-UniversityIndustry Research Roundtable under the sponsorship of the National Academies of Science and Engineering, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 1986. laSpace: America's New Competitive Frontier, Business-Higher Education Forum, Washington, DC, August 1986. This report was issued by a task force under the co-chairmanship of the President of the California Institute of Technology, and the Chairman and CEO of Rock-
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well International Corporation. It was recommended for wide distribution by the Forum membership of 42 university presidents and 41 corporate CEOs. ~"New York Times, 22 September 1986, p14. ~SSee,for example, G.A. Hazelrigg, Jr and M.E. Hymowicz, Research in Space: Prelude to Commercialization, prepared at the National Science Foundation for presentation at the 37th Congress of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), Washington, DC, October 1986. ~6AIthough the pressurized volume of a single ET is twice the total of that planned for the US Space Station, the use of ET volume planned by the Space Phoenix Program is more limited in scope. The facilities would play quite different, yet complementary roles. Whereas the Space Station will see many sophisticated, necessarily expensive, 'cutting-edge' technologies developed and used for the first time, recycled single-purpose ETs will draw upon technology that is already developed and has been space-qualified in such programmes as Skylab, Spacelab and Shuttle. ET facilities could relate to the Space Station in the way that warehouses relate to high-tech research facilities on Earth. ~TThe Human Role in Space, NASA-CR 171223, Washington, DC, September 1984. leThese sums will probably grow signifi-
cantly by the end of the century. Expenditures for a wide range of business activities, including communications, insurance, health care, clothing, food, legal services, and engineering, will become increasingly important. 19See Ref 1. 2°National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 1986, Public Law 99-170. 21A Bill to Establish a National Space Grant College Program, Senate Bill S.2098, 25 February 1986. 221t is worth noting that the creation of the Comsat Corporation and its initial public sale of $200 million of stock in 1964 (nearly $1 billion in 1987 dollars) was rooted in the 'grant' of communicating 'rights' to Comsat. This bold and far-reaching congressional action has caused the creation of a multibillion dollar space communications industry which, in turn, has assured US world dominance in this vital arena, increasing technology and creating tens of thousands of jobs. 2aUS crew size will be confined to some half a dozen persons owing to size limitations of the Space Station. The 'overhead' demanded by such functions as service, diagnostics, repair, logistics, maintenance, assembly, communications, arrivals and departures, exercise, rest, recreation, eating and sleeping, will further constrain the productive time and numbers and personnel available for scientific research.
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