The Stratos balloon missions pose many of the same challenges as a space mission. Red Bull has developed a sophisticated camera system to document the jumps:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTy07t5jt_k&w=700]

Written by Astro1 on March 15th, 2012 , Citizen Exploration

Felix Baumgartner has made his first test jump for the Red Bull Stratos team. On March 15, Baumgartner left the balloon-borne capsule at 71,581 feet. He free-fell for 3 minutes and 33 seconds before his parachute opened at 7,890 feet. During that time, he reached a maximum speed of 364.4 miles per hour.

Baumgartner is expected to reach higher velocities, exceeding the speed of sound, on future jumps from higher altitudes. Baumgartner is only the third human being to have jumped from this altitude, which requires a full pressure suit for life support. The goal for future missions is to reach a jump altitude of 120,000 feet, breaking the world record for high-altitude skydiving set by Colonel (then Captain) Joe Kittinger in 1960. The spacesuit technology being demonstrated on these jumps will be applicable to suborbital space vehicles.

Written by Astro1 on March 15th, 2012 , Citizen Exploration, Space Medicine and Safety

Scaled Composites recently completed the ninth full-scale firing of the RM2 rocket motor that will power SpaceShip Two. Scaled performed a 10-second burn followed by a 58-second burn, according to the test log.

The test continued evaluation of all systems and components including pressurization, valve/injector, fuel formulation and geometry, nozzle, structure, and performance. Scaled performed the first test-firing of a full-scale RM2 in April of 2009.

Virgin Galactic has stated that it intends to begin testing motors in powered flight on SpaceShip around the middle of this year.

Boeing’s Commercial Crew Space Transportation System, including the CST-100 capsule, Atlas V launcher, and ground system successfully completed its Preliminary Design Review on March 12. (Press release here.)

The PDR included representatives from Boeing, NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and independent consultants. Boeing has scheduled additional tests to be performed in 2012, including a launch abort engine hot fire test series, which was successfully completed on March 9, parachute drop tests in April, a landing air bag test series in May, a forward heat shield jettison test in June, and an attitude control engine hot fire test in June, to gather additional data on key functional elements of the spacecraft design.

The Boeing Commercial Crew Space Transportation System is designed to provide crewed flights to the ISS and a future Bigelow Aerospace orbital space station. The following video shows how the system might support a Bigelow station.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAqYQS6ufWc&w=700]

Sierra Nevada Corporation is developing the Dream Chaser, an orbital lifting-body spacecraft to be launched by an Atlas V rocket. Sierra Nevada plans to use Dream Chaser to provide commercial crew and cargo services to the International Space Station and to transport citizen space explorers. In 2011, the company received $80 million in funding under NASA’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Development (CCDEV) 2 program. With that funding, Sierra Nevada has constructed an atmospheric test vehicle which it plans to drop test in 2012.

Dream Chaser was derived from the HL-20 lifting body, which NASA studied in the 1980’s as a possible design for a Personnel Launch System (PLS) to supplement or replace the Space Shuttle. Sierra Nevada produced the following video, which shows how HL-20 evolved into Dream Chaser.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ECNVAN63lo&w=700]

This corporate video only tells part of the story. NASA’s HL-20 design was itself derived from an earlier, Russian design. The MiG-105 Spiral was the Soviet equivalent of the USAF ‘s X-20 DynaSoar, a military spaceplane being developing during the Cold War. Like the X-20 DynaSoar, the Spiral never made it into space. The Soviet Union did build and fly an atmospheric test version, though. The following video shows some of the flight tests and gives a preview of what we may see Dream Chaser doing later this year.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6bEhw1K–0&w=700]

Written by Astro1 on March 13th, 2012 , Citizen Exploration, Commercial Space (General), Sierra Nevada

The astronaut who holds the American record for EVA (ten spacewalks, totaling 67 hours) and the longest single space mission (215 days) has left NASA.

Capt. Michael Lopez-Alegria (USN-ret.) commanded Expedition 14 to the International Space Station in 2006. Prior to Expedition 14, Lopez-Alegria flew on three Shuttle flights (STS-73 in 1995, STS-92 in 2000, and STS-113 in 2002). Peggy Whitson, chief of the Astronaut Office at Johnson Space Center, said “Mike has been a huge asset to the astronaut office during the course of his career. “His contributions in spacewalking, shuttle, space station and Soyuz operations are notable and very distinguished.”

Captain Lopez-Alegria will now take up a new post as president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Capt. Lopez-Alegria has some previous experience with commercial spaceflight. Citizen explorer Anousheh Ansari launched with Expedition 14.

This transition is another sign that the commercial spaceflight industry is maturing. In the future, we will no doubt see many more astronauts transitioning from NASA to the private sector, some as executives like Captain Lopez-Alegria, some as mission specialists or pilots like Colonel Rick Searfoss. The size of the NASA astronaut corps is likely to shrink as the private sector takes over routine flights to orbit but new astronauts will be added for future flights to destinations beyond low Earth orbit.

Citizen space explorer Richard Garriott’s documentary movie is now available for pre-order or rental on iTunes.

You can rent Man on a Mission: Richard Garriott’s Road to the Stars in standard- or high-definition format for $6.99 or pre-order it for $14.99. The SXSW Film Festival Audience Award winner is also available on Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand, Blockbuster on Demand, and other services.

The son of Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott, computer-game pioneer Richard Garriott travelled to the International Space Station on Soyuz TMA-13 in 2008. During his flight, Garriott communicated with ham radio operators on Earth, grew protein crystals, and participated in the Windows on Earth project. He is also an investor in Space Adventures, which markets flights to the International Space Station and plans to market suborbital flights on Armadillo Aerospace’s Hyperion spacecraft.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNriN2NIMkk&w=700]

Written by Astro1 on March 11th, 2012 , Citizen Exploration

2012 promises to be a pivotal year for human spaceflight. Virgin Galactic has announced that it plans to begin powered test flights of SpaceShip Two around the middle of the year. XCOR Aerospace plans to roll out its Lynx suborbital spaceship about the same time and begin low-speed test flights by the end of the year. Sierra Nevada plans to conduct unpowered drop tests of its Dreamchaser lifting body in 2012 as well. And, of course, there’s SpaceX, which plans to test fly its Dragon capsule to the International Space Station this year. Armadillo Aerospace and Blue Origin are continuing development of their human-capable reusable spacecraft as well.

The era of widespread citizen spaceflight is drawing near. The next few years will see a revolution in low-cost access to space, comparable to the revolution which occurred in the computer industry with the introduction of the microcomputer. The number of private citizens who travel into space in the near future will dwarf the 500 people (mostly government astronauts and cosmonauts) who have flown up to now. For this reason, it is important that the public (especially potential space travelers) understand the risks and safety aspects of these new spacecraft.

Unfortunately, some organizations that should be helping to educate the public haven’t done their homework. One “new space” advocacy group recently made the following statements about suborbital spacecraft on its website:

One of the most common questions we ge is “Will the flights be safe?” The answer is ABSOLUTELY. We will not fly in any vehicle that hasn’t been approve by the FAA and been test flown for thousands of hours. The first vehicles will be those designed for general use in the space touism industry and will not be anymore hazardous than commercial air travel today.

Unfortunately, the errors here go far beyond the obvious typos.

Suborbital vehicles will not be “test flown for thousands of hours.” Suborbital flights will be fairly short. Flight durations may vary from 15 minutes or less (for VTOL rockets) to about an hour for air-launched vehicles like SpaceShip Two. Assuming that 30 minutes is typical and “thousands of hours” means just 2000 hours, this claim would translate into 4000 test flights. That is a huge number , by any standard. By comparison, the Boeing 787 had flown about 1700 test flights as of August, 2011. The 787 was a $32 billion program, according to Boeing. Virgin Galactic expect to spend about $500 million developing SpaceShip Two, and other companies hope to spend considerably less.

The new reusable suborbital spacecraft will be tested more throughly than any previous launch system before entering commercial service. In all probability, that means many dozens of test flights. If the flight test program uncovers problems that need to be fixed, it could run to 100 or more. Developers won’t know the exact number until they begin the flight-test program and see the results. It certainly won’t be thousands – no developer could afford that.

Nor does any vehicle developer, operator, or regulator expect that suborbital spacecraft will be as safe as commercial air travel is today. Today’s commercial airliners benefit from over 100 years of learning, experimentation, and continuous improvement. It would be unrealistic to expect the first reusable commercial spacecraft, which have not benefitted from that level of experience, to achieve the same level of safety right out of the box.

The authors of those statements do not understand how space vehicles (including suborbital vehicles) are regulated by the FAA. The FAA does not certify (“approve”) space vehicles for passenger safety, as it does for commercial aircraft. Airplanes get FAA type certificates; space vehicles get launch licenses. This not merely a difference in nomenclature. The FAA issues type certificates based on empirical data, not only from the specific aircraft under test but also from decades of experience with similar aircraft types.

That large base of empirical knowledge from similar types does not yet exist for reusable space vehicles. Only a few examples have been built and flown. Prior to SpaceShip One, there was only the X-15 and the partially reusable Space Shuttle. By contrast, hundreds of aircraft types were built and flown before the FAA was able to issue the first aircraft type certificates. Commercial space vehicles will have to go through a similar process of evolution to achieve similar results. There are no shortcuts.

Spacecraft developers, the FAA, and the United States Congress have recognized that type certification is not a realistic goal for the commercial space industry at the present time. As a result, Congress has created a launch-licensing regime rather than a certification regime. Unlike type certification, which is designed to protect aircraft passengers and payloads, launch licenses are designed to protect third parties. The FAA will regulate suborbital spacecraft to ensure that their operation does not pose a significant risk to the uninvolved public.

Spaceflight participants are another matter. Human spaceflight is, in the words of the United States Congress, an “intrinsically dangerous activity.” Neither the spacecraft developers, operators, nor the FAA have the body of data necessary to fully assess all of the possible risks. For this reason, the FAA does not attempt to mandate (or have the authority to mandate) a specific level of safety for participants. Instead, the FAA requires that spaceflight participants accept the risks through “informed consent.”

The FAA’s informed-consent regulations require vehicle operators to fully disclose all known and potential health and safety risks to spaceflight participants prior to flight. The spaceflight participant must understand and willingly accept those risks. (This means that spaceflight participants must be competent adults. Minors are not deemed legally capable of giving informed consent. Nor is a parent or guardian allowed to give informed consent for a minor.)

This form of regulation is similar to that found in the equine industry. Horseback riding is one of the most dangerous recreational activities. While there are no accurate figures, public-health authorities estimate that about 200 Americans are killed by horses each year. The government does not attempt to regulate the design or breeding of horses to ensure rider safety, however. Instead, an equine operator is required to inform riders of the risks inherent in equine activities, and the rider accepts those risks when he or she chooses to participate in equine activities.

Of course, the risks involved in spaceflight are more complex than the risks involved in getting thrown off a horse. Informed consent for spaceflight will involved a substantial degree of education, not just reading a sign on the side of a barn. Accurate information and qualified instruction will be essential.

That’s why statements like these, by well-meaning but poorly-informed enthusiasts, are troublesome. In the past, regulators paid little attention to advocacy groups that functioned as cheerleaders for concepts which were perceived (correctly) to be far beyond the horizon. As citizen spaceflight starts to become a reality, that is changing. We aren’t talking about viewgraph starships and science-fictional concepts anymore. We’re talking about real people, who will soon begin training to fly on real vehicles. It will be harder for spaceflight operators to provide the education necessary for informed consent if there is a general atmosphere of misinformation about vehicle safety created by careless, uninformed statements.

There’s also a danger that such statements could create a legal or regulatory backlash against vehicle operators when an accident occurs. As suborbital vehicles begin flying into space hundreds, then thousands, of times a year, some accidents are inevitable. Accidents frequently bring lawsuits. If that occurs, trial lawyers are certain to notice statements such as these made by overeager and uninformed cheerleaders in the space advocacy community. They could be introduced as evidence in an attempt to show that spaceflight participants were misled about the risks and level of safety. Politicians could also latch onto the statements and call for more tighter regulations, which could throttle the embryonic spaceflight industry.

The time for cheerleaders has past. Space-advocacy groups have an obligation to ensure the technical accuracy of statements they make, especially in public. Careless, technically inaccurate statements such as these have the potential to do far more harm than good.

UPDATE: See more recent post Cameron Reaches Challenger Deep.

Filmaker and citizen explorer James Cameron has constructed the world’s deepest diving submersible. Piloting the single-seat Deepsea Challenger, he hopes to reach the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, the deepest spot on Earth. Cameron is not alone in his venture, however. He is working with the National Geographic Society, Rolex, the Alfred Sloan Foundation, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the University of Hawaii, and the University of Guam.

Cameron has already tested the Deepsea Challenger at depths of up to 26,000 feet, as reported in this CNN video.

The Challenger Deep, 6.8 miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, has only been explored once before. That was in 1960 by the bathyscaphe Trieste carrying Swiss explorer Jacques Picard and US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh. The Trieste could only spend 20 minutes on the ocean bottom, however. Cameron expects to spend six hours on the bottom, filming the entire journey with 3D high-definition cameras.

At least three teams are now trying to reach the Challenger Deep once again. Competing teams are led by Sir Richard Branson, who has launched the Virgin Oceanic project, and Patrick Lahey of Triton Submarines, LLC.

The competitors may hope to win a proposed Deep Human Submersible X-Prize. The prize is still under development, according to the X-Prize website. If Cameron is successful in his current attempt, it seems doubtful that the prize will be in place in time for him to win it.

The Deepsea Challenger is a great model for a citizen-science/exploration project conceived and run by a nonprofessional scientist with significant input from and participation by professional scientific organizations. It should be noted that the cost and technical complexity of a deep-diving submersible are comparable to a suborbital vehicle. Perhaps, in the not-too-distant future, a wealthy enthusiast like Cameron will buy an XCOR Lynx or Armadillo Hyperion and begin his own space-science research program.

Virgin Oceanic video

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Sk_XEHfqwk&w=700]

Written by Astro1 on March 8th, 2012 , Citizen Exploration, Citizen Science (General), Oceanography

June Scobee Rogers, founding chairman of the Challenger Centers for Space Science Education, intends to become a teacher in space flying on one of the new suborbital spacecraft.

Dr. Rogers revealed her plans at the 2012 Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in Palo Alto, California.

Update: Dr Alan Stern has revealed that Challenger has taken two of the six flights which the Suborbital Application Researchers Group purchased on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip Two. In addition to June Scobee Rogers, Challenger will pick one participant and one backup through a contest among the 48 Challenger Centers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Astro1 on February 27th, 2012 , Citizen Exploration, Virgin Galactic

NASA has a new video showing the commercial vehicles now being developed to take NASA crew to the International Space Station. These vehicles will also enable citizen space explorers to go to ISS and other destinations in Low Earth Orbit, including new space stations built by companies like Bigelow Aerospace.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J5q2nMeqoQ&w=700]

Thanks to RLV News for pointing this out.

Written by Astro1 on February 25th, 2012 , Citizen Exploration, Commercial Space (General), Space Exploration (General)

Red Bull is sponsoring a parachute jump from a high-altitude balloon at the edge of space – 120,000 feet. The project is called Stratos.

In the early days of the Space Age, the US Air Force conducted high-altitude manned balloon experiments in Project Man High and Project Excelsior. In Project Excelsior, Colonel Joe Kittinger set a world’s record for the highest parachute jump, which the Stratos project seeks to break.

Even though this is not a rocket flight, it is helping to pave the way for citizen space exploration by testing spacesuit and life-support systems. When Felix Baumgartner walks out of the Stratos balloon gondola at 120,000 feet, it will be “one small step for a citizen explorer, one giant leap for citizen science.”

Written by Astro1 on February 19th, 2012 , Citizen Exploration, Space Medicine and Safety

These images, taken from the International Space Station, show the sort of views that citizen space explorers can expect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev9oPUNaqXE&w=700

Written by Astro1 on February 19th, 2012 , Citizen Exploration

Will citizen space explorers beat NASA back to the Moon?

Space Adventures is pushing the boundaries of citizen exploration by offering a privately funded circumlunar mission. The proposed flight would use Russian Soyuz hardware.

The Soviet Union flew two Zond (modified Soyuz) capsules around the Moon in 1968. Those unmanned test flights used a free-return trajectory – the same sort of trajectory famously used by Apollo 13. The circumlunar flight proposed by Space Adventures would use a similar trajectory.

Space Adventures says it already has a customer for one of the two seats it needs to fill. When it finds another customer, the flight will be booked and a launch date announced.

The seats are going for about $100 million, so finding another citizen explorer for the second seat may take a while. It’s too bad NASA doesn’t have the foresight to take advantage of this opportunity.

Written by Astro1 on February 18th, 2012 , Citizen Exploration, Commercial Space (General), Space Adventures Tags:

Armadillo Aerospace is a Texas-based company founded by video-game pioneer John Carmac. Armadillo won the first Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge and built the Project Morpheus lander for NASA. The company is currently working on a number of projects, including a suborbital rocket for Space Adventures.

Armadillo’s concept is a vertical-takeoff vertical-landing vehicle that bears an interest visual similarity to the Gemini capsule. Space Adventures has posted a Youtube video.

Written by Astro1 on February 17th, 2012 , Armadillo Aerospace, Citizen Exploration, Commercial Space (General), Space Adventures Tags:

Space Adventures is best known for offering trips to the International Space Station. With Soyuz flights currently going for $35 million a seat, not many people can afford that. Space Adventures does have some more affordable offerings for citizen explorers, though. They are working with Armadillo Aerospace to offer low-cost suborbital flights in the future. Right now, they are offering some very exciting tours of Russian space facilities, including the chance to watch a launch.

Written by Astro1 on February 16th, 2012 , Citizen Exploration, Space Adventures

Geekwire reports that the Soyuz TMA-14 capsule has been delivered to the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

Soyuz TMA-14 is historic because the capsule carried two citizen space explorers.

On launch, Soyuz TMA-14 carried former Microsoft executive Charles Simonyi on his second trip to the International Space Station. For the landing, Simonyi was replaced by another citizen explorer, Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté. Simonyi returned to Earth aboard the Soyuz TMA-13 capsule.

The Soyuz TMA-14 capsule is on long-term loan to the museum from Simonyi, who now owns it. It will be on display in the new Charles Simonyi Space Gallery.

Next time you’re in Seattle, stop in at the Museum of Flight and check it out.

Written by Astro1 on February 13th, 2012 , Citizen Exploration, Museums, Space Adventures