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Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Robert Zubrin



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Zubrin
Robert Zubrin by the Mars Society.jpg
Photo of Zubrin by the Mars Society
Born (1952-04-09) April 9, 1952 (age 62)
Residence Lakewood, Colorado
Nationality American
Fields Aerospace engineering
Institutions Martin Marietta
Pioneer Astronautics
Alma mater University of Rochester
(B.A)
University of Washington
(M.S), (PhD)
Known for Mars Direct
Mars Society
The Case for Mars
Energy Victory

Robert Zubrin (born April 9, 1952) is an American aerospace engineer and author, best known for his advocacy of the manned exploration of Mars. He was the driving force behind Mars Direct—a proposal intended to produce significant reductions in the cost and complexity of such a mission. The key idea was to use the Martian atmosphere to produce oxygen, water, and rocket propellant for the surface stay and return journey. A modified version of the plan was subsequently adopted by NASA as their "design reference mission". He questions the delay and cost-to-benefit ratio of first establishing a base or outpost on an asteroid or another Project Apollo-like return to the Moon, as neither would be able to provide all of its own oxygen, water, or energy; these resources are producible on Mars, and he expects people would be there thereafter.[1]

Disappointed with the lack of interest from government in Mars exploration and after the success of his book The Case for Mars as well as leadership experience at the National Space Society, Zubrin established the Mars Society in 1998. This is an international organization advocating a manned Mars mission as a goal, by private funding if possible.

Zubrin lives in Lakewood, Colorado; he has two daughters, Rachel and Sarah.

Qualifications and professional experience

Zubrin holds a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Rochester (1974), a M.S. in Nuclear Engineering (1984), a M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics (1986), and a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering (1992) — all from the University of Washington.[2][3] He has developed a number of concepts for space propulsion and exploration, and is the author of over 200 technical and non-technical papers and five books. He was a member of Lockheed Martin's scenario development team charged with developing strategies for space exploration. He was also "a senior engineer with the Martin Marietta Astronautics company, working as one of its leaders in development of advanced concepts for interplanetary missions" (The Case for Mars 1996). He is also President of both the Mars Society and Pioneer Astronautics, a private company that does research and development on innovative aerospace technologies. Zubrin is the co-inventor on a U.S. design patent and a U.S. utility patent on a hybrid rocket/airplane, and on a U.S. utility patent on an oxygen supply system (see links below). He was awarded his first patent at age 20 in 1972 for Three Player Chess. His inventions also include the nuclear salt-water rocket and co-inventor (with Dana Andrews) of the magnetic sail.

Pioneer Energy

In 2008, Zubrin founded Pioneer Energy, a research and development firm headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado. The company's focus is to develop mobile Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) systems that can enable CO2-based EOR for both small and large oil producers in the United States.
The company has also developed a number of new processes for manufacturing synthetic fuels.[citation needed]

Books

Books edited or co-authored

Zubrin has also edited or co-edited the following books, most of which include contributions he wrote:
  • Islands in the Sky: Bold New Ideas for Colonizing Space (1996), co-edited with Stanley Schmidt. This is a collection of fifteen selected non-fiction entries that had been published in Analog magazine over the years; it includes five articles authored or co-authored by Zubrin, including "The Hypersonic Skyhook", "Mars Direct: A Proposal for the Rapid Exploration and Colonization of the Red Planet" (co-authored with David A. Baker), "Colonizing the Outer Solar System", "Terraforming Mars" (co-authored with Christopher McKay), and "The Magnetic Sail". Notable additional contributors include Robert L. Forward and the godfather of terraforming, Martyn J. Fogg, each of whom contributed two articles.
  • From Imagination to Reality: Mars Exploration Studies of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society : Precursors and Early Piloted Exploration Missions (1997).
  • From Imagination to Reality: Mars Exploration Studies of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society : Base Building, Colonization and Terraformation (1997).
  • Proceedings of the Founding Convention of the Mars Society (1999), co-edited with Maggie Zubrin. This contains articles corresponding to talks presented at the founding convention of the Mars Society in Boulder, Colorado in August 1998; it includes contributions from Zubrin, Buzz Aldrin, Martyn Fogg, and many others.
  • On to Mars: Colonizing a New World (2002 Apogee Books), co-edited with Frank Crossman. This contains articles corresponding to talks presented at the annual conventions of the Mars Society in Boulder in 1999, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2000, and at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California in 2001.
  • On to Mars 2: Exploring and Settling a New World (2005 Apogee Books), co-edited with Frank Crossman. This contains over 130 articles corresponding to talks presented at the annual conventions of the Mars Society in Boulder in 2002, in Eugene, Oregon in 2003, and in Chicago, Illinois in 2004.

The ethics of terraforming

Dr. Zubrin is known as an advocate of a moderately anthropocentric position in the ethics of terraforming. Discussions of the ethics of terraforming often[citation needed] make reference to a series of public debates Zubrin has held with his friend Christopher McKay, who advocates a moderately biocentric position on the ethics of terraforming. For example, a written account of some of these debates is available in On to Mars: Colonizing a New World, as a joint article, "Do Indigenous Martian Bacteria have Precedence over Human Exploration?" (pp. 177–182)

Cultural references

An aging Robert Zubrin also appears as a background character in The Martian Race (1999) by Gregory Benford, a science fiction novel depicting early human explorers on Mars in the very near future. Benford, who is also an astrophysicist, is a longtime member of both the board of directors and the steering committee of the Mars Society.

Robert Zubrin was also recently featured in a CBC Television documentary special, The Passionate Eye, dubbed "The Mars Underground".[6]

The songwriter and musician Frank Black (alias Black Francis of the Pixies) penned an homage to Zubrin, "Robert Onion", on the album Dog in the Sand. The lyrics form an acrostic spelling "Robert The Case For Mars Zubrin".[7]

In 2010 Robert Zubrin was featured in the Symphony of Science video "The Case for Mars" along with Carl Sagan, Brian Cox, and Penelope Boston.

The fictional character Dr. Zachary Walzer in the 2010 independent VODO series Pioneer One is loosely based on Zubrin.[citation needed]

Patents


at

Orbital Sciences Corporation



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Orbital Sciences Corporation
Public
Traded as NYSE: ORB
Industry Aerospace and Defense
Founded Vienna, Virginia, United States (1982 (1982))
Founder David W. Thompson
Bruce W. Ferguson
Scott L. Webster
Headquarters Dulles, Virginia, United States
Area served
 Global
Key people
 David W. Thompson,
Chairman, President and CEO
Garrett E. Pierce,
Vice Chairman and CFO
Antonio L. Elias,
Executive Vice President and CTO
Products Space Launch Vehicles, Missile Defense Systems, Satellites and Related Systems, Advanced Space Systems, Space Technical Services
Revenue Increase US$1.37 billion (FY 2013)[1]
Increase US$113.55 million (FY 2013)[1]
Increase US$68.37 million (FY 2013)[1]
Total assets Increase US$1.28 billion (FY 2013)[1]
Total equity Increase US$795.3 million (FY 2013)[1]
Number of employees
 3,300 +(February, 2014)[1]
Divisions Launch Systems Group
Space Systems Group
Advanced Programs Group
Technical Services Division
Website www.orbital.com

Orbital Sciences Corporation (commonly referred to as Orbital) is an American-based company specializing in the design, manufacture and launch of small- and medium- class space and rocket systems for commercial, military and other government customers. It is headquartered in Dulles, Virginia and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol ORB. Orbital’s primary products are satellites and launch vehicles, including low-Earth orbit, geosynchronous-Earth orbit and planetary spacecraft for communications, remote sensing, scientific and defense missions; ground- and air-launched rockets that deliver satellites into orbit; missile defense systems that are used as interceptor and target vehicles; and human-rated space systems for Earth-orbit, lunar and other missions. Orbital also provides satellite subsystems and space-related technical services to government agencies and laboratories.[2]

On April 29, 2014, Orbital Sciences announced that it will merge with Alliant Techsystems to create a new company called Orbital ATK, Inc.[3] Orbital ATK will be headquartered at the current Orbital Sciences headquarters in Dulles, Virginia.[3]

On October 28, 2014, an Orbital Antares rocket built with Soviet-era AJ-26 engines, and destined for the ISS, exploded seconds after liftoff. About 2,250 kg of equipment and numerous scientific experiments were lost. No injuries were reported.

History

Orbital was founded and incorporated in 1982 by three friends who had met earlier while at Harvard Business School—David W. Thompson, Bruce Ferguson and Scott Webster. In 1985, Orbital procured its first contract for providing up to four Transfer Orbital Stage (TOS) vehicles to NASA. In 1987, the seeds for the ORBCOMM constellation were planted when Orbital began investigating a system using Low Earth Orbit satellites to collect data from remote locations. In 1988, Orbital acquired Space Data Corporation in Arizona- one of the world's leading suppliers of suborbital rockets- thereby broadening its rocket business and manufacturing capabilities. This was followed by the opening of a new facility in Chandler, Arizona in 1989 to house the company's expanding rocket business.[4] In 1990, the company successfully carried out eight space missions, highlighted by the initial launch of the Pegasus rocket, the world's first privately developed space launch vehicle.
Shortly following the successful Pegasus launch, Orbital conducted an IPO in 1990 and began trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange. In 1993, Orbital established its current headquarters in Dulles, Virginia followed by the acquisition of Fairchild Space and Defense Corporation in 1994. In the same year (1994), Orbital successfully conducted the inaugural launch of the Taurus (now renamed as Minotaur-C) rocket. Orbital's acquisitions continued throughout the 1990s including the acquisition of CTA, Inc in 1997, a company having designed and built the first geostationary "lightsat" under contract to Indonesia for Asia's first Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) television broadcast program - providing an entry into the fast-growing Geosynchronous (GEO) communications satellite market.[5]

In the early 2000s, Orbital continued expanding its missile defense systems business with a $900 million award to develop, build, test and support interceptor booster vehicles. In 2006 Orbital conducted its 500th mission since the company’s founding with a diverse portfolio of products that included satellites, launch vehicles, and missile defense systems. In 2007, the first interplanetary spacecraft built by Orbital, Dawn was launched on an eight year, three-billion-mile journey to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. A major milestone in the company's history was in 2008 when it received a long-term NASA contract to provide cargo transportation services to and from the International Space Station (ISS) with a value of approximately $1.9 billion for missions from 2011 to 2015.[6] Orbital is currently on-track to deliver on this contract with its Cygnus spacecraft and Antares rocket following the success of Cygnus Orb-D1 and Cygnus CRS Orb-1.

In 2010, Orbital announced its acquisition of the Gilbert, Arizona-based satellite development and manufacturing unit from General Dynamics to complement its main satellite manufacturing facility in Dulles, Virginia.[7]

On April 29, 2014, Orbital Sciences announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement with Alliant Techsystems to combine Orbital and ATK's Aerospace and Defense (A&D) Groups to create a $4.5 billion (combined calendar year 2013 annual revenue), 13000-person company. The new company will be called Orbital ATK, Inc., and will serve U.S. and international customers with leading positions in the markets for space launch vehicles and propulsion systems, tactical missiles and defense electronics, satellites and space systems, armament systems and ammunition, and commercial and military aircraft structures and related components.[3]

Business groups

Space Systems Group (SSG)


NASA's Dawn spacecraft built by Orbital

Orbital is a provider of small- to medium-class satellites. Since the company's founding in 1982, Orbital has delivered 150 spacecraft to commercial, military and civil customers worldwide. To date, these spacecraft have amassed well over 1000 years of on-orbit operations.[8] The Communications & Imaging Satellites developed by Orbital are smaller and more affordable. The Geosynchronous orbit (GEO) communications satellites provide commercial satellite services such as direct-to-home digital television, business data transmission, cable program distribution and wireless communications. In addition, Orbital also provides constellations of Low Earth orbitcommunications satellites such as the 35-satellite ORBCOMM data communications network, and the 81 spacecrafts (integration and test) for the IridiumNEXT constellation. Earth imagery and high resolution digital imaging satellites such as the OrbView series are also developed and manufactured by Orbital.

The Science & Environmental Satellites developed by Orbital perform scientific research, carry out deep space exploration (e.g. Dawn spacecraft, conduct remote sensing missions (e.g. Landsat 4, 5 and 8), and demonstrate new space technologies. In the last 10 years, Orbital has built more scientific and environmental monitoring satellites for NASA than any other company.[8]

Launch Systems Group (LSG)

Orbital's space launch vehicles are considered the industry standard for boosting small payloads to orbit. The Pegasus rocket is launched from the company's L-1011 carrier aircraft, Stargazer and has proven to be the industry's small space launch workhorse, having conducted 40 missions from six different launch sites worldwide since 1990.[9]

The Minotaur ground-launched rockets combine Pegasus upper stages with either government-supplied or commercially available first-stage rocket motors to boost larger payloads to orbit. Minotaur IV combines decommissioned Peacekeeper rocket motors with proven Orbital avionics and fairings to provide increased lifting capacity for government-sponsored payloads.[9]

With the development of the Antares space launch vehicle, Orbital is extending its capabilities to provide medium-class launch services for U.S. government, commercial and international customers. The inaugural launch of Antares occurred on April 21, 2013 from Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island, Virginia.[9]

Orbital is also a major provider of suborbital target and interceptor launch vehicles for the U.S. missile defense systems. In the last 10 years, Orbital conducted nearly 50 major launches for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the Air Force, the Army and Navy to develop, test and enhance U.S. missile defense systems.[9]

Advanced Programs Group (APG)


Cygnus approaching ISS

Orbital’s Advanced Programs Group focuses on developing and producing human-rated space systems, satellites and related systems for national security space programs, and advanced flight systems for atmospheric and space missions.[10]

In support of human space systems, Orbital is one of two companies providing commercial cargo resupply services to the International Space Station for NASA. Orbital's medium-class rocket- Antares is used to launch the Cygnus advanced maneuvering spacecraft to deliver cargo to the ISS. Under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA, Orbital will perform eight cargo missions to the ISS. Operational flights began in 2013 from the new Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island in Virginia. In addition, the company is exploring opportunities to adapt the Cygnus design for other possible space exploration applications.[10]

For National Security Space Systems, Orbital provides products ranging from smaller, more affordable spacecraft busses to hosted payload applications. For Advanced Flight Systems, Orbital is applying its to design and build an intermediate-class air-launched rocket system for Stratolaunch Systems. Orbital has developed the operational concept and completed the preliminary design for the air-launched rocket . It will be responsible for the development, production, test and operations of the full system and related ground operations.[10]

Technical Services Division (TSD)

The Technical Services Division (TSD) provides engineering, production and technical management expertise primarily for space-related science and defense programs. Typically, it supplies specialized personnel — engineers, scientists, technicians and other professionals — with specific knowledge in the areas that its customers are pursuing. The Orbital employees often work side-by-side with the customers' technical staff at their facilities. They perform a wide range of functions, from system-level efforts such as special payload equipment and training support for NASA's Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions to component-level tasks including development of high-energy microwave transmitters for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.[11]

Primary facility locations

Orbital's primary locations are listed below-[12]
Some of Orbital's locations across USA

Orbital products

Space launch vehicles

  • Minotaur- Employing a combination of U.S. government-supplied rocket motors and Orbital's commercial launch technologies, the Minotaur family of launchers provides low-cost access to space for government sponsored payloads.[13]

    The GQM-163A Coyote flies over the bow of the U.S. Navy observation ship during a routine test
    • Minotaur I- Minotaur I made its inaugural flight in January 2000, successfully delivering several small military and university satellites into orbit and marking the first-ever use of residual U.S. Government Minuteman boosters in a space launch vehicle. To date, Minotaur I has conducted 11 missions with a 100% success record, having launched a total of 62 satellites.
    • Minotaur IV-The Minotaur IV space launch vehicle consists of three Peacekeeper solid rocket stages, a commercial Orion 38 fourth-stage motor and subsystems derived from OSC's established space launch boosters, including a flight-proven standard 92-inch fairing. Capable of boosting payloads more than 1,750 kg into orbit, Minotaur IV supports dedicated or shared launch missions and is compatible with multiple U.S. government and commercial launch sites. The inaugural Minotaur IV flight occurred in 2010 and five missions have been conducted to date with a 100% success record boosting nine satellite into orbit and two hypersonic flight vehicles on suborbital trajectories.
    • Minotaur V-Minotaur V is a five-stage evolutionary version of Minotaur IV to provide a cost effective capability to launch U.S. Government-sponsored small spacecraft into high energy trajectories, including Geosynchronous Transfer Orbits (GTO) as well as translunar and beyond. Like Minotaur IV, the first three stages of the Minotaur V are former Peacekeeper solid rocket motors. The fourth and fifth stages are commercial STAR™ motors. The inaugural Minotaur V mission successfully boosted NASA's LADEE spacecraft on a lunar trajectory in September 2013.
    • Minotaur VI - The Minotaur VI vehicle adds a lower stage to the existing and flight demonstrated Minotaur IV vehicle configuration providing a significant increase in performance with only a modest increase in cost. Capable of boosting up to 2,600 kg to Low-Earth Orbit, Minotaur VI is also available with an optional upper-stage motor for high energy trajectory missions.
    • Minotaur-C - The Minotaur-C (formerly known as Taurus) space launch vehicle is a commercial variant of the Minotaur product line designed to serve the U.S. government market. Of 9 launches, 6 have been successful.
  • Pegasus- The three-stage Pegasus is used to deploy small satellites weighing up to 1,000 pounds into low-Earth orbit. Pegasus is carried aloft by the "Stargazer" L-1011 aircraft to approximately 40,000 feet over open ocean, where it is released and free-falls five seconds before igniting its first-stage rocket motor. With its unique delta-shaped wing, Pegasus typically delivers satellites into orbit in a little over 10 minutes. Pegasus has conducted 42 missions since its inaugural launch in 1990, 37 of which were complete successes.
  • Antares - Antares is a two-stage launch vehicle designed to deliver medium-class payloads weighing up to 6120 kg into space. Antares utilizes refurbished Russian-built engines which were originally manufactured in the 1960s and 1970s for the Soviet moon rocket.[14] Initially developed to demonstrate commercial re-supply of the International Space Station under a NASA contract, the first launch took place on April 21, 2013, from Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia. The fifth launch ended in failure on October 28, 2014, completely destroying the vehicle and damaging the launch pad.[15]
  • Antares follow on - Following the loss of the Antares rocket on the Orb-3 mission in October 2014, Orbital announced that it would not use "the 40-year-old AJ-26 engines on the rocket’s next flight."[16] The new first stage engine is reportedly the Russian RD-193 rather than the AJ-26 engines used in the initial version of the Antares launch vehicle, which were remanufactured Russian NK-33s.[17] Orbital Sciences Corp. has reportedly signed a contract with Russia’s Energomash to supply 60 new built RD-181 engines for the Antares rocket.[18] While Antares/AJ-26 is not flying and the follow-on launch vehicle is in development and test, Orbital is shopping to purchase launch services for its Cygnus capsule to ISS cargo runs temporarily from another launch service provider.[16]

Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) to ISS

With the successful demonstration in September 2013 of the Cygnus spacecraft and the Antares launch vehicle under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, Orbital commenced regular ISS cargo missions under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.
The total NASA contract to Orbital is worth $1.9 Billion for providing eight pressurized cargo missions to the ISS.[19] Cygnus is capable of delivering 2,000 kg of pressurized cargo to the ISS. An enhanced version to be flown in later CRS missions is able to deliver 2,700 kg of pressurized cargo. The first of the eight contracted Cygnus missions to the ISS was completed on 18 February 2014. The October 28, 2014, launch failure was the third contracted Cygnus mission to the ISS.[20]

Missile Defense Systems - interceptors and targets

Orbital's Missile Defense Systems product line consists of interceptors and target vehicles.[21]
  • The Ground-Based Interceptor - Orbital is the sole supplier of interceptor boosters for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, to defend against long-range ballistic missile attacks. The GMD system is designed to intercept and destroy hostile ballistic missiles in their midcourse phase of flight before they reenter the Earth's atmosphere. Orbital is responsible for the design, development and testing of the Orbital Boost Vehicle (OBV), a silo-launched, three-stage rocket derived from its Pegasus, Taurus and Minotaur space launch boosters. The OBV has successfully conducted multiple test flights and has been deployed in silos in Alaska and California.
  • Ballistic Missile Targets- Orbital's family of target vehicles extends from long-range ballistic target launch vehicles, which include targets for testing MDA’s GMD system, to medium- and short-range target vehicles. Current programs include Air-launched Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) targets and Ground-launched Intercontinental Ballistic Missile(ICBM) targets.
  • GQM-163A “Coyote” Anti-Ship Cruise Missile Target - The GQM-163A “Coyote” is used for Anti-Ship Cruise Missile (ASCM) targets. It can achieve cruise speeds of over Mach 2.5 while flying approximately 15 feet above the ocean's surface ("sea-skimming" trajectory). In addition to this sea-skimming trajectory, Orbital has also successfully demonstrated a "high diver" trajectory mission.[22]

Communications satellites

GEO communications satellites

With its proprietary GEOStar-2 satellite platform, Orbital has become a leading supplier of 1.5 - 5.5 kilowatt Geosynchronous-Earth Orbit (GEO) communications satellites used to provide direct-to-home TV broadcasting, cable program distribution, business data network capacity, regional mobile communications and similar services. With its new GEOStar-3 satellite platform, Orbital is extending its capabilities with up to 8 kW of total satellite payload power. The list of Orbital built GeoStar satellites are provided next.[23]

LEO communications satellites
ORBCOMM
Orbital is also a provider of low-Earth orbit (LEO) communications satellites, having conceived, built and deployed the ORBCOMM network. ORBCOMM was the first global communications network to employ a constellation of LEO satellites. From 1994 -1999, Orbital built and deployed 35 satellites, and integrated five “gateway” ground stations and a network operations center to manage the satellites and process their data.
Iridium NEXT
Under a contract with Thales Alenia Space, Orbital is conducting integration and test services for Iridium NEXT, the next-generation satellite constellation of Iridium Communications Inc. Orbital will integrate the communications payloads and platforms for 81 low-Earth orbit Iridium NEXT satellites and test the systems at its satellite manufacturing facility in Gilbert, Arizona.[23]

Imaging satellites

Orbital Imaging spacecrafts are designed to provide commercial Earth imaging services. The OrbView series of spacecraft paved the way for today’s space-based Earth imaging industry. In addition to the OrbView satellites the company also built the GeoEye-1 high resolution imaging satellite. Orbital LEOStar-2 and -3 spacecraft platforms are designed to support a variety of multispectral, visible and thermal imaging payloads. A list of commercial imaging satellites built by Orbital is provided next.[24]

Science and environmental satellites


TESS satellite

GALEX being mated to the Pegasus

Deep Space I's flyby of comet 19P/Borrelly (artist rendering)

Orbital built Science and Environmental satellites conduct astrophysics, Remote sensing/Earth Observation, heliophysics, planetary exploration and technology demonstration missions. These satellites are built on Orbital's LEOStar-1,-2, or -3 satellite platforms depending on the mission requirements and budget.[25]

Astrophysics satellites

Orbital's current and heritage astrophysics satellites are as listed below:
Remote sensing/Earth observation

Orbital's current and heritage Remote Sensing/Earth Observation satellites are as listed below:
Heliophysics

Orbital's heritage Heliophysics satellites are as listed below:
Planetary exploration

Orbital's heritage Planetary Exploration Heliophysics satellites are as listed below:
  • Dawn for NASA/ JPL- launched in 2007
  • Deep Space 1 for NASA/ JPL- launched in 1998

National security systems

Orbital's national security systems range from smaller, more affordable spacecraft busses (e.g. Disaggregated Systems) to hosted payload applications.[26]

Orbital advocates disaggregated systems because conceptually disaggregated systems can lower the cost and accelerate the development and deployment of national security space systems. For example, Orbital's GEOStar-1 spacecraft provides a compact platform optimized for GEO missions (adaptable for MEO for launch aboard Minotaur, Falcon, and EELV launch vehicles to deliver resilient capabilities in a relatively short period of time (years instead of decades).[26] Orbital's Hosted Payload capabilities in National Security Systems include the Hosted Infrared Payload (CHIRP) program for the U.S. Air Force. The wide-field of view sensor was hosted on an Orbital-built commercial GEO Communications satellite. Orbital’s hosted payload program takes advantage of the high frequency of commercial satellite launches and the excess resources that typically exist on a commercial communications satellite to provide frequent and low-cost access to space for National Security Systems.[26]

Advanced flight systems

Orbital's current advanced flight systems programs include the contract with Stratolaunch Systems to design a new intermediate-class rocket to be carried aloft and launched from the largest aircraft ever built-Stratolaunch carrier aircraft. Orbital is responsible for the program's overall systems engineering, and the development, production, test, and operations of the air-launch rocket and related ground operations, including payload and launch vehicle integration. A demo launch is currently scheduled for 2017. Orbital's heritage programs in advanced flight systems include the NASA X-34 and X-43 programs, and the Orion Launch Abort System, among others.[27]

at

Reusability revival

AIAA illustration
An illustration from a 2008 AIAA paper shows ULA’s concept for recovering and reusing the Atlas V first stage engine module. (credit: ULA)

by Jeff Foust
Monday, February 16, 2015

Original link:  http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2696/1
 
For the last several years, SpaceX and its founder, Elon Musk, have made clear their interest in making reusable versions of the Falcon 9 rocket, and have been backing up that interest with demonstrations and test flights. Most of the rest of the industry, though, sighed and shrugged. Been there and tried that, they said as recently as a year ago at a satellite conference in Washington. Even if it could be done, they argued, there was little in the way of a business case for a reusable launcher that could fly at significantly lower prices than today’s expendables (see “Reusability and other issues facing the launch industry”, The Space Review, March 24, 2014).
“I think it’s quite likely—probably 80 to 90 percent likely—that one of those flights will be able to land and refly,” Musk said in October.

Today, the situation is changing. As SpaceX inches closer to at least recovering a rocket stage for potential reuse, including two tests in as many months that came close to landing a Falcon 9 first stage on a ship, other companies are taking notice. One company in particular, SpaceX’s strongest rival for US government missions, is now actively talking about reusing at least part of its launch vehicles.

“Close, but no cigar”

On several launches last year, SpaceX attempted to demonstrate “landing” a first stage on the ocean surface. Those tests demonstrated that the stage could reach the surface at zero velocity, but the stages themselves could not be recovered, broken apart by the seas.

In October, Elon Musk announced the next phase of SpaceX’s reusability efforts. Instead of landing the stage in the open ocean, the company would attempt to land the stage on a custom-designed ship with a deck about 90 meters long and 50 meters across. Musk said at an MIT symposium that the ship would be first used on SpaceX’s next launch, the fifth in the company’s series of cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station.

Even then, though, he made it clear that the upcoming test would not be a one-shot deal. “There’s at least a dozen launches that will occur over the next 12 months,” he said. “I think it’s quite likely—probably 80 to 90 percent likely—that one of those flights will be able to land and refly.”

That launch, delayed from mid-December due to issues with the Falcon 9 rocket as well as a period around the new year when ISS access was limited, finally took place in the pre-dawn hours of January 10. The launch itself was a success, sending a Dragon cargo spacecraft to the ISS. As for the landing attempt?

“Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard,” Musk tweeted shortly after the launch. “Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future tho.”

Musk said that four “X-wing” fins, located near the top of the stage and used to steer the vehicle during its descent, had worked well, but ran out of hydraulic fluid shortly before landing. The fins went “hardover,” he said later, making it difficult for the engines to compensate.

Initially Musk said there was no images of video of the landing attempt, citing both darkness and fog. But, less than a week later, he posted a set of images in response to an inquiry via Twitter from John Carmack, who also worked on vertical landing technology with Armadillo Aerospace. The images showed the stage hitting the deck of the ship at a 45-degree angle, and then exploding.

“Full RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly) event,” Musk said in a tweet showing the last of the series of the images, of the stage exploding. “Ship is fine minor repairs. Exciting day!”
F9 first stage landing
The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 exploding as it crash-landed on the company’s ship January 10. (credit: SpaceX)

The ship, since christened Just Read the Instructions (the name of a ship in the novels of the late science fiction author Iain M. Banks), was repaired and ready to go for SpaceX’s next launch, of the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) spacecraft, a joint mission of NASA, NOAA, and the US Air Force. DSCOVR’s history predates that of SpaceX itself: it started as Triana, a mission NASA started in the late 1990s at the behest of then-Vice President Al Gore, to provide realtime images of the Earth from the Earth-Sun L1 Lagrange point. Triana was cancelled in 2001 but revived eight years later as DSCOVR, with a primary mission of space weather observations.

DSCOVR would be another opportunity for SpaceX to test a stage landing, although the different trajectory of the mission—flying out to L1, rather than to the inclined orbit of the ISS—presented its own challenges.
“[T]he data captured during this test suggests a high probability of being able to land the stage on the drone ship in better weather,” SpaceX said.

“The speed of the stage coming in is actually higher,” said Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of mission assurance for SpaceX, at a pre-launch press conference February 7, later noting that the dynamic pressure on the stage during reentry would be twice as high as the prior attempt. “That makes it a little bit less likely to succeed.”

Asked at the press conference what he thought the odds of success were, Koenigsmann said, “I think I’m going to stick with 50 percent, after careful deliberation.” Musk had said prior to the January attempt that the landing had a 50-percent chance of succeeding, only to admit in a Reddit.com chat that he made up that number. “I have no idea,” he wrote.

SpaceX was ready to launch DSCOVR, and test a stage landing, on February 8. However, a problem with an Air Force tracking radar scrubbed the launch. (There was also a problem with a telemetry transmitted on the Falcon 9 first stage, but Musk later said it was not a constraint to launch.) A second launch attempt two days later was also scrubbed, this time by strong upper level winds.

On the evening of February 11, weather was not an issue at the launch site, and both the rocket and the range were ready to launch. But weather had thrown SpaceX another curveball: high seas at the landing site, about 600 kilometers downrange from Cape Canaveral, were too rough for the ship. SpaceX officials said waves up to ten meters high, coupled with a problem with one of the four engines on the ship that keep it in position, forced them to with draw the ship. SpaceX would instead attempt what they tested in the past, “landing” the stage in the ocean, to see how precisely they could do it.

The Falcon 9 lifted off at sunset February 11, successfully delivering DSCOVR on its long-delayed journey to L1. Musk later tweeted, and the company confirmed in a statement, that the stage touched down on the ocean surface vertically, and within 10 meters of the planned position: sufficient accuracy for landing on the ship. “[T]he data captured during this test suggests a high probability of being able to land the stage on the drone ship in better weather,” the company said.

The company hasn’t disclosed when they’ll try another stage landing on its ship. At the pre-launch press conference, Koenigsmann said the next launch, of two commercial communications satellites planned for the evening of February 27, was not a candidate for a landing test (SpaceX has traditionally not tested reusability on launches of geostationary communications satellites in order to maximize the payload.) One possibility is the next mission to the ISS, currently scheduled for early April.

ULA explores reusability

Last August, United Launch Alliance announced the sudden retirement of its president and CEO, Michael Gass, who had been in charge of ULA since the merger of Boeing and Lockheed Martin’s launch vehicle divisions that created ULA was completed in 2006. ULA replaced Gass with Tory Bruno, someone not widely known in the space community but a veteran of Lockheed’s missile unit, where he was vice president and general manager before taking over ULA.

Bruno soon set himself apart as a different and, in many respects, more open leader than Gass. In December, Bruno opened up an account on Twitter, and was soon engaging with people, answering questions about ULA and its launch plans. That included questions about ULA’s launch vehicle plans, like its partnership with Blue Origin for an engine to replace the RD-180 that currently powers the Atlas V first stage, and also reusability.

“The true challenge of #reuse is economic, not technical,” he wrote in one tweet in early January. “More to say about our future at the #SpaceSymposium.” That was a reference to the Space Foundation’s annual conference in Colorado Springs in April, where Bruno said ULA would unveil its plans for a next-generation launch system.

Before the Space Symposium, though, Bruno discussed reusability more broadly in a February 4 speech at Stanford University, organized by a campus space group, the Stanford Student Space Initiative. The speech, webcast by the group, gave Bruno an opportunity to expand on his thoughts about reusability and what ULA might be contemplating.

“What if we could reuse the rocket? Would that not make launch more affordable?” he asked in his speech. That is a complex question, he argued, since “it involves a tightly coupled interaction of technology and economic considerations… It’s a much more complex, and therefore much more interesting, problem to talk about.”
A vehicle would have to be able to refly at least 14 or 15 times to be truly “economically attractive,” Bruno said. “That’s no longer a slam dunk.”

He spent much of his speech talking through the considerations, both technical and economic, involved with reusability. For reusability to work economically, the vehicle would have to be able to refly several times, he argued. “The good news is that you can break even, you can cover those costs of all of that stuff, probably in about seven or so reuses,” he said, citing studies performed by his company, NASA, and others. “That’s not bad.”

However, he said that a reusable vehicle had to do more than break even in order to justify the investment in reusability. “As it turns out, that cost recovery curve with reuses gets kind of flat and shallow,” he said. A vehicle would have to be able to refly at least 14 or 15 times to be truly “economically attractive,” he said. “That’s no longer a slam dunk.”

Bruno talked through the technical issues associated with reusability, covering some familiar ground for those who have been following SpaceX’s efforts. Recovering the first stage was “more forgiving” that the upper stage, he said. Simply having the first stage land on parachutes in the ocean, though, was also undesirable: “There is not one single thing on a rocket that likes salt water,” he quipped.

That pushed him towards returning the stage on land, which is SpaceX’s long-term goal as well (the company announced an agreement with the Air Force last week to lease Launch Complex 13 at Cape Canaveral to serve as a landing site for Falcon first stages.) A parachute landing on land was not advisable, he said, given the hard jolt to the stage that any parachute landing would generate. “That means you have to bring it back under controlled flight,” he said.

That sounds like SpaceX’s plans, but then Bruno diverged. “What if everything on that booster wasn’t of the same value? What if something on there was a lot more valuable than something else, and we could just bring that part back?” he asked.

As it turns out, of course, not everything on a launch vehicle has the same cost. “Most of the cost of a first stage booster is just one element: its rocket engine. It’s like two-thirds of the cost,” he said. “Maybe if we could come up with a systems engineering, technical solution to get just that part back, and it wasn’t too complicated and it wasn’t too expensive to recover it… we might be able to find a way to make this economically work.”

Bruno declined to go into greater details about this option, suggesting that he’ll go into more detail about ULA’s launch vehicle and reusability plans at the Space Symposium. But if ULA is indeed looking at ways to recover just the first stage engines of its next-generation booster, it won’t be the first time the company has studied this approach.

In a paper presented at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’s (AIAA’s) Space 2008 conference, a team of ULA engineers discussed a similar approach for the company’s Atlas V rocket. In that concept, the RD-180 engine module and Aft Transition Structure (ATS) would separate from the first stage after stage separation. That work would require only modest modifications to the structure, they said.

That engine/ATS module would then deploy a “hypercone”, a type of inflatable ballute to slow the stage down and protect it during reentry. The module would later release a parachute, and then a parafoil, to further slow it and to steer it. A helicopter would perform a midair recovery of the module, setting it down on land or a ship for transport back to the launch site.

“The ATS remains dry, and the setdown method is virtually zero impact, minimizing engine refurbishment scope and cost,” the authors note in the paper, echoing some of the considerations Bruno brought up in his speech. “This approach balances existing technology, realistic flight rates, and operational robustness to enable cost effective recovery and reuse of the RD-180.” The paper also projected maximum cost savings to result for three flights of the engines “without pushing the engine into extreme run times.”
“There will come a day when we’re going to and from space every day. There will be thousands of men and women living and working off this planet,” Bruno said. “When we are that point, expendable launch vehicles are not going to be practical.”

ULA followed up that paper with a 2010 paper, this one with a focus on plans to test the hypersonic decelerator technology. That technology, they argued, could be tested on Atlas V launches itself, making use of an external payload carrier with the same size and shape of a solid rocket booster used on the Atlas V first stage.

Whether that approach, or something like it, is in fact what ULA intends to pursue will have to wait until mid-April at least, when Bruno discusses the company’s vehicle plans at Space Symposium. In his Stanford speech, though, he indicated that reusable vehicles of some kind will be needed to realize his long-term vision of spaceflight, one not that different from the decades-old dreams of many space enthusiasts.

“There will come a day when we’re going to and from space every day. There will be thousands of men and women living and working off this planet,” he said. “When we are that point, expendable launch vehicles are not going to be practical… We will be driven directly to a single stage to orbital reusable spacecraft. That’s the way it’s going to be.”
Jeff Foust (jeff@thespacereview.com) is the editor and publisher of The Space Review, and a senior staff writer with SpaceNews. He also operates the Spacetoday.net web site. Views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author alone.
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