Two Anniversaries and Our (Private Sector) Future in Space
For those whose suborbital concepts focus on vertical takeoffs and landings, the Lunar Landing Challenge (LLC) has proven a spur to both team enthusiasm and investment. There will be several companies competing this month for first- and second-place prizes, including the aforementioned Armadillo and Masten and newcomers Unreasonable Rocket and BonNova.
The original X-Prize only had one serious competitor, but the variety of approaches being displayed in the LLC will provide a robust suite of technologies for affordable transportation not only for earth to orbit, but for access to other planetary surfaces as well. And it can be accomplished for a tiny fraction of the cost overrun on a typical NASA project.
Beyond that, it will provide a self-sustaining business base for some if not all of these new ventures that will allow them to provide affordable transport to both government and private customers. Their very existence has created a revolutionary new market for affordable space science that may provide the synergy with the providers necessary to profitably grow the industry. It will also demonstrate its value to the taxpayer by providing more science for the tax dollar. And as experience is gained in the suborbital world, the performance envelopes will be gradually expanded, flying higher and faster, applying lessons to newer generations of vehicles, until suborbital finally becomes orbital and space access finally becomes affordable, with all that implies for our future off planet.
It is a path from which we were diverted in the panic of Sputnik, over half a century ago, but are now firmly back on track as a result of that other anniversary half a decade ago. And with the continued disarray in the business-as-usual and unaffordable federal space policy, and as the establishment awaits a decision from the Obama administration in the wake of the Augustine report coming out this month, on this dual anniversary it’s looking increasingly like a new approach that will be unstoppable.
This is indeed an exciting time. I am just sad that I will probably miss the best to come.
All I can say is about bloody time.
I work for NASA out at Goldstone and I know first hand how much overrun there is in every bloody part of the process.
And this is just a ground tracking station! o.O!
I hope the private sector starts getting into deeper space, or at least lunar space, so I can change jobs.
I am extremely excited about private spaceflight. Virgin Galactic will be flying passengers in the next few years and XCOR is only a few years behind them. Both have fully reusable suborbital spaceplanes.
SpaceX will launch the Dragon capsule in the next few months. While their overall design is conservative their first stage booster is supposed to be reusable.
A few other companies are about to start test missions but they’re mostly under the radar.
I have long been in favor of privatizing space and space research. When I first brought it up to friends five years ago, I was greeted with looks ranging from puzzled to “are you out of your freaking mind?”. I’m glad someone else mentioned this topic! Kudos!
I think this is one of the few times imo when privatization is a really good idea. Whether we think it’s necessary or not, we need to continue to develop new forms of space travel and technology to facilitate it. What the ppl whose only argument is “we have too many problems down here to be worrying about this,” they fail to understand the two most important implications of aeronautical research. The first is for national defense… it’s bad enough that nasa has to rely on Russia to ferry them to the ISS. If we keep going at this rate, our disadvantage will only grow as they continue to develop new technologies in their space program while we pump the brakes on ours. Is air and space superiority something you really want the Russians to have? It doesn’t seem like a good idea for any one country to have, let alone one whom we have a sketchy history with. The second is that with aeronautical research comes a flood of new technologies, most of which are very applicable to us down on earth. For example, if it wasn’t for nasa, we wouldn’t have the chips that we use for non-invasive biopsies, solar energy, and a whole litany of other things (http://www.thespaceplace.com/nasa/spinoffs.html#Top has a good number of inventions that most of us don’t know came from our space program). And if you’re one of those ppl that are so skeptical (or cynical imo) that you still don’t think that any of the things on this list warrant a larger investment in a privatized space industry, just remember that while you sleep at night, you most likely have nasa to thank for that, too. If you use any type of home security system, chances are they use infrared and laser technology that came out of nasa’s research (just look at the adt security infrared camera page. They even admit that the technology came from nasa!)