Hyperbola

JAXA reveals lunar systems work with new website

2008-07-18T11:24:26Z

credit: JAXA / click on image to see larger version in this window browser

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has unveiled a new website for its Space Exploration Center that includes a lunar outpost team webpage

The website blurb says: "Human Lunar Systems Team works for the conceptual system study on the future human lunar outpost. Based on the achievements and lessons learned from the International Space Station Program, system architecture on the basis of the international cooperation and the way of Japan's contribution are discussed continuously."]]> Here JAXA research on technologies for manned and robotic lunar exploration can be found

The research includes a robotic lunar rover that moves around rough terrain for in-situ surveying, sample collection, measurements, and installation of equipment; lunar drilling equipment; soil samplers; radiation detection; outpost assembly, construction robots; electronics that can cope with being exposeed ot the lunar envrionment; lunar soil return capsules and feature identification landig guidance systems

While this lunar exploration webpage refers to a Selene-X, an advanced lunar lander, that in the picture appears to carry a habitation module

credit: JAXA

And there is a webpage dedicated to the Selene-2 mission that will see a robotic lunar lander

ESA plans ISS cargo return vehicle

2008-07-18T10:16:58Z

credit: ESA / click on image to see larger version in same browser window

The European Space Agency has announced its intention to develop a cargo return vehicle (CARV) to bring back payload from the International Space Station. The CARV will be an evolution of the agency's expendable Automated Transfer vehicle (ATV)]]> a cargo return vehicle concept called CARV. It would be able to bring back "hundreds of kilograms".

The ATV consists of a propulsion module and a carrier section. The rentry capsule would replace the carrier. The CARV's return vehicle would use technology from ESA's 1998 Atmospheric Re-entry Demonstrator (ARD) capsule.

The CARV proposal was made public in the 17 July joint heads of agency statement. It said:
"ESA plans for an Automated Transfer Vehicle-Advanced Return Vehicle system for downmass from the ISS," and the agency told Flight, "it is a crucial part of the proposal to the [member states' space ministers'] meeting in November".

ESA's head of the future transportation and infrastructure division, Marco Caporicci, told Flight in 2004 that CARV would be compatible with the space station's wider-diameter US docking port, allowing larger items to be loaded and unloaded.

Caporicci also expected a 2010 in-service date for CARV if it had been approved in 2006, suggesting a 2013 start of operations assuming its approval at this November's ministerial meeting.

Farnborough: Samara Space Center Soyuz 2 3 facts and figures

2008-07-17T16:58:22Z

click to see larger version in same browser window

Note the NK-33 single engine for the first core stage ]]>
click on image to see larger version in the same browser window

click on image to see larger version in the same browser window

Orion mass issues threaten EVA capability

2008-07-16T07:50:47Z

NASA is concerned that the flight hardware for Orion crew exploration vehicle's (CEV) extra vehicular activity (EVA) system is too heavy for its CEV and is working towards a preliminary design that is light enough for April 2009

credit: NASA / click on image to get larger version]]> Orion will use an umbilical EVA system. In May this year NASA began developing design concept plans to meet the EVA System Requirements Document mass allocation

This followed an EVA system master equipment list that was reviewed in April after a mass margin management plan was worked up for the EVA systems project

September will see a Integrated Baseline Review with the prime contractor Lockheed Martin to update the Constellation programme with the latest EVA system mass estimate

For the Orion Systems Baseline Review (SBR) planned for September Lockheed is to provide a status of its support for the EVA systems' development and the work of the operations group that is examining outstanding issues such as the EVA handrail approach, post-landing assumptions and occupant protection system interfaces. At Orion's November preliminary design review Lockheed will update the data supplied at the September SBR

By the end of February 2009 NASA expects to have reconciled the design concepts from its engineers and the EVA suit contractor, Houston based-Oceaneering International, in time to validate the spacesuit against requirements for its PDR

credit: NASA

NASA awarded a contract to Oceaneering in June for its Constellation space suit system's design, development and production. The $183 million contract covers the period June this year to September 2014. As well as developing the suit for Orion it includes basic work for the lunar surface EVA version. NASA's press release about the contract award states that "In addition, the spacesuit and support systems will provide contingency spacewalk capability..."

Farnborough: Roscosmos is Russian for obfuscation (Audio)

2008-07-16T07:21:26Z

Why won't Russia's Federal Space Agency (FSA) aka Roscosmos just admit that its "private investor" for the 2011 flight is Space Adventures?

At the joint Russian delegation press conference yesterday I recorded my brief question and answer opportunity with FSA/Roscosmos deputy director Vitaly Davidov about the 2011 private spaceflight agreement, the cooperation with South Korea and Soyuz in Kourou

caption: Davidov on the phone prior to the press conference's start

I never got an answer to the third part, maybe that was the translator's mistake, but I didn't get much about Korea or this mooted 2011 flight either

Click here to download a recording of my very brief Q&A at the press conference in Russian and English. The recording begins with the translator asking my questions in Russian and then Davidov's answers, which are translated. The sound qualty varies due to the public address system and background noise - well it is an airshow!]]> Essentially Davidov said that with six crew the "spaceflight participants" could not go to the station but they were working on how a flight might work with the help of others, but didn't say who they were. On South Korea he simply said that work was underway on the launch site and one of the stage's of the rocket that is being developed jointly

Here are links to Google translated Farnborough air show related statements by the FSA on its website

14-07-2008 Today in London circulated English magazine "Military Parade", on exhibition in Farnborough. He was called Article Roscosmos Chief A. N. Perminova

15-07-2008 FSUE "NPO Lavochkin behalf of SA" at the international aerospace salon "Farnborough Airshow - 2008"

14-07-2008 Space Center named MV Khrunichev in the composition of a joint exhibition Roscosmos for the exhibition in Farnborough-2008 ready

14-07-2008 OAO "ISS" at the exhibition "Farnborough Airshow - 2008"

Farnborough: Energia's Crew Space Transportation System concept?

2008-07-15T15:04:27Z

Click on image for larger version in same browser window

Is this Energia Rocket and Space Corporation's concept for the Euro-Russian Crew Space Transportation System vehicle? I was told by the two Energia employees on the company's stand that they had been given it to display at the last minute. They knew very little but said they thought it was reusable and it could carry six people]]>
credit: S P Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation

Above is a close up shot of the NASA Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle-like spacecraft that sits in the top left hand corner of the Energia poster on show here at its Farnborough air show stand. Here are some articles about CSTS from flightglobal:

Angara named as possible spacecrew transport system launcher

New Euro-Russian manned spacecraft concept expected in 2008

ESA considers lunar lander proposal

Below is a closeup of the 'cutaway' drawing of the possible CSTS concept vehicle from the Energia stand. Click on the image to see the larger version in this browser window

credit: S P Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation

NASA administrator Michael Griffin speaks to Flight

2008-07-15T12:37:01Z

At the US Embassy in London yesterday (14 July 2008) I met with NASA administrator Michael Griffin to chat for 15min about what he is doing in Europe this week, the International Space Station, space tourism, the forthcoming authorisation bill and when he expects to talk to the new US president. Hear Griffin talk about his hopes that the UK get involved in human spaceflight and his support for an international common docking system

Click on this to download

I need to thank the US Embassy public affairs staff for their generous loan of their audio recording device and general help yesterday as well

This week its Hyperbola from the Farnborough air show

2008-07-14T18:04:35Z

Sadly at the moment I am among the enthusists for subsonic tubes with a sticky out bit called a wing

This Farnborough air show is severely lacking in all things space and part of the reason is the British National Space Centre is apparently saving all its pennies for the International Astronautical Congress that is being held in Glasgow later this year - well I can't blame them but should a member of the G8 be unable to fund both?

While I eeek out the time and stories to meet my blogging qouta I can report that I interviewed NASA administrator Michael Griffin today and, technology willing, that should become a podcast you can download tomorrow. Then on Wednesday I have a pre-written blog entry about a new issue for the Constellation programme

As for the rest of the week, it will come round soon enough

The interview with Griffin spanned issues such as the recent problems with the Soyuz capsules, the NASA authorisation bill, the challenge of changing administrations and more

VIDEO: NASA's video game simulation for Constellation

2008-07-11T09:54:20Z

Learn about how to use NASA's simulation software, based on first-person-shooter computer game engine technology, in this video with narration by a British women. The software was developed by NASA with the help of the Virginian company Valador]]> NASA's interest in video game technology with the agency's request for information on massively multiplayer online gaming technology and the involvement of Vision Videogames in NASA's work on developing these visualisation tools

Watch this video below from Vision Videogames about its Internatioanl Space Station sim

VIDEO: Chinese state television reveals more Shenzhou VII training

2008-07-11T09:03:21Z

This tv report from China state television channel CCTV shows part of the Shenzhou VII spacecraft being transferred to its launch site where the video's translation says there will be airlock tests

credit: CCTV]]>
This CCTV news report is in English with some translation, refers to a flight "sometime in October" and say that the next step after this is the establishment of a space station

This CCTV report (embedded above) shows water tank training and a mockup of the orbital module with the airlocks. In the earlier videos below that are older chinese languague news reports we can see that the same film of a water tank training exercise is being repeated

Interestingly we don't see egress or ingress activity around the mockup in the tank. Looking at the circular aperture on top of the module it doesn't quite look wide enough for the astronaut to climb through easily with the suit

The module itself in the picture at the top of this post is not very big at all. I think that two of the three astronauts will move from the capsule into the module and the entire module is the airlock and it will be completely depressed for the EVA

Some of the long shots show how large the water tank is and how it dwarfs the module and divers. Do you think that tank is sized to contain a space station mockup?

Hyperbola evolves

2008-07-10T10:12:57Z

HAL-9000: What is going to happen?
Ghost of David Bowman: Something wonderful
Film: 2010 Odyssey Two (1984)

Spaceport Sweden could class SpaceShipTwo as sounding rocket

2008-07-10T09:44:14Z

While Spaceport America announced an update to its website yesterday I have been following the progress of Spaceport Sweden, launched in Janary 2007 with all the fanfare that Virgin Galactic could help to muster

credit: Spaceport Sweden]]>
Spaceport Sweden is waiting to hear from its government's Ministry of Commerce as to whether existing domestic aviation and sounding rocket law are sufficient to allow Virgin Galactic to operate

By the year end the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) expects to have a decision from the Ministry, whose government faces an election within the next two years

The SSC is hoping the Ministry will agree that existing law will be acceptable as new laws represent a tough challenge when the government itself could change in 2010, putting an in-service date early in the next decade for SS2 at risk

The SSC concluded that the intra-atmospheric portion of the flight could be dealt with under aviation rules and the "space" part could use sounding rocket law passed in 1964, which predates the country's 1982 space law that incorporates the Outer Space Treaty but deliberately does not include sounding rockets because of the 1964 act

The SSC's study and conclusions has been influenced by the European Centre for Space Law's Professor Franz von der Dunk

The SSC work examined the status of space law in Europe and found that there was nothing comparable with the US Federal Aviation Administration's office of commercial space transportation and that Europe's European Aviation Safety Agency only focuses on aviation. The SSC is not confident a European effort to create an EASA office of commercial space transportation could be created in time for its plans for Spaceport Sweden

In related work, a Katarina Axelsson carried out a study for the spaceport that is called, in English, "Effects on suborbital spaceflights". I am still working to obtain details about this study's progress

Hyperbola: What is going to happen? Something wonderful

2008-07-09T20:46:47Z

Despite its high orbit Hyperbola will regenerate soon with a slightly new look that will be similar to Flight's blogs that have already made the change, such as Image of the day, Unusual Attitude, Flightblogger, and also Learmount, which was launched with the new "skin". Flightglobal.com editor Mike Targett explains the new look here. And answers on a postcard please as to what qoute from which film I am paraphrasing in this post's title

NASA/ESA announce joint exploration studies already revealed by Flight

2008-07-09T20:10:58Z

NASA and ESA announced some of the outcomes of their Comparative [exploration] Architecture Assessment today

In the following text from the joint statement find hyperlinks to the various Flight stories that have pre-empted the agencies' announcement;

"Findings from the study included a significant mutual interest in the potential development of lunar cargo landing systems, communication and navigation systems, lunar orbital infrastructures, and lunar surface systems, such as habitats or mobility systems. The study also identified the significant value gained from redundant human crew transportation capability."

credit ESA Click on the image for a larger version

Orion assessment details for a return to land landing

2008-07-08T12:00:21Z

Hyperbola has obtained details of the work on NASA's Orion crew exploration vehicle's proposed landing systems being carried out till 11 and 12 September when the CEV's Systems Baseline Review (SBR) occurs and its Preliminary Design Review (PDR) that takes place from 10 to 21 November

credit: NASA / caption: This old airbag system design has been rejected due to its mass penalty]]> The agency and its contractor(s) are conducting feasibility assessments for the crew module's (CM) contingency land landing (CLL) system being used for a nominal land landing (NLL)

That CLL system is a parachute descent with wrap around airbags deployed on one side of the CM, using the capsule's reaction control system all the way down to the surface to ensure that the airbags hit the ground first and not another side of the vehicle's underside

The feasibility work will also see if a derivative of the CLL system can meet the NLL requirements

As Orion prime contractor, by the September SBR, Lockheed is to describe the CM's capability to withstand a nominal water landing, with its wrap around airbags deployed, and off-nominal water landings (with and without airbags deployed) and land landings

For PDR Lockheed has to demonstrate that the 606E design meets the approved criteria for nominal water and CLL assuming a singular architecture, i.e. airbags deployed for water and land landings

The 606E Orion CM design is the "matured" 606D design reached at the end of design analysis cycle (DAC)-2, which is expected to be completed at the Engineering Review Board and will include updates brought about by the November PDR. The 606D point of departure design was approved at the 22 April 2008 Crew Exploration Vehicle Prject Control Board (CPCB)

For PDR NASA has to demonstrate an assessment of CLL extensibility to NLL given the 606E design capabilities and limitations

Overall from May to PDR the related DAC-2 analyses are, off-nominal water landings without airbags for three parachutes and two parachutes (with one chute out); nominal, off-nominal and contingency landings per the requirements defined by the System Requirements Documents update; and water landings with airbags to define vehicle capabilities, vulnerabilities assuming a singlular architecture goal to deploy airbags nominally in water and land landing scenarios

The work will also include "a preliminary assessment of CM subsystem and vehicle level weight impacts associated with reinstating the NLL architecture"