Recently in exploration Category

This video shows Norman Augustine's remarks at the 22 October 2009  US human spaceflight review final report publication press conference

These few weeks since the US review of human space flight report (overseen by Norman Augustine above) was published have seen commercial's future at NASA just get brighter and brighter, what with a new advisory committee and some shiny comments made by the agency's administrator Charles Bolden - backed up by remarks from his officials on deep background apparently

One wonders how these advisory committees could inform the process for developing the new spaceflight vision that Bolden is charged with giving Obama, at a meeting before year's end or by February 2010 according to this report and this report?

Will these committees engage with the flexible path option that has been getting some good press of late? And what can really be done along that path? To date there has been near Earth objects and Lagrange orbit talk and then Moon and Mars gets a mention - but where is the money coming from for any of these destinations?

Its something to consider if flexible path really is the new way forward because its appearences in the media are not from off the cuff remarks. This report shows that internally NASA has been thinking a lot about what it wants to do, and it started long before it got the final Augustine report

Go here to see the video of Chen Shanguang, the chief commander and chief designer of China's Manned Space Engineering astronaut system speaking to China's state run English language news and current affairs channel CCTV-9. Go here for more China manned space programme CCTV videos and here for videos related to Shenzhou missions care of Google

Here is Flightglobal's recent Chinese Moon programme story with pictures of the country's latest concept for its space station planned for 2020. Find other Flightglobal stories about China's space programme here and go here for past Hyperbola blog postings about the new super power's orbital endeavours

Watch this video from the Internatonal Astronautical Congress in Daejeon, Korea first plenary session where heads of the world's major space agencies discuss the future

Go here for more IAC2009 videos

Don't forget you can follow Hyperbola on twitter @flighthyperbola and get sneak previews of flightglobal.com stories to come, breaking news facts and figures and see how events unfold through pictures from the very occasion Hyperbola is reporting from. How much is the Indian manned space programme going to cost or what mission does the European Union see as a priority for its exploration vision? Find the answers @flighthyperbola

In the above video European Commission (EC) president José Manuel Durão Barroso, recently appointed for a second term, extolls the virtues of space for society at 'The Ambitions of Europe in Space' conference held on on 15 and 16 October. But its the timing of this conference that speaks louder

This conference, which apparently brought together members of the European Parliament, EC, Council of the EU, agencies, industry, research entities, [satellite?] operators, financing institutions and the media - Hyperbola was in Korea at the time - has occured just before the 1st EU - European Space Agency international conference on human space exploration that is being held on 23 October in Prague - Hyperbola is attending this

Since 2003 the EU has been developing its space policy with green papers and white papers and agreed a joint European space policy with ESA in 2007. The green and white papers mentioned human space exploration but it was never included in the policy - under which "space councils" are held for coordination between the two organisations

The EU has funded research carried out on the International Space Station and ESA would be very happy with another source of funding for its activities. One beneficiary of this new relationship could be the Advanced Re-entry Vehicle (ARV) cargo return capable spacecraft. Starved of the €300 million in funds it was originally thought to need for a 2011 go-ahead for a 2016 entry into service this spacecraft could be the basis for "Europe" to pay for its astronauts to work on the ISS from 2016 to 2020 and beyond

After the ESA member states failed to stump up the cash the EU, which is awash with money not spent for its largest programe, agriculture (so much so it is paying for Galileo satellite navigation programme cost overruns with some of it) it could provide the missing €260 million

On Monday 12 October Flightglobal reported that NASA administrator Charles Bolden said that a heavy lift vehicle was necessary for exploration and that a vehicle was being costed

Talking to sources within the Ares V project and close to the Space Shuttle programme office's Shuttle-derived Heavy Lift Vehicle team it has become clear that while Bolden' choice of words suggested a single vehicle concept was under study, the reality is that HLV is still in the running

Bolden's comments on what he thinks is needed, a heavy lift rocket for exploration and commercial vehicles for LEO access within a constrained budget (Bolden mentioned that he would need to organise "overguides", additional funding requests for the FY2011 budget, for the likes of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, a replacement for which - after its launch failure - has not been budgeted for), pointed to a decision by the administrator that the Augustine panel's second option and its designated "Ares V lite" heavy lift vehicle had been selected

On Friday 16 October at the International Astronautical Congress in Daejeon, Korea NASA's Charles Cockrell, associate director at the agency's Langley Research Center's systems engineering directorate, said that the Ares V project office was working on "trade studies of Ares V variants to feed that [human spaceflight policy] decision making process"

However sources close to the HLV team tell Hyperbola that "Yes the shuttle derived side mount, HLV, is one of the heavy lift launch vehicles being considered"

As Bolden is an ex-Shuttle astronaut it is perhaps not surprising that he might be open to the Shuttle programme office's ideas and so this blog asks the question, will anything of Constellation survive this review?

Senior China space programme officials spoke at the 60th International Astronautical Congress' "Late breaking news" session on the morning of 15 October, giving an insight into the country's planning for long term space missions and manned flights beyond low Earth orbit

In the above video an overview of the history of the Chinese manned programme is given as well as details about future missions including a 60,000kg space station in 2020. There are also brief references made to concept studies for a manned lander, presumably lunar, exploration mission

Read this story for more details about the three-crew space station and manned Moon mission planning

Go here for more IAC 2009 videos

credit: CMSE / caption: this is a three module station

These Chinese space station concepts were presented by China Manned Space Engineering deputy general designer Wang Zhonggui at International Astronautical Congress in Daejeon, Korea on 15 October. The space station would be about 60tons and would be operational from 2020 with Shenzhou providing crew transport and cargo spacecraft that will use structural technology from China's rednezvous and docking test vehicle Tiangong that will be launched in 2011. Zhonggui also explained to Fligthgloal that a Chinese manned Moon mission was under discussion by the space programme's scientists though no timeframe for any mission had been discussed 


credit CMSE / caption:

NASA had told Hyperbola its administrator Charles Bolden was not going to be available here in Daejeon, Korea but a bit of persistence goes a long way and over a few minutes after the heads of agency plenary session Bolden gave away some interesting details about his thinking on the future of US human spaceflight policy

What was surprising was the degree to which Bolden had clearly already decided that Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles were not going to be a part of that future. Despite this journalist's prodding about the interest shown in EELVs during the Augustine review Bolden was very clear, they were not man rated and multiple launch scenarios with LEO rendezvous and docking was just a no-no; so this was one former two-star US Marine Corp general this blogger decided it was not worth arguing with

But even before the EELVs were outright rejected Bolden was adamant beyond LEO exploration needed a heavy lift vehicle. One wonders what heavy lift vehicle exactly is being costed by the agency, Bolden was guided away by his minders at this point, but the other elements that Bolden was describing match very closely the Augustine summary report's option two; making the heavy lift vehicle the Ares V lite

And of course this also means propellant depots are unlikely to see the light of day evey 45min either

To date this blog has been expecting a decision on US human spaceflight policy before Christmas so that the new policy could be incorporated into the FY2011 budget. Remember when the FY2010 budget request talked of a second budgetary submission to Congress following the review? But if a decision is months off - well there is universal health care and a new Afgan war strategy to sort out first - then appropriations specifically for this new policy may not appear until FY2012. And what does that mean for the Augustine committee's $2.5 billion commercial crew proposal, or any commercial transportation initiative? 

So "Yes we can" now has less immediacy to it and for NASA it's now more of "Yes, in due course"

credit NASA

Can the heads of programme and heads of agency meetings shown above and described as TBC for their December and June 2010 dates really come about or will president Barack Obama end it all?

This diagram is from the joint NASA, ESA presentation for the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) 2009 in Daejeon, Korea about the outcomes of the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) workshops. The ISECG was formed as a forum for the world's space agencies to plan out a common lunar exploration future

But will the recommendations the new NASA administrator Charles Bolden will give to his president before the end of the year permanently postpone a truly international lunar exploration plan? This week's IAC might deliver the answers