Space Access Update #115 7/14/10
Copyright 2010 by Space Access Society
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Contents
This Issue:
- Space Access '10
- The New NASA
Exploration Policy
- An URGENT Call To Action
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Space
Access '10
This spring's Space Access '10 conference was
successful by a number of measures - attendance was up significantly
and the program schedule was filled to near-bursting. Most
important by our lights, once again a variety of players in the
new-space field got together for three days to share their stories,
hear new ideas, and make deals. The number and demonstrated
credibility of companies started by long-time attendees is growing.
We won't try to cover the conference in detail here; others have
already done so. For an extensive collection of links to SA'10
coverage, see
http://www.hobbyspace.com/AAdmin/archive/SpecialTopics/Events/2010/SpaceAccess-2010.html
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The
New NASA Exploration Policy
The
new White House NASA space exploration policy looks as promising as
anything we've seen come from those quarters for a long time. The
core of it is a major change in national space launch policy: Getting
NASA out of the business of developing and operating its own space
transportation, passing full responsibility for basic space access to
the US commercial launch sector. The billions freed up by doing
this, and by retiring Shuttle after this year (as planned since 2004)
would be used to refocus NASA on developing new technologies for
future space transportation and deep-space exploration, to keeping
Station (the nation's sole and dearly-bought existing space outpost)
operating beyond the former 2016 shutdown date, and (once the new
deep-space capabilities are available) to conducting new exploration
missions beyond low Earth orbit.
This plan actually gives
NASA a meaningful future, as opposed to the dead end "Constellation"
had become under any reasonably foreseeable budget. (See the
Augustine report.) But getting NASA conclusively out of the
Earth-to-orbit transportation business - going through with the
long-planned retirement of Shuttle, killing the Ares (or any other)
in-house NASA booster development projects, and killing the hugely
overpriced Orion crew capsule - is the essential key to success of
the entire plan.
Why do we say this? The short version
is that overall exploration funding is limited, and likely to remain
so well into the coming decade. Meanwhile NASA's space
transportation development departments have over the years become
dysfunctional bureaucratic quagmires, capable of absorbing massive
amounts of funding with no certainty of delivering functional
vehicles, but near-guaranteed to deliver ones we can't afford to
operate. (Some quick numbers: Acknowledged NASA Ares I
development costs have already grown to 5-to-10 times those for the
roughly-equivalent USAF-developed EELV's, and to 20-to-50 times those
for the commercially-developed Falcon 9. We would say that
indicates something seriously wrong.) (We'll be going into the
apples-vs-oranges aspects of those comparisons and the overall nature
of NASA's problems in much more detail in the near future.)
This
core change is one we've been pushing for a long time. NASA's
building and operating of their own space transportation systems has
been a money-sucking, option-limiting mess since Apollo wound down.
If done right, this new policy will free up funds to finally resume
significantly advancing our national aerospace technology base,
radically reducing the costs of both basic orbital access and deeper
space exploration and vastly expanding our future space exploration
and development possibilities.
Note that word, development.
These policy changes affect more than just NASA space exploration
efforts. US commercial space currently adds close to $100
billion in annual revenue to the economy, all based on the limited
number of space applications profitable at current high launch
costs. How much more could space add to our economy if we had
reliable low-cost launch? "A lot" is a safe bet.
And how much sooner might we have reliable low-cost launch if NASA
finally stops spending billions on high-cost in-house alternatives
and instead supports the commercial market? A lot sooner, we
expect.
In other words, getting this right is important for
reasons above and beyond merely reforming NASA's faltering space
exploration efforts. There's a significant slice of the future
US economy on the table.
Yet the last few months have seen an
increasingly organized effort to fatally derail the proposed NASA
reforms, with much misinformation bandied about. Some of this
is based on well-intentioned confusion, but more stems directly from
short-term regional political self-interest - the Congressional
coalition accustomed to seeing NASA exploration funds flow regardless
of results is fighting the new policy with everything they've got.
We can live with minor nods to the previous status quo, like
continued study of a possible future heavy-lift booster, or NASA
development of a new heavy-lifter main engine. Neither is
likely to suck the money from all other NASA programs over the next
few years. A new US heavy-lift engine could even prove useful.
But we must vehemently oppose development of any new
NASA-designed launcher, continued development of the Orion crew
capsule (almost as expensive as the Ares I it was to ride on) or
funding of any additional Shuttle flights beyond the one extra
supported by in-stock components. Given likely constraints on
NASA funding in the coming decade, and given the known huge costs
involved in these options, keeping NASA doing its own high-cost space
transportation would cripple advanced space technology development at
the agency and destroy the agency's chances of moving out beyond low
orbit in any meaningful way for a generation to come.
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An
URGENT Call To Action
There is a NASA Authorization bill up
for vote tomorrow (Thursday July 15th) in the Senate Commerce,
Science, and Transportation Committee, in a session scheduled to
start at 10 am Eastern time. This draft NASA Authorization
makes drastic cuts over the next three years in both Commercial Crew
development (and also sharply constrains that program) and in new
space exploration technology, in order to pay for 2011 startup of a
new NASA Shuttle/Ares-derived heavy-lift booster program plus
continued development of the Orion crew capsule.
Our
immediate options are limited. There are two amendments already
prepared for tomorrow that would reduce the damage. The Warner
Amendment would restore Commercial Crew funding and remove
restrictions. The Boxer Amendment would restore some of the new
space exploration technology funding.
If you are reading this
before east coast close-of-business July 15th, and you are from one
of the states listed below, please call or fax your Committee
Senator. (If at all possible, make contact well before 10 am
eastern.) If phoning, let the person who answers know you're calling
about the NASA Authorization. They may switch you to another
staffer (or that staffer's voicemail) or they may take the call
themselves. Either way, ask them to support the Warner and
Boxer Amendments to the NASA Authorization. Give one or two
reasons briefly (EG, to support the US commercial launch industry, to
enhance our national technological competitiveness, to support the
President's NASA policy, to address the NASA problems pointed out by
the Augustine Commission and restore NASA's ability to usefully
explore, etc - see previous piece) then politely sign off.
If
you are reading this piece a few days later, or if you aren't from
one of the Committee member's states, there's still something very
useful you can do. (Even if you are from one of those states,
you still have a second Senator.) This NASA Authorization bill
will need to go to the full Senate at some point. We recommend
that you look up contact info for both your Senators then let them
both know that you support full funding for NASA Commercial Crew, and
full funding for NASA space exploration technology, and that you are
very much against any new NASA heavy lift booster development as very
likely being a massive waste of taxpayer dollars.
Sooner is
better, even if you have nobody on the Committee - Senators talk to
each other.
We will likely be seeing more action on this as
the year goes on. Keep an eye out for further Updates.
Thanks for helping!
Senate Commerce Science &
Transportation Committee
Majority
Members (Democrats)
Member
Name
DC Phone DC FAX
Jay
Rockefeller (D-WV) 202-224-6472
202-224-7665
Dan Inouye (D-HI)
202-224-3934 202-224-6747
John Kerry
(D-MA)
202-224-2742 202-224-8525
Byron Dorgan
(D-ND)
202-224-2551 202-224-1193
Barbara Boxer
(D-CA) 202-224-3553
202-224-0454
Bill Nelson (D-FL)
202-224-5274 202-228-2183
Maria Cantwell
(D-WA) 202-224-3441
202-228-0514
Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) 202-224-3224
202-228-4054
Mark Pryor (D-AR)
202-224-2353 202-228-0908
Claire McCaskill
(D-MO) 202-224-6154
202-228-6326
Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
202-224-3244 202-228-2186
Tom Udall
(D-NM)
202-224-6621 202-228-3261
Mark R. Warner
(D-VA) 202-224-2023
202-224-6295
Mark Begich (D-AK)
202-224-3004 202-224-2354
Minority Members
(Republicans)
Member
Name
DC Phone DC FAX
Kay
Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) 202-224-5922 202-224-0776
Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME) 202-224-5344
202-224-1946
John Ensign (R-NV)
202-224-6244 202-228-2193
Jim DeMint
(R-SC)
202-224-6121 202-228-5143
John Thune
(R-SD)
202-224-2321 202-228-5429
Roger Wicker
(R-MS)
202-224-6253 202-228-0378
George S. LeMieux
(R-FL) 202-224-3041 202-228-5171
Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
202-224-3643 202-228-0724
David Vitter
(R-LA)
202-224-4623 202-228-5061
Sam Brownback
(R-KS) 202-224-6521
202-228-1265
Mike Johanns (R-NE)
202-224-4224 202-228-0436
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Space
Access Society's sole purpose is to promote radical reductions in the
cost of reaching space. You may redistribute this Update in any
medium you choose, as long as you do it unedited in its entirety.
You may reproduce sections of this Update beyond obvious "fair
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________________________________________________________________________
Space Access Society http://www.space-access.org
space.access@space-access.org
"Reach low orbit and you're halfway to anywhere in the Solar
System"
- Robert A. Heinlein
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