Commercial Suborbital

Transcription

1 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Commercial Suborbital International Symposium For Personal and Commercial Spaceflight Presented by: Timothy Chen Program Manager, NASA Flight Opportunities Program October

2 Commercial Suborbital October 2004: Ansari X-Prize Mojave Aerospace Ventures wins $10M Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research (CRuSR) RFI for vehicle capabilities (late 2009) First Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (Feb 2010) Initial work with Masten and Armadillo in 2010 Flight Opportunities (FO) : NG Lunar Lander Challenge Armadillo Aerospace and Masten Space October 2010: CRuSR + commercial parabolic (FAST) become FO Transition to Armstrong (then Dryden) Flight Research Center Original intend in OCT to leverage commercial suborbital for technology demonstration 2008/2009: Workshops AGU Fall 2008 / May : CRuSR established Response to NRC report NASA Authorization Act of 2010 included Section 907 detailing provision for CRuSR program. 2

3 Flight Opportunities Overview Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) Goals: Develop cross-cutting technologies for future human & robotic space exploration missions Stimulate growth in U.S. aerospace industry - new revolutionary technological capabilities that create or expand markets, products, and services. Flight Opportunities Goals: Mature exploration and other high priority space technologies through flight demonstration in relevant environments Develop enabling technologies to accelerate-to-market affordable suborbital and small satellite launch capabilities. The Flight Opportunities program enables low-cost access to the spaceflight environment for students, researchers, and technologists on commercial low-gravity simulating aircraft, high-altitude balloons and reusable suborbital rockets. 3

4 TRL Raising with Flight Opportunities 4

5 Commercial Flight Services CLPS Commercial Lunar Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) VCLS CRS/CC Commercial LEO Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) Commercial Crew (CC) Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS) Commercial Suborbital Flight Opportunities (FO) 5

6 Flight Opportunities in STMD 6

7 New Mexico & ISPCS Near Space Corporation (Tillamook Spaceport, Oregon) Aerostar Sioux Falls, SD Zero Gravity Corporation (Sanford International Airport, Orlando FL) Masten Space (Mojave Air & Spaceport) Virgin Galactic, UP Aerospace, EXOS (Spaceport America) World View (Spaceport Tuscon) Blue Origin (West Texas Suborbital Launch Site) SpaceX 7

8 2011 Active Flight Providers 1 First FO flights in the summer of 2011 Parabolic flights using Zero Gravity Corporation s G-Force One through NASA JSC Reduced Gravity Office Made In Space 3D Printing in Space Marc Gibson/NASA Glenn Heatpipe Limits in Reduced Gravity Greg Zimmerli/NASA Glenn Radio Frequency Mass Gauging (RFMG) 8

9 2012 Active Flight Providers 3 First FO flight with Masten Space Systems Guidance Embedded Navigator Integration Environment (GENIE) / Draper Laboratories First FO payloads with UPA rideshare on ORS SL-6 flight Suborbital Flight Environment Monitor (SFEM) / NASA Ames Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) / FAA AST Meanwhile, parabolic flights continue 9

10 2013 Active Flight Providers 4 First balloon flights with Near Space Corp Structural Health Monitoring / New Mexico Tech ADS-B / FAA AST JPL starts collaboration with Masten on EDL demonstrations Guidance for Fuel-Optimal Large Diverts (G-FOLD) / NASA JPL Trend of commercial suborbital as risk reduction before ISS/LEO deployment emerges (left: RINGS/Uni Maryland; right: MicroMAS/MIT) 10

11 2014 Active Flight Providers 4 No change Masten continues EDL work with JPL and Astrobotic Fuel Optimal and Accurate Landing System / NASA JPL Astrobotic Autolanding System (AAS) / Astrobotic (photo) October 31, 2014: Virgin Galactic accident Parabolic flights continue, temporary switch to NASA C9 Made In Space 3D Printer arrives at the ISS 11

12 2015 Active Flight Providers 5 First FO flight with World View Planetary Atmosphere Minor Species Sensor / UCF Cosmic-Ray Calorimeter / Gannon Uni (USIP) UP Aerospace demonstrates new payload ejection capability Maraia Earth Return Capsule / NASA Johnson Space Center Marc Gibson/GRC continues his testing on suborbital Aaron Parness/JPL tests Gecko Grippers on parabolic before ISS demo 12

13 2016 Active Flight Providers 5 No change Parabolic flights switch back to Zero Gravity Corporation (now only accessible to REDDI grant awardees) Modal Propellant Gauging in Microgravity / Carthage College Balloons gain traction in suborbital community Deployable Rigid Adjustable Guided Final Landing Approach Pinions / Masten Space (photo: NSC flight) NASA/JPL infuses Terrain Relative Navigation into Mars2020 Program supports small launcher technology development (ACO/TP) 13

14 2017 Active Flight Providers 6 First FO payload on Blue Origin Evolved Medical μg Suction Device / Orbital Medicine Inc. NASA SMD (PICASSO) planetary instrument concept techdemo High-Altitude Electromagnetic Sounding of Earth and Planetary Interiors / SwRI (photo: World View flight) LaRC & JPL team w/ Masten (COBALT) RFMG ISS techdemo (RRM3 12/2018) Controlled Dynamics (infused into DSOC) 14

15 2018 Active Flight Providers 6 No change Blue Origin moves towards regular flights To date in 2018: April & July (7 FO-sponsored payloads flown) Virgin Galactic returns to powered flight testing First supersonic, rocket-powered flight on April 5, 2018 New record: 4 FO flight campaigns in one month (September) (UP Aerospace (2), World View, Near Space Corporation) Ti/H20 heat pipes (Marc Gibson/GRC) infused in Kilopower, STMD s space fission power systems technology demonstration 15

16 What Have We Learned? Who are users of Commercial Suborbital Spread across Academia, USGov and Commercial Stepping stone to (Commercial) LEO/ISS Terrestrial applications (balloons/edl) Community represented by CSF Suborbital Applications Research Group (SARG) Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC) Gaining confidence/trust thru working together Stepped out of middle in 2015, from AFO to REDDI model Some in the commercial industry don t make it Public-Private engagement model is key Initial industry recommendation: be a good customer Slower than expected, nature of commercial contracts PI affiliation of 222 payloads selected to date Enabled 122 flights of 93 payloads. 62 additional payloads awaiting flight 16

17 Technology Demonstration Partners

18 Other Flight Providers 18

19 A Tipping Point Suborbital flight providers are on the verge of a significant leap forward, and payloads are beginning to fly from multiple providers. Fund more payload flights (both external and internal PIs) Solicit broader participation through REDDI and continue to target funding 100% of selectable proposals REDDI-19 release target early 2019 Strengthen program coordination across NASA (e.g. SBIR) Support terrestrial EDL flight demonstrations NASA/Masten Space: SPLICE/HPSC ( ) Enable human tended suborbital flight Studying need and possible ways of supporting human tended suborbital payloads sponsored by NASA or with a NASA participant. Study results due by end of calendar year

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