As Boeing begins work on its NASA commercial crew contract, the company is proposing to use a version of the same spacecraft to transport cargo to the international space station. Company officials said they submitted a proposal earlier this month for NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) 2 competition, a follow-on to the existing CRS contracts held by Orbital Sciences Corp. and SpaceX to ferry cargo to and from the station.
The cargo version of Boeing’s CST-100 spacecraft will be based on the crewed version. Boeing will remove spacecraft components not needed for crew missions, like its launch abort system and environmental controls, to free up room in the spacecraft for cargo. The cargo version of CST-100 would, like the crewed version, launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. The cargo version will also be able to return cargo to Earth, landing in the western U.S. like the crewed version.
Editor's Note: Wow! ULA must realy be committed to bringing its costs down to compete against SpaceX (and Orbital). Based on their pricing trends for military missions, ULA wasn't expected to become a strong player in the ISS crew/cargo arena. (12/16)
ULA is Obviously Feeling the Need to Compete (Source: SPACErePORT)
Over the years, industry watchers like me have surmised that the high cost of Atlas and Delta launches may primarily be attributable to the price the Air Force has been willing to pay. This suggests that ULA priced itself out of the commercial market because the government market was so lucrative. The ongoing moves at ULA toward commercial competitiveness show that SpaceX is a real threat to ULA's government market dominance. The company now needs to offer a lower-priced service to the government, which in turn makes it more competitive for commercial missions. (12/16)
Gamma Ray Bursts May Repeatedly Wipe Out Life (Source: Science News)
Deadly invisible jets of high-energy radiation may short-circuit life throughout the universe. A study concludes that these gamma-ray bursts occur frequently enough in about 90 percent of galaxies to sterilize planets, including Earthlike worlds that would otherwise be ideal for life. Earth itself has been zapped, the study suggests, perhaps contributing to one or more of the planet’s mass extinctions.
Some scientists say the study doesn’t properly account for the resilience of life, particularly if that life is protected by an ocean or an ice shell. Nonetheless, the paper’s sobering conclusions may temper recent optimism about the prospects for extraterrestrial life, particularly regarding the discovery of Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. (12/16)
Spacecraft Spots Probable Waves on Titan’s Seas (Source: Science)
It’s springtime on Titan, Saturn’s giant and frigid moon, and the action on its hydrocarbon seas seems to be heating up. Near the moon’s north pole, there is growing evidence for waves on three different seas, scientists reported. Researchers are also coming up with the first estimates for the volume and composition of the seas. The bodies of liquid appear to be made mostly of methane, and not mostly ethane as previously thought. And they are deep: Ligeia Mare, the second biggest sea with an area larger than Lake Superior, could contain 55 times Earth’s oil reserves. (12/16)
NASA, Rockwell Collins to Study Single-Pilot Cockpit (Source: Wall Street Journal)
A study by NASA and Rockwell Collins Inc. will explore the possibility that pilots operating alone could one day receive assistance from co-pilots on the ground during busy periods of the flight. The study is prompted in part by an anticipated shortage of pilots: Boeing has projected that 533,000 new commercial airline pilots will be needed over the next 20 years. (12/14)
Aerojet Rocketdyne Tests 3D Printed CubeSat Propulsion System (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Aerojet Rocketdyne has successfully completed a hot-fire test of its MPS-120 CubeSat High-Impulse Adaptable Modular Propulsion System. The MPS-120 is the first 3D-printed hydrazine integrated propulsion system and is designed to provide propulsion for CubeSats, enabling missions not previously available to these tiny satellites.
The project was funded out of the NASA Office of Chief Technologist’s Game Changing Opportunities in Technology Development and awarded out of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center. The test was conducted in Redmond, Washington. (12/15)
Google Lunar X Prize Extends Deadline as Astrobotic Wins First Milestone Awards (Source: Parabolic Arc)
The deadline for winning the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize has been moved back again. The XPrize Foundation has announced a one-year delay in the prize to Dec. 31, 2016, contingent upon at least one team providing “documentation of a scheduled launch by December 31, 2015, for all teams to move forward in the competition.”
The foundation also announced that Astrobotic and its partner, Carnegie Melon University (CMU), had won the first two of a series of milestone awards aimed at providing funding to the teams. XPrize and Google will award up to $6 million in milestone prizes next month. “We continue to see significant progress from our Google Lunar XPRIZE teams, most recently demonstrated in the pursuit of the Milestone Prizes,” XPRIZE President Robert Weiss. (12/16)
Drones, Balloons, Satellites Hold the Key to Worldwide Internet Access (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Drones, balloons and the latest technology in geostationary satellites could pave the way for global network coverage, bringing the Internet to an additional 4 billion people. (12/14)
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