Saturday, September 4, 2010

AIAA Space 2010 Interviews, Friday, 9-3-10

AIAA Space 2010 Interviews, Friday, 9-3-10







Guests: Josh Hopkins; Larry Price; Steve Harrington. Topics: Near Earth Asteroids, Orion Crew Capsule, space policy, aerospace engineering, academics, turbo pumps, pistonless pumps. This Space Show program consists of three interviews back to back separated by about ten plus seconds of silence. Josh Hopkins was interviewed on Tuesday, August 31, Larry Price was interviewed on Wednesday, Sept. 1, and Steve Harrington was interviewed on Thursday, Sept. 2. As you will hear, the Harrington interview was a change of pace and topic discussion from the first two interviews. With Josh Hopkins, we talked about visiting Near Earth Asteroids with the Orion Crew Capsule, why, how it could be done, the orbital dynamics of such a visit and more. Josh also talked about the Lockheed Martin Plymouth Rock' Deep Space Asteroid Mission. You can find the Plymouth Rock material and information as follows: The Plymouth Rock material mentioned by Josh can be found as follows: The study report is here:

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/data/assets/ssc/Orion/Toolkit/OrionAsteroidMissionWhitePaperAug2010.pdf

The briefing charts are here:

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/data/assets/ssc/Orion/Toolkit/OrionAsteroidBriefingChartsAug2010.pdf

The brochure is here:

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/data/assets/ssc/Orion/Toolkit/OrionAsteroidMissionHandout.pdf.

In the next interview, Larry Price updated us on the Orion Crew Capsule development from his last discussion with us which was Sept. 2009 at Space 2009 in Pasadena, CA. Larry clarified the status of Orion for us with regards to the ongoing space policy discussion, we talked about Orion capabilities, using it for the ISS, deeper space missions, etc. We talked about the crew escape system tests at White Sands, NM and how the system worked. Larry updated us on the flight testing schedule which would likely use a Delta 4 Heavy but that Orion would also be designed to use the Atlas 5. I asked him about comparisons with the EELVs to the original Constellation hardware. We talked about policy, Congress, funding, and more. In the last interview with Dr. Steve Harrington of Flometrics, we got an update on efforts to market his pistonless pump, why a launcher might want to consider this pump over a traditional turbo pump and the differences between the two. Steve shared his opinions of the aerospace policy debate and the industry based on his experiences with it over the past several years, both as an aerospace engineering professor at UCSD and one working on hardware in the industry, plus his many space conferences which he has regularly attended. If you have a question or comment for any of our guests, please direct them to me at drspace@thespaceshow.com and I will forward them to the guest of your choice. Remember, you can comment on this program on the new Space Show Way Outside The Box blog at http://thespaceshowoutsidethebox.blogspot.com.

2 comments:

  1. At 2:17:14 Dr. Steve Harrington mentions Dave Chappelle's idea of the real motivation behind Bush's Space Initiative - its function as a smokescreen - the reason why it wasn't necessary to think it through (and to look for ways of financing it), which in the end led to the downfall of CONSTELLATION.
    The segment about Space starts at 5:48.
    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2871033510590191580#

    ReplyDelete
  2. I heard that show today. Was rather boggled on what I was hearing. I mean when I was writing specs for Orion systems about a year and a half ago they:

    - only needed to support astrounauts for a couple weeks, and park in lunar orbit or docked to ISS in standby for 6 months with no one onboard. Boosting that to 6 months with a crew? Where are the consumables going to be stored?

    - The reduced redundancy and reliability standards compared to other current US ships was a source of a lot of stressed black humor in review meetings. If that's below standard for being in orbit now - greenlighting sending folks out in a 6 month mission with no bailout capacity?


    Oh yeah - and 6 months in deep space with no storm shelter or a lot of extra shielding? On a good half year that's a lot of radiation. And your odds of a solar flare over that long?!


    Man I really hope this proposal is tossed ASAP.

    ReplyDelete