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Preview of Moon-To-Mars Report
schnarff writes "Space.com has obtained a sneak preview of the Moon-To-Mars commission report, which will be officially released June 16. The report calls for spinning off NASA centers as FFRDCs, establishing an independent cost estimation bureau, and otherwise streamlining NASA's bureaucracy."
commission chartered by U.S. President George W. Bush to advise him on implementing a broad new space exploration vision is recommending streamlining the NASA bureaucracy, relying more heavily on the private sector, and maintaining more oversight of the nation's space program at the White House.
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The President's Commission on Implementation of U.S. Space Exploration Policy is scheduled to release its final report June 16. A copy of that report, "A Journey to Inspire, Innovate, and Discover", was obtained by Space News
The 60-page report outlines the organizational changes the commission says NASA needs to make if it is to achieve the space exploration goals laid out by Bush in January. Those goals include returning humans to the moon by 2020 in preparation for eventual human expeditions to Mars.
The nine-member commission, headed by former U.S. Air Force Secretary Edward (Pete) Aldridge, said if those goals are to be met, the nation needs to commit to space exploration for the long haul, and that the private sector must be given a much larger role in the U.S. space program.
"The Commission believes that commercialization of space should become the primary focus of the vision, and that the creation of a space-based industry will be one of the principal benefits of this journey," the report states. "Today an independent space industry does not really exist. Instead, we have various government funded space programs and their vendors. Over the next several decades -- if the exploration vision is implemented to encourage this -- an entirely new set of businesses can emerge that will seek profit in space."
The commission calls upon NASA to reach out to small, entrepreneurial firms through business opportunities targeted to them. The commission also endorses NASA's plans to award large cash prizes to encourage technological innovation. And the commission encourages the U.S. Congress to enact tax incentives, provide regulatory relief and clarify and protect property rights in space to encourage commercial exploitation of the final frontier.
In the more immediate future, the commission wants NASA to turn over nearly all launch activity to private firms.
"The Commission believes that the private sector is willing and capable of providing the initial boost into low-Earth orbit for the payloads associated with the vision," the report states. "To foster the continued development of this emerging market, the Commission believes that NASA should procure all of its low-Earth orbit launch services competitively on the commercial market."
The commission specifically exempts the launching of human crews from this recommendation, saying in the report that it realizes this responsibility "will likely remain the providence of the government for at least the near-term."
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said June 9 that he had neither seen the commission's report nor been briefed on its recommendations. But during a speech delivered at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce earlier that same day, O'Keefe pledged to heed the commission's recommendations on transforming the space agency.
"The Aldridge commission has given a great deal of thought to how we should be organized in order to achieve these objectives," O'Keefe said. "We will be willing participants in implementing their recommendations. We are determined to transform the agency and our way of doing business to put these goals within reach."
The report says NASA needs to transform its organizational structure, business culture and management processes "all largely inherited from the Apollo era" if it is to accomplish the multi-decade exploration agenda laid out by the president.
The commission wants NASA to transform itself into "a leaner, more focused agency" starting with a major headquarters reorganization that reduces the number of mission-focused departments or what NASA calls enterprises.
Planning for such a reorganization is already well underway at NASA. A draft organ
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"The commission also endorses NASA's plans to award large cash prizes to encourage technological innovation."
The inducement prize allows one-off profits.
Profit = Prize - Cost
The ANSARI X PRIZE and Centennial Challenges are the first steps.
Robert Zubrin recently had the idea of 'a competition open to all the different NASA centers and national laboratories and companies to see who could develop the most efficient Mars plan'.
If your Mars flight is one of many, then the Moon is the oply sensible place to setup such a thing. (There must be corresponding stations in Earth and Lunar orbits, too. Gotta do these things right, by damn.)
The availability of vast Lunar regolith components can reduce Earth shipments to Luna to things like hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon and other trace elements, as well as specific equipment and personnel (who, you will note, are mostly made up of hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon). Very acceptable, even luxurious ships made from aluminum, steel and titanium can be built upon the Moon, stocked with oxygen and powdered aluminum as fuel components, and (more to the point) they can be launched from the Lunar surface via extremely long mass drivers, saving most of the fuel load for maneuvering and deceleration (although I'd like to see designs that use anti-slingshot and aerobraking). And the ships can be enormous to boot, avoiding a resource crunch that can kill a crew that is 110 million miles from the nearest assistance.
I haven't run the numbers, but a line of accelerator/restraining EM rails can probably be built around the Moon's entire circumference, and the acceleration of the cradle holding a Mars ship can be very gentle before slinging the ship off on a Mars trajectory at many klicks per second. If we choose 30km/s (which could result in a 1-2 month trip to Mars) and 1g launch acceleration:
... well, this is too long. 1g is rather light, expecially since the launch phase is so short (about 50 minutes). Most Humans lose consciousness at 10g, so let's choose a 4g launch:
... which is about right. In fact, since the launch is only about 12 minutes at a little over (to compensate for the lesser X) 4g, we can try 6g for the same length (Lunar circum.) to get a higher launch velocity:
... which is 20% faster.
30km/s or more can get the craft to Mars in 1 to 2 months depending upon relative positions of Mars and the Moon, less braking time. Since the launch was 6g for about 18 minutes, I imagine that the deceleration could be done at 10g for about 11 minutes. Since it really didn't matter how much fuel load was launched (since the Lunar launch ring should be built to launch many thousands of tons at once), burning fuel to produce 10g for 11 minutes shouldn't be much of a problem, fuel-quantity wise.
One thing that could be done is the construction of a launch system upon Phobos, which is about 20km long. It may be worthwhile using Phobos for this purpose. Since it's so tiny compared to the Lunar launcher, it would have to use higher force to be useful. Let's say we can use a 20km length (through it?) with various steering mechanisms to make sure of proper aim. Since it's so short, let's choose a relatively high force for launching: 8g. (Mercury program launches involved 6g, and 12g upon reentry.)
... which is a little low, but the launch time is of very short duration. Let's try for a rough launcher at
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