Slashdot Mirror
Lockheed Martin Tests New Spacecraft Prototype
Hmmzis writes to tell us that Lockheed Martin is using Spaceport America to test a new prototype spacecraft. The prototype is only about one-fifth the size of the projected production model which promises to deliver satellites into orbit at a cheaper cost. "It looks a bit like the space shuttle and would fly to space and return the same way. But even the big version would not carry people, just satellites. The goal is to get to orbit faster and cheaper thanks to an automated reusable spacecraft run by its own computers and just a handful of people for a launch crew."
The spaceport is intended to be a complex from which various companies can launch and test spacecraft, not Lockheed Martin specifically. So, it's sort of like taxpayers funding an airport, which is certainly not unprecedented. The difference, of course, is it's funding a location from which to operate an industry that may not take off (pardon the pun) for decades, if ever. So, there is a definite risk.
However, having spent a lot of time in Las Cruces, which is less than an hour south, I can tell you that the spaceport has brought a lot more interest to science education in the area, so it has provided at least some short term benefit.
I guess, as long as a wayward piece of junk doesn't fall on some prized property of (America|Russia). If it takes out some villager in Africa?
You think any piece of junk is going to survive re-entry?
A few pieces must; how often do you think it happens?
Suppose that by some miracle, a piece of space junk survives falling several miles through the atmosphere. Does water cover most of our planet, or does Africa cover most of our planet?
Such inflammatory language over a problem that doesn't exist. If I say I still don't think it's worth the effort, will you accuse me of bigotry?
DATABASE WOW WOW
There is a lot more than you think going on a Spaceport America. It hosted the 2006 X-Prize Cup as a start. Even though it is still under construction, UP Aerospace and Virgin Galactic have made their home at these facilities and launched a number of suborbital flights as milestones toward viable commercial space transport. Other interesting ideas like the Rocket Racing League are springing up, which are not orbital, but interesting nonetheless. In case you are wondering, I am a New Mexico resident but have no affiliation whatsoever to any of these endeavors.
Elon musk. The reason is that he has single handley been responsible for changing MAJOR companies. He starts tesla and suddenly Chevy has no choice but to do the volt. Before some of the naysayers spring up, google for tesla and volt and interview. You will find that the man at GM behind the volt fully credits Musk as pushing alive the volt when the CEO had actually killed the program (and it was at the right time).
Likewise, spacex is the company who was pushing out rockets that will take only a handful of ppl to run it. L-Mart has NO incentive to do this. For proof, simply read entering space by zubrin who was told by top executives that they would never willingly walk away from their rockets; far too much money. But check falcon1 costing only 7 million against ULA's smallest costing something like 90 million and even orbital small pegasus with smaller payload costing 30 million. ULA/LMart has no choice but to do something similar. No doubt this will be expanded for man. Why? becuase of bigelow.
Finally, Musk is making solar PV cost about half the money by changing how installs occur.
All in all, this import shows exactly WHY we need ppl like him.
Thank you elon.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Given that the Centauri design is ripped straight from various NASA studies of potential Shuttle designs (http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4221/ch8.htm#333), I'm not too surprised to see it make an appearance once again now that the current shuttle concept is appearing to have been a wrong path. Why waste all the work that was don in the late 60s/early 70s on a fully reuseable 2 stage design?
For the record, this isn't a winged spacecraft. It's a winged first stage. The article didn't catch on to it, but if you look up info on the Ares-Falcon proposal the Air Force has been mulling around for years, you'll see this is probably the same project. Weight is much less of a premium (still somewhat, however) on the first stage, because it spends less of the flight attached. Generally the first stage only contributes less 25% of the delta-V, meaning it only contributes 1/16 of final kinetic energy of the payload. So the weight of the wings doesn't hurt much.
Additionally, a first stage doesn't need a real thermal protection system. It's one less element to lift and greatly simplifies reuse. Those pointy wings on the Lockheed demonstrator would be terrible from a heat-flow standpoint anyway.
The tradeoff of weight allows controlled flyback, which makes recovery of the first stage far simpler than fishing it out of the water and cleaning it (surviving that requires parachutes and flotation provisions anyway, which although lighter than wings, are still a mass penalty). Getting a structurally intact first stage is a lot simpler than a structurally intact orbiter.
So Lockheed actually is persuing an alternative approach to reusability here.
By the way, SpaceX claims they plan to recover, refurbish, and reuse the first stage of both their Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets, and the second stage of the Falcon 9. I'm honestly not sure how they intend to do the second stage, but the first stage parachutes to the ocean and is picked up by a recovery ship. Their one attempt at doing it so far failed.