With the announcement today that President Obama has selected Charles Bolden to be the next NASA Administrator, this got me thinking what could Bolden do in HIS first 100 days to make his mark and change things around at NASA ?
I am not an expert on space flight, and I am not an industry insider. However I have always had a deep fondness for the heavens and admiration for those that push the boundaries of human achievement...literally going where no man (or woman) has gone before.
I am excited to see what Bolden will bring to NASA. Clearly he is highly experienced and from the Astronaut corps, so he has seen NASA from top to bottom. I'd like to think too that being an Astronaut rather than an engineer, perhaps he has a bit of that old fashioned dreamer in him. The spirit we all have as kids (and some have as adults) when we look up at a perfectly dark night sky and see hundreds of stars.
I am also concerned, as many are, with the direction NASA is taking, and the retirement of the Shuttle.
The Shuttle was always designed as the vehicle to allow us to build what would become the ISS, and do in-orbit satellite service. She has accomplished these goals well, and the ISS is on track to be completed fully before the Shuttle retires. An impressive feat technologically, the Shuttle has always been limited by the design constraints placed on it by its mission - service low earth orbit.
With this mission, the Shuttle was designed to be able to handle a specific flight profile and re-entry speed - essentially a speed commesurate with a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) such as where we find the ISS. When you attempt to leave the orbit of the Earth and travel to the Moon or further out, much higher velocities are required, and much stronger heat protection systems are required as a result.
As such, the Shuttle and Shuttle like designs would not be practical for a return to the Moon or a mission to Mars. She is a design born of the mission for which she was made.
Secondly, the Shuttle had a second design flaw - unlike a traditional rocket which could be built taller or shorter to accomodate a given payload, the Shuttle always had to carry into flight its full cargo space, and its wings and other structures. A significant portion of the mass in each launch as a result was taken up by the vehicle itself, rather than the payload - adding to launch cost in propellant and limiting the maximum payload that could be launched.
So with her mission nearing completion and a new mission ahead - NASA has been working on the Shuttles replacement for some time now and has started limited testing of the components of its current design - Aries.
Aries is intended to come in two forms, a mating of a modified Shuttle solid rocket booster with cargo and a capsule (Aries I) and a mating of a deriverative of the shuttle main fuel tank with cargo and a capsule (Aries V).
During development, the Aries design has recently suffered several design reductions to keep on schedule including a reduction in maximum crew, the removal of some cargo capacity and a reduction in radiation shielding. Work is also apparently continuing on addressing a pronounced vibration seen in modeling which could severaly impact the performance of the vehicle.
To achieve Aries' primary mission - a return to the Moon, proving out hardware for a mission to Mars and the eventual mission to Mars - Aries must launch the crew and cargo separately in two separately developed vehicles. This poses issues of cost (development and operation) and risk - there are significant design changes including a redesign of the solid rocket booster.
In direct competition with the Aries design, a large group of NASA engineers and scientists, many working on Aries and the Constellation program, have put forward a competing design - DIRECT.
http://www.directlauncher.com/
Direct dispenses with the two system design of Aries and extensively utilizes existing Space Shuttle infrastructure and hardware to quickly move toward a Shuttle replacement at a much lower design and research cost than Aries. Using the main fuel tank paired with existing Shuttle boosters, Direct places the cargo and capsule on the top of the tank. Any foam shedding of the tank is a non-issue as there is nothing for it to hit.
Using existing hardware, and the attendant assembly and engineering vehicles, buildings and launch structures the Shuttle currently uses, the Direct team believes significant ($10s of billions) savings can be achieved.
Re-using existing designs will also make the system less prone to failure as these systems are tried and tested and any issues are already well known. Finally, this design would protect a significant amount of existing Shuttle orbiter reprocessing jobs.
Direct - Jupiter vehicle fully configured for Lunar Mission
http://www.launchcomplexmodels.com/...
Direct - configured for ISS operations
http://www.launchcomplexmodels.com/...
I'm convinced that Direct and the Jupiter platform make far more sense than the two vehicle design of the Aries which is currently requiring major new system designs, and failing at several points. This is an opportunity for Bolden to redirect NASA to fully review these options and arrive at an informed decision on the best path forward.
If you are interested in seeing NASA re-evaluate Aries and consider Direct, may I suggest contacting your Senator or Representative ? I fully expect Bolden will be interviewed by Congress in the coming days and this would be an excellent opportunity to get Aries and Direct in front of him and debated in public.
Aries and Direct - cost comparisons