Aviation Week & Space Technology, 09/19/2005, page 23
Edited by David Bond
Printed headline: Back to the Past
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin faces tough questioning this fall as he pushes his stripped-down space-exploration plans on Capitol Hill. Griffin will unveil a tightly-focused program that aims to return humans to the Moon as early as summer 2018, basically using a replay of the Apollo approach of the 1960s, with updated electronics.
A 4-6 person Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) that looks like a bigger version of the ballistic Apollo Command Module capsule would dock with a Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM) and an upper stage in Earth orbit for transit to the Moon. A larger version of the Apollo Lunar Module, the LSAM would sustain a crew of four during surface stays of less than 90 days and, in unpiloted mode, could pre-position about 20 tons of cargo at the lunar South Pole for an eventual base.
In one of the Griffin plan's few new-technology elements transferable to Mars exploration, the liquid-propellant LSAM ascent rocket would be fueled with methane that could be extracted from Mars' atmosphere. As early as the first lunar return mission, the crew would experiment with in-situ resource utilization by extracting oxygen from the lunar regolith.
Launch would come on the shuttle-derived Crew Launch Vehicles Griffin has previously described, with the heavy-lift version carrying 125 metric tons. Rewriting the exploration-hardware development plans drafted under his predecessor, Griffin will exert tighter control over hardware design, leaving much less to the imagination of the contractors and perhaps building the new vehicles in NASA facilities.
The rocket-scientist administrator wanted the CEV to fly in 2011 to cut the gap from shuttle retirement at the end of 2010. But the present exploration budget is $4 billion too short through 2011 to pull that off, and a top-level White House meeting Sept. 14 didn't free extra money for a speedup. So, the first flight may have to wait until 2012. The White House group--including budget director Joshua Bolten and science adviser John Marburger--cleared the plan for release this week but deferred some spending issues for a decision from President Bush.
One of those involves a roughly $2-billion shortfall in shuttle operations through 2010, meaning NASA may not be able to deliver all the hardware developed by its partners to the International Space Station. That issue, and the question of a final Hubble telescope servicing mission, is further clouded by Hurricane Katrina's impact on efforts to meet the safety recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.
Katrina recovery costs and continuing operations in Iraq will make space exploration a hard sell in Congress this fall. Griffin is sure to be grilled on whether his cost estimates are too low, but he must also defend his plans to cut the agency's civil service staff by almost 2,000. And while organized congressional opposition hasn't materialized yet--the Senate fully funded exploration Sept. 15--there is always a risk the expense of repeating a feat first accomplished in 1969 could become a lightning rod in tight-money times.
Aviation Week & Space Technology, 10/03/2005, page 25
NASA's partners on the International Space Station want to see the agency keep its deal to deliver their hardware to orbit before they buy into the new U.S. exploration plan.
There are roles for spacefaring nations that would extend the ISS cooperation model to the lunar surface.European, Japanese and other space agencies would be invited to provide habitats, rovers, mining gear and other infrastructure in exchange for rides to the Moon on the new Crew Exploration Vehicle (AW&ST Sept. 26, p. 22).
But for the moment Russia has the strong hand in human spaceflight, providing the only steady access to the ISS since the Columbia accident. And in Europe, where the European Space Agency (ESA) and the various national space agencies have achieved notable accomplishments on their own, there is some rethinking of the past affinity for cooperative programs with NASA.
Although the ISS partnership has set a final configuration for the station, it would require 18 shuttle flights that may not be available before its 2010 retirement. ESA's Columbus laboratory is No. 8 in line for a shuttle launch, and Japan's Kibo experiment module would consume two-and-a-half shuttle launches after that. Both were custom built for shuttle launch.
Europe has already built closer ties to Russia. A launch pad for Soyuz rockets is in the works at the European Space Center near Kourou, French Guiana, and Russian plans for a new human-rated vehicle dubbed Clipper offer a new opportunity for Euro-Russian cooperation. Some European analysts see China's budding space capability as an opportunity for cooperation, along the line of the ties Europe already is forging with India (AW&ST July 4, p. 17).
Canada, the other major ISS partner, appears more amenable to cooperating with the U.S. as it moves beyond low Earth orbit. Its "niche" technologies--chiefly robotics, remote sensing and drilling/mining hardware--fit with NASA's plans, but like the other partners, it is awaiting a shuttle flight to get its final piece of hardware--the special purpose dexterous manipulator--to the station.
