David Gump, of the Astrobotic GLXP project, told me about the NASA data buy program mentioned in the previous posting and sent me the following announcement:

Space robot company accepts NASA challenge for lunar expeditions

PITTSBURGH, PA – August 6, 2010 – Astrobotic Technology, a Carnegie Mellon University spin-off company devoted to robotic exploration of the Moon, announced that it will pursue NASA’s offer to buy up to $10 million in data from a commercial lunar lander mission. The space agency announced its Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data (ILDD) program today with a total budget of $30 million.

The company’s first expedition will revisit Apollo 11 in December 2012 to claim a trifecta: up to $10 million in NASA data purchases, up to $24 million in the Google Lunar X Prize, and Florida’s $2 million bonus for launching from that state. The mission will connect the Internet to the Moon, deliver HD video in 3D, carry payloads and convey the experience to the world.

Carnegie Mellon and the company have expended more than $3 million creating prototype robots and mission designs following the 2007 announcement of the Google Lunar X Prize. The new NASA program to buy data from successful commercial landings will accelerate the company’s work on the spacecraft that will carry its robot down to the surface.

“The sensing devices and software needed for an automated lunar landing are evolving from our technologies for driving autonomous cars,” said Dr. William “Red” Whittaker, Astrobotic founder and director of CMU’s Field Robotics Center. “Much of the technology for winning DARPA’s Urban Challenge car race applies directly to lunar landing.”

Astrobotic and CMU are now testing a prototype robot engineered to operate during extreme heat, and to survive lunar night. Soil temperatures at the lunar equator hit 224 degrees F at noon, cooking the rover from below as the Sun bakes it from above. The rover has a hot side with solar panels that it keeps pointed toward the Sun, and a cold side with a radiator that it keeps pointed at black sky. Cameras on top can turn 180 degrees so that operators on Earth can see the path ahead regardless of whether the rover is rolling forward away from the Sun or backward toward it. Lunar night is as cold as liquid nitrogen. Being able to survive lunar night extends the mission to another lunar day, and the Google competition pays a bonus for operating after enduring the night.

The rover weighs 160 lbs. and is about five feet tall. Its “Tranquility Trek” mission to the Apollo 11 site is expected to last 10-12 days, until sunset cuts off solar power and the rover hibernates at temperatures expected to go as low as minus 298 degrees F. The robot will awake for further exploration two weeks later when the Sun rises, unless the extreme cold has damaged the electronics.

Subsequent Astrobotic lunar expeditions will prospect for the water ice and other volatiles at the Moon’s poles, which can be transformed into propellant to refuel spacecraft for return flights to Earth, doubling the productivity of human missions. Astrobotic has just completed the first phase of a NASA contract to design lightweight robotic excavators that can remove the dry insulating soil that covers some of these valuable deposits.

“NASA is turning to companies like Astrobotic and SpaceX to bring down the costs of space exploration,” said David Gump, Astrobotic’s president. “Along with lower costs, the private sector can create innovative events and promotions that involve the public, which is one of the factors that the NASA data buy wants to measure.”

More information is available at the Astrobotic web page, www.astrobotic.net.
The NASA announcement is available at http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eps/sol.cgi?acqid=142102

Downloadable videos are available to the media at: http://astrobotic.net/?page_id=165

Paul Breed reports on his foray high power rocketry: I hate painting... - Unreasonable Rocket.
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I see that Starchaser is planning to use the hybrid motors that they have been developing in a rocket to be flown this year: Invitation to Starchaser Rocket Launch Event - Mar.17.10

ollowing the successful conclusion of a number of static test firings we are currently fitting our new Eco-Engine into a rocket airframe with a view to launching later this year. The 6.5 metre rocket which has yet to be officially named will be powered by a combination of High Test Peroxide and Polyethylene fuel when it launches from our test range off the North West coast of England. This rocket will be our most complex to date and promises to be one of the most spectacular. The projected altitude will be anything up to 30,000 feet (depending on CAA approval) and will test vital systems for the Launch Escape System of our Space Tourism vehicle Thunderstar.

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I see also that Bristol Aerospace tests their HPD (Hydrogen Peroxide Demonstrator) engine in Mojave last summer: video (mpg)

Jeffrey Manber talks about the effort that went into getting a Nanoracks platform onto the Shuttle Discovery for its launch to the ISS scheduled for this Monday: Countdown to new era in microgravity research - Kentucky Space

An announcement from Space Florida and Starfighters Aerospace:

Starfighters Signs Space Act Agreement with NASA-KSC
Space Florida Integral to New Commercial Venture
20 New High-Tech Jobs Anticipated

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (October 22, 2009) – Today, NASA and Starfighters, Inc. announced the signing of a formal Space Act Agreement enabling Starfighters, a private aerospace company that operates high performance fighter aircraft, to fully utilize the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) to conduct flight operations providing commercial space flight training, support research and development, test and engineering for the benefit of the emerging commercial space industry, and to otherwise advance aerospace and space-related technology in Florida.

Space Florida and Starfighters began initial discussions in 2007 and officially partnered in 2008, when Space Florida reached an agreement for the aerospace company to house and maintain aircraft in the State-owned and operated Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) Hangar, located adjacent to the SLF.

“Our alliance with Space Florida is a natural fit,” said Rick Svetkoff, Starfighters President and Chief Pilot. “We both want to see the commercial aerospace industry grow in Florida. With Space Florida’s assistance, we are making real strides toward that vision.”

As part of the new agreement, Starfighters will operate its fleet of Lockheed F-104 Starfighters at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Currently the company has four vehicles in the fleet, but anticipates adding five more in the coming months. The vehicles can simulate suborbital vehicle trajectories and provide both training and technology development for the reusable launch vehicle industry. Starfighters currently has 10 employees scattered across Florida. In the coming months, it will relocate these employees to KSC, and also expects to employ up to 20 additional highly-skilled workers to perform vehicle maintenance and other technical work at its KSC operations.

“We’re thrilled for Starfighters. This agreement with NASA-KSC exemplifies the gradual shift toward commercial space industry development, and is an example of a Florida-based company we were able to keep and help expand its operation in Florida,” noted Frank DiBello, Space Florida President. “While our state has always been known to excel at the launch of spacecraft, businesses like Starfighters will help prove that we have the capability to handle research and development, testing, engineering and training activities. We are delighted that it will also serve as a catalyst for additional business as well.”

Space Florida and Starfighters are in negotiations to extend the original lease agreement at the RLV Hangar. As part of the alliance, Space Florida may also assist Starfighters in securing additional long-term funding to fully establish their operations and headquarters at KSC.

In a NASA press release today, KSC Director Robert Cabana stated, “This agreement with Starfighters aligns well with NASA’s mission and national space policy direction to support and enable the U.S. commercial space industry.”

The aerospace company is also currently in discussions with NASA and other government users to provide flight test services under Starfighters recently awarded blanket purchase agreement from NASA’s Airborne Science Program from the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

Starfighters has previously flown several operational test and evaluation flights from the SLF, which included NASA sponsored Pathfinder Trajectories for Orbital and Sub-Orbital Flight Environmental Impact Studies, Autonomous Flight Safety Systems with INS and GPS Termination Measuring payloads and Station High Sensitivity Ocean Research Experiments.

Starfighters’ landmark agreement with NASA-KSC sets the groundwork for additional commercial opportunities to come to KSC in the future.

A reader points me to a couple of FBO items of possible interest to industry players:
/-- Responsive Small Spacelift (RSS) Contract Extensions - Federal Business Opportunities - IDIQ contracts for SpaceX & Orbital Sciences
/-- Advanced Space Power Technologies - Federal Business Opportunities: Opportunities

Rocketplane Global retrenchment and relocation to Wisconsin gets more attention in Oklahoma:
/-- Aerospace Company Deserts Oklahoma Leaving Questions - NewsOn6.com
/-- Rocketplane
leaves Oklahoma, not Earth's atmosphere - NewsOK.com

Some unexpected great news for the financial prospects of the commercial spaceflight industry:
/-- Aabar Investments and Virgin Group Agree Equity Investment Partnership in Virgin Galactic (pdf) - Aabar.com
/-- Abu Dhabi Fund Buys Stake in Virgin Galactic - WSJ.com
/-- Virgin Galactic, valued at $900 million, gets $280 million private investor - Hyperbola

Under the deal, Aabar will invest approximately US$280m and take around a 32% stake in Virgin Galactic’s holding company, valuing the business at about $900m. The transaction is subject to obtaining regulatory clearances in the United States and elsewhere. Additionally, Aabar has committed $100m (plus transaction cost) to fund a small satellite launch capability, subject to the development of a full business plan. It will also gain exclusive regional rights, subject to regulatory clearances, to host Virgin Galactic tourism and scientific research space flights. Finally, Aabar has plans to build spaceport facilities in Abu Dhabi.

The International Space University will open the new Institute for Space Commerce on the Isle of Man this week : First Institute for Space Commerce to be based in the Isle of Man - Isle of Man Today (via Parabolic Arc). Here is the announcement from July 2007 about the selection of the Isle of Man for the institute.
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This video of a Q&A with Will Whitehorn includes a comment about how they had to turn down one particular offer of a million dollars for a SS2 flight reservation : IAC 2008: VIDEO - Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn takes questions - Hyperbola
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More about the contract dispute between Space Adventures and Daisuke Enomoto: Grounded Space Tourist Sues for $21 Million Refund - SPACE.com.

I rant a lot about what I consider serious policy mistakes at NASA like the Ares/Orion program but I also applaud the agency when I think it does something right. Here, for example, is great news (via John Gedmark at the Personal Spaceflight Federation) about a new RFI from NASA concerning the use of human suborbital spaceflight services for science experiments: Request For Information - Scientist Participant Suborbital Science Pilot Program - Service Providers Science Mission Directorate:

This is something that the industry has been urging NASA to do for years and it is exciting to hear that they are now taking the idea seriously. Implementation of such a program will benefit NASA's science missions and also bolster the industry with an additional market.

Here is a portion of the announcement:

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recognizes the advancement of the commercial suborbital spaceflight industry and seeks to leverage this private investment through a potential procurement of human suborbital spaceflight services. NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is in the formulation phase of a new program to fly government-sponsored payloads and researchers on commercial suborbital systems with the intent of advancing SMD’s goals and objectives.

In this RFI, SMD is requesting technical and programmatic input that will be valuable to NASA to (i) evaluate procuring flight services and (ii) aid potential science investigators in scoping and designing possible future suborbital investigations. Comments to this RFI are welcome from all stakeholders but primarily from potential providers of suborbital spaceflight services. Suborbital space flight service providers should anticipate flight experiments that address any of the SMD’s research disciplines (Astrophysics, Earth Science, Heliophysics, and Planetary Science). For these human-tended experiments, it is expected that NASA’s on-board researchers may require services such as power, data handling, mounting surfaces, viewing portals, day/night flight opportunities, and flight operations at remote field locations. NASA is interested in opportunities for externally-mounted experiments as well.

Space Angels Network

Dr. Burton Lee spoke of seed-stage venture finance with a market overview and some investment strategies. Identified the major chronic structural gap for NewSpace firms as seed and early stage funding. Estimates that there are a total of 230,000 independent angel investors in the US of which ~100 are funding space startups. Claimed that there were only ~$10 million in angel NewSpace investments. (This must exclude Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Paul Allen and Robert Bigelow investing in their respective ventures?)

Dr. Lee founded the Space Angels Network to aggregate individual angel investors with vetted startups. Space Angels is primarily looking for deals with Space-IT convergent firms, with Space-Aviation convergent firms (including NewSpace) as as secondary higher-risk category.

For the next 5 years he expects deals with startups engaged in ISS resupply, suborbital space tourism and remote sensing; from 5-10 years out he predicts that global point-to-point suborbital delivery and operationally responsive space startups will be more viable. Space Angels Network first round of activity in December 2007 included work with Assured Power (Dennis Wingo), Rocketplane Global and UP Aerospace.

Space Angels Network planned exit strategy for each deal is to either pass along a viable space firm to a mature venture capital enterprise or have the startup merge with a larger corporation. In general, for Q&A, Dr. Lee acted as the realist during moments of freewheeling conference discussion.

The Canadian Space Commerce Association is hosting today's Accelerating Space Conference at the University of Toronto. It is a small, formal gathering of entrepreneurs, interested business people, students and venture capitalists. Deloitte, Royal Bank of Canada and The Space Angels Network are represented. (Special thanks to TopSpacer for this guest blogging opportunity.)

Odyssey Moon 1:15 pm

Keynote address was by Dr. Robert Richards, founder of Odyssey Moon, a Google Lunar X-Prize contestant. Dr. Richards worked with Carl Sagan during his time at Cornell. Big proponent of the "Moon Rush" opportunity for lunar economic development. Aims to leverage surface imagery taken from recent lunar orbiters for Odyssey Moon rover navigation and targeting. Moon as the "Eighth Continent" with mineral content useful for PV solar cell manufacture. Earth "backup" repository for biosphere and sum total of human knowledge.

Asserts that Odyssey Moon was a year in the making before being "smoked out" by Google Lunar X-Prize. Incorporate in Isle of Man for regulatory, tax and ITAR reasons. Big proponent of Isle of Man as "switzerland of the space business". Isle of Man legislation shaped by an ISU graduate. Odyssey Moon will be flying Isle of Man flag on its lunar rover; notes many oceanic freighters call from Isle of Man for similar benefits.

Odyssey Moon goals: first private enterprise on moon; market lunar products; win Google Lunar X-Prize. Analogies Lunar exploitation with GEO comsat market: consider the Moon as just another satellite, a little farther out. Prime contractor work with MDA already started. Aims to lower business risk with multinational agreements.

Will live with Law of the Sea; won't claim title for Moon territory it lands on. However, Odyssey Moons plans to legally "fish" for lunar resources thus owning anything it extracts. Compares with U.S. suit for stolen Moon rocks as NASA property. Expects success of Google Lunar X-Prize may stimulate amendment of Cold War-era agreements such as the U.N. Outer Space Treaty.

A bit startling to an old space enthusiast to see in an official document from a bunch of government space agencies words and phrases like "human migration into space", "permanently extending human presence into space", "Mining the Moon", "entrepreneurs", "space-based resource extraction", "establish a sustained human presence on the Moon", and "settlement" :
* The Global Exploration Strategy: The Framework for Coordination - JAXA - May.31.07 (pdf)
* Tourism, mining out of this world - Canada.com - June.1.07
* NASA Unveils Global Exploration Strategy and Lunar Architecture - NASA - Dec.4.06

While I strongly disagree with the hardware architecture that Griffin has chosen for initiating NASA's implementation of this strategy, I think he has certainly done great good in pushing such ideas into the mainstream, at least in the aerospace world. Still some work on reducing the giggle factor in society at large but progress is being made.
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Speaking of resources, a recent New Scientist cover article offers some interesting data on global supplies of various minerals such as platinum, gallium, and indium. Many of these have known reserves that will suffice for only a decade or two at current consumption rates. Of course, prices will rise and the market will respond in the usual way with consumers using less, producers searching for new supplies (including recycling), and substitutes arising. Warnings of impending doom from resource shortages have been issued since the 1800s yet prices for most commodities have actually fallen rather than risen. (Price bumps pump the price down over the long term.)

However, there is no fundamental reason that space resources cannot participate in the "new supplies" and "substitutes" responses to supply and demand forces in the future. There are practical problems, of course, especially the high cost of space transport, but I hope and expect these can be overcome.

I unfortunately forgot who suggested it but I really like the idea that a primary long term assignment for NASA, along with other national space agencies, should be carrying out a survey of solar system resources. Sort of the way Lewis & Clark surveyed what was contained in the lands that came with the Louisiana Purchase. For example, it could be great to know if there really are useful amounts of platinum group metals on the Moon and in some asteroids. Such a survey is a natural task for the government since it is not economical for commercial firms to do it. Private companies, though, could certainly be hired to carry out parts of the survey (e.g. data purchase deals for asteroid prospecting). Once particular resources are located, commercialization, of course, will be key to making them available to both earth and in-space economies.

A truly "system wide" resource survey will greatly benefit humanity. It also happens to provide a solid, fundamental long term rationale for both unmanned and manned government space programs. Lets get on with it!

KSC is studying the use of the Shuttle runway for commercial suborbital spaceflights: F-104s Will Fly From KSC On Pathfinder Test Missions: Starfighters Assessing Suborbital Space Launch Trajectories - Aero-News - Apr.7.07
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Two general press articles about commercial spaceflight:
* Jump in: There's space for everyone! - The Denver Post
* Space tours give new meaning to star rating - The Washington Times
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A Charles Simonyi report: Space Tourist: ISS a Cozy and Complicated Place - SPACE.com - Apr.13.07

Here's a long article in Time Magazine about NewSpace developments: The Space Cowboys - Time - Feb. 22.07.
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BTW: someone pointed out that the Space Adventures website has had a spiffy new makeover.
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I've mentioned Galaxy32.com before but it seems like their site has also gotten more elaborate since I first visited them. They are sponsoring an on line treasure hunt game in which the grand prize is a suborbital spaceflight ride. This game is free to play with no registration.

NASA is certainly making some progress towards becoming a more commercial spaceflight friendly and helpful organization but it certainly hasn't transformed itself into a new NACA for the spaceflight industry. Apparently alarmed at some of the press reports, the agency had to make it very clear that the agreement with Virgin Galactic is a very limited one and definitely does not include using the SS2 to train astronauts: NASA Provides Additional Information on Agreement With Virgin Galactic - NASA - Feb.21.07.

Alan Boyle provides further info about the NASA/VG partnership: Space worlds collide - Cosmic Log - Feb.21.07

The Wall Street Journal has an article today by Andy Pasztor about the feud between Burt Rutan and Jim Benson over who should get the primary credit for the SpaceShipOne hybrid rocket propulsion system: In Race to Take Tourists Into Orbit, Partners Split, Spar Bragging Rights Divided SpaceShipOne Creators; Virgin's $250 Million Bet - Wall Street Journal - Feb.13.07 (subscription required).

Rutan and Tim Pickens have always said that they designed the system and contracted SpaceDev to build the major components. (Pickens gave their version of the story in this Space Show interview.) In the article, Benson says the SpaceDev team "designed and built every single part and component" except for the bell-shaped exhaust nozzle at the rear and the outside motor casing." (Benson has been on the Space Show several times but I think he addressed the SS1 motor most directly in this Oct.19, 2004 show.)

The article goes on to describe the competition between Scaled and Benson Space to build a vehicle to fly the first tourist on a suborbital spaceflight. The article reports that "Mr. Benson hopes to offer paying passengers the first regular rides as soon as December 2008 -- potentially many months before the Rutan-Branson venture, called Virgin Galactic."

A HS reader sends a link to this video news report of a firing of the engine on the Rocket Truck built by Orion Propulsion (the same truck that did static engine firings at the X Prize Cup last October): Local Propulsion Lab Tests Rocket Truck - WAAY-31 News - Jan.26.07
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XCOR has long used its nitrous oxide/ethane Tea Cart engine for educational demos of safe liquid fueled rockets. Now Orion Propulsion offers its Suitcase Hybrid educational kit for demonstrating what hybrid rockets can do.
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Speaking of XCOR, they now have a web page dedicated to their XR-5M15 7,500 lb-thrust LOX Methane rocket engine.

Alan Boyle talks about the development of commercial space transport with FAA Administrator Marion Blakey and AST/FAA chief Patricia Grace Smith following the X Prize Excutive Summit held last week: The future of flight - Cosmic Log - Oct.24.06.
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The static engine firings by Masten Space Systems at the XPC looked and sounded great. It will be very interesting to follow the progress of their protoype flights, which I believe will start in a month or two. In addition to the web log on the MSS site, Jon Goff has now set up a MSS Q&A Thread on the The Space Fellowship forum. In an initial posting, he describes the goals for their first three prototypes.

Rand Simberg discusses the implications of the recent announcement that Bigelow and Lockheed-Martin would study whether it is feasible to use a version of the Atlas V to access a Bigelow orbital habitat: The Dinosaur Empire Strikes Back? - Transterrestrial Musings - Oct. 5.06

Alan Boyle on the announcement of the Andrews Space - Rocketplane Kistler partnership: Back in the game - Cosmic Log - Sept.28.06
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More about Jim Benson leaving SpaceDev to commercialize the Dream Chaser vehicle:
* SpaceDev Founder Wants In On Space-Tourism Market - Aero-News Network - Sept.29.06
* SpaceDev CEO resigns for new space venture - North County Times - Sept.29.06 (Via spacetoday.net)
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I'm sure KSC would love to have the Dream Chaser take off and land at their facility: NASA KSC RFI: Supporting an Environmental Assessment of Commercial and Other Uses of the Shuttle Landing Facility - SpaceRef - Sept.29.06.