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One of the interesting things at Space Access '04 is XCor's new 'pocket' igniter. It operates with various inputs but typically its GOX and kerosene or alcohol. This particular unit has over 1000 starts with no detectable erosion. This is what the target that all of the arocket igniter projects have to get to. The nice thing is that the valves are actually built into the igniter body.

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John Powell of JP Aerospace is giving an update on what JP Aerospace has been up to and is finally talking about their total vision for balloon based aerospace. It's basically three 'vehicles'. A 'launcher' that gets you to 100K feet, a 'station' that is huge that permanently sits at 100K feet, and an orbital (yes, orbital!) balloon that is almost 6000 feet long and can attain orbit using lift from the upper atmosphere. Its an amazing amount of work that is generating short term ROI now.

JPA isn't going to post the presentation for another month for various reasons. I asked and got permission to post pictures of the handouts. Check out the pictures wiki for the important pages.

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I'm putting images from Space Access '04 up on the twiki here: SpaceAccessPictures.

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I'm having issues with the GPRS setup so I'm writing this from the Starbucks down the street. Its been really nice putting faces with names. So far I've been able to meet Clark Lindsey, Jeff Foust, Alan Boyle (yes, MSNBC is here), Jonathan Goff, Andrew Case, Al Differ and a whole host of other people I've talked to but never met in person. Nice folk.

So far no earth shattering news. Some hints though. Last night Jeff Greason reminded us that the 180 day “must grant” window that the AST has expires on April 23rd which is today. He wouldn't give any specifics about what he might announce today but he did give a strong hint that he would be. His presentation on what it takes to get a launch license out of AST was exceptional. His main point was that AST is as much in the dark about how to do this as we are and that everyone should view a launch license application as more of a perpetual, close conversation with AST that starts about 24 hours after you decide you want to be in this business. One question from the audience was “Ok, I've bought my lathe and I'm about ready to start fabricating engines, when should I talk to AST”? Jeff's response was that you should have been talking to AST long before you ever bought the lathe, much less after you've starting fabrication.

One interesting attendee is Andrew Knight who apparently has a new piston pump design. I'll find out more when I can and post it here.

So far this is extremely interesting and fun. Simply based on yesterday's half session I highly recommend coming if you can.

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Xcor was just granted their launch license! They've also released a press release.

bq.

The launch license is for a technology test vehicle; the license does not yet cover passenger operations though it does allow for revenue payload flights after initial tests are completed. Testing will be done at the Mojave Airport in Mojave, California, which is expected to become the first inland launch facility licensed for commercial launches. Mojave Airport is known for its safe, smooth coordination of general aviation activity and private aerospace development.

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I'm off to Space Access '04 along with everyone else. I hope to be able to blog while I'm there since I finally got my laptop to talk bluetooth to my phone so I can use it as a GPRS modem. According to the hotel there's no network access in the hotel itself but there's a Starbucks about 300 meters down the street. Stay tuned!

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In this article I suggest that Burt will make his Xprize attempt in two months. That's one more flight at a 60 second burn time (in two weeks I think), a flight to just below 62 miles to get Scaled an altitude record (I think this will be what they do on May 5th), and then the full up flight 30 days latter.

Brent suggests that it would be sooner since May 5th is the 43rd anniverery of the first suborbital trip. Brent's date would require that Scaled already have notified Xprize of their intent to fly. The rules don't anything about that notification being public so that could indeed be the case.

The other idea is that Space Access '04 is next week and normally some interesting announcements happen then. So maybe we'll get the 30 day notification then?

What do you think?

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Just a reminder: Today's Aldridge Commission meeting will be at 1:00 PDT (4:00 EST). As always, we will be offering live commentary on the #arocket IRC channel and Wiki page. Come join us!

Update: The highlight of today's meeting was one of the UAW guys saying that one of the requirements is that sustainability needs bi-partisan support. In the Q&A Bob Walker turns that around and asks the UAW guy if that means that since the UAW has endorsed Kerry, that the UAW will use that clout to get Kerry to stop dissing Bush's space plan? His answer: if he wants our votes he will.

Heh…

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Arthur Smith notified me of this one. John Marburger has published an an article in the Orlando Sentinal (registration required, foobar/foobar seems to work) entitled Bush's new paradigm puts space exploration within reach. Marburger is the President's Science Advisor and the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. In the article he makes it clear that the plan is very lunar focused over the short to medium term. While he doesn't mentioned commercialization at all, he seems to be making it clear that the stepwise but aggressive development of cislunar infrastructure is the goal.

The article suggests some questions: is this just additional insight into the President's original vision or is any of this informed by the Aldridge Commission's internal discussions? If so then Marburger's statement, “NASA's capabilities are compatible with this new paradigm.” gives new meaning to the word “compatible” since so far the Commission has heard from very few witnesses that have agreed with that statement. But on the other hand, Florida is a state that Bush needs to win, and this was written for the Orlando area, so its definitely a political bone being thrown to one of Flordia's largest employers.

Its really hard to tell what the politics are here. When I listen to the Commission meetings I become optimistic. But when I hear those Unions speak and I see that they're on the agenda yet again, I go the other direction. I'm struck by this section in Lost In Space:

bq.

Amid the diminished expectations brought on by the shuttle, O'Neill's most noticeable impact was felt as part of the Reagan-assigned National Commission on Space, led by former NASA administrator Thomas Paine, who was perhaps the most O'Neillian of any administrator in the agency's history. The commission was established in 1984 by Congress and the White House to define the nation's space goals for the coming century.

The commission's report was bold and ambitious. It proposed the establishment of an outpost on the moon by 2006, spaceports at several Lagrangian points (although not the megacities proposed by O'Neill) shortly thereafter, a Mars base by 2015 and the active development of space-based resources for further exploration and settlement. Because the report was released only weeks after the explosion of Challenger, NASA wasted little time in burying it.

In other words, we've already been here and we didn't get anywhere last time. So why is now different?

Well, for one thing, Bush isn't Reagan. This Congress is much friendlier to presidential initiatives like this, if done with costs in mind. But all of this could die with his presidency if Kerry wins. Or if he is weakened to the point that he needs the support of the labor unions in Florida to carry that state, thus selling out to the exact forces that, IMHO, would ruin any recommendations the Commission might make.

Politics makes great theatre. But I can't imagine actually wanting to have my livelihood and personal wealth tied up in a process like this. So even if the entire process is hopelessly screwed, I'm still going to work like hell to build out the private side of this business. Who knows, maybe having a hopelessly screwed up US space program would make building my aerospace company easier in the long run.

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The Aldridge Commission has put up the agenda for the April 15th and 16th meeting in San Francisco. (Yea, I know, it was published on the 9th. I was busy putting a Yuri's Night party together.) Interesting highlights are SpaceDev's Jim Benson and Ray Bradbury. I also noticed that the unions are well represented again: UAW Local 848 and 887.

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