Blue Origin, Boeing and Others Showcase Space Station Ideas – GeekWire

Oracle Origin's Blue Origin space company, Jeff Bezos, has developed a plan to build a commercial habitat for future space travelers and put it into Earth's orbit at the top of its New Glenn rocket.

The concept is part of a dozen studies published today by NASA as part of a project to evaluate how crewed space operations in low Earth orbit could be marketed in the next six years or so.

NASA commissioned the studies last summer to study commercial alternatives to the International Space Station, in accordance with the current plan to abandon the management and operation by the US government space segment of the space station by 2025. Each of the 13 teams was tasked with providing a study. at a cost not exceeding $ 1 million, the total price rising to about $ 11 million.

In addition to the presentation of the concept of Blue Origin, NASA has published abstracts of studies on Axiom Space, Boeing, Deloitte Consulting, KBRwyle, Lockheed Martin, McKinsey & Co., NanoRacks, Northrop Grumman, Sierra Nevada Corp., Space Adventures and Space Systems / Loral is part of Maxar Technologies). Bigelow Aerospace was also on NASA's initial list to conduct a study, but was not mentioned today.

There can be no assurance that any of these companies will follow through on their plans. The studies were simply aimed at providing NASA with options to support the development of a LEO trading ecosystem.

In mid-2020, NASA should focus on a mini space station in lunar orbit, called a gateway. In today's press release, the space agency announced that it hopes to become a key customer of private space companies in low Earth orbit.

"NASA will continue to need a low Earth orbit for its microgravity research and testing, which will allow the agency to make a successful plan to go from there. before on the moon and on Mars, including the landing of the first woman and the next man on the moon, "NASA explained. "By expanding business opportunities at the space station, we could help catalyze and expand markets, allowing many companies to create a robust space economy." The ultimate goal of the Low Earth Orbit Agency is to partner with the industry to create a robust ecosystem in which NASA is one of many customers who purchase services and capabilities at a much lower cost. to that of today.

Some companies (such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin) have already shared ideas for the construction of commercial space stations, while other companies (such as Deloitte and McKinsey) have focused on the station's economy. instead of specific hardware concepts. But today's Blue Origin presentation covered new ground.

Until now, the Kent-based company in Washington has focused on launches in the suborbital space with the New Shepard spacecraft, the development of new-generation rocket engines such as the BE-4 orbital launch capability with its new Glenn Rocket and Blue Moon concept for a lunar lander.

Blue Origin said its LEO marketing team would also include Johnson Nanoventures based in Texas, which would contribute to the development of habitat architecture and operations in the space; and Bryce Space and Technology, based in Virginia, who would do market research.

The market study will dictate details of the technical requirements of a future space station, Blue Origin said. The company would then develop a habitat using commercially available equipment as well as its own manufacturing capabilities. Once the basic architectural concept has been defined, launching the space station takes only three years, depending on the timing of the study.

The concept illustration of Blue Origin shows a habitat with portholes, mounted on top of the upper floor of New Glenn. An airlock is moored to the habitat and an energy module equipped with solar panels is moored to the other side of the airlock.

The power generator module is very similar to the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) that NASA asked Maxar Technologies to manufacture for the gateway. Maxar has designated Blue Origin as one of its partners in the PEP development effort.

We have asked Blue Origin for more details and will update this report with everything we have heard.

Here is a summary of the 11 other concept summaries:

• Axiom Space: To give commercial astronauts the opportunity to travel to the International Space Station between 2020 and 2023, launch Axiom modules at the space station from 2023, progressively transfer equipment to Axiom modules, separate ISS modules at the end of the year. its useful life create an autonomous Axiom station. Subcontractors would include TASI, KBRwyle and Intuitive Machines.
• Boeing: The master builder of the International Space Station is considering a continuous evolution of the ISS. The initial phase would involve the setting up of commercial modules, followed by the launch of free flight space elements followed by the crew, and then the assembly of multi-element platforms. Boeing HorizonX would play a role in marketing and its partners could be Virgin Galactic, Space Adventures, Made In Space, Airbus, NanoRacks and Alpha Space.
• Deloitte: The consulting firm conducted a partial survey of the manned space flight market in low Earth orbit. By the mid-2020s, annual demand could reach $ 71 to $ 1.4 billion for life science research, $ 442 to $ 3.1 billion for space tourism, $ 71 to $ 400 million for manufacturing in space and $ 37 to $ 1.1 billion for the space sector. media, advertising and entertainment.
• KBRwyle: The company's study anticipates a gradual transition to commercial operations in low Earth orbit. The contractors would draw up plans for a new LEO platform by 2020-2025, start launching elements for assembly into orbit in 2025 and complete it by 2030. In the meantime, NASA would terminate direct funding of the ISS in 2025 and become a LEO operator commercial customer. The transition from the ISS to the LEO platform would be completed in the 2030s, paving the way for the decommissioning of the ISS.
• Lockheed Martin: The ISS would evolve to adapt to business operations, in anticipation of the creation of a new LEO platform in the 2020s, focused on assembly and manufacturing in the world. ;space. Partners include Deep Space Systems, Lunar Resources and Made In Space. Potential technologies include optical fiber fabrication and vacuum deposition in space.
• McKinsey & Co .: The study of society predicts that tourism and astronaut activities will be the main drivers of demand for space habitats. By 2025, the expected total demand would be served by a single ISS-type module with a capacity of six people. There is a risk of supply / demand imbalance, with "too many modules, not enough occupants, or vice versa".
• NanoRacks: The Texas-based company is proposing its concept of upgrading upper rockets into orbit to serve as outposts with or without crew. NanoRacks reports that the first unmounted outpost could be operational by the end of 2022, with the first crewed outpost coming on stream shortly thereafter. Potential partners include United Launch Alliance, Stratolaunch, Space-BD, Olis Robotics, Bradford Space (formerly Deep Space Industries), KSAT, Altius, TVA, Space Adventures, Made In Space and Lunar Resources.
• Northrop Grumman: A long version of Northrop Grumman's Cygnus space capsule could host commercial payloads in the form of an attached or free-flying module. The company's augmentation module could be used as a base for a free flight LEO platform by the mid-2020s. SpaceWorks, Engility and Alpha Space were among the subcontractors. Northrop Grumman also claimed to have supported Blue Origin and Space Adventures in conceptual studies using vehicles derived from Cygnus and Cygnus.
• Sierra Nevada Corp .: The company's Dream Chaser spacecraft could be used for transportation services and could be a LEO platform for long-term operations from the early to mid-2020s. Key partners include Lockheed Martin, Aerojet Rocketdyne, L3, Draper, ASI, MDA and ILC Dover.
• Space adventures: Best known for his aboard the ISS aboard a Russian spacecraft, Space Adventures is considering a transition in the 2020s that begins with the fixation of Cygnus capsules and other reused modules to the ISS for commercial applications, including space tourism and media projects, manufacturing in the space, satellite services, and government-supported research and crew training. Partners include Made In Space, NanoRacks and Radiant Solutions.
• Maxar Technologies (formerly SSL): The manufacture of satellites in orbit could be a key factor in LEO's commercial operations. The elements of a LEO satellite manufacturing platform could be developed initially as add-ons for the ISS, leading to the creation of a new manufacturing platform from LEO. Ultimately, the platform could serve as a base of operations for the satellite service. The study partners included Telesat as well as Bryce Space and Technology.