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PASADENA, Calif. – Companies interested in developing commercial space stations and related facilities in low Earth orbit are questioning whether NASA's support for such efforts has been overshadowed by the agency's rush on the moon.
NASA has requested $ 150 million in fiscal 2019 for the new LEO commercial development program. The Omnibus Final Budget Bill for 2019, passed in February, provided $ 40 million for this effort, with the wording of the report indicating that this money would be used "for the analysis of the implementation of LEO Port and other activities to enable future commercial activities at the International Space Station ".
NASA has not yet announced plans to use this funding, panelists said at a Space Tech Expo session on May 21. Some have suggested that the funding be used to stimulate commercial demand for the use of the ISS or other facilities in LEO mode.
"You have to find that nugget of gold from the application," said Thomas Martin, director of launch strategy and human exploration and business development at Aerojet Rocketdyne. This would include products and services that may cost enough to make it cost-effective, despite the costs of going back and forth in orbit. "How can we take this money and seed that market demand?"
Others, however, argued that supply was a more urgent problem in the short term. "There remains a port on the station and everyone wants it," said Mike Lewis, director of innovation at NanoRacks. NASA previously considered launching a call for offers to companies so that they submit proposals for the use of this port, but has not yet materialized these projects.
Lewis argued that the funding could help remedy this shortage by building a docking knot. "Forty million dollars would pretty much allow you to build a" T "that could give you three or more locations," he said. "That would allow a lot more users."
The lack of visible progress in NASA's LEO marketing efforts has, however, led some to question whether it was still a priority for an agency now tasked with returning humans to the surface of the moon from here. 2024. "Was the marketing of LEO overshadowed by the moon? landing? Asked Mike French, senior vice president of commercial space at Bryce Space and Technology.
The industry is of the view that this is still a priority, even though it did not receive as much attention as it did a year ago, when NASA proposed to end federal funding for the ISS. here 2025. "I do not think anyone wants to give up the low ground. orbit right now, "said Martin." From our perspective, I think the station has a role to play at least for the next decade. "
"I think it's really great to have a direction," like coming back to the Moon by 2024, said Lewis. He added that his company had witnessed a restructuring of the contracts following the announcement to focus more on the moon, leading the company to think about how to ensure that marketing is not left behind in this planning.
He and the others do not miss potential applications for commercial platforms, attached to the station or in free flight. Al Tadros, vice president of space infrastructure and civil space at Maxar Technologies, said his company had studied for NASA a "space station without habitats": a platform where robotic systems would unload cargoes visiting spacecraft and would use them to assemble spacecraft and other structures. without the constraints imposed on spacecraft built on Earth.
"We looked at the issue not to see if it could be done," he said. "That's the economy of doing that."
The commercial facilities could also accommodate research laboratories, including those of the government. "I think it will always be necessary to have a government-funded research center in the space," said Christine Ketz, vice-president of programs and partnerships of the National Laboratory of Medicine. the ISS, the organization that operates the part of the ISS designated national laboratory. . "If the International Space Station becomes obsolete and it's time to move on to another vehicle, I think many companies are looking to improve their vehicle."
Lewis was more skeptical about a potential market, at least for the ISS: tourism. "We actually considered it to be a business case, and yes, we could just do it," he said, adding a module on tourism at the station. "But is it satisfactory? Is this what we want the legacy of the space station to be? Not necessarily."
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