For Astronaut Safety NASA Should Look To Colorado

Author: Jeff Wasden

Colorado doesn’t always come to mind when people think of America’s space legacy. After all, no one ever said, “Denver, we have a problem.” Meanwhile, our researchers and aerospace manufacturers are quietly shaping the state’s economy, America’s space future, and astronaut safety. 

Employees from eight of the country’s top aerospace manufacturers are hard at work right here in Colorado preparing NASA for 21st century spaceflight. One of those companies, Denver-based United Launch Alliance, has nearly 130 successful launches – a remarkable accomplishment in contrast to some recent flame-outs on the launch pads. Independently, Boeing is working to build the Space Launch System for NASA, to begin the journey to Mars.

Amidst this friendly competition, it is easy to forget about the safety of the astronauts who put their lives in the hands of Colorado’s engineers amongst others.

It is shocking to many to learn that SpaceX plans to fuel their rocket with the astronauts already onboard. This ‘load and go’ method needlessly risks astronaut lives in an effort to cut corners and eke out power from an undersized platform. SpaceX’s own Falcon 9 exploded on the launch pad in 2016 using this exact same fueling technique and a NASA safety panel has urged this risky proposal be reconsidered.

It’s not the first safety question mark to be raised about SpaceX’s hurry up approach to development.  The company lost a Falcon 9 rocket and (thankfully unmanned) Dragon capsule in 2015 and one of its Merlin rockets exploded during testing late last year.

Elon Musk recently stated in “The Verge” that, “We certainly could load propellants and then have the astronauts board Dragon.”  If SpaceX can do this, why don’t they eliminate the high-risk operation?  In this case it appears the SpaceX ideology of risk taking is prioritized over safety.  

NASA’s requirements demand that the odds of dying can be no greater than 1 in 270 flights. Counting the 2016 explosion and another in 2015 with the Falcon 9, SpaceX does not meet that criteria if they intend to carry our most precious cargo, America’s astronauts. Space travel will never be completely safe, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

And given Colorado’s central role in America’s leadership in space, this is a discussion our state need to be leading. After all, Colorado boasts the country’s 2nd largest aerospace economy, with nearly 190,000 space related jobs which puts us number one in the nation per capita.

And our universities in Colorado are a key driver for cutting-edge space research. In fact, there are twenty former NASA astronauts affiliated with the University of Colorado and two are currently on staff. This commitment to space education explains why CU receives more NASA research funding than any other public university. And just down the road at the U.S. Air Force Academy you will find the nation’s 2nd ranked aerospace program. 

Thankfully, Colorado companies, like Boeing, and ULA, our researchers, and our students understand this, and are committed to putting men and women in space and bringing them safely home. When NASA calibrated the chance of a fatal incident on the historic Shuttle flights, it came in at 1 in 12. While some cargo like Facebook’s communications satellite can be insured, human life is far too valuable to leave up to chance.

Source: https://www.denverpost.com/2018/06/01/for-...

Teledyne Brown Engineering and DLR: Expanding the Possibilities of Earth Observation

Teledyne Brown Engineering has partnered with the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) to host the International Space Station’s (ISS) first commercial hyperspectral sensor.  The DESIS-30 (DLR Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer) is scheduled to be hosted aboard Teledyne’s ISS-based Multi User System for Earth Sensing (MUSES) platform in June of 2018.  The DESIS-30 is an Offner spectrometer with a spectral range of 400 to 1000 nm (VIS-NIR).  With 2.55nm sampling and 235 spectral channels, it will be the highest-fidelity hyperspectral sensor in operation.   DLR will use the acquired hyperspectral imagery for scientific investigations while Teledyne will make it available for commercial applications. 

Teledyne’s MUSES platform was launched to the ISS in June of 2017 and achieved full operating capability in September of the same year.   The platform was developed as part of a cooperative agreement with NASA to create opportunities for both Government and commercial applications such as imaging, technology demonstration and space qualification payloads supporting research, scientific studies and humanitarian efforts.  Once DESIS-30 is in place, the platform will have remaining capacity for three additional payloads to support other imagers, technology demonstrations and space qualification missions.

“The differentiator of the MUSES platform is that by leveraging the ISS infrastructure; time to orbit is significantly reduced, mission length is adjusted to meet the needs of the customer, and the payload can be returned to earth for analysis or reuse.”, stated Jack Ickes, Senior Vice President of Geospatial Solutions at Teledyne Brown Engineering.  “We are providing companies and researchers a path to low-earth orbit where their hardware can be deployed and returned for a fraction of the cost and effort otherwise incurred by satellite deployment.”

The MUSES pointing capability of 5o/45o cross track and +/- 25o along track significantly improves the revisit time of the DESIS-30 imager over the baseline ISS Orbit. Teledyne’s Amazon-Cloud based Data Management System will process and make acquired imagery available within hours. This high degree of agility and processing speed makes it possible to provide information for disaster response in near real time.

DLR and Teledyne want to leverage the data from DESIS and future MUSES instruments to further improve Earth observation and to expand the use of hyperspectral sensing in commercial applications. The ISS circles the earth 16 times per day, giving the platform and its instruments frequent and broad coverage of its surfaces. Once operational, images from DESIS-30 will be available for access via Amazon Cloud for research purposes around the globe.  

F-35 Fighter Contract Vital to Colorado’s Defense Economy

Originally published here at the Denver Business Journal on November 25, 2016

The vital role that the defense sector plays in Colorado’s economy could expand in the near future if elected leaders, regardless of party or ideology, stand up for a new, fifth-generation jet fighter that already has a solid economic footprint in our state. Colorado business leaders recently learned firsthand how critically important this is when we had the rare opportunity to “fly” the cockpit simulator of the F-35 Lightning II.

The F-35 is the fifth-generation fighter jet that is enhancing America’s ability to own the skies. Ball Aerospace in Westminster is home to an exciting high-tech manufacturing facility that manufactures and tests antenna systems for the fighter. The company expects to manufacture nearly 50,000 antennas for the program in the next 25 years.  

We civilian business types, whose closest engagement with a jet fighter was the models we played with as kids, gained a deep understanding, from a pilot’s perspective, of how this aircraft is the most lethal and survivable strike fighter jet ever built.

We took two important lessons from this landmark event. First, how vital it is that America makes the F-35 a defense-funding priority in order to have an agile asset that can literally create air dominance in any environment and, as a result, meet the growing and evolving threats the nation faces in the 21st century. Equally important, we were reminded how Colorado’s energetic and expanding economy is intertwined with a strong and growing defense sector. Indeed, there are strong and sustained efforts to advocate for basing some of the new fighters here in Colorado.

Many Coloradans aren’t aware of the broad and deep economic benefit that Colorado derives from Department of Defense activity. In fact, adding up direct and indirect jobs, defense is the third-largest industry in the state, matching agriculture. Total DOD-related employment represents 5.2 percent of the state workforce, or 170,000 jobs, accounting for $11.6 billion in total labor earnings. This accounts for 6.5 percent of the Gross Regional Product (GRP).

The F-35 program is no exception.  Throughout the state, the fighter has 22 suppliers in Colorado and supports 750 direct and indirect jobs, providing an annual economic impact of $60 million throughout the state.

One of the key aspects of Colorado’s attractiveness for military-oriented jobs such as those at Ball Aerospace is our growing and well-deserved reputation as a magnet for high-tech workers. While many assume that the smaller tech startups are the most important magnet for these workers, defense-oriented jobs are attracted by – and attractive to – these men and women. A study released last year by the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs detailed the vibrant synergy between direct military activity and related companies that work with the defense sector. The report specifically cited the “crossflow” between DOD and private industry and calling it a self-reinforcing relationship that concentrates talent, productive capacity and innovation.”

The report also underscored that Colorado’s private sector technology based companies provide a stable and reliable base for DOD that helps weather the ups and downs of the lifecycles of products and technologies.

Colorado is a vital, fertile location not only for defense jobs but for private-sector companies and entrepreneurs who work with the military. This is the fruit of years of bipartisan work to demonstrate that Colorado is second-to-none as a location to grow high-quality jobs at exciting, innovative companies. With programs such as the F-35 and other cutting-edge defense assets earning support, Colorado can continue to be an indispensable player in America’s national security – to the lasting benefit of our nation and our economy. 

Jeff Wasden, President and CEO
Colorado Business Roundtable (COBRT) 

Space Organizations Release White Paper: "Ensuring U.S. Leadership in Space"

Space Foundation Contact:
Brendan Curry, Vice President - Washington Operations
202.618.3061

Space Organizations Release White Paper:
"Ensuring U.S. Leadership in Space"

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (March 4, 2016) - Representatives from a coalition of 13 leading U.S. space organizations have produced a white paper entitled "Ensuring U.S. Leadership in Space."

The coalition includes aerospace professionals from industry, academia and government, who joined together to outline issues every presidential and congressional candidate needs to know about space to ensure that space and space policy are a priority in the next administration.

For nearly 60 years, U.S. government and private sector investment and partnerships in space have been critical to the nation and our world. They make possible a $330 billion global space industry, establish new technologies, revolutionize national security, enable and extend our global communication networks, help us understand our own planet better and inspire millions of Americans to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Yet there still remain serious challenges to U.S. leadership in space that the next administration and congress will have to address. The white paper outlines the challenges that the U.S. space program faces, including unpredictable budgeting, foreign competition and workforce trends. In addition to detailing the challenges, the paper explores sensible policy recommendations to address and overcome them, actions necessary to continue our nation's leadership in space.

The paper was introduced today at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and presented on behalf of the coalition by:

  *Dr. Sandra H. Magnus, executive director of AIAA
  *Elliot H. Pulham, CEO of the Space Foundation
  *Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation

Coalition members, in addition to AIAA, Commercial Spaceflight Foundation, and the Space Foundation, are: Aerospace Industries Association, Aerospace States Association, American Astronautical Society, Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, Colorado Space Coalition, Satellite Industry Association, Silicon Valley Space Business Roundtable, Space Angels Network, Space Florida, and the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space.


Read the paper online at ensuringspace.org.


About the Space Foundation
Founded in 1983, the Space Foundation is the foremost advocate for all sectors of space, and is a global, nonprofit leader in space awareness activities, educational programs and major industry events, including the annual Space Symposium, in support of its mission "to advance space-related endeavors to inspire, enable and propel humanity." Space Foundation World Headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., USA, has a public Discovery Center, including El Pomar Space Gallery, Northrop Grumman Science Center featuring Science On a Sphere(r) and the Lockheed Martin Space Education Center. The Space Foundation has a field office in Houston and conducts government affairs from its Washington, D.C., office. It publishes The Space Report: The Authoritative Guide to Global Space Activity, and through its Space CertificationTM and Space Technology Hall of Fame(r) programs, recognizes space-based innovations that have been adapted to improve life on Earth. Visit www.SpaceFoundation.org