NewSpace 2010: In-Space Services and Commercial Opportunities

NASA Roundtable: In-Space Services and Commercial Opportunities

Gary Martin (moderator) – Director of New Ventures & Communications, NASA Ames
Dallas Bienhoff – Manager for In-Space and Surface Systems, Boeing
Ron Clark – CEO, Space Orbital Systems
Doug Comstock – NASA Innovative Partnership Program
Dr. Dan Rasky – Director, NASA Ames Space Portal
Dennis Wingo – Skycorp, Inc., CTO, Orbital Recovery Corporation

NOTES BY JIM KERAVALA

— Investors will be there to invest if we can validate the market
— Dennis Wingo – for one third of replacement cost we can give you an extra 10 years of life
— If you come to NASA with your own check they will love you
— Everyone is fighting for crumbs with NASA
— Problem with investment market
— Dallas – it’s about time vs energy
— Bigelow putting up more habitable volume per launch volume
— Human behavior is another key barrier
— Radiation, need life support mass, high thrust, high energy propulsion
— VASIMR and nuclear thermal propulsion are possible approaches
— Need to send machine shops, not prebuilt hardware!
— Beck Engineering – compact machine shop, SBIR, Doug Comstock
— For NASA you have to have your own money and have a business that doesn’t rely on NASA
— Bigelow marketing a space station to 55 soverign space companies around the world
— NACA instrumental in the development of the aviation industry
— Beamed power on lunar surface important; useful to a number of NASA missions
— Dan Adams cited an objection to LEO propellant depots due to limited windows of access
— Insurance underwriters require all mitigation of insurance losses – if in-orbit servicing is available then insurance can demand operators have to use such services – Dennis Wingo
— Propellant is a big market, rides to the moon is another big market to sovereign agencies