Approaching the Tipping Point

Panel Discussion

• Charles Miller: President & Owner, NexGen Space LLC (Moderator)
• Mark Bunger: Research Director, Lux Research Inc.
• Desiree Dudley: Director of Development & Research, Foresight Institute
• Todd Meyerrose: Founder and General Partner, Talos Ventures
• James Reuther: Deputy Director, Technology Program,  NASA Office of Chief Technologist

A discussion of the technology paths critical to the success of NewSpace and how those priorities relate to NASA’s Technology Development Roadmaps.

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Back for the afternoon session, which focuses on NASA technology research. Dr. James Reuther, deputy director of the tech program at NASA’s Office of Chief Technologist, is now giving an overview of the space agency’s research programs. There are nine different research areas.

This will be followed at 2 p.m. PDT (5 p.m. EDT) by “Approaching the Tipping Point,” a panel discussion of the relationship between the needs of NewSpace and NASA’s technology roadmap.

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Moonrise over Half Moon Bay, Halloween 2009. (Credit: Douglas Messier)

Amanda Stiles
Technical Operations Manager
Google Lunar X Prize

• some of the rovers have gone through 34th iterations
• teams are beginning to sign launch contracts
• new launch contract to be announced within the next few weeks
• financial barriers are going to come down
• we think this is really going to happen
• teams talking about working together to make this happen
• It’s going to be a success
• hope to see multiple teams going in the next few years

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Kent Rominger VP and Manager, Liberty ATK Aerospace Kent gave an overview of the Liberty launch system, which is competing for funding in NASA’s commercial crew program. Overview 5-segment solid rocket first stage second stage: Ariane V booster first stage composite crew module (Lockheed Martin — leverages work being done on Orion) cargo module based on scaled down version of flown NASA modules Test flights begin in 2014 Liberty ready […]

Opportunities in Commercial Space Col. M.V. “Coyote” Smith Chief Future Scientist, U.S. Air Force The Problem: USAF spends $16 billion per year employing 41,000 people to manage 54 satellites Intelsat has 1,100 employees and over 50 satellites Air Force personnel work at a particular job for two years before being reassigned Keep having to train new people Have to hire a lot of support people to support the Air Force […]

Video Caption: We’re excited to release this footage of Masten’s July 25, 2012 Mars landing trajectory test flight on Xombie. The flight reached 476.5 meters in altitude and translated 500 meters downrange. The test was carried out for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)** to test the powered descent and landing trajectory optimization algorithms for future Mars Entry Descent & Landing (EDL) applications. It is the first EDL style trajectory carried […]

Neil Milburn of Armadillo Aerospace answered questions from reporters after the announcement that the FAA has granted the Texas-based company a reusable launch license for the STIG-B rocket. Here is a summary: FAA license for reusable STIG-B flights is for two years First STIG-B flight set for Aug. 25 – 26 Two experiments on first flight — one from Germany on how particles behave, the other from Purdue University on […]

NewSpace 2012 Conference
NASA Leadership Roundtable

• Rebecca Keiser (Moderator) — Associate Deputy Administrator for Strategy and Policy, NASA
• Robert Cabana — Director, NASA Kennedy Space Center
• Ramon Lugo — Director, NASA Glenn Research Center
• Ellen Ochoa — Deputy Director, NASA Johnson Space Center
• Pete Worden — Director, NASA Ames Research Center

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Flight: 90 / GF19 Date: 18 Jul 12 WK2 Flight Time: 2 hr SS2 Flight Time: 10 min, 39 sec WK2 Pilot: Stucky WK2 CoPilot: Maisler WK2 FTE: Seguin SS2 Pilot: Siebold SS2 CoPilot: Nichols GS Crew: Binnie, Kalogiannis, Jaster, Verderame, Cassebeer, M. Fuchs, Bassett, Knupp, Reid, Bourgeois WK2 Objectives: SS2 release mission Fly a no-guidance SS2 approach CoPilot training Results: All objectives achieved. SS2 Objectives: Aft CG S&C strake evaluation […]

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (Armadillo PR) — At Newspace 2012 hosted by the Space Frontier Foundation in Santa Clara CA, Dr. George Nield, Associate Administrator for the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation, presented Neil Milburn, Armadillo Aerospace’s VP of Program Management,with an Operator Launch License for their STIG (Suborbital Transport with Inertial Guidance) class of reusable suborbital launch vehicles. This is Armadillo Aerospace’s first launch license although they have already received three launch permits for their lunar lander class vehicles.

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