Future of NASA: ISS Focused (Constrained Budget)

Matt — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:32:34 +0000

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The Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee has drawn up several alternate architectures for NASA to pursue its mission of sending astronauts beyond low Earth orbit (LEO). For a more complete summary, see “Future of NASA: Program of Record“. The second architecture in the list is ISS focused, constrained to fit the projected budget. This architecture is not recommended by the committee because it does not provide for a meaningful exploration program.

2010: The first commercial cargo deliveries to the International Space Station (ISS) begin.
2011: In March, the Space Shuttle is retired after delivering all the currently planned components to ISS. Soyuz space capsules, provided by international partners, provide crew transportation to ISS for the next five years.
2016: In June, a commercial crew transportation service to ISS becomes operational. Utilization of ISS for R&D increases.
2020: ISS is retired in January. The budget provides funding for a propulsion module which will bring ISS to a controlled re-entry. Some of it will burn up in the atmosphere, the rest will be disposed of in the ocean.
2028: Orion and the Ares V heavy-lift vehicle become operational in March. Crews may launch aboard Ares V, or be shuttled to orbit on commercial rockets. Decades of investment in advanced spaceflight technology may allow for some exploration beyond LEO.

References

“Integrated Options for Human Exploration Discussion“. Review of US Human Space Flight Plans Committee. 12 August 2009.
Ride, Sally; Crawley, Ed; Greason, Jeff; Behmuk, Bo. “Scenario Affordability Analysis“. Review of US Human Space Flight Plans Committee. 12 August 2009.

Final options from the Augustine Committee

Matt — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:06:57 +0000

Thanks to the committee’s Twitter feed and some folks over at NASASpaceFlight.com, I was able to piece together the final options that will appear in the committee’s initial report, to be presented to the White House on Friday. In its final report, the committee will not recommend one particular option, but will simply present the facts. Each of these options represents the combination of several architectural choices, adjusted for budget and schedule. Some architectural choices were discarded entirely. Several options will be presented as “for reference only”, but may be selected by the President anyway, as they are the only ones to fit within the budget. Here is the final list:

2: Program of Record (POR), adjusted for risk, constrained to the FY10 budget (for reference only, not executable)
3B: ISS focused, commercial crew, constrained to the FY10 budget (for reference only, no exploration program)
3B$: ISS focused, commercial crew, “plus up” budget
5$: Lunar sorties, shuttle derived, “plus up” budget
6$: Deep space, dual Ares V light, “plus up” budget
7$: Deep space, commercial HLV, “plus up” budget
7S$: Deep space, shuttle derived, “plus up” budget

I’ll attempt to boil down the differences in this table:

	Recommended	ISS life	Crew to LEO	HLV	IOC
2		2015	Ares I	Ares V	2028
3B		2020	Commercial	Ares V	2028
3B$	•	2020	Commercial	Ares V	2023
5$	•	2020	Shuttle/Comm.	STS-derived	?
6$	•	2020	Commercial	Ares V “light”	2023
7$	•	2020	Commercial	Commercial	2021
7S$	•	2020	Commercial	STS-derived	2022

Future of NASA: Final Score The Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, often...

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