The National Aeronautics and Space Administration should consider scrapping the rocket it has been developing to replace the space shuttles in favor of having private companies launch astronauts into orbit, a blue-ribbon panel reported Thursday.
In a 157-page report titled “Seeking a Human Spaceflight Program Worthy of a Great Nation,” the 10-member panel described its findings as options instead of recommendations. The report does not provide many surprises beyond what was discussed during a series of hearings over the summer and the executive summary released last month, but it explains the panel’s decisions in greater detail.
Under NASA’s current plans, developed after the loss of the shuttle Columbia in 2003, the remaining three space shuttles are to be retired next year after completion of the International Space Station. A new series of rockets are supposed to return astronauts to the Moon by 2020.
A prototype of the first of the new rockets, the Ares I, is on the launching pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, scheduled to lift off on Tuesday morning. That test flight, with a less-powerful first stage and a dummy second stage, was devised to gather data to aid in refining the design.
But the full rocket, and the astronaut-carrying capsule on top, are not scheduled to begin operation until March 2015. Because of NASA’s budget constraints, the panel concluded that the date of the first flight would very likely slip two years.
The panel did not call Ares I an engineering failure but rather a victim of smaller-than-expected budgets and changing circumstances. “With time and sufficient funds, NASA could develop, build and fly the Ares I successfully,” the panel wrote. “The question is, should it?”
Because of the delays, the Ares I may be too late for one of its primary tasks, ferrying astronauts to and from the space station. Its defenders point to its simple design, arguing that it will be far safer than earlier rockets.
While agreeing that the Ares I’s simplicity was an asset, the panel was unconvinced that the rocket would be markedly safer than competing concepts that similarly consist of a reliable booster and a crew capsule with a launch escape system. Further, the planned launching rate for the Ares I is no more than two per year, “raising questions about the sustainability of safe operations,” the panel said.
The panel did not call for throwing away all of the development work for Ares I. Among other options explored, the panel was complimentary toward NASA’s developing the Ares V Lite. Currently, the Ares I is to complemented by a heavy-lift rocket, the Ares V. The Ares V Lite would be a smaller version, using the solid rocket booster developed from the Ares I.
The panel also discusses developing a heavy-lift rocket based on rockets currently used by the Air Force to lift satellites or one based more closely on the space shuttle design.
In turning away from the Ares I, the panel also makes a strong push for turning transportation to low-Earth orbit to private space companies. But perhaps its strongest point is that NASA needs additional financing of about $3 billion a year to accomplish much of anything.
“Its human spaceflight activities are nonetheless at a tipping point, primarily due to a mismatch of goals and resources,” the report said. “Either additional funds need to be made available or a far more modest program involving little or no exploration needs to be adopted.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment