美要把空间站补给工作交给私企

美国航宇局（NASA）8月18日选定两家公司参与“商业轨道运输服务”（COTS）计划第一阶段的工作．从而向把国际空间站补给工作交给私营部门迈出了一步。该局希望能用商用火箭为空间站运送人员和货物．以便自己能专注于重返月球和最终的载人火星探测项目。该局主管月球和火星探测工作的官员霍罗威茨说，该局的目标是在航天飞机退役后由商业航天公司为空间站提供支持。他说：“若商业部门能安全、可靠而经济地完成这项工作，那么采购这种服务是再好不过的。”中选的两家公司是空间探索技术公司和火箭飞机-基斯特勒公司。     

NASA对私人宇航公司的政策浅析

<正>自后航天飞机时代起,美国国家航空航天局(NASA)开始引导私人宇航公司进入往返国际空间站(ISS)和近地轨道(LEO)的任务领域。通过包括航天法案协议(SAA)、"商业轨道运输服务"(COTS)、"商业补给服务"(CRS)、"商业乘员开发计划"(CCDev)、"商业乘员运输综合能力"(CCi Cap)等项目、协议或合同,NASA希望通过引入私人商业宇航公司,培育一个竞争性的商业航天市场,降低进入空间的成本。经过近10年的努力,以太空探索技术公司(Space X)为代表的一批私人宇航公司在NASA的支持、引导下,已取得了举世瞩     

空天瞭望

NASA征集载人和货运方案美国航宇局(NASA)正动员美工业界建立能开拓新的航天市场并保障国际空间站人员和货物运输需求的能力和服务。这是该局首次寻求用非政府飞行器和商业服务来满足载人航天的人员和货物运输需求。“商业人员／货物(CC／C)项目第一阶段”最终公告要求工业界提交“商业轨道运输服务验证”方案。该局官员称．这预示着商业航天厂家可从中发挥更大作用的航天运输新时代的到来。该局将拿出高达5亿美元来支持商业航天运输方案的开发．以在航天飞机退役后和新型“机组探测飞行器”到位前用于向国际空间站运送货物和人员。中标公司或团队将研制和验证能支持空间站等载人空间设施的飞行器、系统和操作手段。一旦某项能力得到验证,     

“亚特兰蒂斯”号安全着陆,航天飞机时代落幕

美国东部时间2011年7月21日5点57分,＂亚特兰蒂斯＂号航天飞机及其4名乘员在经历了13天的太空之旅后,安全降落在佛罗里达州的肯尼迪航天中心。这是航天飞机历史上第133次着陆,第26次夜间着陆。历时30年的美国航天飞机计划,随着其第135次任务的结束而画上了句号。     

NASA空间法案协议面临新的限制

据美国航空周刊网站11月30日报道,NASA有迹象表明：《空间法案协议》的运用将有更多限制。自2006年起,NASA开始使用以研发为导向的签约运载器,为的是加快商业货物与人员运输服务的研发,以支持后航天飞机时代的国际空间站活动。     

“龙”飞船首飞空间站,开启载人航天新纪元

美国东部时间2012年5月22日3时44分,美国空间探索技术公司(SpaceX)的商业货运飞船——"龙"(Dragon)飞船在卡纳维拉尔角空军基地由法尔肯-9火箭成功发射,完成了与"国际空间站"(ISS)的交会对接,运送460kg货物到空间站,携带约590kg科学设备和货物返回地球。"龙"飞船是美国航空航天局(NASA)"商业轨道运输服务"(COTS)计划下发展的商业货运飞船,其首次完成空间站飞行验证任务,开启了载人航天商业化的新时代。     

国际空间站舱外活动环境的无线视频系统

无线视频系统（WVS）支持国际空间站（ISS）的装配，它可实时地向航天飞机轨道器（SSO）和飞行任务控制中心（MCC）提供航天员舱外活动（EVA）的视频监督信息。功能模块图解如图1所示，图里包括乘员舱、载荷平台以及舱外机动装置射频（RF）摄相机组件（ERCA）。乘员舱组件提供系统性能的控制和监测，此组件包括两个独立的部分，一个是由乘员使用的面板接口（无线视频接口盒-WIB），     

未来商业航天员从哪里来

自美国航空航天局（NASA）决定将地球低轨道人员和货物的运输任务承包给商业公司后，商业航天员的招募工作就踏上了征程。     

聚焦“龙”太空船首次商业补给任务

美国东部时间10月7日20时35分（北京时间8日8时35分），伴随着猎鹰9号火箭发动机的轰鸣声，太空探索技术公司（SpaceX）的“龙”太空船从佛罗里达州卡纳维拉尔角空军基地成功升空，成为首艘向国际空间站运送补给物资的商业飞船。“距离航天飞机退役仅仅一年之后，我们又一次在美国的领土上发射了货运飞船，并且将相关的工作机会带给了美国商业公司”，NASA局长查尔斯·博尔登说，“‘龙’太空船的发射，标志着商业补给运输服务的正式开端。也表明美国商业公司完全有能力承担这一重任。”     

竞争激烈的大型通信卫星商业发射服务市场（上）

竞争激烈的大型通信卫星商业发射服务市场（上）费雅佳简单地讲，商业发射服务是指通过市场竞争，得到发射服务项目或合同，在合同规定的时间里，经过充分的星箭技术协调和发射场测试、发射、测控和后勤保障设施等协调后，用一次性运载火箭、可重复使用运载火箭或航天飞机...     

A space exploration strategy that promotes international and commercial participation

NASA has created a plan to implement the Flexible Path strategy, which utilizes a heavy lift launch vehicle to deliver crew and cargo to orbit. In this plan, NASA would develop much of the transportation architecture (launch vehicle, crew capsule, and in-space propulsion), leaving the other in-space elements open to commercial and international partnerships. This paper presents a space exploration strategy that reverses that philosophy, where commercial and international launch vehicles provide launch services. Utilizing a propellant depot to aggregate propellant on orbit, smaller launch vehicles are capable of delivering all of the mass necessary for space exploration. This strategy has benefits to the architecture in terms of cost, schedule, and reliability.     

Challenges and perspectives of transport cargo vehicles utilization for performing research in free flight

Russian Progress transport cargo vehicles have successfully been used in different space station programs since 1978. At present time, they play an important role in the International Space Station (ISS) project. Main tasks performed by the transport cargo vehicle (TCV) in the station program are the following: refueling of the station, delivery of consumables and equipment, waste removal, station attitude control and orbit correction maneuver execution.     

Redefining safety in commercial space: Understanding debates over the safety of private human spaceflight initiatives in the United States

In 2009 President Obama proposed a budget for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) that canceled the Constellation program and included the development of commercial crew transportation systems into low Earth orbit. This significant move to shift human spaceflight into the private sector sparked political debate, but much of the discourse has focused on impacts to “safety.” Although no one disputes the importance of keeping astronauts safe, strategies for defining safety reveal contrasting visions for the space program and opposing values regarding the privatization of U.S. space exploration. In other words, the debate over commercial control has largely become encoded in arguments over safety. Specifically, proponents of using commercial options for transporting astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) argue that commercial vehicles would be safe for astronauts, while proponents of NASA control argue that commercial vehicles would be unsafe, or at least not as safe as NASA vehicles. The cost of the spaceflight program, the technical requirements for designing a vehicle, the track record of the launch vehicle, and the experience of the launch provider are all incorporated into what defines safety in human spaceflight. This paper analyzes these contested criteria through conceptual lenses provided by fields of science and technology policy (STP) and science, technology, and society (STS). We ultimately contend that these differences in definition result not merely from ambiguous understandings of safety, but from intentional and strategic choices guided by normative positions on the commercialization of human spaceflight. The debate over safety is better considered a proxy debate for the partisan preferences embedded within the dispute over public or private spaceflight.     

载人深空探测进入/再入走廊设计方法研究

载人航天器的进入/再入走廊刻画了进入地外天体或再入返回地球时允许的进入/再入角范围。载人深空探测进入/再入过程中,载人航天器必须满足进入/再入走廊约束,以避免经历过大的过载、热流和总加热量等力/热环境,威胁进入/再入飞行安全。文章研究载人深空探测进入/再入走廊的设计方法,通过融合载人航天器进入/再入预测校正制导,验证进入/再入走廊的可行性,并采用基于安全系数的偏差因素影响分析方法,获取进入/再入走廊的设计裕度。最后,以载人月地再入返回为例,具体阐明了再入走廊的设计方法,并通过数学仿真验证了设计方法的有效性。研究结果将为载人深空探测进入/再入走廊设计以及进入/再入返回总体设计提供技术参考。     

International space station: : Ready to fly

The International Space Station (ISS) is no longer a paper program, focused on design, development and planning. It is an operational program, with hardware soon to be launched and ground systems in place. Additional modules, components and elements are now under construction in almost all of the 16 ISS International Partner and Participant countries, with metal being bent, software being written, and testing ongoing. Crew members for the first four crews are in training in the U.S. and Russia, with the first crew launching in mid 1999. Mission control centers are fully functioning in Houston and Moscow, with operations centers in St. Hubert, Darmstadt, Tsukuba, Turino, and Huntsville going on line as they are required.

The International Space Station, as the largest international civil program in history, features unprecedented technical, managerial, and international complexity. Seven international partners and participants encompassing 15 countries are involved in the ISS. Each partner is contributing and will be operating separate pieces of hardware, to be integrated on-orbit into a single orbital station. Mission control centers, launch vehicles, astronauts/cosmonauts, and support services will be provided by partners across the globe, but must function in a coordinated, integrated fashion. This paper will review the accomplishments of the ISS Program and each of the Partners and Participants over the past year, focusing on completed milestones and hardware. It will also give a status report on the development of the remainder of the ISS modules and components by each Partner and Participant, and discuss upcoming challenges.     

Dextre: Improving maintenance operations on the International Space Station

The Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), known as “Dextre”, is currently slated to launch in February 2008 for deployment on the International Space Station (ISS) as the final component of Canada's Mobile Servicing System (MSS). Dextre's primary role on the Space Station is to perform repair and replacement (R&R) maintenance tasks on robotically compatible hardware such as Orbital Replaceable Units (ORUs), thereby eventually easing the burden on the ISS crew.This burden on the on-orbit crew translates practically into crew time being a limited resource on the ISS, and as such, finding ways to assist the crew in performing their tasks or offloading the crew completely when appropriate is a bonus to the ISS program. This is already accomplished very effectively by commanding as many non-critical robotics tasks as possible, such as powering up and free-space maneuvering of the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), known as “Canadarm2”, from the Ground.Thus, beyond its primary role, and based on an increasing clarity regarding the challenges of external maintenance on the ISS, Dextre is being considered for use in a number of ways with the objective of improving ISS operations while reducing and optimizing the use of crew time through the use of ground control for various tasks, pre-positioning hardware, acting as a temporary storage platform to break an Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) day into manageable timelines, and extending the physical reach and range of the Canadarm2.This paper discusses the planned activities and operations for Dextre an rationale for how these will help optimize the use of crew resources on the ISS.     

Rationale and systems architecture for a near-term human lunar return

Early human missions to the Moon have landed on six different sites on the lunar surface. These have all been in the low-latitude regions of the near side of the Moon. Early missions were designed primarily to assure crew safety rather than for scientific value. While the later missions added increasingly more challenging science, they remained restricted to near-side, low-latitude sites. Since the 1970s, we have learned considerably more about lunar planetology and resources. A return within the next five to ten years can greatly stimulate future human space exploration activities. We can learn much more about the distribution of lunar resources, especially about hydrogen, hydrated minerals, and water ice because they appear to be abundant near the lunar poles. The presence of hydrogen opens the possibility of industrial use of lunar resources to provide fuel for space transportation throughout the solar system.This paper discusses the rationale for near-term return of human crews to the Moon, and the advantages to be gained by selecting the Moon as the next target for human missions beyond low-Earth orbit. It describes a systems architecture for early missions, including transportation and habitation aspects. Specifically, we describe a primary transportation architecture that emphasizes existing Earth-to-orbit transportation systems, using expendable launch vehicles for cargo delivery and the Space Shuttle and its derivatives for human transportation. Transfer nodes should be located at the International Space Station (ISS) and at the Earth-Moon L1 (libration point).Each of the major systems is described, and the requisite technology readiness is assessed. These systems include Earth-to-orbit transportation, lunar transfer, lunar descent and landing, surface habitation and mobility, and return to Earth. With optimum reliance on currently existing space systems and a technology readiness assessment, we estimate the minimum development time required and perform order-of-magnitude cost estimates of a near-term human lunar mission.     

Lessons learned from Mir--a payload perspective

Among the principal objectives of the Phase 1 NASA/Mir program were for the United States to gain experience working with an international partner, to gain working experience in long-duration space flight, and to gain working experience in planning for and executing research on a long-duration space platform. The Phase 1 program was to provide the US early experience prior to the construction and operation of the International Space Station (Phase 2 and 3). While it can be argued that Mir and ISS are different platforms and that programmatically Phase 1 and ISS are organized differently, it is also clear that many aspects of operating a long-duration research program are platform independent. This can be demonstrated by a review of lessons learned from Skylab, a US space station program of the mid-1970s, many of which were again “learned” on Mir and are being “learned” on ISS. Among these are optimum crew training strategies, on-orbit crew operations, ground support, medical operations and crew psychological support, and safety certification processes.     

The flight experiment ANITA--a high performance air analyser for manned space cabins

Analysing Interferometer for Ambient Air (ANITA) is a flight experiment as precursor for a permanent continuous trace gas monitoring system on the International Space Station (ISS). For over 10 years, under various ESA contracts the flight experiment was defined, designed, breadboarded and set up. For the safety of the crew, ANITA can detect and quantify quasi on-line and simultaneously 32 trace gases with ppm or sub-ppm detection limits. The self-standing measurement system is based on Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR) technology. The system represents a versatile air monitor allowing for the first time the detection and monitoring of trace gas dynamics of a spacecraft atmosphere. It is envisaged to accommodate ANITA in a Destiny (US LAB) Express Rack on the ISS. The transportation to the ISS is planned with the first ATV 'Jules Verne'. The options are either the Space Shuttle or the Automated Transfer Vehicle.     

The European Astronaut Centre prepares for International Space Station operations

The European Space Agency (ESA) contribution to the International Space Station (ISS) goes much beyond the delivery of hardware like the Columbus Laboratory, its payloads and the Automated Transfer Vehicles. ESA Astronauts will be members of the ISS crew. ESA, according to its commitments as ISS international partner, will be responsible to provide training on its elements and payloads to all ISS crewmembers and medical support for ESA astronauts. The European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne has developed over more than a decade into the centre of expertise for manned space activities within ESA by contributing to a number of important co-operative spaceflight missions. This role will be significantly extended for ISS manned operations. Apart from its support to ESA astronauts and their onboard operations, EAC will have a key role in training all ISS astronauts on ESA elements and payloads. The medical support of ISS crew, in particular of ESA astronauts has already started. This paper provides an overview on status and further plans in building up this homebase function for ESA astronauts and on the preparation towards Training Readiness for ISS crew training at EAC, Cologne. Copyright 2001 by the European Space Agency. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., with permission. Released to IAF/IAA/AIAA to publish in all forms.