ISECG to study three scenarios for international manned and unmanned lunar exploration

Representatives of ten international space agencies, operating together as the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) met in Yokohama March 10-12, and resolved to study three scenarios for coordinated robotic and human lunar exploration.

Chaired by JAXA, the meeting examined past progress of ISECG activities work "in the spirit of the Global Exploration Strategy (GES)."

The three lunar scenarios under study include short and extended duration missions and six months at the proposed Shackleton-Armstrong station at the lunar south pole. Scenarios cover development of infrastructure in space and on the lunar surface.

The ISECG conference discussed standardization of mission-critical system interfaces. Participants expect the scenarios discussed to ensure accomplishment of co-operative lunar exploration objectives while accomplishing individual national goals and expressed interest in building upon success to define an international architecture.

Meeting participants, claim reports, also made significant progress in other areas., including achieving GES objectives through cooperation, development of tools for sharing information on exploration capabilities and mission plans across agencies.

The ISECG issued its 2008 annual report describing world-wide exploration activities and a summary of the three scenarios.

The 3.0 Lunar Exploration Scenarios Workshop participants examined architectures for three major types of lunar exploration: (1.) establishment of a polar outpost (2.) sortie and (3.) extended-stay missions.

Each scenario requires provisions for crew and cargo transportation, ground communications from the Moon to Earth and support for extravehicular activity. Participants discussed key architecture elements.

3.1 Polar Lunar Outpost Scenario

A human lunar outpost at one of the poles can be described as the build up of capabilities and elements that enable the opportunity for continuous presence of astronauts on the Moon, with individual stays of up to 180 days. It is envisioned that a completed outpost can be accomplished with a relatively small number of missions. An outpost can begin satisfying science, public outreach and other objectives during its construction phase and upon completion. A major attribute of a lunar outpost is to allow the international community to develop the systems and capabilities with sufficient reliability to consider undertaking an international mission to Mars.

3.2 Lunar Sortie Mission Scenario

A lunar sortie mission can be described as one or more short duration flights to any location on the moon. These missions will satisfy a range of science objectives as well as public engagement and others. The main characteristic of this type of mission is that the crew lives out of the NASA Altair lander (or another human lunar lander) and can conduct up to seven days worth of scientific or other activities with the resources brought with them. Pre-deployment of resources is not necessarily precluded in this scenario.

3.3 Extended-Stay Mission Scenario

The participants recognized that significant enhancement of sortie mission scenarios can be achieved if elements in addition to a human lunar lander are in-place on the lunar surface. The participants characterized an extended-stay scenario by the pre-deployment of elements that may extend the sortie mission crew time, provide additional capability for crew habitation, science or demonstration of capabilities and technologies necessary for human missions to Mars.

Agencies involved in ISECG include ASI (Italy), BNSC (UK), CNES (France), CNSA (China), CSA (Canada), CSIRO (Australia), DLR (Germany), ESA (European Space Agency), JAXA (Japan), KARI (Republic of Korea), NASA (United States of America), NSAU (Ukraine), Roscosmos (Russia).

The Global Exploration Strategy, framework for Coordination (Framework document) was released on May 31, 2007 based upon the common interest of fourteen international space agencies to create a shared framework for space exploration to “enhance mutual understanding among partners and to identify areas for potential cooperation. To work collectively towards the further development and implementation of the global exploration strategy set out in the Framework document, the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) was established in Berlin, Germany on November 6, 2007.

ESA funds SKYLON Spaceplane propulsion

The notion of a truly reusable Single-Stage-To-Orbit "spaceplane" enjoyed by millions in the remarkable OrbiterSim simulation engine released by Dr. Martin Schweiger is one step closer to reality. The European Space Agency and British government have given official support to the "revolutionary propulsion technology" designed by UK-based Reaction Engines LTD .

REL has been awarded a one million euro contract by ESA for “Experimental Investigation of Key Technologies for a Turbine Based Combined Airbreather Rocket Engine." The ESA contract contributes towards a total program of almost £6 million.

ESA’s funding for the project is provided via subscriptions by the British National Space Centre partnership with two technology programs of the ESA – the Technology Research Programme (TRP) and the General Support Technology Programme (GSTP).

"The British National Space Centre (BNSC) is at the heart of UK efforts to explore and exploit space. BNSC is a partnership of seven Government Departments, two Research Councils, the Met Office and the Technology Strategy Board. It coordinates UK civil space activities and represents the UK at the European Space Agency," according to the REL press release.

REL’s partners in this programme are EADS Astrium at Ottobrun, Germany; DLR (Deutsches Zentrum fűr Luft- und Raumfahrt) in Lampoldhausen, Germany; and the University of Bristol, England.

More on the SKYLON and SABRE HERE.

NASA & BNSC collaborate planning for Lunar Cellular Network

With a horizon only two miles away, the notion of a lunar surface with sufficient cellphone towers to prevent the frustrating "dead zones" experienced on Earth, as tall needed or tall as necessary and could be built in low gravity, brings to mind Doug Bradley in full "Pin Head" make-up and ready as always to "play."

Nevertheless, as attention naturally continues to focus on the Nearside rim of the massive and ancient Aiken Basin, which has within it's wide realm much of the southern Farside, the Lunar South Pole while peaking out into sight from Earth, for a primary permanent habitat on the Moon, NASA and the British National Space Centre (BNSC) are already planning a cellular phone network.

Most attention is clearly on the complexities of a stable constellation of satellites in "Goldilocks" orbits, neither too high or low and in orbits as unaffected by lunar MassCons and the Moon's inherent lack of mass homogenaity; flying cell towers, beginning with two and with testing using an underground relay beginning as soon as 2012.

There will be towers, to be sure, here and there - perhaps on Malapert, for example.

Malapert has the distinction of being high-ground situated close to the South Pole but never quite slipping out of line-of-sight from Earth with the Moon's libration. On Malapert the sunset is seasonal but Earthset never quite happens. Instead Earth rises less than 10 degrees up and falls to kiss the horizon, sometimes dipping low enough that only Earth's southern hemisphere remains visible, while the rest of the Universe wheels about with the Sun.

Malapert does not qualify as a "mountain of perpetual sunlight," as is may exist nearer to both poles, but as an Earth observation post, with proximity to the South Pole only some 50 kilometers and 180 degrees south of an observer, it is particularly well-situated for a microwave wireless power distribution node and to relay communications between Earth, the Lunar South Pole and for Farside satellite and optical fiber head-ins. The mountain also appears to be a good location for nesting underground or in close-by permanent shade from X-Class Massive Coronal Eruptions.

In fact, as NASA and others, including myself, have long-noted Malapert seems to be one of many ideal and even strategic locations on the Moon for a lot of Human activity.

But NASA working with BNSC envisions most Lunar cellular phone and realtime data traffic around the Moon handled a small swarm of satellites much like the GPS systems dancing around Earth. It also may resemble the high ground swarms flown for satellite phone traffic on Earth, and both LPS and cell exchange may eventually ride together.

Traffic for such a proposed cellular system might be light at first, but it may well be absolutely critical, also. Whether planners can overcome problems with Lunar perturbations and its possible effect on orbital timing for predictable hand-overs, both Lunar-centric Positioning Systems for orbital traffic control, navigation and mapping and for local communications more reliable than what consumers often have on Earth today may be needed sooner than most of our fellow "ground-pounders" can yet imagine.

Report from Silicon.com

Reaching for the stars … from a humble spare room in Bearsden

TORCUIL CRICHTON: on space
Glasgow Daily Herald

DAVID WOODS does this wee space trick with a mini football, about eight inches in diameter, and a two-inch sponge ball, which, by happy coincidence, are the proportional size of planet Earth compared to our moon.

He asks you to take the small, tennis-ball-sized moon and guess how far it should be from the football Earth. About the length of a desk you might guess, maybe six feet? He keeps asking you to walk backwards until you are a good 20ft away. That, he says (and he's almost shouting), is the relative distance of the moon from Earth, on average about 238,000 of our human miles.

It's a demonstration that works at two levels - showing how incredible the solar system and our place in it are and displaying the staggering achievement of the Apollo space mission in getting men on to our nearest celestial satellite.

Woods uses the analogy and many others in what is simply a good book that does what it says on the cover - How Apollo Flew To The Moon. During the day Woods is a post-production editor at BBC Scotland, a kind of mission control that rescues TV directors from themselves, and that's how I first met him. But at night, his head is in the stars.

David has written a book in his spare time, compiled from his extensive research into the manned space missions. The book he's produced is a composite mission that follows a virtual flight to the moon from launch to splashdown. There's a human dimension, the day-to-day concerns of how you go the toilet or shave while in space, with stories that capture, like the tennis ball at the end of the room, the sheer audacity of the achievement.

"It's the kind of book I hope the space geeks will give to the newbies to start them off," he says. "I certainly wish I'd had it when I started getting back into Apollo in a big way in 1995." Of course, David Woods's fascination with the moon flight began long before then.

Woods is of that generation of baby boomers who saw space flight move from science fiction to science fact right in front of their eyes. "It's an enchantment that happens when you're 10 years old and never goes away. Family, work and life come along but that magic never fades. I see it in the eyes of other people my own age. I feel blessed to have lived in an age when such dedication to science could do what it did."

Woods is no ordinary space geek. His enthusiasm for lunar travel transcends science and the grubby politics of the moon missions. He's managed to write a scientific book about the moon that is science-packed, but actually very easy to read. He may not be Tom Wolfe, but when it comes to typing words in order, a fair definition of journalism, he has the right stuff.

In 1997 Nasa gave him a medal for the work he'd done on archiving Apollo missions on the internet, and when you go to see the documentary In The Shadow Of The Moon, you'll find his name is in the credits. He supplied the production with sound archive of the Apollo 11 mission that he had stored on an MP3. I know, most people his age have Spiders From Mars on their MP3 players; David has the audio track of the Apollo 11 mission.

Along with other space enthusiasts, like Glasgow's David Harland, he can't wait for man to go back to the moon. It's just a pity that there won't be any Britons aboard future space missions. The government's space strategy, drawn up recently by the British National Space Centre, sets out to double the number of UK companies involved in the space business but it doesn't aim to put one British astronaut on the moon. There was a historic decision in the 1960s to opt out of manned space flight, but several key groups, the Commons Science Committee among them, have urged the government to think again, not least because Britain will miss the opportunity to inspire a whole other generation of scientists.

Meanwhile it's left to authors such as Woods to re-ignite our fascination with moon travel. His book has been well received among the international space community but it deserves to be a cross-over success. A BBC colleague managed to slip a copy into Tom Hanks's hands after interview in London. The star of Apollo 13 didn't take his nose out of the book from the moment he was handed it. "I'm going to read this for pleasure, this book," said Hanks, walking out of the room still leafing through the pages.

After an endorsement from an A-list Hollywood celebrity, how much higher could an author's star rise? Well, about as far as a book signing in Milngavie Book Shop tomorrow evening and a small launch party at his house in T- minus six days from now.

Woods is fittingly modest about his achievement - yet there he is, published author, consultant to space documentaries, honoured by Nasa, and shaken hands, actually shaken hands, with men who've walked on the moon. And he arranged it all from his spare room in Bearsden. He's quite an inspiration.

"You just go on with your dreams and those things you are passionate about and they kind of come true, it's a very strange but very wonderful thing," says Woods. Spoken like a true spaceman.

David Woods will splash down at Milngavie Book Shop on Monday, February 25 at 7pm to talk about the Apollo missions.