Constellation debate deleting Ares tests to beat 2015

The Constellation Acceleration Study Team are evaluating 160 “brainstorming ideas” in an attempt to reduce the current gap between shuttle and Ares/Orion by up to 18 months. However, such a process would come at a cost, with widescale deletions to Ares I testing and a major deferral to the development of the Lunar Orion. In response to budgetary pressures and the effort to move up the first flights of Ares/Orion, Constellation planners are considering changes to the Ares I test schedule, including the deletion of certain upper stage tests.

Five upper stage tests and their related hardware are currently being considered for deletion. These “development test articles” are designed primarily to validate design assumptions during development and increase the likelihood of a smooth flight qualification program later on.The advantages to eliminating some of the tests are to reduce costly paperwork, keep CDR (Critical Design Review) on pace for 2010, and keep specifications on track to gain margin.

However, it would mean items such as the Main Propulsion Test Article (MPTA) - a key Ares test item - would miss a large amount of its original test schedule, adding strain to the Ares I-Y test flight, which would lack pre-flight testing as a result.

As the budget for FY08 and FY09 is coming in at lower than requested levels, planners are trying to defer non critical costs to after the retirement of the shuttle. This would be two-fold, with Constellation concentrating on the ISS version of Orion, deferring work on the Lunar Orion to a later date.

The goal is to relieve stress on the critical software development cycles and the availability of high bays and other MAF (Michoud Assembly Facility) facilities. The plan is in direct competition with the assessment in extending the shuttle program past 2010 - which is currently at the White paper stage with NASA HQ - should NASA managers decide to add flights to a manifest that is already naturally filling 2010 due to the delay to STS-125. The conflict would relate to additional production of External Tanks.

Extending the shuttle program has widescale support, but importantly lacks willingness from high level managers at NASA HQ and MSFC (Marshall Space Flight Center) who are tied to an Ares I program that is struggling to keep to budget and schedule due to technical issues - as listed in the official NASA documentation.

So, to counter the shuttle option of extending its manifest to reduce the five-six year gap, Constellation have set about creating their own options to move the schedule to the left.

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A Memorable Diwali With a Friend 10000mi Away!

I just remember having celebrated Vinayaka Chaturthi just a while ago and the festival of lights has snaked its way already toward us. The festival marks the triumph of good over evil. The day starts with visiting the temple and distributing sweets to near and dear ones. Nights, of course have children and youngsters light up the sky and suffocate (literally!) with the sheer joy of witnessing their multi-colored sparkles find their way above rooftops and lanky trees.

To me it was business as usual and was beginning to think that the day would turn out just like so many of my other Diwali days...but I was in for a beautiful surprise 10000 miles away from me.

I had one of the most memorable Diwali with a friend (name withheld) of mine who lives in the US and whom I haven't met yet but known her for like a year. It is the common love for spaceflight and NASA that stands at the helm of this friendship that was forged on a social networking site. It was one of those conversations that would make you feel like you would wanna just sit with your beloved, hand in hand, on the shores of a misty pond and listening to a bunch of crickets perform their song. Sit there just listening to the world around you until the dawn breaks. The conversation was so deep that it made me hold off the Dr. Wernher Von Braun inside me and bring out the more subtle and human side which, I keep carefully hidden.

Our talk today has been so full of understanding, thought-provoking and spirited; if not actually helpful and healing conversation. To me, it was one of those few hours where I could share my greatest dreams and disappointments without any fear. And as I sit down to write this, I cannot stop myself from thinking how exceptional it has been in getting to know her. The respect and warmth I have for her has already reached the very core and depth of my soul. And this small piece of my mind is just a thanksgiving, if you will, for what I share so joyfully with my friend.

All I can wish for is that we remain this way till the end . And this is what makes it one of the big-league Diwalis that I've had in a while.

Wish all my readers a Happy and Safe Diwali!

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The shame of indifference

The notion that the rich must be happy is complemented by the delusion that the poor must be miserable. Our society is so constituted that most people remain all their lives in the condition in which they were born, and have to depend on their imagination for their notions of what it is like to be in the opposite condition. The rich, it is said, do not know how the poor live; but nobody insists on the more mischievous fact that the poor do not know how the rich live. The rich are a minority. But the poor are a huge majority and they are so demoralized by the notion that they would be happy if only they were rich. And, they wouldn't mind buying sweepstakes on the chance of realizing their daydreams of unearned fortunes.

The slowing Indian economy is just more of a nuisance to the rich and middle class people. But what about the fate of the population that hovers close to the acute poverty line? If they thought washing the floors, driving the cars and cleaning the windows of the rich/middle class would open the doors to a better life, they know now that they were wrong. With prices rising, their savings are being eaten away. Higher food and fuel prices are being driven by big changes in the global economy that look set to continue. Even the most cheerful optimist in the past decade has seen the huge divide between the haves and have-nots, but the hope has persisted that it would somehow go away. Inflation has set like asphalt into that divide, solidifying the gap between the two Indias. The future for the country is two futures: rosy and grim. Indian companies will buy more foreign businesses and more Indian children will starve. In economic terms, India has become neither the U.S. nor Sudan, but something in between — a Latin American republic with an entrenched class chasm. Higher levels of crime and social unrest are almost certain to follow. For years or decades to come, we will not be able to talk of one destiny for all the people of the country. India is still just a Sudan - with a little icing on the top.

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Chandrayaan-1 Launched!

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched their Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft on their debut mission to the moon. A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-XL-C11) lifted-off from Sriharikota, India early on Wednesday, local time.

The PSLV-C11 is an uprated version of ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle standard configuration. Weighing 316 tonnes at lift-off, the vehicle uses larger strap-on motors (PSOM-XL) to achieve higher payload capability.

Since 1993, the vehicle has achieved twelve successful launches carrying satellites to Sun Synchronous, Low Earth and Geosynchronous Transfer Orbits, launching 29 satellites in total. The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, designed and developed PSLV-C11, which is 44.4 metres tall and has four stages using solid and liquid propulsion systems. The first stage, carrying 138 tonne of propellant, is one of the largest solid propellant boosters in the world. Six solid propellant strap-on motors (PSOM-XL), each carrying twelve tonne of solid propellant, are strapped on to the first stage. The second stage carries 41.5 tonne of liquid propellant. The third stage uses 7.6 tonne of solid propellant and the fourth has a twin engine configuration with 2.5 tonne of liquid propellant.

Chandrayaan-1 will carry out high-resolution remote sensing of the Moon on a global scale. It will study lunar surface composition, produce a 3D map of the Moon’s surface and drop an impact probe for added surface studies.

Following launch, Chandrayaan-1 will travel for about five and a half days to the Moon. The final operational orbit (polar, circular at 100-km altitude) will be reached about two weeks later.

Two NASA instruments to map the lunar surface will launch on Chandrayaan-1, which consist of the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, which will assess mineral resources, and the Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar, or Mini-SAR, which will map the polar regions and look for ice deposits. Data from the two instruments will contribute to NASA’s increased understanding of the lunar environment ahead of its project return to the moon via Orion in 2019.

“The opportunity to fly NASA instruments on Chandrayaan-1 undoubtedly will lead to important scientific discoveries,” noted NASA administrator Michael Griffin. “This exciting collaboration represents an important next step in what we hope to be a long and mutually beneficial relationship with India in future civil space exploration.”

In addition to the two science instruments, NASA will provide space communications support to Chandrayaan-1 during its two-year lunar mission. The spacecraft also will carry four instruments and a small lunar impactor provided by ISRO, and several instruments from the Europe Space Agency (ESA). This cooperation follows on from the first venture between India and Europe, which took place in the 1980s. In 1981, Europe’s Ariane 3 rocket launched into space India’s first geostationary satellite Apple.

Riding onboard, Europe’s Compact Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (CIXS) will carry out high-quality, low-energy (soft) X-ray spectroscopic mapping of the Moon. The Infrared Spectrometer, known as SIR-2, will observe the chemical composition of the Moon’s crust and mantle. Both of these instruments were flown on SMART-1 and have been upgraded and rebuilt for Chandrayaan-1. They will continue the work on surface composition started by the original instruments.

The third European contribution is the Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyser (SARA). Derived from the ASPERA (energetic neutral atoms analyser) instruments, flown on Mars Express and Venus Express, it will be the first lunar experiment dedicated to direct studies of the interaction between electrically charged particles and the surface of the Moon.

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