Science, Research, and Education Missions on Commercial Suborbital Vehicles
1. Overview:
Vehicles under development by commercial suborbital companies, such as Virgin Galactic, Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, and XCOR Aerospace, will allow unprecedented access to the space environment and a new way to engage scientists, university researchers, and students. The scientific community has reacted enthusiastically to the promise of these vehicles, with over 400 scientists from around the country participating in a series of workshops and conferences with suborbital vehicle developers.
NASA also quickly recognized the potential of commercial suborbital spacecraft, and has taken initial steps through the formation of the NASA Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program at Ames Research Center.
Since vehicle flights will ramp up in the next two years, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation believes that NASA and other federal agencies should move quickly to make sure that science experiments can take advantage of these flight opportunities.
2. Benefits of Commercial Suborbital Science Missions:
• Cost effectiveness: Lower cost access to the space environment than existing sounding rockets, with a rate of $100K–$200K per 100 kg slot
• Instrument flexibility: Vehicles can support both unmanned payloads and human-tended experiments, with different vehicle types providing a variety of possible mission profiles
• Leverages private investment: Take advantage of hundreds of millions of dollars of private investment in development of new suborbital commercial vehicles, for the benefit of the science community
• Unique capabilities: Fly-on-demand, rapid-turnaround, and human-in-the-loop capabilities will enable new types of previously impossible research
• Hands-on experience for students: University research payloads will provide a new avenue for student involvement and hands-on-training with science experiment hardware
3. Diverse Research Areas:
Relevant research disciplines include earth science, heliophysics, planetary sciences, astronomy, microgravity physical sciences, life sciences, aeromedical, and aeronautics. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation, along with Southwest Research Institute and the Universities Space Research Association, is co-organizing the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference series, which brings together scientists, educators, students, and vehicle developers to discuss application of commercial spacecraft. The 2010 conference, which took place February 18-20, 2010 in Boulder, Colorado, drew over 250 people, and a 2011 conference is planned for February 28-March 1, 2011 at the University of Central Florida.
In addition, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation has organized two science workshops in conjunction with NASA Ames and the Universities Space Research Association:
• Dec '08 workshop focused on earth & space sciences: see report of Dec-08 results [pdf].
• May '09 workshop focused on microgravity & biomedical science: see report of May-09 results [pdf].
Additionally, detailed presentations from scientists, engineers, and NASA personnel are also available.
The Commercial Spaceflight Federation has also created an advisory panel, the Suborbital Applications Researchers Group (SARG), composed of experienced scientists, researchers, and educators dedicated to furthering the research and education potential of commercial suborbital launch vehicles.
SARG is chaired by Dr. S. Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, a space scientist who previously served as head of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. Matthew Isakowitz, Associate Director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, serves as Program Officer. More details can be found in our press release [pdf].