Electromagnetic Launch Technology

During my time in Florida, I have heard countless times, from a large number of key figures in the space industry, that one of the greatest challenges facing the industry is launch costs.

Now, the commercialisation of launch capabilities, most notably SpaceX, is one way to combat these launch costs - and in the next few years we will find out if this approach is going to be viable in the long term (Personally I think it will, but thats not why I'm writing this short post).

However, one of the threats we face is technological complacency. SpaceX and their Falcon launch vehicles use Liquid propellants, which is (to a broad definition) the same technology being used 50 years ago. Just like modern cars still employ the internal combustion engine, technology which has existed for well over a century, the space industry risks becoming stale with old technology. Many alternate launch mechanisms have been proposed over the years and its time we start investing more heavily in their development.

Last Friday, we had a visiting lecturer to the SSP, one Michael Wright from NASA's Goddard Spaceflight centre, speak to us about the idea of Electromagnetic Launch Technology (EML). Utilising the concept that the interaction between electric and magnetic fields will induce a force, this technology aims to accelerate projectiles at high velocity. The projectiles (or vehicles) are magnetically suspended above a fixed track, whose length determines the final velocity - which can become very high indeed. The beauty of EML is that it is easily and quickly repeatable and could allow many launches per day and hence also allow a vehicle which initially failed a launch test to launch as soon as that problem is fixed. This is in stark contrast to the long delay between rocket launches, which usually aren't completely recyclable. Not only that, but EML could be a 'green technology' and be powered by renewable energy sources. However, EML does have it's limits. As mentioned, the velocity is determined by the length of the track and it require dozens of kilometers of track to launch an object into orbit

Sending an object into orbit requires an extremely large velocity (Greater than 11.2km per second) and has always been the principle challenge to spaceflight. One proposed solution is to use EML to accelerate a launch vehicle to greater that the speed of sound and then to use conventional rocket technology for the remainder of the journey - this approach would significantly cut down on the amount of fuel required by a rocket.

Particular interest in EML revolves around its use on the moon. The moon has a gravitational attraction which is 1/6th of Earths, so it is significantly easier to launch objects off of the lunar surface than it is from Earth. In the coming decades, lunar development and settlement is going to become a reality and with the vast amount of resources on the moons surface (Helium-3, water, rare Earth metals to name but a few) we are going to need a method of sending objects off the lunar surface. Numerous site locations for an EML station have been proposed for the moon and all have their merits. Personally, I believe an ideal site would be on the south pole of the moon, in particular the Shackleton Crater. By using the slope of the crater, the EML track could be inclined to propel objects at a greater angle. Moreover, the crater is the site of extreme temperature differences; the bottom of the crater is in constant shade  whilst the crater rim is bathed in constant sunlight. These temperature differences can be used as an energy source, especially when combined with solar panels along the rim which would generate significant energy. Plus, the chilling temperatures within the crater could help maintain the superconductivity of the magnets required in EML.

Michael Wright has been involved with EML for a long time and had some very interesting points to make. One troublesome thing he brought to our attention is that continuous NASA budget cuts have led to a considerable lack of funding for EML technology even though it has already proved its effectiveness. Perhaps it is time for a commercial enterprise to take the reigns on the use of EML?

Regardless of where it used and by whom, EML is definitely an effective launch mechanism and I expect to see it being employed within the next decade or so. Furthermore, this technology is easily applied to terrestrial transportation (it is already being looked at by the military to launch aircraft) and I look forward to it revolutionising our transport industry.

Michael Wright enlightened me to this fascinating Edison quote which is definitely appropriate:

"There is a way to do it better - find it."   -  Thomas Edison

Week two

What a busy week!

I've only just had the chance to sit down, relax and type some things down. I've met some incredible people this last week, and been to some breathtaking places!

Last Tuesday NASA hosted the 'Soffen Memorial Panel' (Gerald Soffen was a highly influential NASA scientist) for students from the International Space University. This panel was a discussion on the key questions of the future of space with some of the brightest minds in the field. Bill Nye ,the Science Guy (unfortunately not shown enough of British TV), was one of the panelists and he's such a cool, yet slightly mad, guy. He spent the day taking part in all the activities and, after much trepidation, I got the nerve to ask for a picture!

The star of the panel, and the whole week, was Dr. (and General) Pete Warden; the director of NASA Ames Research Centre. In his multiple talks he discussed synthetic biology, terraforming and virtual presence. This is a man who has such passion to get out of our cradle, colonise the solar system and save the human race – its refreshing hearing these views which mimic my own, from a man in his position.

The panel was held in the Operations Support Building at Kennedy Space Centre. This is where everyone involved in a mission meets in the run-up to a launch. I got to go out on the balcony reserved for the president and other heads of state and VVIP's for rocket launches at the KSC. Cooler still, I'm going to the launch of an Atlas V on Wednesday and will be able to viewing it from that very same balcony! The payload of the mission is confidential as it's part of the National Reconnaissance Office, but by applying some of the things we've learnt in Orbital Dynamics and doing some research of past missions, we at the SSP think it's going to be a replacement for one of their communications satellites already in orbit.

In the picture above, you can see me looking cool, but behind that is one of the most impressive sights I've come across. It's the Vehicle Assembly building which is where manned launch vehicles are built and housed and it is the largest single story building in the world!

We had the first of our 'Culture Nights' at the SSP on Friday. These nights are a chance for the participants to present some information about their countries and their culture to the rest of the group. This was followed by a party hosted by the countries that presented, showcasing some of their best food, drink and music. Friday night saw Spain, Portugal, Nigeria, Austria and Germany showcase their countries. It's a great experience and particular highlights were the Spanish Sangria and what can only be described as dancing the German Macarena!

UK culture night is in a couple of weeks, so myself and the other Brits should probably start thinking about what we're going to say and do... We have some tough acts to follow after Friday nights performance.

The SSP is sponsored by loads of organisations such as NASA and Boeing, but we are also sponsored by Disney!

Thanks to Disney, we were invited to a free day at Disney World on Saturday and it was awesome! Before we all rushed off to our favourite rides, we got to meet one of Disney's lead engineers who gave us a talk about some of the engineering challenges at Disney – so cool! You can tell that the talk was a success, because at the end of it, so many people were asking how to apply for a job as an engineer at Disney! I don't think the lecturer realised that one of those people was none other than South Korean Astronaut Yi So-Yeon! (who is one of the staff members at the SSP!). I went to 3 of the parks at Disney World and was finally able to conquer my irrational fear of roller coasters!

Epcot at Disney World

I'm looking to set-up an account on a photo sharing website so I can post all of the photos I have taken. If anyone knows of a good one, let me know (I tried Flickr but I'm not a fan...).

Starting off in Florida

This Wednesday I finished my final University exam and less than 24 hours later, I was on a plane to Orlando Florida.

I've just started the 'Space Studies Program', an annual summer course hosted in different locations each year and organised by the International Space University (ISU, Greatest named University ever?). This program brings together approximately 100 space-enthusiasts from all over the world (There are people from over 30 different countries this year) for a pretty intensive 9-weeks of study. The ISU gathers together hundreds of academics and industry leaders to host lectures, workshops and projects on a wide range of subjects that impact space science.

This year, the program is being co-hosted by the NASA Kennedy Space Centre and the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT).

Without boring you too much with the details of the course; the basic structure of the program consists of three sections. The first few weeks comprise of a 'core lecture' series covering anything from Orbital dynamics to 'The Brain in Space' to Governance of Space Settlements. After this, participants get to choose 1 of 7 departments to specialise in – this could be anything from Physical Sciences to Law and Policy of Space. Finally, the program culminates in large team projects wherein the teams have to produce an approximately 100 page report on their assigned topic.

(If you want to find out some more about the International Space University or the Space Studies program, have a look here)

So, time to catch you up on whats been happening. The program officially started last Saturday (June 2^nd) but unfortunately I was still doing my University exams so I had to postpone my start date until my final exam was over and done with. I flew into Orlando on Thursday afternoon and made my way to a town on the coast called Melbourne, home of FIT, whose student dorms are where all of the participants are living for the duration of the course.

It was a little heartbreaking to see all the other participants leaving on NASA buses to a nearby planetarium as I arrived at the University campus; but at least it gave me some free time to unpack and settle in before meeting new people.

I was rather anxious about arriving late because all of the other participants would have had almost a week of socialising to get to know each other, would I just end up a bit left out? Fortunately, being the 'new guy' has its perks and people have been constantly introducing themselves to me, although I'm still playing catch-up with names.

These last two days have been incredibly hectic, with constant activities. Yesterday I had a morning of lectures followed by an afternoon of workshops with my assigned team project group. Usually participants are able to select their team project, but as I arrived late I had to be assigned one. Fortunately, everything worked out well and I have been assigned to a team working on the concept of 'Next Generation Space Stations'. Although most of the team project will be done in the final weeks of the course, we have already been put into groups so that we can attend some preliminary workshops on key concepts.

Today we visited the Kennedy Space Centre visitor centre. The purpose of the trip was to attend our NASA 'badges' so that we had access to other NASA facilities for the rest of the program. However, the badging office was apparently having some trouble, so we just spent the day exploring the tourist attractions of the visitor centre. The centre is mainly orientated towards kids (which is definitely a good thing to be doing) but there is still plenty to do for people of all ages (especially space enthusiasts!); The Shuttle Launch Experience, The IMAX cinema and the Rocket garden are all awesome.

The Rocket Garden at the Kennedy Space Centre, Visitor Centre

This is me (for those who don't know) in front of the ORION Crew Capsule

This evening I've been working with a small team of participants on a task that has been put forward. The task involves designing a Rube Goldberg machine, which is essentially a machine that is unnecessarily complicated to perform a very simple task. All of the participants have been split into 8 groups and we all have to design our own Rube Goldberg machine. However, there is a twist, all of the machines will be placed in series (the order of which is unknown until the last minute) and will have to function as one continuous machine. The task that our machines has to perform is simply receiving a steel ball at the start and outputting a ball at the end (so a simple version of this machine would simply be a sloped track to transport the ball). We get points for added complexity and 'flashiness' or 'bling'. My team has a couple of ideas knocking around, considering ideas such as incorporating a Newtons Cradle, involving a rocket launch and some collapsing dominoes. I'll be sure to upload a video of our machine when (if) we get it working.

Tomorrow is technically a day off, so I'll probably go down to one of the local beaches (Cocoa beach is meant to be particularly beautiful. I think I went there when I was 7 or 8 years old?). I should probably work in some time to catch up on the 4 days of lectures that I missed too...

One quick note before I sign off; the food here is great! The cafeteria is essentially an all-you-can-eat buffet with many types of food and drink. The main trouble is going to be staying healthy with all of this food on offer! Especially when they offer things such as Macaroni and cheese pizza...

I apologise about the length of this blog, I've ranted on a little bit... This really should have been in a couple of parts, but I've been too swamped with exams and the start of this program to post anything before this. Also, you may well have guessed that this is my first time keeping a blog, so if you have any feedback or suggestions, I'd love to hear it.