Student Space Experiment Access - A National Imperative
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2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 1
www.American-Aerospace.net
Student Space Experiment Access- A National Imperative
David Yoel & Gil Moore
Vanguard 1 launched in ’58(50th anniversary in ‘08)
StarshineSpacecraft
NSF Small Satellite Workshop2007 May 17
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2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 2
www.American-Aerospace.netBackground
• From 1973 to 2001 NASA provided free or low-cost rides into orbit for hundreds of high school and university student payloads– Skylab Student Experiment Program– Shuttle Student Involvement Project– Get Away Special Program – Hitchhiker Project
• These programs helped attract young engineers and scientists to aerospace during the recovery from the ’70’s crash
• Many of those former students now occupy responsible positions throughout the space industry and the scientific community
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2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 3
www.American-Aerospace.net
The Impending Workforce Gap
• Industry leaders decry the magnitude of the problem– Dozens of reports, little action
• Rising Above The Gathering Storm, Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future, 2004 www.nationalacademies.org/cosepup
• This time it’s different– Demographics (aging population)– Declining K-12 STEM interest & skills– Off-shoring not an option in aerospace industry
• Our response?– Terminate programs that have inspired the best & brightest
students
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2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 4
www.American-Aerospace.netCurrent Realities
• All Shuttle secondary payloads de-manifested after Columbia accident– Full cost accounting another major factor
• Dozens of university space experiment programs have been terminated– Many students interested in space have moved on
• Attempt to fly on NASA ELVs terminated last year• Student Zero-G aircraft access now facing
termination• CubeSat and NanoSat Programs
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2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 5
www.American-Aerospace.net
Informal Coalition of Aerospace Scientists & Engineers
• Recommendations to date– There’s no substitute for hands-on approach
• Many ways to accomplish this
– U.S. launch vehicle companies add provision for secondary educational payloads to all their vehicles
– Investigate use of tax credits to reimburse launch vehicle providers for the cost of integrating each payload they fly
– Encourage DoD to increase funding and launch rate for the University NanoSat program
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2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 6
www.American-Aerospace.net
Informal Coalition of Aerospace Scientists & Engineers
• Recommendations (cont.)– Encourage NASA and industry to include
accommodations for student payloads on all new launch vehicles
– Encourage spacecraft manufacturers to donate surplus and prototype flight hardware and make test facilities available to student experimenters
– Create bridges between university-level space experiment programs and K-12 STEM initiatives across the country
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2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 7
www.American-Aerospace.net
Informal Coalition of Aerospace Scientists & Engineers
• Universal Space Networks – Has offered to work with student spaceflight
programs to downlink data and uplink commands on a capacity-available basis
• Tax Credits– Credits more valuable than deductions– Informal assessment is positive
• Working to obtain formal expert opinion
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2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 8
www.American-Aerospace.netObservations
• Focus on students– Compatible with priority NSF places on
education– Help find a way to provide access in U.S.– Don’t make empty promises to students
• Attached payloads can have value– Don’t necessarily have to deploy a spacecraft– Reduces cost, integration complexity, mission
risk
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2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 9
www.American-Aerospace.netIssues
• Excess capacity exists– Issue is marginal cost of integration (at no mission
risk)
• Cost of developing Secondary payload accommodations– Robust accommodations– “Auxiliary” not “Secondary”– Cost is trivial if averaged over multiple missions– Non-recurring expense “has” to be paid by 1st
customer(s)
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2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 10
www.American-Aerospace.netCollaboration
• Auxiliary access a shared problem across the industry– No organization can afford the solution alone
• Consider Prizes/Cups/Prizes (E.g., “The Vanguard Cup”)– DARPA Challenge, Solar Challenge, FIRST Robotics…– The prize is not access, it’s based on what’s done in space
• Untapped resources– Industry– Student space “alumni”
• An organization capable of aggregating and channeling resources could break the bottleneck– Focus on student access and student programs– Leverage– Be sure it’s not a “sticky” organization – money flows through