Rocket making Giants to Altern-x

SpaceNut · 2006-11-03 22:58:05

We have talked about the altern-X space companies versus the abilities of the 2 giants in Boeing and lockheed in many threads. With this we have talked about the cost, the technology base, experience and available funding for all to make there rockets for use in manned or unmanned application.

So how can we make the extremes meet some where in the middle for all of these factors. The best way to not work at redoing what has been designed and learned is to make use of the sources of these items.

In another thread for the CEV orion capsule I posted the PICA thermal protection shell and the company name.

In continuing in that vain here is the company Albany International they make the gap fillers for the shuttle.

Albany Techniweave

Irvin Aerospace Selected to Design Parachutes for NASA's Orion Spacecraft

Working with an integrated product team (IPT) that includes NASA,
Jacobs Sverdrup, and engineers from Irvin Aerospace, the design team will
develop a CEV Parachute Assembly System (CPAS) which is scheduled to begin
testing in approximately 6 months.
Irvin is also working with NASA's Langley Research Center to explore
the suitability of a Landing Airbag System for the final landing
attenuation for the Orion spacecraft. Irvin was recently awarded a
development contract from Rocketplane Kistler under NASA's recent
Commercial Orbital Transpiration Services (COTS) program to complete the
development of the RpK K-1 vehicle to provide commercial cargo deliver and
eventually crew delivery services to the International Space Station.

If as we go we can log these companies making these items as a resource for cutting cost, ect...

SpaceNut · 2006-11-11 11:52:07

One of the issues with the launch of the Falcon was its move from Edwards to the Atols. While the site was a launching site it needed many alterations and a supply of oxygen.
So a launch pad and site is of great importance.
Jacksonville engineering firm has stellar reputation with NASA

Reynolds, Smith and Hills Inc. has been involved with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration - and with space - since the 1960s.
Although RS&H's involvement in space has, for the past several decades, been wrapped up with NASA's projects, the company has recently (with NASA's permission) expanded into the private sector, helping companies looking to launch satellites, working with entrepreneurs trying to create the space tourism industry and even doing projects like evaluating Jacksonville's Cecil Field's potential as a spaceport.
Among RS&H's other recent work: helping establish new spaceports in Australia and the central United States and modifying existing commercial launch sites.
The most recent contract won by that office: A deal to design facilities for NASA's Exploration Initiative, the program that will replace the space shuttle with new ways of reaching the moon, Mars and the space station.

SpaceNut · 2006-11-15 21:38:43

Lithium Technology Corp. to supply rocket program

Lithium Technology Corp. said Wednesday it has received a purchase order worth $171,000 to provide 1,070 ultra-high-power lithium-ion cells to Lockheed Martin Corp. for the Atlas V launch vehicle.

SpaceNut · 2006-12-08 09:06:41

Well if you can not be a rocket builder, then what would be the next best thing?

OUTFITTERS FOR THE SPACE RUSH

During the California Gold Rush, the folks who reliably made money were not necessarily the miners but the outfitters who sold shovels and other supplies to those miners. It could well be the same for the rush to private-sector spaceflight: At least that's the rationale behind Orbital Outfitters, a new venture that aims to lease spacesuits and other equipment to private rocketeers.

This is who they think they can supply them to..
Space tourism to be fashion's final frontier

It will deliver its first space suits in 2007 to crews of the California-based rocket powered vehicle company XCOR and then lease custom-fitted suits to the first mass space tourists.

SpaceNut · 2007-01-05 07:22:29

The Orion is meant to reuseable for up to 10 times.

Lockheed and NASA agree Orion changes

The number of parachutes, retro-rocket location, heatshield structure and use of crushable zones have all been agreed between the US space agency and Lockheed.
NASA and Lockheed have agreed to have three parachutes, not four to locate the retro-rockets behind the thermal protection system (TPS) heatshield, not in the parachute shrouds as Lockheed had proposed, with the shield being dropped just before landing to allow retro-rocket firing to segment the shield instead of using a monolithic structure and use Lockheed's choice of TPS material, phenolic impregnated carbon ablator (PICA). The Orion capsule will also have a crushable zone on its underside.
"As we drop the heatshield, we can take some area out of the parachutes and that saves weight,"

Here is another of the contracts that have been awarded.

NASA Awards Thermal Protection Contract for Orion Spacecraft to Boeing

The present Phase II contract with Boeing is a continuation of an earlier Phase I NASA effort that evaluated phenolic impregnated carbon ablator (PICA), as well as four other candidate materials using extensive testing and analysis. Boeing has been selected to provide PICA, a proprietary material manufactured by its subcontractor, Fiber Materials Inc. of Biddeford, Maine, for continued testing and evaluation.

Went to see the Fiber Materials Inc. plant and was shown the area where the PICA shield material as it was being made. There is a limiting factor in the treatment of the raw material in that the chamber for the process makes a bilet (large brick) about 18 inches by 3 feet by about a foot thick. The carbon is impregnated with yellow phenolic in solution that then is baked out to leave the brick.

This granted is in the developement stages and still under developement for the very large Orion. A versus was previous used on StarDust.

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#1 2006-11-03 22:58:05

Re: Rocket making Giants to Altern-x

#2 2006-11-11 11:52:07

Re: Rocket making Giants to Altern-x

#3 2006-11-15 21:38:43

Re: Rocket making Giants to Altern-x

#4 2006-12-08 09:06:41

Re: Rocket making Giants to Altern-x

#5 2007-01-05 07:22:29

Re: Rocket making Giants to Altern-x

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