FOURTH MEETING

7/06/08

 

New Business

 

·            Describe the prize philosophy and impact on industry - Paragraph on past prizes, success and failures  (Maxime)

·            Alternatives to pure prize competitions (Space Act Agreements) (Brandon)

·            Compare and Contrast (Brandon & Maxime)

·            How can this philosophy be adapted to the ‘Roadmap’

·            Prize development process

o      Provide Methodology for launching prize

·            Space Act Agreement

o      Lunar Cargo Delivery

§       Basic Requirements

§       How to proceed

·            Other potential prizes

 

-        Compile current world missions (Michelle)

-        What needs to be characterized

 

 

SECOND MEETING

6/24/08

 

Attendees: Brandon, Andrew S., Maxime, Michelle P.

 

 

Summary:

 

 

-        Summarized capabilities of LRO

-        Summarized current international missions

-        Discussed form letter for potential contacts

-        Discussed options for cargo delivery to the Moon

o      One launch v. many small trips with fuel depot

o      One Launch

§       One large launch

§       On scale of Ares V

o      Many small launches

§       Launch fuel first

§       Launch cargo second to LEO

§       800 kg to Lunar surface

§       Lander may be reusable

§       Many unknowns for private industry

·       Autonomous rendezvous/docking

·       Autonomous payload transfer system

·       Autonomous cryogenics transfer spacecraft-to-spacecraft

·       Autonomous lunar landing system

·       Autonomous payload offload system

-        Prize ideas

o      Exchange propellant in space

o      Prevent fuel boil off

 

 

 

 

Question:

 

Legal: Can NASA give prize money to foreign entities?  Is this a good policy?

 

Q: Can NASA give prize money to foreign entities? Ken's Response

NASA cannot give prize money to foreign entities. Here's the relevant section in the prize authorization language:

`(e) Eligibility- To be eligible to win a prize under this section, an individual or entity--

`(1) shall have registered to participate in the competition pursuant to any rules promulgated by the Administrator under subsection (d);

`(2) shall have complied with all the requirements under this section;

`(3) in the case of a private entity, shall be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States, and in the case of an individual, whether participating singly or in a group, shall be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States; and

`(4) shall not be a Federal entity or Federal employee acting within the scope of their employment.

This is why any team hoping to win Centennial Challenges prize money must sign a Team Agreement attesting that the Team Leader meets one of those criteria.

Q: Is this a good policy? Ken's Response

The response to this question is highly debatable, but whether the policy is good or not, it's currently the law. If you want to open the discussion on it, please don't hesitate to create a new file in the "Prizes: Topics of Discussion" folder, and we'll see how the discussion turns out! Maybe the results will encourage people to write their Congress-folks! Beyond that, I really don't want to take up residence in the "Grey Bar Hotel", if you know what I mean!

 

Action Items

 

 

Brandon

o      Contact LRO scientists to determine level of characterization from each instrument

o      What is the next step?

o      Is there a database of rejected LRO instruments?  Are any of these worthy of a prize competition

 

KD COMMENT: I'm sure you already checked out the LRO presentation that was posted on this wiki ( Public LRO-LCROSS.pdf) describing the LRO project. To find out more about LRO, you might want to send an email to Benjy Neumann, the Deputy Director of the ESMD Advanced Capabilities Division.

 

Andrew

o      Research fuel boil off problems

KD COMMENT: Check out the links given in Prize Bookmarks under the heading "Centennial Challenges: Unannounced Challenges: Cryo Fluid Management".

 

Maxime Rizzo

o      Review contact letter

o      Make a list of all contacts

o      Orbital Calculations

 

 

Michelle P

o      Autonomous Rendezvous and docking

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FIRST MEETING

6/22/08

 

 

Attendees: Brandon, Andrew S., Maxime, Michelle P.

 

1) Meeting Minutes

2) Assignments for next meeting

 

 

1) Meeting Minutes

 

-Discussed individual research that was conducted and topic ideas for possible Prizes and Space Act Agreements

-There was a general consensus to pursue the option for creating a Space Act Agreement for Cargo Transport to the Moon

            -Create milestones for transportation

                        -Automated Docking and Rendezvous

                        -Possible development and use of ion engines

-There was a general consensus to look into the idea of a project for achieving Scientific Objectives

            -Characterizations of the lunar environment

            -Many small purses that can be won by one or more companies

            -Prize or Space Act Agreement?

-A discussion occurred about a Space Act Agreement concerning the development of a Fuel Depot at one of the Lagrange points

-There was also a discussion of whether or not a prize could be constructed to show the profitability of Space for a commercial company

            -Example: Helium 3 Excavation

-A final discussion occurred about a large scale digging or burying challenge

            -Possible to place the future Moon settlement underneath the Regolith

                        -Solar flare protection

                        -Radiation protection

                        -Constant Temperature under the surface of the Moon

                        -Protection from Micro-meteorites

 

 

 

2) Assignments for next meeting

 

Maxime :

            -Will e-mail Ken about some questions that arose during the meeting

            -Come up with milestones and specific deliverables for the Cargo Transport prize

Brandon :

            -Talk to mentor about what capabilities NASA would like to see from private industry

            -Research the specific objectives and goals of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

                        -See what characterizations of the Moon are being planned by NASA

Andrew S. :

            -Working with Maxime to develop milestones for the Cargo Transport Prize

Michelle :

            -Look for scientific objectives and possible lunar characterizations

            -See if there is anyone that we can talk to about lunar objectives and characterizations

            -Research what other countries and space agencies are planning on doing in terms of lunar missions

                        -See what characterizations of the Moon are being planned by the international community

 

 

Some useful links/files on Cargo Transportation to the Moon :

Technical Group : Resources

 

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Here are some of the links that are going to be explored as a primary study :

 

Space Act Agreements: http://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov/displayDir.cfm?t=NPD&c=1050&s=1H

Original COTS agreement with Kistler and SpaceX: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/pdf/162330main_SPACE_ACT_AGREEMENT_FOR_COTS.pdf

COTS summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Orbital_Transportation_Services

Centennial Challenges overview (external links have a lot information): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Challenges

Exploration Objectives: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/mmb/why_moon_objectives.html