NASA to privatize cargo/crews to ISS?

[Dr Mordrid]

Sure sounds like a huge opportunity for Rutan/t-SPACE, SpaceX, Bigelow etc. etc....

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/12/08/space.bids.reut/index.html

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) -- With the space shuttles due to retire, NASA is looking for private companies interested in taking over the potentially lucrative business of flying cargo and crew to the international space station.

The U.S. space agency issued a solicitation for proposals on Tuesday for firms interested in handling delivery services now provided by the three shuttles, which are due to stop flying by 2010.

"Certainly this is an opportunity for the new space companies," said Jim Banke, head of Florida operations for The Space Foundation industry trade association. "They've been lobbying NASA hard for something like this for years."

Privatization here we come....

Dr. Mordrid

[cjolley]

Sure sounds like a huge opportunity for Rutan/t-SPACE, SpaceX, Bigelow etc. etc....

Only if they are big Republican contributors.


Given the odd seeming effects that scaling can cause, I'd be interested to see what a scaled up version of a Rutan design would look like.

[Dr Mordrid]

Rutan/t-SPACE's CXV could be scaled up to carry 6-8 people;





SpaceDev's plan for DreamChaser, an upgraded NASA HL-20 spaceplane, could carry as many as 10. Here's what it would look like in a 6 passenger configuration;





Dr. Mordrid

[Elie]

Doc... forget about that, we need something like this...

[Dr Mordrid]

Until someone gets cracking on nuclear thermal or better yet nuclear electric propulsion (VASIMR etc.) you can forget it.

Other than the preferred design, a pebble bed reactor....which is noted for simplicity and safety, the only other option would be a compact military design like what's used in submarines or the one going into the next-gen US nuclear carriers, and that would require govenmental participation.

Dr. Mordrid

[Wombat]

Something like the Enterprise would have to be built IN space. We've got a lot of infrastructure to set up first.

[Dr Mordrid]

Which takes us back to heavy lift launchers and a cheaper to maintain & launch crew/cargo system. Enter private enterprise since it appears that no government on Earth has a clue what the latter means.

Dr. Mordrid

[Nowhere]

Oh, I don't know - the Russians that launch Soyuz, etc. are basically a "company", though I'm not sure how much of it is state owned, and it seems they pretty soon realised that Shuttle is just an offshot of heavy launch vehicle. And BTW, if this is "open to all" and soon enough, there's a remote chance to see Soyuz on NASA launch pad