Augustine Panel Drops Site Visits
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By Frank Morring, Jr.
Members of the White House panel reviewing options for future U.S. human spaceflight have dropped site visits in the interest of efficiency as they work to meet an end-of-August deadline.
The 10-member panel, headed by retired Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine, has visited Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, where NASA is developing the Ares I crew launch vehicle; the Delta IV production facility in Decatur, Ala., the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, and the SpaceX plant in Hawthorne, Calif., to gather data.
But instead of continuing the practice, its members have opted for back-to-back public hearings July 28-30 in Houston, Huntsville, Ala., and Cocoa Beach, Fla., where NASA's human-spaceflight centers are located, and a final public meeting Aug. 5 in Washington. The panel also is soliciting public input on its Web page at www.nasa.gov, and plans a series of "fact-finding meetings" July 21-23.
Under its charter the Augustine panel is to generate human-spaceflight options for top White House officials to consider as they set the future course of U.S. space policy. The 10-member group has set up subcommittees to study the International Space Station and space shuttle; exploration beyond low Earth orbit; "integration," which includes international and interagency cooperation, the U.S. industrial skill base and overall budgets, and options for reaching low Earth orbit.
At Marshall panel members got a demonstration of a new system that would use the mass of liquid oxygen in the Ares I upper stage to damp the thrust oscillation imparted into the whole stack as its solid-fuel first stage nears the end of its burn. The system would save about 600 pounds in weight if it is advanced to the point that it can be substituted for a more mature approach that uses a series of titanium springs.
However, questioning from panel members at Marshall is said to have focused more on budget projections than on the technology on display, which also included advanced friction stir welding of upper stage tankage and a state-of-the-art milling facility.
Artist's concept of Ares I tumble motors: NASA
