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Southwest
Research Institute recently announced agreements to send three
scientists as payload specialists aboard eight suborbital flights—some
to altitudes greater than 350,000 ft, above the internationally
recognized boundary of space.
No
other organization has yet concluded contracts to fly its researchers
in space aboard next-generation suborbital spacecraft. Also unique is
the number of payload specialist researcher seats involved—eight at a
minimum, with options up to 17 high altitude or space flights.
The
program, supported by SwRI internal research and development funding,
is led by SwRI Space Science and Engineering Division Associate Vice
President Dr. Alan Stern.
At
least two SwRI researchers will fly into space aboard the world’s first
commercial crewed spaceship, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, which
carries two pilots and up to six researchers above the internationally
accepted boundary of space. SwRI also has plans to later fly a dedicated
six-seat research mission in Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, and has
contract options for up to three additional XCOR Lynx I flights.
Virgin
Galactic’s SpaceshipTwo is the commercial version of SpaceShipOne which
won the Ansari X Prize in 2004 as the world’s first privately built
crewed space vehicle. SpaceShipTwo and its carrier aircraft
WhiteKnightTwo have both been built and are flying regularly in an
extensive test flight progam. SpaceShipTwo’s large cabin enables
researchers to work together in an “out-of-seat” micro gravity
environment and provides an extremely generous capacity for scientific
research in terms of payload mass, volume and microgravity time.
SwRI
researchers will also fly at least six high altitude missions aboard
XCOR Corporation’s Lynx Mark I high-altitude rocket plane, which carries
a pilot and a single researcher at altitudes up to 200,000 feet. Lynx I
is currently in development, with test flights expected to begin in
2012.
On
these flights, SwRI payload specialists will perform research using
existing biomedical, microgravity, and astronomical imaging experiments
conceived and prepared for flight at SwRI. Both SpaceShipTwo and Lynx I
are designed to offer robust data collection systems and allow
researchers to conduct their experiments either inside a pressurized
cabin environment or externally, giving instruments direct exposure to
the upper atmosphere or, aboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, outer
space itself.
“We
are strong believers in the transformational power of commercial,
next-generation suborbital vehicles to advance many kinds of research,”
says Stern, who serves as principal investigator. “We also believe that
by putting scientists in space or the upper atmosphere with their
experiments, researchers can achieve better results at lower cost and
with a higher probability of success than with many old-style automated
experiments. The program we’re announcing today places SwRI at the
leading edge of this revolutionary new kind of suborbital research.”
Stern
and project co-investigators Dr. Daniel Durda and Dr. Cathy Olkin have
trained for suborbital spaceflight aboard zero-G aircraft, in NASTAR
centrifuges and aboard Starfighter F-104 jet fighters since early 2010.
The three are expected to fly and operate suborbital experiments during
the flight sequence now under contract.
“We
are excited to work with SwRI to provide world-leading scientists
affordable access to space for the first time in history,” says George
Whitesides, president and CEO of Virgin Galactic. “Not only is helping
scientists conduct experiments in space an important and growing part of
our business, but serving society by enabling new science is also key
to our philosophy. Scientists from a wide range of fields will make
important and inspiring discoveries in space, and we look forward to
working with great organizations like SwRI to give them the research
flights they need to do so.”
Andrew
Nelson, XCOR’s chief operating officer, notes, “SwRI is pioneering the
frontiers of suborbital space science with this contract, funding and
performing pathfinder experiments that will lay the groundwork for those
that follow. Working with XCOR engineers to define best practices, safe
processes, optimum flight profiles and open interface standards will be
a key trigger that opens up this projected billion-dollar marketplace,
encourages our youth to pursue science and technology careers, and
creates numerous high-tech jobs across the United States.”
“We’re
another step closer to the era of routine ‘field work’ in space
research,” says Durda. “More and more researchers will soon fly with
their own experiments in space, and do it regularly enough to allow the
important advances that come with iterative investigations. I’m looking
forward to that future and helping it become a reality.”
“It’s
exciting to be a part of this next phase of space exploration as
commercial spaceflight opens up new opportunities for research and
education,” adds co-investigator Olkin. “Regular access to space for
scientists will revolutionize many kinds of space research, and we
intend to be leaders in that for many years to come.”
SwRI’s innovative and groundbreaking next-generation suborbital research program is just a beginning.
Says
Stern, “We hope to leverage these initial flights into a wide range of
additional flight projects in next-generation suborbital spaceflight
stretching out across this decade. We’re excited to be getting started
and to be pioneering 21st century science done by scientists in space.”
SOURCE: SwRI
