2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 1

www.American-Aerospace.net

Student Space Experiment Access- A National Imperative

David Yoel & Gil Moore

Vanguard 1 launched in ’58(50th anniversary in ‘08)

StarshineSpacecraft

NSF Small Satellite Workshop2007 May 17

2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 2

www.American-Aerospace.netBackground

• From 1973 to 2001 NASA provided free or low-cost rides into orbit for hundreds of high school and university student payloads– Skylab Student Experiment Program– Shuttle Student Involvement Project– Get Away Special Program – Hitchhiker Project

• These programs helped attract young engineers and scientists to aerospace during the recovery from the ’70’s crash

• Many of those former students now occupy responsible positions throughout the space industry and the scientific community

2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 3

www.American-Aerospace.net

The Impending Workforce Gap

• Industry leaders decry the magnitude of the problem– Dozens of reports, little action

• Rising Above The Gathering Storm, Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future, 2004 www.nationalacademies.org/cosepup

• This time it’s different– Demographics (aging population)– Declining K-12 STEM interest & skills– Off-shoring not an option in aerospace industry

• Our response?– Terminate programs that have inspired the best & brightest

students

2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 4

www.American-Aerospace.netCurrent Realities

• All Shuttle secondary payloads de-manifested after Columbia accident– Full cost accounting another major factor

• Dozens of university space experiment programs have been terminated– Many students interested in space have moved on

• Attempt to fly on NASA ELVs terminated last year• Student Zero-G aircraft access now facing

termination• CubeSat and NanoSat Programs

2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 5

www.American-Aerospace.net

Informal Coalition of Aerospace Scientists & Engineers

• Recommendations to date– There’s no substitute for hands-on approach

• Many ways to accomplish this

– U.S. launch vehicle companies add provision for secondary educational payloads to all their vehicles

– Investigate use of tax credits to reimburse launch vehicle providers for the cost of integrating each payload they fly

– Encourage DoD to increase funding and launch rate for the University NanoSat program

2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 6

www.American-Aerospace.net

Informal Coalition of Aerospace Scientists & Engineers

• Recommendations (cont.)– Encourage NASA and industry to include

accommodations for student payloads on all new launch vehicles

– Encourage spacecraft manufacturers to donate surplus and prototype flight hardware and make test facilities available to student experimenters

– Create bridges between university-level space experiment programs and K-12 STEM initiatives across the country

2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 7

www.American-Aerospace.net

Informal Coalition of Aerospace Scientists & Engineers

• Universal Space Networks – Has offered to work with student spaceflight

programs to downlink data and uplink commands on a capacity-available basis

• Tax Credits– Credits more valuable than deductions– Informal assessment is positive

• Working to obtain formal expert opinion

2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 8

www.American-Aerospace.netObservations

• Focus on students– Compatible with priority NSF places on

education– Help find a way to provide access in U.S.– Don’t make empty promises to students

• Attached payloads can have value– Don’t necessarily have to deploy a spacecraft– Reduces cost, integration complexity, mission

risk

2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 9

www.American-Aerospace.netIssues

• Excess capacity exists– Issue is marginal cost of integration (at no mission

risk)

• Cost of developing Secondary payload accommodations– Robust accommodations– “Auxiliary” not “Secondary”– Cost is trivial if averaged over multiple missions– Non-recurring expense “has” to be paid by 1st

customer(s)

2007 May 17 NSF Small Satellite Workshop 10

www.American-Aerospace.netCollaboration

• Auxiliary access a shared problem across the industry– No organization can afford the solution alone

• Consider Prizes/Cups/Prizes (E.g., “The Vanguard Cup”)– DARPA Challenge, Solar Challenge, FIRST Robotics…– The prize is not access, it’s based on what’s done in space

• Untapped resources– Industry– Student space “alumni”

• An organization capable of aggregating and channeling resources could break the bottleneck– Focus on student access and student programs– Leverage– Be sure it’s not a “sticky” organization – money flows through