ALASA projects от DARPA. Воздушный старт для малых спутников.

[Valerij]

Это сообщение будет редактироваться, хочу положить сюда ссылки на различные обсуждения по этой теме.

[Valerij]

DARPA Moves Forward With Phoenix, ALASA and XS-1 Projects
Posted by Doug Messier on March 24, 2014, at 5:15 am in News.
 
DARPA's proposed budget for FY 2015 calls for a significant increase in its Experimental Spaceplane One (XS-1) program and smaller boosts in the Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) program and Project Phoenix, budget documents show.
 
 The defense agency has requested $27 million for re-useable XS-1 space plane this year, a significant boost over the $10 million being spent for FY 2014. With the increase in funding, DARPA plans to conduct a preliminary design review (PDR) and sel ect a single vendor for final design, fabrication and flight test in the coming fiscal year, which will start on Oct. 1.
 

Спойлер

The XS-1 program is designed to launch payloads weighing 3,000-5,000 lbs (1,361-2,268 kg) to low earth orbit at a cost at least 10 times less expensive to current launch vehicles. DARPA accepted proposals fr om potential vendors earlier this year and is currently evaluating them.
 


 
ALASA is focused on the other end of the payload spectrum. The program is focused on developing a system that can air-launch an 100-lb (45-kg) spacecraft into low Earth orbit for $1 million. The goal is to be able to launch satellites fr om anywhere in the world to respond quickly to crises.
 
 DARPA has requested $55 million for the program in FY 2015, an increase from the $42.5 million being spent this year. During the upcoming fiscal year, the goal is to conduct launches to demonstrate achieve, including 100 pounds into low earth orbit.
 
 The defense agency has not requested any additional funds in FY 2015 for the SeeMe program, which is focused on developing low-cost, disposable satellites that can be air-launched via the ALASA system.
 
 The ultimate goal of the SeeMe program is to provide near-real-time satellite imagery from space to soldiers in the field using handheld devices. Near-real-time is described as being no older than 90 minutes.
 
 The agency's SeeMe goals for the current fiscal year include completing technology prototype units, performing functional and environmental tests, and demonstrating operations.
 
 The defense agency has asked for $65 million for Project Phoenix, which aims to develop technologies for robotic space servicing and salvaging parts from old spacecraft. The request represents a slight increase from the $60 million being spent this year.
 
 DARPA plans to launch early versions of low-Earth orbit "satlet" to test out technologies in FY 2015. The agency's funding request would bring the total spent on the program for FY 2013 through FY 2015 to $165.52 million.
 
 A pair of programs — the Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) — at aimed at improving the military's capability to track objects in space.
 
 "SDA will investigate revolutionary technologies in two areas: 1) advanced space surveillance sensors to better detect, track, and characterize space objects, with an emphasis on deep space objects, and 2) space surveillance data collection and data processing/ fusion to provide automated data synergy," according to DARPA budget documents.
 
 "Current space surveillance sensors cannot detect, track, or determine the future location and threat potential of small advanced technology spacecraft in deep space orbits, wh ere a majority of DoD spacecraft are located," the documents state. "Additionally, servicing missions to geosynchronous (GEO) orbits will require exquisite situational awareness, from ultra-high-accuracy debris tracking for mission assurance at GEO orbits to high resolution imaging of GEO spacecraft for service mission planning."
 
 The SST program is focused on a ground-based optical system that enables the "detection and tracking of faint objects in space, while providing rapid, wide-area search capability," according to DARPA.
 
 The Optical Aperture Self-Assembly in Space (OASIS) is a new start for FY 2015. It is aimed at assembling large optical systems in orbit instead of on the ground.
 
 "The Optical Apertures Self-assembling in Space program seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of constructing large optical apertures in orbit from a number of smaller modular components that self-organize in space," according to DARPA budget documents. "The program will demonstrate the technologies needed to assemble a large (>5m) and near-diffraction limited optical aperture from modular components that are launched as separate payloads."
 
 DARPA has canceled System F6, which was designed to replace large defense satellites with clusters of smaller ones that worked together. The agency canceled the effort last year after spending nearly $200 million on it. Funding for the effort was reduced from $30 million in FY 2013 to a mere three million this year. The agency has requested no money for the F6 project in FY 2015.
 
 Below are descriptions of t he XS-1, ALASA, See-Me and Phoenix program drawn from DARPA's budget documents.
 
........
Раздел статьи про Experimental Spaceplane One (XS-1) здесь:
........
 
Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA)
 

 
Credit: DARPA

[/li]
• FY 2013: $29.237 million
• FY 2014: $42.5 million FY 2015
• Request: $55 million
  

 Description: The goal of the Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) program is to mature and demonstrate technologies for cost effective, routine, reliable, access to low earth orbit (LEO). ALASA seeks improvements in cost, responsiveness, flexibility, and resilience with a single approach. ALASA will enable small satellites to be deployed to orbit from an airborne platform, allowing performance improvement, reducing range costs, and flying more frequently, which drives cost per event down. The ability to relocate and launch fr om virtually any major runway around the globe reduces the time needed to deploy a satellite system. Launch point offset permits essentially any possible orbit direction to be achieved without concerns for launch direction imposed by geography. Finally, launch point offset allows the entire operation to be moved should a particular fixed airfield become unavailable due to natural phenomena or other issues. Challenges include, but are not limited to: in-air separation of aircraft and orbit-insertion launch stages, development of alternatives to current range processes, control of weight and margin under a hard gross weight lim it, and achieving a cost per flight of $1 million, including range support costs, to deploy satellites on the order of 100 lb. The anticipated transition partners are the Air Force and Army.
 
 FY 2013 Accomplishments:
 
 Completed initial test plans for flight demonstrator.
 Completed risk management plan.
 Conducted preliminary design review and selected enabling and enhancing technologies for incorporation into system concepts.
 Conducted critical design review and initiated detailed design.
 Integrated selected enabling and enhancing technologies on launch assist aircraft.
 
 FY 2014 Plans:
 
 Conduct trade studies of additional enabling technology to include propellants, manufacturing, mission planning and range support software, and tracking and flight termination software.
 Conduct critical design review of demonstration system and develop flight demonstrator.
 Complete ALASA vehicle flight readiness review.
 Perform propulsion and system risk reduction testing.
 Conduct captive carry and aircraft compatibility flight tests.
 
 FY 2015 Plans:
 
 Initiate demonstration of ALASA vehicle launches including launch readiness reviews.
 Conduct launches to demonstrate program goals, including 100 pounds into low earth orbit.
 Conduct analysis of launch performance metrics and identify opportunities for system design and integration optimization.
 Continue transition coordination.
 
........

[свернуть]

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2014/03/24/darpa-moves-phoenix-alasa-xs1-projects/
 
Статья целиком по ссылке. Там разделы про Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements (SeeMe) и Phoenix.

[Valerij]

Boeing Wins ALASA Contract
Posted by Doug Messier on March 24, 2014, at 4:07 pm in News.
   

   
Credit: DARPA

DARPA has awarded Boeing a contract worth up to $104.7 million for the Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) program, which aims at placing a 100-lb. (45-kg) satellite into low Earth orbit for $1 million.
   
 The base value of the contract is $30,673,934, with a first option valued at $72,044,948 and a second option valued at $2,032,857, according to a notice on the General Services Administration website. The contract was awarded on Friday.
   
 ALASA's goal is to allow the military to launch satellites anywhere in the world on relatively short notice in order to respond quickly to crises.
   
 In 2012, DARPA awarded the following contracts for initial work on ALASA:
   
 Launch System Design and Development Concepts  

[/li]
• Lockheed Martin Corp. Palmdale, Calif.: $6.2 million
  
• Boeing, Huntington Beach, Calif., $4.5 million
  
• Virgin Galactic, Las Cruces, N.M.
  

Enabling Technologies

[/li]
• Northrup Grumman, El Segundo, Calif., $2.3 million
  
• Space Information Laboratories LLC, Santa Maria, Calif., $1.9 million
  
• Ventions LLC, San Francisco, Calif., $969,396
  

   

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2014/03/24/boeing-wins-alasa-contract/

[ZOOR]

Doug Messier пишет:
aims at placing a 100-lb. (45-kg) satellite into low Earth orbit for $1 million

А можно поподробней, что входит в эту стоимость (какие работы/услуги/изделия)?

[Valerij]

Думаю, что это цена полета, и стоимость самолета-носителя, а тем более компенсация стоимости разработки сюда не включена.  С другой стороны стоимость экземпляра ракеты и стоимость предполетного и межполетного обслуживания самолета-носителя должны войти в стоимость. Но это мое ИМХО, для того я и открыл тему, что бы народ изучил вопрос и смог это узнать из первоисточников.

[Valerij]

ZOOR пишет:
А можно поподробней, что входит в эту стоимость (какие работы/услуги/изделия)?

  
Вот теперь можно:
   

Boeing Targets 66 Percent Launch Cost Reduction with ALASA
By Mike Gruss | Mar. 28, 2014
 

 
The ALASA rocket, measuring 7.3 meters long, would be attached to the underbelly of a Boeing-built F-15E fighter aircraft. DARPA says taking off from a standard airport runway would allow the Defense Department to launch from almost anywhere. Credit: Boeing artist's concept

WASHINGTON — Boeing Defense Space and Security of Huntington Beach, Calif., has won a three-way competition for a Pentagon contract worth as much as $104 million to build and demonstrate a low-cost, airborne satellite launching system, according to a March 24 posting on the Federal Business Opportunities website.

The contract is for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) program, which is intended to field a system to launch satellites weighing up to 45 kilograms into low Earth orbit for as low as $1 million each.

Спойлер

Part of a broader DARPA effort to reduce the cost and turnaround time of national security space launches, ALASA seeks to use a rocket launched from modified fighter-jet aircraft taking off from a standard airport runway. Doing so, they argue, would allow the Defense Department to launch from almost anywhere, whereas currently space launches are restricted to just a few sites: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.; Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.; Wallops Flight Facility, Va.; and Kodiak Island in Alaska.

The ALASA rocket, measuring 7.3 meters long, would be attached to the underbelly of a Boeing-built F-15E fighter aircraft. Once the plane reaches an altitude of approximately 12,000 meters, the rocket would be released and then ignite to carry its payload to orbit.

The launch scheme is similar to that of the Pegasus XL air-launched rocket, which was developed by Orbital Sciences Corp. — also under a DARPA program — and is carried aloft by a modified Lockheed L-1011 aircraft. Although it became an established rocket, the Pegasus XL proved more expensive than anticipated and is seldom used these days.

In a March 29 press release, Boeing said its aim is to reduce the cost of launching microsatellites by 66 percent.

"We developed a cost-effective design by moving the engines forward on the launch vehicle. With our design, the first and second stages are powered by the same engines, reducing weight and complexity," Steve Johnston, Boeing's director of advanced space exploration, said in a March 28 press release.

The base value of Boeing's cost-plus fixed-fee, 11-month contract is $30.6 million, with a first option worth $72 million and a second option worth $2 million, according to the Federal Business Opportunities posting. Work is expected to be completed by Feb. 20, 2015, the posting said.

In 2012, DARPA awarded ALASA design contracts to Boeing, Lockheed Martin — which proposed launching from an F-22 aircraft — and Virgin Galactic, the space tourism outfit that is now testing an air-launched, passenger-carrying suborbital vehicle dubbed SpaceShipTwo. DARPA had previously awarded ALASA technology development contracts to Northrop Grumman, Space Information Laboratories and Ventions.

In an interview with SpaceNews prior to the Boeing contract announcement, Brad Tousley, director of DARPA's Tactical Technology Office, said the agency was seeking to leverage existing production aircraft. "We're trying to get with an aircraft we don't have to modify or [modify] very, very little," he said.

ALASA program managers expect to perform propulsion and system risk reduction testing this year as well as complete captive-carry and aircraft compatibility flight tests, according to DARPA budget documents. The program is aiming for a demonstration launch in fiscal year 2015.

"ALASA will enable small satellites to be deployed to orbit from an airborne platform, allowing performance improvement, reducing range costs and flying more frequently, which drives cost per event down," DARPA budget documents say. "The ability to relocate and launch from any major runway around the globe reduces the time needed to deploy a satellite system."

DARPA requested $55 million for the program in 2015, up from $42 million in 2014, according to the budget documents.

The Army and the Air Force have been identified as potential transition customers for the ALASA system, budget documents said.

[свернуть]

http://www.spacenews.com/article/military-space/40023boeing-targets-66-percent-launch-cost-reduction-with-alasa
 
Первое - система предназначена для запуска легких спутников массой до 45 килограмм с воздушного старта, базирующегося на дооборудованном F-15E, имеющем возможность взлететь практически из любого аэродрома. При этом стоимость запуска должна быть не более одного миллиона долларов.
 
Вот переведенный Гуглоом фрагмент: "Базовая стоимость издержки плюс фиксированное вознаграждение Боинга, 11-месячный контракт составляет $ 30,6 млн., с первого варианта стоимостью $ 72 млн, и второй вариант стоит $ 2 млн, в соответствии с опубликованным на федеральный бизнес. Ожидается, что работы должны быть завершены к 20 февраля 2015, заявил, что размещение.".

[Valerij]

Boeing wins contract to design DARPA Airborne Satellite Launch Vehicle
By Cheryl Sampson
   

Boeing Artist's Concept
   
A new way to launch microsatellites and space payloads is on the horizon. Boeing is working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to produce this innovative 24-foot (7.3-meter) launch vehicle and conduct flight testing.

What Boeing vehicle would hitch a ride on an F-15E, drop from the aircraft, fire its engines and deploy microsatellites into space?

It's a new satellite launch vehicle concept designed by Phantom Works Advanced Space Exploration for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) called the Airborne Launch Assist Space Access or ALASA.

Under an 11-month, $30.6-million contract with options to build up to 12 of the 24-foot vehicles, Boeing and DARPA intend to test the ability to cut the cost of routinely launching microsatellites into orbit by 66 percent. According to DARPA, ALASA aims to develop and employ radical advances in launch systems, leading to more affordable and responsive space access compared to current military and U.S. commercial launch operations.

Rockets today are designed using a number of stages, each with its own engine and fuel tanks. The first stage is at the bottom and is usually the largest, the second and subsequent upper stages are above it, and normally decrease in size.

"With our design, the first and second stages are powered by the same engines, reducing weight and complexity."

Boeing's design takes the concept one step further and shifts traditional thinking when it comes to today's launch vehicles.

 "As these stages are jettisoned (or dropped), the fuel tank and engines are just thrown away. We developed a cost-effective design by moving the engines forward on the launch vehicle. With our design, the first and second stages are powered by the same engines, reducing weight and complexity," explained Steve Johnston, director, Advanced Space Exploration.

The 24-foot (7.3-meter) ALASA vehicle is designed to attach under an F-15E aircraft. Once the airplane reaches approximately 40,000 feet, it would release the ALASA vehicle. The vehicle would then fire its four main engines and launch into low-Earth orbit to deploy one or more microsatellites weighing up to a total of 100 pounds (45 kilograms).
   

http://www.boeing.com/boeing/Features/2014/03/bds_darpa_contract_03_27_14.page

[Valerij]

Кстати, вот ссылка на первоисточник - информация размещена 24 марта на сайте Federal Business Opportunities
  

Solicitation Number:  DARPA-BAA-12-07 [

Notice Type:  Award Notice 

Contract Award Date:  March 21, 2014 

Contract Award Number:  HR0011-14-C-0051 

Contract Award Dollar Amount:  Base value $30,673,934; first option value $72,044,948; second option value $2,032,857 

Contract Line Item Number:  0001 

Contractor Awarded Name:  The Boeing Company 

Contractor Awarded DUNS:  008384588 

Contractor Awarded Address: 5301 Bolsa Ave. Huntington Beach, California 92647-2048 United States 

Contracting Office Address:  675 North Randolph Street Arlington, Virginia 22203-2114 United States 

Primary Point of Contact.:  BAA Administrator DARPA-BAA-12-07@darpa.mil

http://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=82f80a28949a88bbbd04dd18717b4ca9&tab=core&tabmode=list
 
Кстати, однажды мы долго спорили по поводу призовых цен. Обратите внимание на тип контракта.
   
На сайте много ПДФок, я буду признателен, если кто-то просмотрит их и раскажет о содержании.
   

[Salo]

http://spacenews.com/darpa-airborne-launcher-effort-falters/

DARPA Scraps Plan To Launch Small Sats from F-15 Fighter Jet
by Mike Gruss — November 30, 2015
 
DARPA is hoping it can take elements of its ALASA program, shown in the rendering above, to industry to improve how quickly the military can launch small satellites into low earth orbit. Credit: DARPA
 
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has scrapped plans to launch small satellites from a modified F-15 fighter jet after two tests of a new rocket fuel ended in explosions this year.
Instead DARPA will spend the next year studying how to harness the volatile nitrous oxide-acetylene propellant and, in parallel, modifications to existing small rockets that would enable the agency place small satellites on orbit on 24 hours notice at a cost of less than $1 million.
In March 2014, Boeing Defense Space and Security of Huntington Beach, California, won a contract potentially worth $104 million to build and demonstrate the Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) system. The program was intended to demonstrate the capability to launch up to 45 kilograms of payload into low Earth orbit on short notice for as little as $1 million.
ALASA is one of a number of DARPA efforts to reduce the cost and turnaround time for launching national security satellites.
Boeing's design featured a small expendable rocket launching from underneath a modified combat aircraft that would take off from a standard airport runway. Such a system would allow the Defense Department to launch from almost anywhere, DARPA said.
"The magic" in Boeing's design, as DARPA officials described it, was the powerful nitrous oxide-acetylene propellant, also known as NA-7. The propellant would be "pre-mixed" to reduce the plumbing needed on the rocket, enabling it to carry more payload.
Boeing led two subsystem tests in Promontory, Utah – one in August and one in April – aimed at learning how the pre-mixed propellant reacted to different temperatures, pressures and atmospheric conditions. In both tests, the propellant exploded.
"It did not go as predicted," Brad Tousley, director of DARPA's tactical technology office, said in a Nov. 23 interview.
The "finicky" nature of the propellant led DARPA officials to believe it is too risky to store on piloted aircraft, Tousley said.
As a result, DARPA has abandoned plans, described in the agency's 2016 budget request, to conduct as many as a dozen ALASA test flights during the upcoming year.
"From a performance standpoint it's still great but from a safety standpoint you have to work that out," Tousley said. "As of present, we've stopped planning for any launches."
The NA-7 propellant represents a classic problem for an agency whose mission is to pursue high-risk, high-payoff technologies for the Pentagon. These development efforts are taken on with the understanding that many, if not most, will fail.
Boeing, subcontractor Orbital ATK of Dulles, Virginia, and DARPA nonetheless plan to continue developing the technology. A third propellant test is imminent.
"We hope to make it work," said Pam Melroy, deputy director of DARPA's tactical technology office. "Is all the proper handling of this affordable, reasonable operationally, especially under a manned aircraft? Maybe it turns out it's better suited for a ground-launch mission."
Additional tests also could help determine whether the propellant can be stored affordably, DARPA officials said.
Cheryl Sampson, a Boeing spokeswoman, said company executives were not available for an interview. In a Nov. 24 email, she said Boeing "has demonstrated and established procedures to mix, store, and transfer a significant amount of the nitrous oxide acetylene monopropellant safely and reliably. Each test in the plan assists us in gaining valuable information to assess the viability of the mix for use as a safe monopropellant."
DARPA has begun studying ways to apply ALASA technologies, including an autonomous flight termination system and improved ground-to-rocket communications, to its goal of fielding a launcher able to deploy small satellites for less than $1 million on 24 hours' notice.
One area to be examined is how DARPA might work with one or more of the companies that have emerged in recent years with plans to dramatically reduce the cost of launching small satellites.
"If the commercial small sat launch market can show rapid turnaround and affordable price points to orbit and we get a payload up on one of them, that might validate the goals of the program," Tousley said.
ALASA is the latest in a series of DARPA efforts to develop low-cost, responsive satellite launchers to run aground. Others include the Responsive Access Small Cargo Affordable Launch and Force Application and Launch from Continental United States programs, neither of which made it to flight testing.
The agency continues to fund the Experimental Spaceplane-1, or XS-1, program aimed at developing a reusable first stage for a small satellite launcher that would have an expendable upper stage. Boeing, Masten Space Systems and Northrop Grumman studying concepts under that program.

[silentpom]

F-15 конечно хорош, но было бы прикольнее, если бы военные не угробили ветку двигателей J-58 на них было бы веселее такие пуски делать. у нас хоть МиГ-31 уцелел, но он сильно тяжелый

[triage]

О закрытии, при чтении http://spacenews.com/darpa-airborne-launcher-effort-falters/  не так сильно бросалось что закрыли

 http://www.darpa.mil/program/airborne-launch-assist-space-access
Satellites today are launched via booster rocket fr om a limited number of ground facilities, which can involve a month or longer of preparation for a small payload and significant cost for each mission. Launch costs are driven in part today by fixed site infrastructure, integration, checkout and flight rules. Fixed launch sites can be rendered idle by something as innocuous as rain, and they also lim it the direction and timing of orbits satellites can achieve.
The goal of DARPA's Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) program is to develop a significantly less expensive approach for routinely launching small satellites, with a goal of at least threefold reduction in costs compared to current military and U.S. commercial launch costs. Currently, small satellite payloads cost more than $30,000 per pound to launch, and must share a launcher with other satellites. ALASA seeks to propel 100-pound satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO) within 24 hours of call-up, all for less than $1 million per launch.
ALASA continues to make progress toward its goals. The program had a successful Phase 1, which resulted in three viable system designs. In March 2014, DARPA sel ected the Boeing Company as the prime contractor for Phase 2. The ALASA Phase 2 design envisioned launching a low-cost, expendable launch vehicle fr om conventional aircraft. Serving as a reusable first stage, the plane would fly to high altitude and release the launch vehicle, which would carry the payload to the desired location.
The design of the ALASA Phase 2 launch vehicle technology demonstrator incorporated commercial-grade avionics, advanced composite structures and a novel propulsion system that seeks to develop a new monopropellant that combines nitrous oxide (N2O) and acetylene without the need for a separate oxidizer such as liquid oxygen. If successful, such a system would provide greater performance and reliability in a much smaller and more affordable package than traditional bipropellant rocket systems.
The ALASA program has established and demonstrated procedures to mix, store, transfer and use a significant amount of the monopropellant. The N2O-acetylene mix, called NA7, is extremely energetic, however, and the challenges of working with it as a practical rocket propellant have yet to be surmounted.
As of November 2015, DARPA had conducted four subscale static tests of the propulsion system on test stands. These tests were anomalous and pointed to the need for additional tests as part of refining the engine design and assessing the viability of the mix for use as a safe monopropellant.
DARPA believes that understanding how to use NA7 monopropellant safely could open up groundbreaking capabilities across diverse space- and non-space-related fields. To accelerate progress towards this goal, DARPA in November 2015 ceased development of the ALASA launch vehicle technology demonstrator and is focusing on monopropellant safety testing and certification.
Moreover, recognizing that the commercial sector has made significant strides in low-cost, flexible access to space in the past few years, DARPA is reassessing the emerging capabilities of commercial small-satellite launch providers. The Agency will consider opportunities to partner with providers seeking appropriate payloads for rapid, affordable access to space.
DARPA also intends to:

[/li]
• Continue partnering with test ranges on groundbreaking software and hardware for future autonomous flight termination systems and build on the successful ALASA rapid mission planning system. DARPA is designing the software to be extensible to different launch vehicles—a capability that would remove the need to create proprietary, custom software for each vehicle and dramatically lower launch costs.
• Continue to investigate the development of space-based communications systems for launch range safety, to allow both greater flight rates and shorter preparation times than are possible with existing tracking, telemetry and control infrastructure.
• Continue to advance other technologies that support the goals of rapid, flexible launch.