I talked to Joel Kotkin and Marshall Toplansky about space a few weeks ago. Here is the result. Note that Jeff Greason (whose name I gave them) is quoted as well.
[Update a while later]
And my piece on what Israel can do in space is up.
2 thoughts on “In Which I’m Quoted”
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And my piece on what Israel can do in space is up.
Nicely done. I hadn’t realized how old the Shavit was. Israel should develop it’s own liquid-fueled orbital class rocket.
Nor had I given much thought about the necessity of retro-grade orbits because of geography.
Perhaps Israel’s best choice would be a launch platform in the western Mediterranean? It would be rather easier to supply via direct shipments from Israel proper.
And a lot closer than platforms along the equator. A bit problematical to reach from Israel since you’re talking long ship trips either across the Med and down the west coast of Africa or more perilously through the political minefield of the Suez and the Red Sea down the east coast of Africa.
Perhaps if Israel were to pursue Starship light? A reduced version of Starship that would consists of essentially two reusable stages. The 2nd stage could lift off from Israel proper, land at a sea-based launch site along the equator, where it could be mated with the 1st stage for a trip to orbit. The 2nd stage could then return direct to Israel or back to an equatorial platform for refueling for a return trip to Israel.
A more general though about the coming days of space commercialization and privatization.
Back in the halcyon days of expensive rockets to GEO, many of the comsat providers designed their satellites around a common bus. In other words the “utility” portion of the satellite, the parts that provide electrical power and propulsion were designed along a standard bus type architecture. The cubical “payload” part was designed to be compatible with the bus even if its design was unique to either Ku, Ka or C band operation or whatever. Didn’t matter as long as it was bus compatible.
I’m thinking that for a new generation of lab satellites, maybe the way to go is with a common bus structure. This bus could be remotely serviceable and would provide not only a common interface for electrical power, propulsion and orbital GC&C, but also supply maybe some common chemicals and compounds for use in say pharmaceutical “payloads”. Perhaps things like water, CO2, nitrogen either as Nitric Acid or gaseous, Sulfuric Acid, Sodium Hydroxide, Nutrient Agar, heat, refrigeration, etc. These items to be supplied in bulk by the bus, which can be resupplied in-orbit when such essential supplies run low.
A single orbital “bus” could support numerous different “payloads” even from different pharmaceutical companies, developing their own proprietary drugs.
An opportunity to make money and amortize costs at the same time.
Anyone know if stuff like this is in the works?