Space – passing through the final frontier

jQuery(document).ready(function ($) {

var cookie_token = $.cookie(‘token’);

url = window.location.href;
var param = url.split(‘?’)[1]
console.log(url);

if ($.cookie(‘token’) && param != ‘webview=true’) {

var settings = {
“url”: “https://my.financebrokerage.com/api/transactions/my”,
“method”: “GET”,
“timeout”: 0,
“headers”: {
“Content-Type”: “application/json”,
“Authorization”: `Bearer ${cookie_token}`
},
};

$.ajax(settings).done(function (response) {

if (response[0].status == “Approved”) {

$(‘.blur’).html(`

Seeing astronauts walking around on the surface of the moon was an amazing sight. I can recall being astounded that any organisation could achieve such a thing. Was there now anything which man could not do? How could the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ever top this? Well as it turned out, the Apollo programme was ended in 1972, a victim of budget cuts, lack of sustained interest and the near disaster of Apollo 13. For those interested in knowing more about this episode, the 1995 Tom Hanks Movie Apollo 13 is an excellent portrayal of what occurred.
Even now, 50 years on, there are mixed feelings about both Apollo and its Soviet rivals of that period. Certain scientific progress was made, but had it really been worth all the money that had been put into it? In fact, had it really been more about Cold War prestige than advancing scientific discovery? In any case, in retrospect both sides had problems affording the extremely high costs entailed. From that time on, space exploration continued to advance, but with the more modest goals of the Space Shuttle programme and the placing in orbit of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Furthermore, there has been the International Space Station (ISS). This is (or was meant to be) a model for global cooperation with 15 nations collaborating, including the US and Russia. No doubt this international co-operation has helped to defray the costs of setting up such an ambitious enterprise. The space station itself is a US National Laboratory, and it has led to scientific experiments being performed in low-Earth orbit. Because molecules and cells behave differently in space, research in microgravity helps advance scientific knowledge in many scientific and technical fields. Built between 1998 and 2011, the space station has housed humans continuously since November 2000.
However, moving forward to the present day, things are now developing in a much different direction than previously. Major developments in Information Technology (IT) have reduced the costs of both computing and rocketry, which has led to an increase in the possibility of lucrative payloads. These prospects have led many independent companies to get involved in what was previously strictly the domain of various governments.
At present, there are about 100 “small launch” companies that either already have launch vehicles already in operation or have plans to make them. Small launch is usually defined as a payload of less than two tonnes. These companies have raised hundreds of millions of pounds in a race to capitalise on what was expected to be a huge surge in demand to put small satellites into space. It remains to be seen whether they will all be able to compete in what appears to already be a crowded market.
At the moment, one of the large market leaders is Elon Musk’s SpaceX which is able to carry big satellites into orbit and is also offering a “rideshare” service for smaller payloads. SpaceX will currently take a 300kg payload into orbit for $1.8 million. Financial analysts calculate that this gives SpaceX quite a price advantage over what other small launch rivals would have to charge. The problem is that there are significant costs involved in building up rocket launching infrastructure, such as the research and development, the rocket itself and the launch pad. Therefore, the more payload a company can launch, then the easier it is to defray all those costs over each payload. So any such company will be looking to either launch larger payloads or to launch them more frequently. Last year SpaceX managed 61 launches, and this year it plans over 100. The biggest customers for them are likely going to be the companies building giant constellations of satellites for new broadband and telephony services. In particular, there is the successful Starlink Network which is Musk’s own internet telephony company.
SpaceX began launching Starlink satellites in 2019. These satellites currently provide internet access coverage to 45 countries, and there are plans to have a global mobile phone service after 2023. Probably Starlink’s biggest and most noteworthy success so far has been in its availability in Ukraine. This coverage has enabled troops involved in the war with Russia to communicate safely with each other, out of the reach of any Russian cyberattacks. One of the first things the Russians had done when they invaded was to use cyberattacks to bring down the domestic internet servers which Ukraine was using. However, even as they did so, they probably had no idea that Starlink could not only replace those servers, but it could also use its many linked satellites to provide an internet network which the Russians would be unable to touch. The presence of these satellites has led to many Ukrainian military successes as video recordings of worthwhile targets have been communicated by both military personnel and by civilians to artillery batteries which have then been able to deal with them.
As is the case with any new technology, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Just last week, Virgin Orbit launched a rocket from a modified Boeing 747 which took off from Cornwall in Southwest England. This was to be the first ever launch of a rocket from the British Isles. The jet flew out over the Atlantic and dropped its rocket, which successfully ignited on its way to space, heading for an orbital altitude of 555km. Within half an hour, however, Virgin Orbit announced that something had gone wrong. It would appear that at an altitude of approximately 180km, the upper stage experienced what Virgin Orbit called “an anomaly.” This anomaly, and most people would probably call it a fault, prematurely ended the first burn of the upper stage and meant that the rocket was unable to climb to that desired orbital altitude of 555km. Unfortunately, this meant that the rocket, with its entire payload of nine satellites still on board, was lost. Virgin Orbit said that they had collected a large quantity of data during the mission, and this would allow their engineers to analyse what had happened. So, we are still waiting for that first successful launch from the British Isles into space. But I am sure that Virgin Orbit will persevere.
Up to the present, no one has had a successful launch from mainland Europe either. But that might be about to change as the Europeans attempt to start their own series of launches. The Esrange spaceport near the city of Kiruna in Sweden is 125 miles inside the Arctic Circle. It has recently become the focus of the European Union (EU)’s ambitions to put the first satellite from mainland Europe into orbit. Previous launches by the European Space Agency have always used its spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, or involved collaborations with the United States or Russia. However, as technology advances, the EU does not want to get left behind.
We have looked at large companies such as SpaceX and Virgin Orbit, as well as the European Space Agency who are hoping to get some launches off the ground in the Arctic. But what about smaller companies? Is there room for them as well in this emerging field? As it happens, there are many such smaller enterprises who would like to be part of the action, and their best hope is to provide some sort of niche space service, one with a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) which the larger companies are not able to accommodate.
For example, there is Skyrora, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Its USP is that it has developed “a spaceport in a box.” This is a mobile launch system which can be packed into a dozen shipping containers and taken anywhere in the world. One container holds the 22.7 metres tall rocket, and it unfurls to become its launchpad and gantry, while another container hosts the command centre, another one holds a power centre, and yet another contains the fuel filling equipment. Having this mobile capability gives Skyrora a great amount of flexibility. They can basically deploy anywhere in the world where they have permission to launch. Next year the company is aiming to send its first rocket into space from UK soil, launching from Unst, the most northerly of the Shetland Islands. And in the future, this ability to send a rocket and everything needed for a launch to any spot on the globe could give the UK a huge diplomatic advantage. It would allow an allied country, with UK permission, to go from no space programme to being able to actually achieve a launch from their own sovereign territory.
Another USP for Skyrora is that it is aiming to become one of the greenest rocket launchers in the world by using recycled plastic waste to produce its rocket fuel. On top of that, they claim to have a third USP. They hope to be able to provide what they are calling the equivalent of an Uber service for rockets. Lee Rosen, Skyrora’s COO explains it thus. “Whereas, for example, SpaceX can use one of their large rockets to take 100 satellites into space on a single launch, Skyrora will aim to provide a specific orbit at a specific altitude with very specific parameters for how the vehicle is delivered. You can’t necessarily get that when you’re launching over 100 satellites on a single mission.” However, the competition is already lining up. Niche operator D-Orbit, an Italian company, is based in Oxfordshire. They claim that if the big operators can’t get your satellites exactly where you want them, you can summon a space tug from D-Orbit to pull them into position. They claim to be the world’s first “space logistics” company and will sell you a service to tow your satellites to the right place. If it works, this kind of tug service, ferrying satellites dropped off on rideshare missions might well eliminate the competitive advantages of those small launch vehicles like the ones being proposed by Skyrora (above). We shall see. New imaginative technologies will compete against one another, and who can tell which ones will outlast the others?
Another small company hoping to cream off some of the space action is Rocket Lab, which started life in New Zealand and is now listed on Nasdaq and which has attracted a roster of star investors. It has US government support and 36 successful launches under its belt. It also has a rather risky scheme for recovering the booster stage of the rocket by using a helicopter to catch it as it falls to earth. On the face of it, it does sound a bit like James Bond, and I imagine that there won’t be too many competitors out there who are willing to try this.
There are lots of new projects and developments and everyone will be wanting a piece of the action. However, to what extent will this technological rivalry lead to a more serious type of conflict? We ought to pose this question in the light of a serious breach of normal protocol by Russia. In November 2021, that is some three months before the start of its Ukraine War, Russia chose to shoot down one of its old satellites in lower Earth orbit. This action was condemned as totally reckless by various authorities, and one of the first consequences was that it endangered the crew of seven aboard the ISS, two of whom actually possess Russian nationality. The debris caused by shooting at this satellite has created a whole cloud of thousands of pieces of space shrapnel travelling at speeds of hundreds of miles per hour, any one of which could be fatal to the ISS, or to anything else which gets in their path. As it was, the ISS crew were forced to shelter in special protective capsules.
To quote US State Department spokesman Ned Price at a recent briefing on the matter, “The (Russian) test has so far generated over 1,500 pieces of trackable orbital debris and hundreds of thousands of pieces of smaller orbital debris that now threaten the interests of all nations.” However, the Russian space agency Roscosmos has downplayed the incident. Whether or not they know what they have done, one thing is for sure. At the same time that space is becoming that final frontier for all sorts of technological advances, it has to be acknowledged that it is also becoming a much more dangerous place to be. Anyone venturing up there will definitely need to go boldly, that is if they still want to go there at all.
And that thought brings us back to William Shatner and his ride into space. Reflecting on it, he said, “I had thought that going into space and being up there would be the next beautiful step to understanding the harmony of the universe. But I had a different experience, because I discovered that the beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here with all of us. Leaving that behind made my connection to our tiny planet even more profound. It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness.”
Reading between the lines, this sadness was because he was considering how careless and neglectful man has been with life on earth. Our daily actions have led to various species of animals and plants becoming extinct, with even man himself finding it more and more difficult to deal with the current excesses of pollution and climate change. And maybe the logical conclusion of such thoughts is that we’re responsible for such damage that one day we might well make our own beautiful planet uninhabitable. Ultimately, maybe that is what all this space exploration is about. Namely man trying desperately to find another planet to live on for that time when he can no longer survive on his current one. `);

} else {
$(‘.blur’).css({
‘background’: ‘linear-gradient(95deg, #4e4e4e 25%, #000 45%, #bbb 75%, #FFFFFF 100%) 98%/200% 100%’,
‘text-transform’: ‘inherit’,
‘-webkit-background-clip’: ‘text’,
‘background-clip’: ‘text’,
‘-webkit-text-fill-color’: ‘transparent’
})

$(“.wpb_content_element”).append(`

`)
}

});

} else {

$(‘.blur’).css({
‘background’: ‘linear-gradient(95deg, #4e4e4e 25%, #000 45%, #bbb 75%, #FFFFFF 100%) 98%/200% 100%’,
‘text-transform’: ‘inherit’,
‘-webkit-background-clip’: ‘text’,
‘background-clip’: ‘text’,
‘-webkit-text-fill-color’: ‘transparent’
})

$(“.wpb_content_element”).append(`

`)

}

});