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Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Virgin Orbit Has One Big Thing Going For Them

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit has one major advantage as a small satellite launcher: the fact that their launcher is dropped from a 747 implies that they can put a satellite into orbit from any airport big enough for the jet to fly from.  

As almost an aside, it seem there's actually more demand for launch services than there are launch pads, at least as far as I can tell from reading about attempts to establish spaceports all around the world.  I see things like a group trying to create a Space Port in lightly populated Camden County Georgia and the voters voted it down, over concerns that it might endanger visitors to a National Seashore.  More likely, they probably thought it would make the area less pretty but they wouldn't say that.

Back to the original topic, Virgin Galactic and European in-space manufacturing tech start-up Space Forge today announced an agreement to launch the first satellite developed in Wales, with the mission launching this summer.  A satellite from Wales being launched from Cornwall makes this an all UK mission and it looks to be the first ever.

In a historic moment for UK space, the satellite will be launched as part of a broader joint UK-US mission to open the country’s first domestic space port in summer 2022 out of Spaceport Cornwall in Newquay, Cornwall.

Spaceport Cornwall is a name I've been reading in the press for a while as one of the attempts to establish spaceports all around the world.  I didn't know they were close to supporting missions, or would be within the few months left until summer.  A look over their web site shows they seem to emphasize Virgin Orbit and "horizontal launches."  It might be that they're eschewing the typical vertical launch pad in favor of something  like Virgin Orbit's 747 named Cosmic Girl.  

Cosmic Girl with LauncherOne on the release pod - Virgin Orbit photo from an early test.

I can't tell you much about the mission because much of the jargon they use is opaque to me.  Things like this paragraph:

With shared values of democratising space and pioneering responsive and responsible launch technologies, the synergy between Virgin Orbit and Cardiff-based Space Forge’s ethos makes this the ideal marriage for initial launch from the UK. This, coupled with Spaceport Cornwall’s ambitions to become a world leader in responsible launch will offer a real-world example of a global shift in environmental space practice – from sustainable on the ground operations, to horizontal lower impact launch technologies, to in-orbit services minimising the environmental impacts of manufacturing.

I have no idea what that entire first sentence actually means and the rest aren't much better.  What does democratising space mean?   I thought anyone who could build a CubeSat could get it launched.  What does "responsive and responsible launch technologies" mean?  

We know that LauncherOne is a small satellite launcher with nowhere near the tonnage to orbit of a Falcon 9, Atlas V or several other vehicles, so whatever Space Forge wants to launch, it will be small.  

Aiming to unlock the next steps on the path to market expansion, dedicated in-space manufacturing, coupled with proof of reliable return, will allow Space Forge to leverage the benefits of the space environment, namely: microgravity, vacuum, and temperature, to create products impossible to manufacture on Earth. 

Dedicated in-space manufacturing?  That then shows "proof of reliable return?"  It sounds like they're launching something like a small, automated manufacturing system, that will likewise manufacture smaller systems.  Oh...kay...

If you're curious, go read the extremely self-congratulatory article about the mission - which reads like someone got a press release and just posted it. 



13 comments:

  1. Now that is some downright first class gobbledygook. Sounds like a politician trying his best to talk for 5 minutes without actually saying anything at all.

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  2. Anyone who uses the Buzzword Bingo Bullsh*t Generator to write their press releases isn't to be taken seriously.

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    1. https://www.bullshitgenerator.com/
      https://www.fortypoundhead.com/tools_bullshit_generator.asp
      https://www.atrixnet.com/bs-generator.html

      Delete
  3. It reads like the nonsensical business plan I hacked out when my insurer demanded out of the blue that I provide lest they drop their coverage mid-project. Only my balderdash was purposefully obtuse intended as a textual middle finger.


    What is presented here seems like a prospectus meant for investors.

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  4. Ah, the wonders of a Masters in Business Administration. Able to speak 5000 words and not say anything.

    Horizontal launching... will it be cheaper than Falcon 9 or Starship? Though the benefit of, as you said, launching everywhere has its merits.

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  5. Orbital Sciences Corporation - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_Sciences_Corporation - started launching Pegasus horizontally in 1990. They made USAF ETR Range Safety very unhappy with them when they performed a launch while in a Range Safety hold.

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  6. When woke lawyers speak for you, it's all bullshit. I've experienced this recently and said, "Buckwheat, what do you mean?" The lawyer was offended.

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  7. That sort of language is meant to suck money out of the clueless. Do they have some sort of crowdfunding option? It also provides lots of wiggle room later for when some specific thing doesn't get done or doesn't work

    I wouldn't give them a dime.

    And btw, people have been talking about the unique advantages of space based manufacturing for decades, be I don't think I've ever heard of a single example that was possible, and that people wanted. I also can't imagine something so valuable (in terms of novel and useful) that the cost of getting it up there, doing something to it, and getting it back, would be worth while. (ok, antigrav plates or room temp superconductors, but otherwise??)

    n

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    1. The only thing I ever heard of was some crystals that couldn't form on the ground due to gravity, which struck me as ridiculously sensitive. If we're talking hundreds or thousands of dollars per gram, the only things that make sense to me are either some sort of catalyst that could save tons of money or maybe a fancy drug. I'll go with your suggestions, too.

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  8. Much of the medical advances in the late 80s and 90s were are result of a Johnson and Johnson experiment on Shuttle - call Continuous Flow Electrophoresis in Space (CFES) - https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19880001596/downloads/19880001596.pdf
    as well as RAMSES on IML-2 - https://aiche.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/aic.690420727

    Scientists recognized that certain proteins were associated with specific disease, and that finding a drug that would bind to the specific proteins showed good promise for curing those diseases. But to be able to do their research properly, they needed to be able to reliably separate protein types. Electrophoresis showed promise, but using it in 1g was not working. J&J funded CFES as a middeck, and helped them understand how to make electrophoresis work in 1g.

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    1. Thanks for that, Mark. Downloaded the NASA paper (that allowed it) and read the abstract on the Chemical Engineers' website.

      I had either misremembered the concept or confused it with something else I heard of.

      As I read that, it wasn't exactly that the CFES process wouldn't work in their labs, just that the mathematical models weren't agreeing with the answers from the lab and they were eliminating gravity as a cause. With that accomplished, they can work in 1G.

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    2. The researchers who developed and built CFES were rather specific when I worked with them back in the day.

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  9. So, Britain will be back in the business of launching satellites after a 60 year hiatus?
    The aerial launcher gives more options for orbits than ground launches, since each launch site is limited in which orbits it can reach.
    Supposedly, aerial launches can be cheaper since the first stage (airplane) is reusable, but weight is quite limited.
    The US Air Force has done it from B52s before. My understanding is that it is most useful for getting a small satellite into a specific orbit quickly - for example to watch a specific scientific event on short notice, or to get satellite recon of a specific region when problems crop up there.

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