Space Access 2008 Propellant Depot Panel

Posted on March 31, 2008 by Jonathan Goff

I’ll update this after work with some commentary (and sometime in the next week or two, I’ll see if I can upload a video of the session as well). But for now here are the four presentations that were given.

I started out with an introduction to the concept of propellant depots, a short discussion on some of the general technical and business challenges, and then an introduction to the panelists.

Rand Simberg (of Transterrestrial Musings and also of Wyoming Space and Information Systems) gave a presentation talking about some more of the business and policy issues related to propellant depots.

Dallas Bienhoff of Boeing discussed the work he’s done over the past several years on propellant depots, and he also discussed in more concrete terms some of the advantages (both to ESAS and to commercial operators) of propellant depots.

The final presentation was given by Frank Zegler, of ULA. He talked about their thoughts on propellant depots, and some related work they’ve been doing (and will be doing in the near future. Frank had some cool eyecandy for some of the hardware they’ve been building and testing lately for the new Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage that ULA is working on.

The following two tabs change content below.
Jonathan Goff
My Twitter profileMy LinkedIn profile

Jonathan Goff

President/CEO at Altius Space Machines
Jonathan Goff is a space technologist, inventor, and serial space entrepreneur who created the Selenian Boondocks blog. Jon was a co-founder of Masten Space Systems, and is the founder and CEO of Altius Space Machines, a space robotics startup in Broomfield, CO. His family includes his wife, Tiffany, and five boys: Jarom (deceased), Jonathan, James, Peter, and Andrew. Jon has a BS in Manufacturing Engineering (1999) and an MS in Mechanical Engineering (2007) from Brigham Young University, and served an LDS proselytizing mission in Olongapo, Philippines from 2000-2002.
Jonathan Goff

About Jonathan Goff

Jonathan Goff is a space technologist, inventor, and serial space entrepreneur who created the Selenian Boondocks blog. Jon was a co-founder of Masten Space Systems, and is the founder and CEO of Altius Space Machines, a space robotics startup in Broomfield, CO. His family includes his wife, Tiffany, and five boys: Jarom (deceased), Jonathan, James, Peter, and Andrew. Jon has a BS in Manufacturing Engineering (1999) and an MS in Mechanical Engineering (2007) from Brigham Young University, and served an LDS proselytizing mission in Olongapo, Philippines from 2000-2002.
This entry was posted in Commercial Space, NASA, Propellant Depots, Space Policy. Bookmark the permalink.

6 Responses to Space Access 2008 Propellant Depot Panel

  1. redneck says:
    March 31, 2008 at 4:11 pm

    You and your accomplices make a compelling case. It is just amazing that this wasn’t addressed in say, the 80s.

  2. Jon Goff says:
    March 31, 2008 at 4:12 pm

    Accomplices? I believe the term these days is “unindicted coconspirators”.

    ~Jon

  3. Anonymous says:
    April 1, 2008 at 5:51 pm

    Good stuff. Thanks for posting it.

    Tom Hill

  4. Anonymous says:
    April 1, 2008 at 11:38 pm

    Any news on ULA development of the wide-body-Centaur EELV upper stage? Or is it moribund?

  5. Jon Goff says:
    April 2, 2008 at 8:07 am

    Tom,
    You’re welcome!

    Anonymous,
    They’re still working on an advanced stage called “Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage” or ACES for short. It’s been going through several iterations, and I’m not sure when they’re actually going to move it into production, but it’s an ongoing project AFAIK.

    ~Jon

  6. Pingback: Selenian Boondocks » Blog Archive » ULA Propellant Depot Paper (Updated)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *