Main Engine Cut Off

If the air molecules can be collected, compressed, and stored, you could imagine an imaging or communications satellite in orbit around Mars that occasionally drops its periapsis into the atmosphere to refuel, and once refueled, boosts its periapsis back to its operational altitude. Aerial ISRU!

Brendan Bryne joins Jake and I to discuss the National Space Council, the 2019 NASA Budget Request, and the wonders of Jai Alai.

Forgot to post this until now, but last week after the GOES-S launch, I asked ULA CEO Tory Bruno when we’d see the new Orbital ATK GEM 63 solid boosters on Atlas V. He responded: “About a year or so.”

While I admit that companies like Moon Express do need regulatory clarity before spending too much time and money on a project in a regulatory gray area, there are not many projects held up purely because of regulatory uncertainty.

One question I’d like to see answered, that as far as I know has never been asked or commented on: how much time is needed between EM-1 and EM-2 for everything else except the Mobile Launcher?

This mission gives me such agita. Always.

Very special thanks to the 166 of you out there supporting Main Engine Cut Off on Patreon for the month of February. Your support keeps this blog and podcast going, and most importantly, it keeps it independent.

First and foremost, layoffs are always a major bummer. As far as Planetary Resources goes, I did start to get worried about their future after their pivot to Earth observation in 2016 and then their pivot back to asteroid mining just a few months later. It was—and remains—a confused strategy that was pretty blatantly about chasing the money wherever the money could be found.

I’m still generally skeptical about Vector after the past year or two of mostly empty calories of the PR variety. But there’s another thing about this announcement: it further shows the relative uselessness of Wallops.

Shouldn’t this have been a part of what Bigelow has been doing all these years? It’s way more important to the future of Bigelow than whether or not expandable modules work in space. They could always pivot and build their modules with proven technology, but the business case has to exist either way.