Dream Chaser Space Plane Marches Toward Flight Despite GAO Protest Denial

As reported by Space Flight Insider: The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO ) denied a protest filed by Sierra Nevada Corporation on Jan. 5, after the Louisville, Colorado-based firm’s Dream Chaser spacecraft was not selected to move forward under the Commercial Crew transportation Capability phase of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The protest was filed after the Sept. 16, 2014 announcement that NASA had selected Boeing’s CST-100 and SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to provide transportation services for astronauts to the International Space Station.

In their protest, SNC stated that the evaluation NASA conducted went outside what the space agency had said would be conducted. Deviating from the criteria that SNC had expected Dream Chaser to encounter. The company also suggested that competitors were not provided with notification as to what the central objectives would be in terms of the determining factors in the evaluation and selection process.

Sierra Nevada tapped United Launch Alliance's Atlas V to provide
the boost required to get Dream Chaser to orbit.  This might still
take place as both ESA and JAXA have expressed interest in the
vehicle.

The GAO described the various spacecraft that had been offered up by the competitors under the Commercial Crew Program as follows:

Sierra Nevada offered its Dream Chaser crew transportation system (a lifting body spacecraft), launched using United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 launch vehicle, and landed horizontally on normal runways.  Sierra Nevada’s price was $2.55 billion.

Boeing offered its CST-100 crew transportation system (a capsule spacecraft), also launched using United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 launch vehicle, and landed using parachute and airbag systems for hard-surface landings, or contingency water landings.  Boeing’s price was $3.01 billion.

SpaceX offered its Crew Dragon crew transportation system (also a capsule spacecraft), launched using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle, and landed using parachutes and propulsive soft landing systems for hard-surface landings, or contingency water landings.  SpaceX’s price was $1.75 billion.

NASA had decided that CST-100 and Dragon V2 represented the best proposals in terms of a return on the government’s investment under commercial crew. The CST-100 was viewed as the strongest of the three candidates for technical, management reasons as well as past performance by its manufacturer, Boeing. In terms of SpaceX, the most dominate cause for the selection of the Dragon V2 - was its lower cost.

NASA issued the following response to the GAO’s decision.

“The GAO has notified NASA that it has denied Sierra Nevada Corporation’s protest of the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract awards. NASA is pleased the GAO’s decision allows the agency to move forward and continue working with Boeing and SpaceX on the Launch America initiative that will enable safe and reliable crew transportation to and from the International Space Station on American spacecraft launched from the United States, ending the nation’s sole reliance on Russia for such transportation. The case remains under the protective order and blackout until the GAO releases its decision.”

The GAO stated that despite contentions made by SNC, the Request For Proposals that NASA issued – stated clearly that each proposal would be reviewed with the objective of having the spacecraft be certified by the close of 2017.

SNC also had questioned the validity of SpaceX’s claims concerning the price and financial resources that were at the company’s disposal. According to Sierra Nevada, this served to skew the evaluation process, specifically the mission suitability evaluation factor. The GAO stated that these claims were not supported either by the evaluation record or by the terms of the solicitation.

In regard to the aspects of the various offerings under CCtCap, the GAO issued the following statement: The GAO decision takes no position on the relative merits of these proposal approaches to NASA’s Commercial Crew Transportation Capability Contract.  Instead, GAO reviewed the conclusions reached by NASA to determine if they were reasonable, and consistent with the evaluation approach NASA set out in its solicitation.

Specifics about the decision made by the GAO contained sensitive information concerning source selection and proprietary nature, as such, these elements were not released to the general public and were only made available to either select NASA personnel or to outside counsel (those admitted under the GAO protective order issued for this protest). A public version is expected to be released in the near future (within the next few weeks).

Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser space plane was unique among the CCP candidates as it was the only lifting-body design, essentially a mini shuttle which would have been launched atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA ) Atlas V 401 booster, rendezvoused and docked to the space station – and then landed back at Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility. Even though NASA might have taken a pass on the Dream Chaser – other space agencies have expressed interest in the design. Both the European Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are considering the spacecraft for use.

SpaceX Postpones Cargo Launch, Daring Rocket Test to Saturday January 10th

As reported by Space.com: SpaceX has delayed its next robotic cargo launch toward the International Space Station — which will also feature a bold rocket-reusability test — by another day, to early Saturday morning (Jan. 10, 2015).

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule are now scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 4:47 a.m. EST (0947 GMT) Saturday. You can watch the launch live here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV and SpaceX, beginning at 3:30 a.m. EST (0830 GMT).

The launch — which will kick off SpaceX's fifth contracted supply mission to the space station for NASA —  was targeted for Tuesday (Jan. 6), but that attempt was scrubbed just before liftoff because of an issue with an actuator on the Falcon 9's second stage. SpaceX initially pushed the launch to Friday morning (Jan. 9), which was the next available opportunity, and today (Jan. 7), decided to delay it another 24 hours. 

The primary objective of the launch is to send the unmanned Dragon — which is loaded with more than 5,000 lbs. (2,270 kilograms) of food, scientific experiments and spare parts — on its way to the orbiting lab. But SpaceX will also try to bring the Falcon 9's first stage back to Earth for a pinpoint landing on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean.

The unprecedented rocket-landing test is part of SpaceX's effort to develop fully and rapidly reusable rocket technology — a key priority of the company and its billionaire founder, Elon Musk.

If Dragon does get off the ground on Saturday, the capsule will arrive at the space station early Monday morning (Jan. 12), NASA officials said. Dragon will stay at the orbiting lab for a month, and then return to Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.


SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to complete 12 cargo runs to the space station. The space agency also signed a $1.9 billion deal with Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp. to fly eight such missions using the company's Cygnus spacecraft and Antares rocket. Orbital's first two flights went well, but the third was lost in late October when Antares exploded shortly after liftoff.

Leap Second to be Added in 2015 - Google to Use 'Leap Smear'

As reported by the Telegraph:The year 2015 will be slightly longer after the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) announced it was adding a leap second to clocks this summer.

On June 30, dials will read 11:59:60 as clocks hold their breath for a second to allow the Earth’s rotation to catch up with atomic time.

Atomic time is constant, but the Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing down by around two thousandths of a second per day.

It is the task of scientists and officials at the International Earth Rotation Service based in France to monitor the planet's rotation and tweak time where necessary. Some years the Earth runs bang on time and no adjustment is needed.

Software companies are already bracing themselves for problems. When the last leap second was added in 2012 Mozilla, Reddit, Foursquare, Yelp, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon all reported crashes and there were problems with the Linux operating system and programs written in Java. 

Many computing systems use the Network Time Protocol, or NTP, to keep themselves in sync with the world’s atomic clocks. But most are not programmed to deal with an unexpected extra second.

Google has even developed a special technique to deal with what it refers to as a ‘leap smear’ where it gradually adds milliseconds to its system clocks prior to the official arrive of the leap second.

"The Earth is slowing down a little bit," said Nick Stamatakos, the chief of Earth Orientation Parameters at the US Naval Observatory.

"Atomic clocks keep very accurate time. The measurements are telling us 'Oh, they're slowing down'"

The first leap second was added in 1972, and it will be the 26th time it has been added to clocks in history.

It means the rotation of the Earth will have slowed 26 seconds compared to the time measured on atomic clocks.

"They add an extra second to something called UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) in order to make sure the rate of UTC is the same as atomic time," he said.

Adding the leap second will mean that at 11:59:59pm on June 30 for one second clocks will read 11:59:60pm.

"For that day [June 30] there'll be 86,401 seconds, instead of 86,400 seconds. The length of the day for you and I and everyone on the Earth will have an extra second," added Mr Stamatakos.

Leap seconds are rarer these days than they were when the practice of adding seconds first began.

From 1972 to 1979, at least one second was added every year. Leap seconds were added six times throughout the 1980s. But there will only have been four leap seconds added since 1999.

The US wants to get rid of leap seconds claiming they're too disruptive to precision systems used for navigation and communication. At a conference in Geneva in 2012 delegates argued that precisely timed money transactions could go astray or vehicles could be sent tens of metres out of position if they are a second out in their measurement of time

But Britain opposes the change, saying that it would forever break the link between our concept of time and the rising and setting of the Sun.

It would also spell the end for Greenwich Mean Time, which is measured by the time at which the Sun crosses the Greenwich Meridian and was adopted in Britain in 1847

Experts also fear that once this link is broken it could never be restored because although the Earth's timekeeping systems are built to accommodate the occasional leap second, adding a leap minute or hour to global time would be virtually impossible.

Rory McEvoy, Curator of Horology, Royal Observatory Greenwich, said: "Since antiquity the Earth’s rotation has provided us with our timescale – it is the Earth’s rotation that gives us our most basic unit of time, the solar day.

"In the early 20th century civil time, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), was disseminated by radio signal. The clocks connected to the radio transmitters were constantly checked and adjusted, when necessary, according to astronomical determination of time.

"This setup did not require leap seconds. It was only after the redefinition of the si second in 1967, when it became an issue because it was based on atomic timekeeping (more accurate than the Earth). It was felt that civil time, Co-ordinated Universal Time (UTC), should correspond with Earth rotation. In 1972 the first leap second was added to UTC to correct the disparity.

"The Earth’s speed of rotation has a tendency to slow – caused principally because of the relationship between Earth and the moon – but it can speed up. There is a possibility that a negative leap second could be added to UTC.

"The abolition of the leap second is being considered and after around 12 years of discussion there may be a decision made later this year." 

NASA Approves SpaceX's Plans to Send Astronauts to Space Station

As reported by Space.com: SpaceX's Dragon capsule is one step closer to flying astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

SpaceX has passed NASA's "certification baseline review," which required the California-based company to outline exactly how it plans to ferry crews to and from the orbiting lab using the Dragon spacecraft and its Falcon 9 rocket under SpaceX's Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract with the space agency.

"This milestone sets the pace for the rigorous work ahead as SpaceX meets the certification requirements outlined in our contract," Kathryn Lueders, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said in a statement. "It is very exciting to see SpaceX's proposed path to certification, including a flight test phase and completion of the system development." 

Mercedes-Benz F015 Autonomous Car Concept (Video)

As reported by MotorAuthority: The hydrogen-electric plug-in hybrid system powering the F015 is relatively unique in that it produces zero emissions at all times. Mercedes hasn’t gone into detail but says the drivetrain consists of a hydrogen fuel cell stack, a lithium-ion battery and two electric motors rated at 134 horsepower each.

With a full battery (which can be charged at home via cable-less inductive means), the F015 is capable of driving up to 124 miles. And with a full tank of hydrogen, this range increases to 684 miles, by having the fuel cell top up the battery whenever the charge is running low. The setup is an evolution of the one in 2011’s F125! concept.

Then there is the autonomous tech, which relies not only on sensors but also on Car-2-Car and Car-2-Object communications technology. Already previewed in the S-Class-based S500 INTELLIGENT DRIVE prototype, multiple sensors, advanced 3D cameras and highly-detailed digital maps help drive the car without the need for an actual driver.

Inside the F015 is a variable seat system with four lounge-style chairs that can rotate far enough that they all face each other. When the car reaches its destination, the seats then rotate towards the door for an easy exit for passengers.

A central idea of ​​the concept is a continuous exchange of information between vehicles, passengers and the outside world. For interaction within the vehicle, the passengers rely on six display screens located around the cabin. They also interact with the vehicle through gestures, eye-tracking or by touching the high-resolution screens. Outside, the F015 uses laser projection, radio signals and LED displays to communicate with its surroundings.

The F015 clearly isn’t intended for production but it does show that Mercedes has the technology today to deliver a zero-emission vehicle that can drive itself and offer all the luxury one would expect of the brand. The automaker is hoping the concept’s introduction will drive the social discourse on mobility and the design of the urban environment ahead. This is particularly important in the area of legislation for autonomous cars, which is likely to remain the biggest hurdle for the technology’s introduction to the market.

"The single most important luxury goods of the 21st century are private space and time," Mercedes-Benz chief Dieter Zetsche said at last night's reveal. "Autonomously driving cars by Mercedes-Benz shall offer exactly that—with the F015 Luxury in Motion, this revolutionary concept of mobility becomes tangible for the first time."

Zetsche went on to explain that Mercedes has a “master plan” in place to take the big leap required to see autonomous cars move from the concept to production phase. The F015, he said, demonstrates where this may take us.

Jaguar Demos a Car That Keeps an Eye on Its Driver

As reported by MIT Technology Review: Many cars already include plenty of sensors—cameras for spotting objects in your blind spot, for instance—but they’re usually keeping an eye on the outside world, not on what’s going on behind the wheel.

An Australian company called Seeing Machines is turning sensing inward with technology that focuses on drivers themselves in hopes of reducing distracted and drowsy driving. The company is using cameras and software to detect eye and facial movements so it can alert drivers who have become inattentive, either due to drowsiness or distraction. This kind of technology is set to become more common, especially as cars become more capable of driving themselves on some stretches of road.

So far, the company has focused its technology on drivers of heavy industrial trucks used in the mining industry, but it’s also moving toward the consumer market: it has a deal with auto parts maker Takata to bring its technology to cars and other vehicles. At the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, Seeing Machines will demonstrate its attention-monitoring sensors in the dashboard of a Jaguar F-Type.

Built-in systems for tracking drivers’ attention are an option on a still small but growing number of cars from companies such as Lexus. Some companies, like Google, paint a future where cars are completely automated.

Seeing Machines’ technology uses a small infrared camera fitted to the dashboard that works with software running on the vehicle—not on a remote server—to evaluate whether the driver is looking at the road. It evaluates a person’s head position, facial expression, and blinking rate. The camera captures 60 frames per second, and the software analyzes the images to determine the driver’s alertness.

Nick Langdale-Smith, Seeing Machines’ vice president for company partnerships, says the company can get a good read on a driver’s state by tracking his pupils in particular. The software measures eyeball rotation and detects where the driver’s line of sight intersects with objects around the driver. This allows the software to determine the amount of time a driver spends looking at the dashboard, car mirrors, road, and elsewhere—which can help it judge whether a driver is paying attention to traffic or starting to doze off.

If the system senses you’re not paying attention, it will alert you to put your eyes back on the road or pull over. For companies that are already using the system in their trucks, this comes via a seat-based buzz, though Langdale-Smith says this won’t be the case in an eventual consumer version of the technology. “This is there to save your life,” he says.

The device sets off an alarm and a vibration
in the driver's seat.

To date, Seeing Machines has honed its technology in the mining industry, where Caterpillar and other makers of huge vehicles that transport earth and minerals are using it to monitor drivers. “The shift is long and the task is boring,” says Langdale-Smith. “And when [drivers] fall asleep, the vehicles turn into 450-ton juggernauts.”

Seeing Machines’ deal with Takata, announced in September, will include the installation of driver-monitoring systems in cars made by an unnamed major automaker—it’s not clear when this will happen, though. 

CES 2015: Toyota Opens Patents on Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology

As reported by the LA Times: Hoping to speed development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, Toyota said Monday that it would offer thousands of patents on related technologies to rival automakers, for free.

The announcement, made at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, echoes a similar move by electric car maker Tesla in 2014, when Chief Executive Elon Musk made Tesla patents available to all, hoping to spur innovation in the electric vehicle world (and, perhaps, to draw publicity.)

Toyota has similar goals for the fuel-cell car market.

“At Toyota, we believe that when good ideas are shared, great things can happen,” Bob Carter, senior vice president at Toyota, said before the announcement. “The first generation hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, launched between 2015 and 2020, will be critical, requiring a concerted effort and unconventional collaboration.”

Toyota will make 5,680 patents available to automakers to build and sell their own fuel cell vehicles. Parts suppliers, energy companies and bus manufacturers can also use the patents, which remain royalty-free through 2020.

And 70 patents are directly related to hydrogen fueling stations, a move both Toyota and analysts say could spur the wider adoption of hydrogen electric vehicles.

"I think overall it makes sense," said Devin Lindsay, principle powertrain anaylst with IHS Automotive. "Right now the automakers all need to help each other, and more infrastructure is going to help kick-start the industry."

The patents also relate to Toyota’s upcoming Mirai hydrogen fuel cell car, which is slated to hit the U.S. market in October and is already on sale in Japan for the equivalent of about $60,000. With a range around 300 miles, it can refuel at a hydrogen station in about five minutes.

Although Toyota’s move Monday will help advance the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, the automaker may not be sacrificing much in making its patents available.

“I don’t think the technology that Toyota has is that groundbreaking,” said David Cole, head of AutoHarvest Foundation, a nonprofit at Wayne State University in Detroit, and chairman emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research. “It’s not a patent issue.”

Instead, the development of cost-effective hydrogen fuel cell vehicles has been stymied by the high cost of research and development, and by a shortage of brainpower necessary to figure out how to make the hydrogen fuel itself more energy dense, and therefore more efficient, Cole said.

 This is one reason fiercely competitive automakers are eager to work together on fuel cell technologies. Honda, with its own hydrogen fuel cell car set for 2016, has partnered with General Motors on new fuel cell applications. Both companies lead the industry in fuel cell patents.

And Ford, Renault, Nissan, and Mercedes’ parent company, Daimler, recently agreed to develop fuel cell technologies that all four companies would share.

“It’s historic the amount of collaboration that’s occurring,” Cole said. “If automakers don’t, we’re not going to get down the fuel cell road as far and as fast as we like.”

Toyota says it's been developing its fuel cell technology for the last 20 years. But Toyota knows that it can't sway the industry toward the widespread adoption of hydrogen as a fuel source alone.

"We believe that hydrogen electric will be the primary fuel for the next 100 years," Carter said. "Now, it’s not going to happen overnight. By eliminating the traditional corporate boundaries, we can speed the metabolism of everyone’s research and development and move into a future of mobility quicker more effecively and more economically."

Meanwhile, Hyundai has a hydrogen version of its Tucson crossover available for lease, and brands such as Volkswagen, Audi, and BMW have all shown prototypes and concept versions of hydrogen vehicles.

 Automakers relish the idea of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for several reasons. Many consumers still have the psychological “range anxiety” regarding pure electric cars, despite claims by brands selling electric cars that a driver’s typical commute is far shorter than the maximum  range.

Fuel cell vehicles have a much longer range -- 300 to 400 miles is typical -- and can refill in a matter of minutes. Yet the smooth, quiet drivetrains of a fuel cell vehicle are very similar to an electric car. The key difference is the power source.

Rather than draw power directly from rechargeable batteries, the electric drivetrain in a hydrogen fuel cell combines hydrogen with oxygen inside a fuel cell, which creates electricity and emits only water vapor as “waste.”

Those clean emissions make fuel cell vehicles zero emissions in the eyes of state and federal governments. This is another reason automakers are drawn to the promise of fuel cells.

By 2025, the state of California wants 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on the road and 15% of vehicles sold to be zero emission. This includes EVs, plug-in hybrids with limited electric-only ranges, and hydrogen vehicles. (Critics note that the process of manufacturing and distributing hydrogen does create some toxic emissions.)

But limited infrastructure has remained a key hurdle for automakers. At the 2014 L.A. Auto Show in November, VW debuted a version of its upcoming Golf SportWagen that runs on hydrogen.

Yet in launching the concept, the automaker cautioned, “Before the market launch a hydrogen infrastructure would have to be created: Not only a broad network of hydrogen fuel stations, but also the production of the hydrogen itself.”

Currently, California has only 11 hydrogen refueling stations, though some analysts say the total could hit 40 within a year. But Toyota says it's looking big picture.

"This isn’t a six-month or five-year play," Carter said. "This is where we see the automobile industry going for the next 100 years."