[117788] in Cypherpunks
Spaceport Idaho??? (was Re: SpaceViews -- 1999 September 8)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Hettinga)
Fri Sep 10 14:58:00 1999
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Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 12:33:39 -0400
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From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
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Reply-To: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Note the Strom Thurmond's legislation below, making satellites a
munition as of March 1999...
Cheers,
RAH
At 8:05 AM -0700 on 9/8/99, www.spaceviews.com wrote:
> *** Articles ***
>
> Spuds in Space: The Story of Spaceport Idaho
> by Dale M. Gray
>
> [Editor's Note: this article was originally published in the August
> issue of Space Policy Digest (http://www.spacepolicy.org) and is
> reprinted here with the permission of the publication and the author.]
>
> The thought of Idaho becoming a player in the rapidly evolving
> world of spaceflight has until recently been a little hard to swallow.
> Idaho, if it is known at all, is famous for potatoes, Micron, Sun
> Valley skiing or the home of the Albertson's supermarket chain.
> However, changes in technology and the bureaucratic world have changed
> the environment for space flight to the benefit of sparsely populated
> western states. The emerging economic frontier based on the use and
> exploitation of orbital space has filled the launch calendars of
> existing launch complexes to overflowing. With market forces pushing
> for airline-like service to space, decision makers are taking a long
> hard look at traditional launch sites and reaching some surprising
> conclusions.
>
> In the past few years advances in material sciences have
> created a race to create a truly reusable spacecraft, thereby reducing
> the cost per pound to orbit. Stronger and ultra-light materials are
> constantly improving the structure to fuel ratio on potential new
> space vehicles. New turbopumps are smaller yet stronger with fewer
> moving parts. To withstand the heat of reentry, exotic metals have
> replaced the delicate custom-built, hand-placed ceramic tiles used on
> the Shuttle. New rocket engines and thrusters that have improved
> efficiency and capability are being developed or have become available
> from former Soviet countries. Control software is evolving rapidly.
> Electronic hardware continues to shrink while becoming more powerful.
> New manufacturing techniques allow greater efficiency in production of
> components, sub-systems and assemblies. With these improvements, new
> design strategies are becoming possible. Technology advances are
> allowing planners, designers and engineers to work toward radically
> lowering launch costs. The "Holy Grail" of rocketry, the
> Single-Stage-to-Orbit (SSTO) reusable spacecraft is nearly in our
> grasp.
>
> At the same time, the Legislative environment of space
> commerce has radically changed in the past two years. In 1998, faced
> with American start-up companies such as Kistler going abroad to get
> permission to attempt private orbital reentry, the US Congress passed
> the Commercial Space Act. This set up a permitting system whereby
> such companies could get permission for their launch systems to
> reenter and land on American soil. However, at about the same time,
> Congress also passed the Strom Thurmond Defense Act which in one of
> its minor provisions reclassified satellites as "munitions" and
> transferred their export permit process from the Department of
> Commerce to the State Department. This went into effect in March of
> 1999 and resulted in the creation of a bottleneck choked with
> bureaucratic paper that has hampered the flow of satellites
> manufactured in America to spaceports abroad. Insurance companies,
> unable to get detailed information on satellites, have refused to
> insure American satellites. One company, Orbital Sciences, found
> itself in the absurd position of being unable to share subsystem
> design details with its Canadian subsidiary that held a satellite
> contract.
>
> The purpose of the Strom Thurmond Act was to stop the flow of
> technology to potentially hostile foreign powers. The Act was
> precipitated by several incidents involving American companies and the
> Chinese government. According to the Cox Report, significant launch
> technology and information was transferred to China following two
> launch failures involving Hughes and Loral satellite payloads. By
> moving the permitting of satellite exports to the State Department,
> the Act sought to erect "firewalls" to prohibit the passage of
> sensitive technological information. While this no doubt has been
> done, the State Department was overwhelmed by the robust satellite
> export industry. As a direct result, history will record that the
> 1998 Congress deliberately crippled its own satellite manufacturing
> industry -- giving foreign satellite manufacturers an edge. In the
> past few years America has supplied two thirds of the satellites that
> were launched each year and many of the subsystems of foreign-made
> satellites. Since March of 1999, this is no longer true.
>
> While the Strom Thurmond Act has put a wet blanket on the
> fires of the satellite manufacturing industry, it has created
> incredible internal pressures to increase the number of domestic
> launches. Unfortunately, the timing of the Act was less than perfect
> with the Act coming on-line just as American launch systems such as
> the Titan IV, Delta III and Athena suffered launch failures. These
> systems and even competitor's systems using common components have
> been grounded at the very time that the State Department created the
> bottleneck for exports. The result is a tremendous pressure for
> alternative American launch systems.
>
> This brings us back to Idaho. Idaho, along with 14 other
> states, are competing for a Lockheed Martin contract as one of two
> launch and landing sites for their VentureStar spacecraft. While
> Idaho is too far north to compete for the equatorial launch site, it
> is well positioned for serving polar and International Space Station
> orbits. The state offers a launch site that is 5,000 feet higher than
> the traditional coastal launch sites, allowing for greater payload.
> The entire proposed launch site is under one owner, the US Department
> of Energy, and has no adjacent development. Despite this isolation,
> the site has extensive infrastructure development. The proposed site
> is located at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental
> Laboratory, which has extensive and advanced research facilities, an
> established three grid power network, and abundant water supply. It
> has a mild climate with one of the lowest lightning strike rates in
> the United States. With 30 years of detailed weather reports, the
> site offers far fewer weather restrictions than coastal sites such as
> Florida or California. Idaho also has an unusually clear airspace and
> no nearby downrange populations.
>
> The folks in Idaho are no fools; they know their sparsely
> populated state will have a hard time competing with lower tier states
> for traditional rocket business. However, they also see the future of
> space is not the elaborate heavy-duty launch structures needed for
> expendable rockets. Instead, they have opted to create an environment
> attractive to the emerging reusable spacecraft industry. Nor have
> they pinned all their hopes on the VentureStar contract. While
> Spaceport Idaho has a number of quality points and could well get the
> contract, other western states vying for VentureStar such as Montana,
> Utah, Nevada and New Mexico also have attractive features.
> VentureStar would do much to jump-start Idaho's space industry, but
> the men and women working on SpacePort Idaho today have their eyes on
> a future beyond VentureStar.
>
> As a measure of Idaho's serious commitment to developing its
> own spaceport, the first act of the state's new Governor, Dirk
> Kempthorne, was to sign an emergency bill to fund an office to promote
> Spaceport Idaho. Idaho's Department of Commerce Secretary, Tom
> Arnold, left his important position to become the Governor's
> Representative for the Idaho Office of Spaceport Development. He,
> along with Ralph Bennett, the acting head of the Northstar Spaceport
> Corp., and Jay Engstom, the Administrator of the Division of Economic
> Development, are leading the effort to clear away bureaucratic hurdles
> and create a favorable environment for private launch firms.
>
> Without the muscle that large populations and large coffers
> give other states, Idaho has chosen to use time itself as leverage to
> enter the space age. Idaho is using a measured approach that seeks to
> attract the VentureStar award while preparing for a future where
> privately funded and developed launch systems are operational. Idaho
> seeks to remove the bureaucratic overburden to make it easy for these
> private companies to locate in Idaho and begin operations relatively
> quickly. An Environmental Impact Statement, a Down- Range Safety
> Study and a Risk Analysis Study are now underway. When SSTO becomes a
> reality, Idaho will be ready to offer a location for operations for
> any and all companies who wish to operate out of a privately developed
> spaceport.
>
> The Spaceport has widespread popular support among the
> citizens of Idaho. In public meetings the Spaceport has received
> almost unanimous endorsement. The Northstar Spaceport Corp., a
> for-profit corporation, is the active arm of the Regional Development
> Alliance which promotes development in seven eastern Idaho counties.
>
> Idahoans from throughout the state are becoming more involved
> with space. To the southeast of the proposed Spaceport is the Fort
> Hall Indian Reservation. This past year students from the school
> there had an experiment fly on the Shuttle and are currently working
> up a new experiment to fly in space. Barbara Morgan, the back-up
> Teacher in Space and current astronaut trainee, is from McCall, Idaho
> and is one of Idaho's most identifiable personalities. When Boise
> State University created its new Engineering School they chose former
> NASA researcher Lynn Russell as its Dean.
>
> On a recent Saturday, a friend from Italy and I drove from
> Boise, Idaho to the location of Spaceport Idaho. The site is on the
> north end of INEEL, the large federal installation that dominates the
> Snake River Plain. In the past, I have driven by the site many times
> on my way to Montana. It is a broad, flat plain rimmed on the west
> and north by mountains and on a clear day the Teton range can be seen
> far to the east. During the recent trip, I marveled once again at the
> gigantic airplane hanger that dominates Test Area North (TAN) where
> two launch pads are proposed to be erected. The hanger was built
> early in the Cold War frenzy as part of the Atomic Bomber project. A
> long runway was graded at one time that leads straight out from the
> hanger. Near the hanger are an office and laboratory complex complete
> with heavy industrial power and water connections. While the closest
> major city to it is Idaho Falls -- about an hour to the east -- the
> small farming communities of Howe and Mud Lake serve as gateways to
> the west and east.
>
> Transportation has always been the key to the development of
> Idaho. Just over the horizon to the south, covered wagons once
> crossed Idaho on the Oregon Trail. A few decades later, the Oregon
> Short Line brought immigrants and industry to the fledgling Idaho
> Territory on iron rails. In this century, a series of state highways
> and Interstates crisscrossed the agrarian State linking farms and
> factories to the outside world. The Spaceport can be accessed by
> three state highways and Interstate 15 is only half an hour's drive to
> the east. Because Idaho has emerged from isolation, its people
> understand the importance of transportation to their future.
>
> While Spaceport Idaho is currently the home of only antelope
> and lone coyotes, concrete work has been done to create the future
> spaceport. The improbable and unlikely of today will become the
> commonplace of tomorrow. The developers of Spaceport Idaho know that
> America cannot long remain restricted to only a few
> government-controlled space centers. As future commerce moves upward
> to orbit, America and the world will need many new spaceports. The
> future will happen and space travel will be a part of it. By
> beginning now Idaho is preparing for the day when access to space is
> as routine as flights from Boise to Los Angeles.
>
> This may be the first time you have heard of Spaceport Idaho;
> it will not be the last.
>
> --
> Dale M. Gray is the president of Frontier Historical Consultants and
> editor of Frontier Status reports, a free weekly annotated index
> chronicling progress of the emerging space frontier.
-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
