Introduction to the Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation Issue of the New Space Journal

Abstract

In this article, the author introduces the FAA Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation (COE CST), with references to documentation of its history, its research structure, and its past published results. The author highlights the four research areas (commercial space operations, technologies, medicine, and industry viability), and provides an introduction to the seven technical papers published in this issue of New Space, and biographical summaries of the principal investigators. For this issue, there is at least one research task covered for each of the four research areas, representing six of the original nine COE CST member universities.

Introduction

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation (referred to by its organizational code, “AST”) established the Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation (COE CST) in 2010. The COE CST has 10 member universities, including Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), Florida Institute of Technology (FIT, or Florida Tech), Florida State University (FSU), New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT, or New Mexico Tech), New Mexico State University (NMSU), Stanford University (SU), University of Central Florida (UCF), University of Colorado at Boulder (CU), University of Florida (UF), and University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB). There are a number of documents and publications available^* that describe the programmatic, technical, and strategic aspects of the COE CST. A previous publication described the programs history,¹ and a more recent analysis compared the research activities conducted by academic consortia with those of individual research grants.²

Annual executive summary publications were produced describing the research activities conducted by all the member universities and affiliated organizations for the center.^3–8 The content of each executive summary has consistently begun with a brief history of the FAA COE program in general, a brief history of the COE CST in particular, a snapshot of the annual performance metrics for the current and all preceding years, a brief narrative describing all the COE CST organizations (including core member universities, affiliate member universities and organizations, and affiliate members), and awards and special mentions earned by COE CST students and faculty. Tasks funded during the research year are then summarily presented, in the form of “quad charts” that include administrative details, activities goals, current status, and future plans. Finally, the executive summary contains listings of all the partnering organizations and students' names, the student demographics, and a list of publications and presentations related to the COE CST research task work.

Strategically, two research roadmaps have also been produced to date, although not on an annual basis.^9–12 These documents provide details of the four areas of space transportation research, covering broad topics of air/space traffic management and space port operations, space transportation vehicle technologies, human spaceflight, and industry viability. These, respectively, cover research domains in operations, the physical sciences and their practical application of engineering, the biological sciences and their practical application of medicine, and the social sciences and their practical application of management, economics, policy, and law. Each of these research areas is the top level of a typography that extends down through multiple levels to encompass many possible programs, projects, research themes, and tasks, with each hierarchical level increasing in greater detail. Figure 1 is a graphic depiction of these four research areas, and the first hierarchical level, depicting research programs.

FIG. 1.

Space transportation research areas.

Recently, a description of the four research areas, and their connection to the safety research being conducted by the COE CST, was published.¹³ More details of the lower levels of the typology for all four research areas can be found in the most recent edition of the space transportation research road map.¹⁰

This special issue of New Space provides a snapshot of select research activities by the principal investigators and their students. Since the entire COE CST portfolio consists of many research tasks, not all were at a sufficient point that would permit the publication of an article for inclusion in this special issue of New Space. In this issue, there is at least one research task covered for each of the four research areas, representing six of the original nine COE CST member universities.^† The following discussion briefly introduces and provides the administrative context for each of the papers included in this issue.

Current Papers

In 2018, the New Space journal is starting its sixth year of publication, having been launched in 2013. Beginning with volume 2, issue 1, the front cover featured the logo of the COE CST in the lower left corner, recognizing the journal as the “official journal” of the research consortium. Before this issue (volume 6, issue 1), five articles have been published in New Space by COE CST researchers and their students.^14–18 In an attempt to highlight the work being done by COE CST members, and to take advantage of the collaboration with the publisher, the New Space editor decided to dedicate an entire issue to research conducted solely by COE CST members and affiliates. This is that issue. The following paragraphs provide brief descriptions of the papers included here, ordered by their research area, and some historical context is given for each.

Research Area 1

“The Development of a Framework to Capture a Body of Knowledge for Commercial Spaceport Operations,” is written by Herb Bachner (currently a consultant, and formerly a division chief in the FAA AST), along with principal investigator for this task, Dr. Patricia Hynes of New Mexico State University (NMSU). Dr. Hynes has served as director of the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium since 1998, and the Director of NASA's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research program since 2007. This task provides the spaceport industry members a central repository of publicly available information. As a “common good,” the creation and maintenance of a “body of knowledge for commercial spaceport operations” (BOK) is an important stimulus and contribution to the emergence of many space transportation industry segments. The BOK is accessible through the NMSU Library Digital Collections website.^‡ This website contains a Document Management System that allows the user to directly go to documents that are either in on the site or within another website. Publicity of the BOK is being facilitated by participation on the ASTM Spaceports Standards Committee, the Global Spaceport Alliance board, and at other relevant conferences and meetings. The BOK will use primary data collection methods (e.g., interviews and surveys) to investigate usage statistics. An earlier paper on this work was prepared for, and presented at, the 2014 International Astronautical Congress.¹⁹

Research Area 2

Students of principal investigator, Dr. Subith Vasu from the University of Central Florida, authored the article in this issue, titled “Hazardous Gas Detection Sensor Using Broadband Light-Emitting Diode-Based Absorption Spectroscopy for Space Applications.” Dr. Vasu received the 2017 Dilip R. Ballal Early Career Engineer Award from the ASME International Gas Turbine Institute, honoring outstanding accomplishments during the first 7 years of a young professor's career. In addition to his many accomplishments, Dr. Vasu was the subject of a 2016 documentary, Combustion Man, produced by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. This paper describes the development of light emitting diode sensors that can take very sensitive measurements of gas species concentration and temperature. Currently, the sensor has been calibrated to detect carbon dioxide. The hardware was flight tested on high-altitude balloons at altitudes higher than 100,000 ft. Theoretically, this method can be adapted to detect many gas species in addition to carbon dioxide, and plans include flight tests on future suborbital vehicles.

Another article in this issue, titled “Rocket Nozzle Thrust and Flow Field Measurements Using Particle Image Velocimetry,” is written by the students of principal investigator, Dr. Rajan Kumar of the Florida State University. Dr. Rajan Kumar is the Technical Program Coordinator for the Florida Center for Advanced Aero-propulsion. The paper discusses the challenges of measuring rocket nozzle flows fields with load cells in light of dynamic and non-axisymmetric flow characteristics (such as flow separation, combustion instabilities, etc.). An experimental system, using lasers to measure the thrust in a two-dimensional plane, is described and calibrated against traditional load cells.

Research Area 3

“The Pursuit of Occupant Safety in Commercial Human Spaceflight,” is written by principal investigator for this task, Dr. Dave Klaus of Colorado University at Boulder. Dr. Klaus was a NASA Astronaut Candidate finalist in 1998 and 2000, and has supported biotechnology payloads flown on more than 50 missions aboard the Shuttle, Progress, Soyuz, HTV, Dragon and Cygnus, and to Mir and the International Space Station. Dr. Klaus has worked with two doctorate students, and other COE CST researchers, to answer the question “How safe is safe enough?” As is common in research, the path taken to achieve the ultimate goal was winding through various corollary questions, including: What has been done in the past? What processes can evaluate human-rating risks? and How to assess the need for medical care? This article summarizes and integrates the work of multiple COE CST projects, performed by multiple individuals, and answers many important questions, all of which are related to human safety in commercial spaceflight.

“Human-Systems Integration Verification Principles for Commercial Space Transportation,” is written by principal investigator for this task, Dr. Guy Boy^§ and his FIT collaborators. Dr. Boy is a French Fellow of the Air and Space Academy, a former professor and Dean of the School of Human-Centered Design Innovation and Art at FIT (which he created in 2015), a senior research scientist at Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, and was the Chief Scientist for Human-Centered Design at NASA Kennedy Space Center from 2010 to 2016. The study applies principles of human-systems integration to help identify the relevant parameters to identify compliance with commercial space regulations regarding human factors of four critical areas: design and layout of displays and controls, mission planning, restraint and stowage, and vehicle operations. This work is the basis of on-going activities within FAA AST to develop an Advisory Circular on the same subject.

Research Area 4

“Digital Analogs: Computing, Internet, and Spectrum Lessons for New Space Policy,” is written by the research task's principal investigator, Drs. Ward Hanson, and Greg Rosston, both of Stanford University. Dr. Hanson teaches courses on the Economics of the Internet, Antitrust Economics, and Economic Policy Analysis, and from 2004 to 2016, was the Policy Forum Director and Fellow with the Center for Employment and Economic Growth at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). Dr. Rosston is the Director of the Public Policy Program at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow at SIEPR, and he formerly served as Deputy Chief Economist at the Federal Communications Commission. In this issue's paper, Drs. Hanson and Rosston identify “lessons learned” for emerging commercial space sectors by investigating examples of government policy implemented in three digital industries (computers, the internet, and the allocation of communications frequencies). These policies are assessed for their impacts (both positive and negative) on industry emergence. Dr. Hanson is a frequent contributor to New Space, providing economic perspectives on relevant and interesting topics regarding various non-governmental space activities.^20–26

“Exploration to Exploitation: An Industry Analysis of Commercial Space Transportation,” is written by principal investigator for this task, Dr. Scott Benjamin at FIT. Dr. Benjamin received his PhD in 2011 in the Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship with a minor in Psychology. This paper applies the industry structural analysis methodology²⁷ to the suborbital space transportation industry segment. Although this work is not the first to use this method,^** nor is this the first time this industry segment has been analyzed,^†† Dr. Benjamin's work is an important contribution to a collection of works, examining a given industry segment using multiple methodologies, and it is an important addition to an emerging community of researchers in the management sciences as applied to multiple space industry segments.

Other COE CST Research

The COE CST has conducted a significant amount of research in all four research areas over the first 7 years of operation. Although it is not possible to describe all these tasks within the given limitations of space, a listing of all COE CST publications, through 2016, is given in Appendix 1.¹³ Appendix 1 in this article provides the additional publications, listed by research area, only from the seventh year of COE CST operation.

In addition to the COE CST 10 member universities, other universities and organizations have been invited to participate in the COE CST-led activities. There are two mechanisms by which other organizations can participate, referred to as Affiliate and Associate Memberships, and these are described in the Perspective in this issue of New Space. Dr. Tristan Fiedler of FIT, the COE CST Collaboration Coordinator, authored the article that describes the requirements, benefits, and obligations of Affiliate and Associate members. The COE CST welcomes the participation of all interested organizations, and the mechanisms for initiating those processes are also described in Dr. Fiedler's article.

Conclusion

As the COE CST begins its eighth year of operation, FAA AST is proud to be supporting the creation of knowledge, through scientific research, that can assist with industry emergence challenges facing many non-governmental space industry segments today. Knowledge creation is only one of the mechanisms by which new industries are created and existing industries grow. Knowledge-sharing events are another important mechanism, including authoring journal articles, making conference presentations, hosting and attending technical meetings, and being present in exhibition halls to educate the passers-by about COE CST activities. The COE CST conducts both knowledge creation and sharing activities, because they are both very important, complementary, and vital to the long-term viability of any industry. Beyond the information conveyed through journal publications, such as this special of New Space, the COE CST research community continues to build the connections with other government, industry, and academic institutions, to enhance the network of research and results, with the collective goal of making non-governmental space activities a reality for many more individuals than in the past.

Disclaimer

The FAA has sponsored these projects through the Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation. However, the agency neither endorses nor rejects the findings of this research. The presentation of this information is in the interest of invoking technical community comments on the results and conclusions of the research.

Footnotes

Author Disclosure Statement

No competing financial interests exist.

Appendix 1. 2017 COE CST Publications

A complete (but informal) bibliography of conference papers and journal publications authored by the principal investigators and/or students involved with research funded (in whole or in part) by the COE CST is given next. The list is sorted first by research area, and second alphabetically by author.

*

On the web, at , or in other places.

†

A tenth member university, the Baylor College of Medicine, joined the original nine in late 2017.

‡

(Last accessed on November 2, 2017).

§

This work was performed when Dr. Boy was a university professor of Aerospace Engineering and Dean of School of Human-Centered Design, at FIT. Dr. Boy has since left FIT, and is currently working at the Air and Space Academy in France.

**

Other industry segments that have been analyzed using the ISA include Refs. 28 –.

††

Other management study methodologies applied to the suborbital space transportation industry include Refs. 32 –.

References

Davidian

, Watts

. Overview of the Federal Aviation Administration Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation. In: Proceedings of the 2011 IAF. IAC-11-E6.1.4. Presented at the 62nd International Astronautical Congress, Cape Town, South Africa.: Government Printing Office, 2011, pp. 9820–9827.

Davidian

, Watts

. Individual research grants versus centers of excellence: Maximizing the benefits of research and innovation. New Space. 2013; 1(3):136–42.

Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation. Year 1 annual report executive summary. Washington, DC; 2012. http://bit.ly/Yr1ExSumm (accessed February 6, 2018).

Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation. Year 2 annual report executive summary. Washington, DC; 2013. Available from: www.coe-cst.org/core/scripts/wysiwyg/kcfinder/upload/files/Yr2-ES%20SmallFinal%202-2-2013.pdf (last accessed February 6, 2018).

Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation. Year 3 annual report executive summary. Washington, DC; 2014. Available from: www.coe-cst.org/core/scripts/wysiwyg/kcfinder/upload/files/yr3_es_smallfinal_1_31_2014.pdf (last accessed February 6, 2018).

Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation. Year 4 annual report executive summary. Washington, DC; 2015. Available from: www.coe-cst.org/core/scripts/wysiwyg/kcfinder/upload/files/Yr4_ES_2015-01-26.pdf (last accessed February 6, 2018).

Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation. Year 5 annual report executive summary. Washington, DC; 2016. Available from: www.coe-cst.org/core/scripts/wysiwyg/kcfinder/upload/files/COECSTYear5ExecSummaryFINAL-SMALL.pdf (last accessed February 6, 2018).

Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation. Year 6 annual report executive summary. Washington, DC; 2017 [cited 2018 Feb 6]. Available from: www.coe-cst.org/core/scripts/wysiwyg/kcfinder/upload/files/YR6_ES_2017_02_2_Final_Rev1.pdf.

Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation. Commercial space transportation research road map. Washington, DC; 2012. Available from: http://bit.ly/COECSTRR1 (last accessed February 6, 2018).

10.

Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation. Commercial space transportation research road map. Washington, DC; 2015. Available from: www.coe-cst.org/core/scripts/wysiwyg/kcfinder/upload/files/2015-12-15 Updated Research Roadmap Report.pdf (last accessed February 6, 2018).

11.

Zimmerman

, Hubbard

, Davidian

. Research roadmap for commercial space transportation. In: Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress, IAC, Naples, Italy, 2012.

12.

Zimmerman

, Hubbard

, Davidian

. FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation research roadmap. In: International Astronautical Federation 1st Global Space Exploration Congress, Washington, DC; 2012.

13.

Davidian

. Safety research at the U.S. FAA center of excellence for commercial space transportation. J Space Saf Eng [Internet]. 2017; 4(2):64–76.

14.

Ocampo

, Klaus

. A quantitative framework for defining “how safe is safe enough?” in crewed spacecraft. New Space. 2016; 4(2):75–82.

15.

Ocampo

, Klaus

. Comparing the relative risk of spaceflight to terrestrial modes of transportation and adventure sport activities. New Space. 2016; 4(3):190–197.

16.

Ocampo

, Klaus

. A review of spacecraft safety: From Vostok to the International Space Station. New Space. 2013; 1(2):73–80.

17.

Harrington

AJ.

Legal considerations for commercial space: An overview. New Space. 2015; 3(2):82–86.

18.

Neis

, Klaus

. Considerations toward defining medical “levels of care” for commercial spaceflight. New Space. 2014; 2(4):165–177.

19.

Bachner

, Hynes

, Schneider

, Hayhoe

, Lee

, Bowers

. The development of a framework to capture a body of knowledge (BOK) for commercial spaceport practices. In: Proceedings of the 2014 IAF International Astronautical Congress, Toronto, Canada, 2014.

20.

Hanson

WA.

Directing innovation with prizes. New Space. 2014; 2(4):184–186.

21.

Hanson

WA.

A global internet: The next four billion users. New Space. 2015; 3(3):204–207.

22.

Hanson

WA.

In their Own words: OneWeb's internet constellation as described in their FCC form 312 application. New Space. 2016; 4(3):153–167.

23.

Hanson

WA.

Satellite internet in the mobile age. New Space. 2016; 4(3):138–152.

24.

Hanson

WA.

Embedded space and the power of competition. New Space. 2015; 3(1):68–70.

25.

Hanson

WA.

Grounding the patent wars. New Space. 2015; 3(2):134–137.

26.

Hanson

WA.

Pricing space debris. New Space. 2014; 2(3):143–144.

27.

Porter

ME.

Competitive Strategy. New York, NY: Free Press, 1980.

28.

Cheetham

BW.

Theory based analysis of the commercial crew to orbit transportation industry structure and evolution. In: Proceedings of the 2012 IAF International Astronautical Congress. 2012.

29.

Davidian

, Conrad

. Industry structural analysis of the commercial suborbital research market. New Space, 2013; 1(1):10–20.

30.

de Hauteclocque

Prevision and prospective to forecast in the space economy. Application to the European space sector. In: Proceedings of the 2012 IAF International Astronautical Congress. 2012.

31.

Kaiser

, Christensen

, Foust

, Davidian

. An industry structural analysis and strategy insights for the commercial crew transportation industry. Presented at the AIAA Space Conference in Pasadena, CA; 2011.

32.

Bandla

, Cheetham

, Hakeem

, Zea

. Applying insights of game theory to the microgravity utilization market. In: Proceedings of the 2014 IAF International Astronautical Congress. 2014. Available from: http://commercialspace.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/87182233/Bandla, et al 2014.pdf (accessed February 19, 2018).

33.

Davidian

, Foust

. Suborbital market overview and application of disruption theory. In: Proceedings of the 2010 IAF International Astronautical Congress. 2010.

34.

Najam

Game theory analysis for the suborbital reusable launch vehicle research market. In: Proceedings of the 2012 IAF International Astronautical Congress. Presented at the 63 International Astronautical Congress, Naples, Italy; 2012. Available from: http://commercialspace.pbworks.com/w/file/59849316/2012.08.30sRLVGameTheoryAnalysis-Final.pdf (accessed February 19, 2018).