KSC Next Gen Site ___Questions? Comments?
Barriers to Opening the Space Frontier...and Solutions
March 31, 2008
Key information on this site can be accessed along the subject line of emphasized knowledge, which is a form of perspective. Solutions are presented in the material, upon understanding the barriers to overcome.
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Technical: Too complex, too many parts, lack of true integration, no modularity. Management culture and hence design by artificial breakdown structures and by blinding notions of product decomposition.
See the original OEPSS study, the OEPSS video & reports, the Avionics Guide and the "Top 10" Criteria.
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Technical: Poor reliability, constant parts failures when getting ready, catastrophic failures, danger to human lives. Due to no margin. Hence no availability ambitions and low launch rates.
See the Shuttle data here and here and especially the SRM write-up.
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Technical: It’s just inoperable, there’s no design for support, it’s toxic, it’s inaccessible, and it has no on-board smarts; that would have been too heavy. It must get off the ground and have useful payload.
See the RCA study report and more on OEPSS and design for support here and here.
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Technology: It’s a rocket and no matter what parts count, reliability or operability-it will still be limited by the rocket equation. Any product with no margin but high energy will always be expensive and low volume.
See the HRST area and the RLV Certification paper.
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Policy & Regulatory: Monopolies, vertically integrated industry model. No competition, thus no improvement. The industry is not geared to improve, it’s geared to regulate, maintain, to keep secrets secret, to manufacture & sell parts, to keep knowledge in and outsiders out.
See the Competitiveness paper and the EELV write-up.
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Business: Moving information and materials has enormous in-directs & overheads, due to bloated, antiquated business processes, practices, information technology, and logistics, in antiquated supply chain management systems.
See the Earth-to-Orbit Supply Chain Sim and LLEGO.
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Website Contact: Edgar Zapata, NASA Kennedy Space Center