All the key components are coming along nicely in the real world to meet the needs of my fictional world. There is a chance that someone will step up and announce an actual asteroid retrieval mission before I have any chance of building the contacts and experience needed to shepherd my TV show Space Inc. through development.

SpaceX just announced a couple days ago that Iridium Communications has signed a contract with them for launch services in 2015 through 2017 to help put their next generation of satellites into orbit. At $492 million it is the largest private launch contract ever. Don’t think that SpaceX will be twiddling their thumbs and waiting for the next five years, they already have over 20 launches on their manifest ahead of the Iridium NEXT launches.

Since Iridium will be down to 72 satellites, shouldn’t it be rebranded as Hafnium?

Anyhow, SpaceX is exactly what my fictional William Barron needs to launch the components and crew for his Pathbreaker spacecraft.

But this fictional mission needed another rocket that could move an asteroid and SpaceX is all about launching to orbit. While the Merlin engine could be repurposed to push Pathbreaker out to meet the asteroid- it is not suited to changing the delta V of something as massive as my fictional asteroid Vazquez-Koski – not enough to put it into Earth orbit.

Good thing that there is another rocket company working on that problem.

 Ad Astra Rocket Company is developing what they call a VAriable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR®) that is so weak it can’t even lift itself off the launch pad let alone anything to orbit. Which is exactly what I want because once a rocket like SpaceX’s Falcon 9 gets it off the planet, electric thrusters like the VASIMR can burn for months rather than minutes. As gentle a push as it has, a lot of velocity change can build up if you push for long enough. The potential for these ion rockets is looked at in a recent article in Aviation Week titled Ad Astra Ponders Vasimr Mission To Asteroid.

The author of that article, Mark Carreau, writes about the potential of the ion rockets for a mission to an asteroid and back… Mars as well but that is for season six. In season one, William Barron would be using several of these high efficiency rockets to push on the asteroid for months on end to shifts it into Earth orbit… that is, if he can beat the Chinese to the asteroid.

Once in orbit, the TV series would be working within the scenario that I wrote about two posts back in Space Inc. and the Unspillable… hey, I ain’t spoiling if it is the Chinese who are controlling this or the Americans via William Barron.

As much as I love writing, I just wish that after getting out of high school I had carried on with pursuing a degree in Aerospace Engineering like I had wanted to – before becoming disillusioned by the governments lethargic domination of the arena. Instead of just imagining it, I could be bending iron to actually make us a spacefaring civilisation.

Right now, SpaceX “Careers” page shows they are trying to find another 125 people.

Stay is school kids.

Be Sociable, Share!

•