|
Sunday, February 15, 2009
A brief note to highlight progress on several fronts:
- We continue our efforts to bring corporations on board and have begun preliminary discussions with a firm in Georgia
- A meeting of the technical subteams earlier this month yielded the latest refinement of our technical plan, now being subjected to a final systems engineering review by the following teams:
- Launch
- Cruise vehicle
- Lunar lander
- Flight dynamics
- Data Communications
- Project Management
- Mission Control
###
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Several items were addressed at today's meeting:
- Continued refinement of both the mission plan and business plan
- First stage of plans for issuing RFQ's to industry later this quarter
- The bulk of the meeting was spent planning our participation next weekend at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences 19th annual
Astonomy Days event. 15,000 attendees are expected, so this is a prime promotional opportunity for us.
###
Monday, January 12, 2009
The Team STELLAR core management team and sub-team leaders gathered today and attended to the following issues:
- A report from our representatives at last December's GLXP California summit
- Refinement of the business plan and technology and manufacturing roadmap
- Discussion of US and international launch options
- Advances in rover design and surface experimentation planning, including consideration of equipment requirements for various scenarios, and clarification of different timelines for various capability and accomplishment scenarios
###
Sunday, January 4, 2009
First and foremost, a Happy NewSpace New Year to all!
Following-up on multiple discussions during the last few months, Team STELLAR is moving quickly in 2009 to connect with new talent and expand its support base in Virginia. Two significant events deserve to be highlighted:
- Team STELLAR has been invited to speak at the Virginia General Assembly Aerospace Days in early February
as part of an effort to develop the Virginia Aerospace Roundtable. Jack Kennedy*, one of Virginia's NewSpace leaders,
is a key force behind this effort and we appreciate his invitation.
- The College of Engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University is quite interested in Team
STELLAR, and we will be presenting at a meeting in mid-February that is being hosted by Dr. Don Leo, Professor of
Mechanical Engineering.
Although Team STELLAR headquarters is in Raleigh, NC, we have stated from the beginning that we intend to work across
the Southeast United States to broaden both our talent base and the commercial opportunities we will provide. This
year will see an increase in our efforts.
*Jack is an attorney and was appointed by Virginia Governor Tim Kaine to membership of the Virginia Commercial Space
Flight Authority and the Virginia Aerospace Advisory Council. He is also an elected "ADVOCATE" of the Space Frontier Foundation
###
Friday, December 19, 2008
TEAM Stellar CTO, Alan Rich, and his technical team leaders have begun developing performance specifications for electro-mechanical (EM)
and mechanical actuation or damping devices needed for each stage of the mission. The initial goal is the establishment of both flight
performance requirements and purchase cost estimates for EM actuation & mechanical damping devices. The first RFQ's for such devices
will be issued no later than the end of 1st Qtr. 2009.
Now don't let all this talk of damping devices put a damper on your holiday spirits!
###
Team STELLAR ALERTS VOLUNTEERS!
ALERT TeamSTELLAR
Volunteers,
this Sunday,
November 23rd,
on
the Centennial Campus of North Carolina State University in Raleigh,
an All-Hands meeting of Team Stellar will be held for coordination of the efforts of the core team and a review of the volunteer team efforts.
If you were unable to attend the last meeting here is your chance to get in gear! If you were
among those who attended, thank you. You've already playing an important role in shaping the success of this unique and exciting program.
If you are a
potential volunteer, and are unable to attend and
please take a moment to submit your primary
interests and contact information on this online
STELLAR VOLUNTEER FORM,
and remember to check your Email regularly as the
accomplishments of much of what TeamSTELLAR must do in
coming days will take place in online "collaboration."
Welcome once
again to TeamSTELLAR!
###
Team STELLAR Volunteer Log
Sunday,
September 14,
on
the Centennial Campus of North Carolina State University in Raleigh,
all agree, was a remarkable success. Representatives of
TeamSTELLAR's Core Team welcomed fifty or
more of the well over 100 extraordinarily talented and
enthusiastic volunteers who have answered the call and
were able to attend.
If you
were unable to attend, for any reason, there's still
plenty of useful and important work still to be done.
You will
be updated on Sunday's meeting and TeamSTELLAR will be
contacting you soon to discuss where you
might be comfortable in getting your Team to the Moon,
and the possibilities beyond, so don't feel left out!
If you were
among those who attended, thank you. You've already
playing an important role in shaping the success of this
unique and exciting program. If you could not attend,
under the direction of Richard Dell, Jeff Krukin, Alan
Rich, Jason Clark and Joel Raupe, gave those who did
attend the opportunity to immediately "self organize."
At the
beginning of the meeting, those in who had the
opportunity to attend, Sunday, we given a general
outline of natural divisions of responsibility, and
divided into two large groups, those with more highly
technical planning and those who will be collaborating
online and among one another to achieve the no-less
important administrative, marketing and financial
planning. Over the next days and weeks, are already
dividing in even more specialized areas, assigned to
work on time sensitive "deliverables.
There will,
of course, be a great deal of overlap among those with
wider ranges of skills who will undoubtedly find
themselves working on very many other individual tasks,
as members of "Cohorts," or task groups, responsible for
general and specialized tasks. TeamStellar executive
director Richard Dell said both primary divisions we off
to an excellent start.
"The meeting
exceeded my expectations," Dell said. "Our efforts so
far, as detailed as they have been, with input from some
very talented core team members has taken a quantum leap
into what may be a historic first. It's seems to be
precisely the grassroots effort, involving a strong and
growing talent base,"
Without
direct solicitation, private organizations such as large
law firms and name brand pioneers partners have also
already had a direct and important role as many of their
talented people received cooperation in their welcome
contributions, many originating in the academic
community and nearby Research Triangle Park.
Those who
put themselves forward as potential volunteers with this
project, using the Online Volunteer form, both
before and after Sunday's meeting, but were unable to
attend for a wide variety of reasons will not be left
out of this state in the project's development.
If you are a
potential volunteer, or were unable to attend and
haven't yet taken a moment to submit their primary
interests and contact information are encouraged to
utilize that form right now, available online
HERE,
and remember to check their Email regularly as the
accomplishments of much of what TeamSTELLAR must do in
coming days will take place in online "collaboration."
Welcome once
again to TeamSTELLAR!
###
INFORMATION NIGHT,
August 19, 2008,
hosted by North Carolina State University, was an outstanding
success, eventually moving more than a hundred inspired to
join TeamSTELLAR.
If you
have only indicated your interest in joining
TeamSTELLAR by direct Email, or
IF
ARE YOU a PROSPECTIVE VOLUNTEER THAT WE'VE YET TO HEAR
FROM?
Click
HERE
###
BACK
STORY on TeamSTELLAR: "SHOOTING FOR THE MOON"
Last fall
Google
and the
X-Prize Foundation announced
the
Google Lunar
X-Prize,
a prestigious contest to place the first privately-funded vehicle on
the Moon, travel at least 500
meters across the lunar surface and transmit images and data
back to Earth. Qualifying teams must be at least 90
percent privately-funded and registered by December 31, 2010.
The first
team to land on the lunar surface and complete
mission requirements will be awarded $20 million, with
bonus prized for secondary goals totaling $30 million. In October
2007 leaders of several specialist organizations met to
form an Exploratory Committee and to examine the
possibility of joining in the
Google Lunar
X-Prize
competition.
Among them
were
Insight Technologies, the
Advanced Vehicle
Research Center
(AVRC),
the
Advanced Aerospace Resource Center
(AARC),
the North
Carolina Military Business Center
(NCMBC)
along with distinguished faculty and student volunteers
at
North Carolina
State University
(NCSU).
The
committee established
TeamSTELLAR
(for
Space Technology
for
Exploration,
Lunar Landing
and
Roving),
organized management framework, prepared
preliminary presentations and authored an overview of
mission strategy and combined capabilities.
In
May 2008, during the
GLXP
Summit, at the
International Space University
in Strasbourg, France,
foundation directors
placed
TeamSTELLAR
among
fourteen teams from around the world qualified to compete for the
challenge.
While the
challenge is awesome,
TeamSTELLAR
assessed the
opportunities for commercial and economic development,
for education, sponsorship and workforce development,
as far more significant, offering an unparalleled
prospect for prestige and the
advancement of ideas both old and new.
TeamSTELLAR
members determined
the challenge will be successfully met
with well-organized, well-funded and highly-qualified
skill and determination.
It is a
mission
TeamSTELLAR
is
"unwilling to postpone."
The vision
of
TeamSTELLAR
has already moved far beyond the
X-Prize challenge and the commercial opportunities offered by the
effort alone. The benefits of joining are extensive,
but
TeamSTELLAR
core capabilities
include, but are not limited to:
- Insight
Technologies:
-
Autonomous ground vehicle control systems
-
Hardware/Software Integration skills
-
Sensor development and integration
-
Robotic platforms
-
Embedded software systems
-
Communications Software
-
Navigation and Routing software
-
Complex System Design skills
-
Real Time video analysis techniques
- NCSU
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering support staff:
-
Autonomous Mars and Lunar Rover expertise
-
Produce integrated, concurrent small satellite
design
-
Fabrication and validation objectives for
improvements in time to orbit
-
Lower�cost associated with maximum flexibility
for design accommodation and performance.
-
Research and development of pico and nano-class
satellites with the following subsystems: GNC,
communications and C&DH, propulsion, power, and
payload.
- Advanced
Vehicle Research Center
/
Advanced Aerospace Resource Center:
-
Project Management
-
Commercialization and Education
-
New energy and propulsion technologies including, but not limited to:
All
Corporate Intellectual Property Sponsors and Partners
will participate in an IP sharing agreement to cover
existing IP and derivative IP in the above and areas,
establishing a foundation for a permanent commercial
space entity even after the challenge is won.
TeamSTELLAR
will operate under the non-profit organization umbrella
of the
Advanced
Aerospace Resource Center
established with support from the
Advanced
Vehicle Research Center.
|