The Future of Manned Space Flight

Monday, May 20th, 2013

ISPL Faculty member Derek Webber has proposed a way to break the log-jam in manned space flight.

In the 40 years since the last Apollo mission to the Moon, nobody has been any further than low Earth orbit. The key to future interplanetary journeys is to get routinely, reliably, and at relatively low cost, out of Earth’s gravity.  Once there, only relatively small amounts of delta energy (and therefore money) are required to go anywhere else in the solar system.

One solution is to establish a Gateway that can be used for entry and return of any future interplanetary vehicles.  Possible locations are discussed, including the proposed ‘Spaceport Earth’  –  at or near geostationary orbit.

Read the article here.

Derek Webber is the Director of Spaceport Associates, and directed three landmark studies in commercial space business planning that established the existence of a space tourism market. He has provided testimony to the President’s Commission on the Future of the US Aerospace Industry, and has been recognized at the Space Tourism Society’s Orbit Awards for his contributions to the formation of the space tourism industry. An active member of the Reusable Launch Vehicles Working Group and the Launch Operations Support Working Group of the Federal Aviation Authority’s COMSTAC Committee, is a Senior Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society.

Derek’s career began as a launch vehicle and satellite engineer in the UK in what is now EADS/Astrium Space Systems. He became Head of Procurement at the satellite service provider Inmarsat, (responsible for contracting for over a billion dollars worth of communications satellites, their launch vehicles and ground segment), and Managing Director of Tachyon Europe (providing satellite broadband and Internet access across the continent). Derek holds Degrees in Physics and Mathematics from Newcastle University (UK), and postgraduate qualifications in Space Science from University College London (UK).