Lecturer: Barnard Kutter, United Launch Alliance
Bernard Kutter received a B.S. in Aerospace engineering from U. of Washington in 1987. He joined GD in 1988 to pursue his passion for space utilization, providing thermodynamic support for 68 Atlas Centaur and Titan Centaur Launches. Bernard manages ULA’s Advanced programs group where he has been responsible for concept development of ULA’s Vulcan rocket, ACES upper stage and developing new capabilities, such as orbital refueling, to ensure that ULA provides future launch services that enable customer missions.
Topic: On Orbit Refueling
Thirty years from now, 1,000 people could be living and working in the space around Earth and the Moon – waking up in commercial habitats, prospecting on the Moon and even harnessing power from solar power satellites for consumption on Earth. NASA’s interplanetary probes and human exploration are opening the frontiers of space similar to how the Lewis and Clark Expedition opened the frontiers of America in 1804. This early exploration of America was followed by development of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869 opening America to pioneers and industry. Space is at a similar crossroads where a modern day space transportation system can open cislunar space to commercial development.
Elements of this transportation system are in development at United Launch Alliance. This system will be fueled by hydrogen and oxygen initially carried to space from Earth, but transitioning to space derived resources as lunar and near Earth asteroid water mining develops. The workhorses of this transportation system will be ACES and XEUS plying the trade routes of cislunar space, connecting Low Earth and Geostationary Orbits with Earth Moon L1 and the lunar surface.
This presentation will describe the elements of the space transportation system, the technologies enabling the space transportation system, propellant depots and orbital refueling, and the benefits of lunar extracted water.
Recommended Readings:
- Distributed Launch – Enabling Beyond LEO Missions, click here to download
- Enabling Long Duration CisLunar Spaceflight via an Integrated Vehicle Fluid System, click here to download
- ACES Stage Concept: Higher Performance, New Capabilities, at a Lower Recurring Cost, click here to download
- Robust Lunar Exploration Using an Efficient Lunar Lander Derived from Existing Upper Stages, click here to download
- A Commercially Based Lunar Architecture, click here to download
- Simple, Robust Cryogenic Propellant Depot for Near Term Applications, click here to download
- Realistic Near-Term Propellant Depots: Implementation of a Critical Spacefaring Capability, click here to download
- Cislunar-1000: Transportation supporting a self-sustaining Space Economy , click here to download
Recorded talk: click to view